Between 1956 and 1971, the FBI ran a secret program called COINTELPRO, short for Counter Intelligence Program. Its targets included civil rights leaders, Black liberation groups, anti-war activists, and feminist organizers. Its methods included surveillance, infiltration, disinformation, and tactics designed to, in the FBI's own words, "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" them. For years, the program ran entirely in the shadows. Then in March 1971, a group of activists broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, stole the files, and sent them to the press. What they revealed changed how Americans saw their own government. In this episode of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes, Vanessa Richardson tells the story of COINTELPRO, the people it targeted, the people who exposed it, and what the declassified files still tell us about the line between national security and political repression.

Head over to our Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@Conspiracytheoriescultscrimes

If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes to never miss a case!

To hear episodes ad-free and released a day early, subscribe to Crime House+. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios.

🎧 Need More to Binge? 

Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of…, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Crime House 24/7, Murder True Crime Stories and more wherever you get your podcasts!

Follow me on Social

• Instagram: @Crimehouse
• TikTok: @Crimehouse
• Facebook: @crimehousestudios
• X: @crimehousemedia
• YouTube: @crimehousestudios