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By Pete WinnCNSNews.com Senior Staff WriterMarch 24, 2008(CNSNews.com) - In 1983, just days before he would travel to Cincinnati, Ohio, to make the now-famous speech in which he called AIDS "a gay plague," the Rev. Jerry Falwell was the subject of death threats that resulted in an FBI probe of the homosexual community in that city. At the time of the Cincinnati case, two anti-Falwell activists with two guns and 550 rounds of ammunition were questioned by police in Evendale, part of metropolitan Cincinnati. In another case, someone sent a live scorpion in a box to Falwell's office. According to files made available to Cybercast News Service under the Freedom of Information Act, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were alerted in June 1983 that two anonymous callers had warned Falwell's Liberty Baptist College (now Liberty University) in Lynchburg, Va., of an alleged plot. Someone in Cincinnati's homosexual community had put out the word for Falwell's assassination on July 3 or 4, the callers warned, when the Moral Majority founder was scheduled to speak in Cincinnati at an "I Love America" rally.The first call, which came on June 18, was made by someone whose voice "appeared to be that of a young white male," the records said. "I have a message for Dr. Falwell," the caller told an operator answering phones for Falwell's "Old Time Gospel Hour" television broadcast. "There is a $10,000 reward in the Cincinnati area for the first person to kill him. I intend to be the one to collect that money."In the second phone call, made on June 19, the caller said, "Can you get a message to the security office? The gays are planning to kill Jerry Falwell on 7/04/83. There is a $10,000 reward for the person who kills him." The caller, who refused to identify himself, added - "I know this is true because my brother is one of them." The FBI's Richmond, Va., office relayed the threats on June 23 to special agents in Cincinnati and to police in Evendale, the actual location for the event. The federal investigators talked to a "source" in Cincinnati's homosexual community to evaluate the threats, the documents reveal.Agents learned that on June 14, during Gay Pride Week in Cincinnati, a homosexual activist committee called Stonewall Cincinnati had held a meeting "which featured an officer of the local ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)" speaking on the topic, "The Growing Threat of the Religious Right." The speaker showed film footage of Falwell. Stonewall was to have met again on June 28."Source stated that Falwell is disliked by the 'gay' community because of his outspoken attitude against homosexuality," the agents reported to FBI Director William Webster. "Falwell has also reportedly stated that (AIDS) Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is Gods (sic) way of ridding our society of gays and lesbians."Additionally, "Source advised that when Falwell spoke in Cincinnati last year (1982), the gays picketed his speech. Source believes that this picketing by gays will again occur when Falwell speaks at Evendale (Cincinnati)." As part of their investigation, FBI agents probed Cincinnati's homosexual activist community."Source furnished a current copy of the Yellow Page, June 1983, which is Cincinnati's gay newspaper," the report said. "Circulation in the Cincinnati area is shown to be 2000 copies which is not exaggerated. Source stated that the downtown vicinity of Cincinnati supports eight (8) gay bars and one (Q) (sic) lesbian bar. Source restated the general dislike for Jerry Falwell within the Cincinnati area," it added.No suspect was apparently found, and the threat was dismissed as a possible prank. "Source stated there is no foundation to believe that gays in Cincinnati are planning to kill Jerry Falwell," the FBI report reads. "Such a publicized reward of $10,000 for the person who kills him would provide only adverse publicity for the gay community." However, the same FBI files also show that on July 3, 1983, the same day the "I Love America" rallies began, two white males from Santa Cruz, Calif., were stopped and questioned by Evendale police in the vicinity of Landmark Baptist Church - the church where Falwell was scheduled to speak. "Suspects were distributing literature criticizing President Reagan for helping build steel mills in Republic of China and were critical of Falwell's support for President Reagan," the report said. Police reported finding weapons in the suspects' car, including "a box of .38 caliber ammunition with 50 rounds on the front seat, a loaded Glenfield .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle, one loaded Colt .38 revolver and a box containing 500 rounds of .22 caliber ammo."No arrests were reportedly made, and a note was made in the records that the suspects were told by Evendale police that they would get the weapons back on July 5.Falwell's Fourth of July appearance in Cincinnati came off without incident but not without igniting controversy.It was there that Falwell called on the U.S. government to close homosexual bathhouses and to force all blood donors to reveal their sexual orientation as a means of preventing AIDS."Herpes, AIDS, venereal diseases ... are a definite form of the judgment of God upon a society," Falwell said at the appearances and at a news conference on July 4. "If the Reagan administration does not put its full weight against this, what is now a gay plague in this country, I feel that a year from now, President Ronald Reagan personally will be blamed for allowing this awful disease to break out among the innocent American public," he added.Besides the death threats in Cincinnati, the FBI files also indicate Falwell was the target of several poison-pen notes and threats during that momentous period. In May 1983, for instance, one letter to Falwell said: "Through your self-sacrifice and dedication we may one day see this nation ruled by God instead of man. Kind of like Iran. Hoping you will die soon. [Name redacted]"Another note was attached to a small box containing a live scorpion. The FBI declined a request to shed further light on or add details to what the files reveal."I don't think we can add anything other that what the documents themselves say," said Special Agent Jason Pack of the bureau's Jackson, Miss., office to Cybercast News Service. The Rev. Jerry Falwell died in May of 2007 in his office at Liberty University at the age of 73.
