Robin Gibb investigated by FBI

Robin Gibb was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over death threats he apparently made to his first wife's lawyers.

Robin Gibb was the focus of an FBI investigation.

The late Bee Gees singer - who passed away in May aged 62 - apparently warned lawyers acting for his first wife Molly Hullis that he had hired a hitman to kill them, prompting the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to probe the threats.

Newly-released documents claim the singer sent messages from his Miami home to London lawyers Haymon and Walters, with one telegram reading: "What you have done is just about the limit. I have taken out a contract ... it is now a question of time."

The firm reported Robin - who married Molly, the mother of two of his children, in 1968 and divorced in 1980 after years living separate lives - to the FBI after receiving "numerous threatening telegrams from Gibb which threatened their lives", according to the bureau's report.

Files released under the Freedom of Information Act show investigators considered further action and discussed how to probe the allegations without alerting the 'Staying Alive' hitmaker, who was at the height of his fame.

However, Robin's lawyers wrote to the FBI and said the singer "would not be foolish enough to carry out any threat, especially in view of his singing career".

The matter was eventually dropped, with the file closed in March 1981 because Molly and the lawyers did not want to press charges.