After decades as a West Coast leftist, Ramparts editor Warren Hinckle finally landed a place in the FBI’s files after his magazine ran a pro-IRA ad and credited a Michigan Senator for its creation.

February, 1981. In a smoky bar in Alexandria, Virginia, an FBI informant just happens to overhear a conversation that could change the course of the free world: a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. If that sounds a bit too contrived to be true, well, that might explain why the Bureau couldn’t find any evidence that it was.