Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency FOIA release, dated 2025-06-12, collects 1976 CIA paperwork on Harold Weisberg's request (76-F-382) for records on Martin Luther King, Jr. It includes routing slips, an Operations Staff memorandum listing releasable press items and exempt cables, dispatches and memoranda, and a CI Staff reply citing a 1968 Office of Security memo on Coretta Scott King. It also contains a 16 May 1968 memo to the FBI reporting that Gerald Lee Richards, investigated in Japan, did not resemble suspect James Earl Ray.
“United Press”16 pages
Mr. D. J. Brennan, Jr. FROM : S. J. Papich SUBJECT: MURKIN Military Richard Ober, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), furnished the following to the Liaison Agent on April 17, 1968: A CIA source, characterized as being very reliable, advised that on or about April 15, 1968, an individual identifying himself as Gerald Lee Richards, a U. S. seaman, called at the Tokyo, Japan, office of the National Maritime Union and asked to be signed on a ship as soon as possible. (It should be noted that reference is being made to the office of the U.S. National Maritime Union.) He was asked to furnish his local address in Tokyo, and he refused to do so. He became very agitated and then left. So far he has not returned to the aforementioned office. CIA's source stated that Richards answers, the general description of the suspect in the instant case as reported in newspapers. Richards volunteered information indicating that he applied for seaman's papers in San Pedro, California, on June 16, 1964, and that he registered as a member of the National Maritime Union in San Pedro on February 21, 1968. He has Social Security number 562-46-5078 and U. S. Coast Guard identifying document Z2711-782. He was born April 8, 1937, in Missouri (town not given). CIA's source described him as 5'10"; 155 pounds; brown hair, receding hairline on both sides; a scar, not prominent, about two and one half inches long across the center of his forehead. His most outstanding characteristic was his grin, described as "disconcerting and resembling a grimace. Ober advised that this same information has been given to our Legat, Tokyo. CIA is checking through available sources in Tokyo to establish the whereabouts of Richards. If this lead washes out, CIA would like to be advised. ACTION: The above information is being directed to the attention of the Civil Rights Section of the General Investigative Division. SJP:c1b (4) 1 - Mr. McGowan (Long) 1 = Liaison Mr. Papich Based on what is contained in the list below : 91
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 295 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.