New book claims FBI tried to 'blackmail Martin Luther King Jr. into suicide'

A new report suggests that the FBI invaded Martin Luther King Jr.'s privacy and tried to blackmail him into suicide.

FBI records give a detailed account of the organization's efforts to derail King's civil rights work.

In her new book 'The Burglary: the Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI,' journalist and author Betty Medsger chronicles Hoover's obsession with King and overzealous violation of the leader's privacy.

After delivering his "I Have A Dream Speech," at the 1963 March on Washington, the government's interest of the leader intensified.

One FBI memo refers to King as "the most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country," the Huffington Post reported

In an effort to prove he was under Communist influence, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover spent significant resources monitoring King's movements and eavesdropping on his communications.

Attorney General Robert Kennedy gave consent, allowing the organization to break into King's office and home installing phone taps and bugs to track the leader's movements and conversations as well as those of his associates.

Although the recordings did not reveal any association with the Communist Party, they did reveal extensive details about his extramarital affairs.

After learning King would be the recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, Hoover took his fanatical obsession with obliterating King to the next level.

Agents sent the reverend an anonymous note, chastising him for his affairs and implying that he should commit suicide.

Hoover despised King with an incredible zest and put the bureau's full power behind eliminating the leader.