Documents / FOIA release

FOIA on Martin Luther King

Central Intelligence Agency · 2025-06-12 · 295 pages · text by OCR

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.

  • p. 167 …mysterious autopsy photographs which the Warren Commission never saw—do they support the Commission's lone…
  • p. 169 …The Kent State incident had never been fully cleared up. But one subject seemed to loom…
  • p. 170 …I worked there years and never saw or heard any-suggesting the Agency was involved assassination…
  • p. 171 …There was occasional stress, but it never reached the high level I was finding in the…
  • p. 172 …The bullets never gained perfectly intact, as the one found the stretcher, they became twisted lumps…
  • p. 173 …The word "never" was a perfectly "trimmed hedge." "I have found nothing since that time." he…
  • p. 206 …and documents were destroyed through some catastrophe never resumed business or were permanently closed down within…
  • p. 250 …mysterious autopsy photographs which the Warren Commission never saw—do they support the Commission's lone…
  • p. 252 …The Kent State incident had never been fully cleared up. But one subject seemed to loom…
  • p. 253 …I worked there three years and never saw or heard anying suggesting the Agency was involved…
  • p. 254 …There was occasional stress, but it never reached the high level I was finding in the…
  • p. 255 …The bullets never mained perfectly intact, as the one found in the stretcher; they became twisted…
  • p. 256 …The word "never" was a perfectly "trimmed hedge." I have found nothing since that time." he…
  • p. 291 …Union member on 21 February 1968 but never shipped out. His Social Security Number is 562…
He has been a chronic letter writer to the Central Intelligence Agency criticizing them and the Government. By letter of 12/29/67 Kramer requested the Central Intelligence Agency to pay him $100,000 monthly for six months for a paper on geopolitical economy he had previously submitted. He concluded his letter with the statement, "In the event that you fail to acknowledge my request, I can accept no responsibility for any future efforts necessary to gain the combined ends of ideal government and financial recompense."

The only record of Kramer found in Bureau files is a memorandum from the Central Intelligence Agency, 1/18/68, advising us of his letters to the Central Intelligence Agency. No record can be located in the Identification Division but Kramer's fingerprints are being obtained from the Berkeley police.

A. C. Hayden, Intra-Division Information Unit of the Department, advised on the evening of 4/8/68 that Beatrice Rosenberg, a secretary in the Attorney General's office, had received a telephone call from a man identifying himself as Frederick Dunstan who said he resided at Route 350, Whitefield, North Carolina. Dunstan said he was calling the Attorney General to report that a white man was in his house, was drunk, had a gun and said he had killed Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is no Whitefield, North Carolina. There is a Whiteville, North Carolina. Investigation by the Charlotte Division has failed to locate a Route 350, Box 350, or Highway 350 in the Whiteville area and no record of a Frederick Dunstan has been located. No record of Dunstan could be found in Bureau files.

A pair of duckbill pliers was found among the personal effects believed to have been abandoned by the subject. These pliers bear a trademark of the Rompage Hardware Company, Los Angeles. Employees at the hardware company believe this is one of twelve pliers purchased in October, 1966. Employees have no recollection of the sale of these pliers but an exhaustive search is being made of charge sale records.

It is noted that the rifle believed to be the murder weapon was purchased in Birmingham, Alabama, 3/30/68. Binoculars found with the rifle were purchased in Memphis, 4/4/68. A latent fingerprint found on the rifle is identical with a latent fingerprint found on the binoculars. This presents a strong probability that these fingerprints are those of the subject.

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About this file

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.