Report: Payton received death threat in 1982 that led to FBI investigation
Posted September 27, 2019 1:00 am
A sense of fear greeted the Chicago Bears in early 1982 during the off-season, and not because Mike Ditka had thundered into town as the new head coach.
A letter containing a death threat against all-time great Bears running back Walter Payton was mailed to the team's Lake Forest offices, and the FBI was called in to investigate, according to a file the FBI kept on Payton that's now part of the Chicago Sun-Times "The FBI Files" database of federal records on people, groups and events of particular interest to Chicagoans.