Over in the USA, the FBI has a policy I have just become aware of that is ill-advised from a cultural standpoint. When someone dies, their secret files are released to the public. Of course, they are highly redacted (i.e.: lots of black marker used to cross out names and places), but they still are consistently going to place the deceased in a bad light by presenting outdated, often unsubstantiated evidence. It's too late for the family of the accused to prove their innocence, and, in many cases, the general public will make assumptions about guilt. This has just happened with famed motorcycle stunt rider Evel Knievel.
Knievel, it turns out, was the subject of an ongoing investigation into violent incidents that he either was personally involved in or was alleged to have orchestrated. Working off the limited information available in the article, there is no doubt that on at least a couple of occasions, Knievel did react violently and personally (once with promoter Shelly Saltman, and once with fellow stunt rider Bob Gill). Other incidents were never proven and were denied.
True or false? We will never know, but perhaps this is not the time to be accusing him of these crimes again. However, they should consider throwing the book at him for being involved in the so-bad-it-is-funny movie Viva Knievel!, a film that critic Rob Gonsalves summed up nicely with the phrase, "jaw-droppingly stupid".
Click here for a link to the full article
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