Stealing from the FBI

Keith Forsyth and seven other anti-war protestors broke into an FBI field office in 1971, where they stole and then publicized more than 1,000 documents on domestic surveillance operations.

The group of anti-war protestors called themselves the Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI, and were led by Bill Davidon, a physics professor at Haverford College. Other members included Temple University professor John Raines and his wife Bonnie, Robert Williamson, Ralph Daniel, and Judi Feingold.

Forsyth was the key to the break-in; literally. He’d taken a correspondence course in locksmithing and had learned to pick locks with the intention of breaking into draft board offices in order to destroy draft cards being used to select draftees for compulsory military service.

Forsyth in the early 1970s. From 1971film.com.

Members of the Commission spent two months planning the break-in and selected a small field office in the town of Media, PA as the target. The office was on the second floor of a multi-use building with apartments on the floors above. The group reasoned that this office would be much easier to access than a federal building which would have enhanced security.