When Jack Chick offered to help the FBI fight Commies

Chick, once described in these pages as the “father of the Satanic Panic,” chose to pitch himself instead as “a small business man and a tax payer who is deeply concerned with the coming revolution.” He goes on to ask for Hoover’s Bureau to “feed [Chick Publications] reliable information” for a new tract about the dangers of Communism. Even in Chick’s wacky ouevre, the pitch for “The Poor Revolutionist” is a weird one: two brothers, a Christian and a “revolutionist,” live through the bloody Communist overthrow of the United States only to (spoiler alert) both be killed by the new Commie government.

Hoover demurred, but not for lack of a sales pitch on Chick’s part. “I think it would have a tremendous impact on young radicals who might think twice before joining forces against their country. Of course, I am convinced such a little booklet would do more to deter revolt than any other source.”

Of course he was.

The letter, published in full below, is the latest file released by FOIA The Dead, a transparency project that sends Freedom of Information Act requests to the FBI for the public figures who appear in the obituary pages.