Documents / FOIA release
FOIA on Martin Luther King
Central Intelligence Agency · 2025-06-12 · 295 pages · text by GLM-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.
“King”60+ pages
- p. 1 …The first time the Bureau sent those, they combined King-Ray docs with Kennedy assassination dogs…
- p. 3 …Weisberg Request (Martin Luther King, Jr.) Part I
REFERENCE: 76-F-382
1. This office maintains…
- p. 5 …Martin Luther King, Jr. are releasable to the requestor. There are no exemptions. Look, 15 April…
- p. 7 …documents which mention either Dr. or Mrs. King are held in OPS/ITG (SI) vault:
3…
- p. 8 …3 of this cable mentions an intercepted letter addressed to President Johnson protesting the King assassination…
- p. 9 …Martin Luther King; exempt under (b)(3)(a) and (b)(6).
(e) OEPA-1097, dated 29…
- p. 10 …an incidental mention of the name Dr. King) by or about a Jonathan Power; exempt under…
- p. 11 …Investigation of Death of Martin Luther King, Jr. concerns a subject who did not appear to…
- p. 12 …as being in contact with Martin Luther King; exempt under (b)(3)(a) and (b)(6…
- p. 14 …documents which mention either Dr. or Mrs. King are held in OPS/ITG (SI) vault:
3…
- p. 17 MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
## Para C:
I cannot match the documents with the list you provided…
- p. 20 …Martin Luther King
(Request #F-76-382)
In response to this request, CI Staff has no…
- p. 21 …Stevens
SUBJECT
KING, Coretta Scott
#541 487
AKA: Mrs. Martin Luther KINGnee: Coretta SCOTT
1. Subject…
- p. 31 ## PRIORITY HANDLING FOIA REQUEST
SUBJECT: (Optional) Martin Luther King, Jr., requested by Weisberg
TO: (Officer designation…
- p. 34 …July 1966. - A-62
(7) DDO biographic data on Martin Luther King, dated 5 November 1967.
- p. 41 …GA-20
SUBJECT OF INDEX SEARCH
SURNAME KING
GIVEN NAMES Martin Luther Jr.
SPELLING VARIATIONS TO…
- p. 43 …0001 KING, MARTIN LUTHER
SEX M
CIT USA
TO BE INTERVIEWED BY PAUL KRASSNER CONTACT OF…
- p. 47 …DJSJ REPORTEDLY SHOT AND KILLED MARTIN
LUTHER KING SUSPOSEDLY VISITED MEXICO
***LOCATOR DATA: DRUER FROM IP…
- p. 49 …6
4.
5.
SUBJECT (must be furnished): KING
HO. FILE NUMBER DOCUMENT SYMBOL AND NUMBER DOCUMENT…
- p. 50 …SUBJECT (must be furnished)
King Martin
HQ FILE NUMBER DOCUMENT SYMBOL AND NUMBER OUT DOCUMENT DATE…
- p. 53 …OR SUBJECT
WEISBERG request on Martin Luther King and James Earl Ray
SEARCH COST (To be…
- p. 59 …Martin Luther King, Jr.
b. Earl Ray
c. Other individuals involved with the assassination of Dr…
- p. 60 …Martin Luther King, Jr. by the Dade County/Florida police (Criminal Intelligence); excluded under 1900.3…
- p. 66 …Assassination of Martin Luther King. Subject in this memorandum is a James Ray, born 8 March…
- p. 68 …have had something to do with Dr. King.
(n) Panama City-6193 (IN-98420), dated 25…
- p. 75 …Assassination of Martin Luther King. Subject in this memorandum is a James Ray, born 8 March…
- p. 77 …have had something to do with Dr. King.
(n) Panama City-6193 (IN-98420), dated 25…
- p. 81 …Martin Luther King, Jr.
1. At the Attorney General's direction, a task force was established…
- p. 87 …FBI Referral re Harold Weisberg Request on Martin Luther King, Jr. and James Earl Ray
REFERENCES…
- p. 89 …MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
2. ANOTHER SENSITIVE RELIABLE SOURCE IN MEXICO CITY REPORTED THAT MCLAREN DEPARTED…
- p. 91 …MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
2. ANOTHER SENSITIVE RELIABLE SOURCE IN MEXICO CITY REPORTED THAT MCLAREN DEPARTED…
- p. 94 …of the suspected killer of Martin Luther King, Jr, and asked for a check against visitors…
- p. 97 …1234567
APR111968
ENGIPHERED
ASSASSINATION OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. REURTELS NUMBERS TWO AND FOUR DATED APRIL…
- p. 98 …Rap Brown advocated the death of Martin Luther King and King's assassination would benefit the…
- p. 103 …Allegedly, they are being detained in connection with the assassination of Martin Luther King. These individuals…
- p. 104 …MURKIN
no knowledge of any connection between these individuals and the assassination of Martin Luther King…
- p. 107 …Sullivan
This is the case involving the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
4/4/68…
- p. 108 …and said he had killed Martin Luther King, Jr.
There is no Whitefield, North Carolina. There…
- p. 110 …Martin Luther King.
Liaison advised of the receipt of information from Richard Helms, Director of CIA…
- p. 113 …Martin Luther King.
Liaison advised of the receipt of information from Richard Helms, Director of CIA…
- p. 114 …In one on which I have paid the CIA large sums without compliance, the King assassination…
- p. 115 …In one on which I have paid the CIA large sums without compliance, the King assassination…
- p. 117 …Martin Luther King, Jr.
2. All records pertaining to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King…
- p. 118 …Martin Luther King, Jr., and/or James Earl Ray and any of his alleged or suspected…
- p. 119 …Martin Luther King, Jr., and to those dealing with James Earl Ray and any of his…
- p. 120 …Martin Luther King, Jr. and his assassination. Because you require a down payment of half the…
- p. 121 …Coretta King and James Earl Ray, respectively." Because Mr. Weisberg's request undoubtedly comprises records which…
- p. 122 …receipt of the sworn waiver from Mrs. King, as mentioned in your letter of 3 December…
- p. 123 FOIA Appeal - Harold Weisberg, for information about Martin Luther King, Jr. and James Earl Ray
IPS…
- p. 127 …Martin Luther King, Jr.:
1. All receipts for any letters, cables, documents, reports, memorandums, or other…
- p. 128 …Coretta King
Rev. Andrew Young
Rev. Samuel B. Kyles
Harry Wachtel
9. All notes or memorandums…
- p. 130 …Martin Luther King, Jr. since April 15, 1975.
17. All notes, memoranda, correspondence or investigative reports…
- p. 132 UNCLASSIFIED INTERNAL USE ONLY
CONFIDENTIAL
SECRET
## PRIORITY HANDLING FOIA REQUEST
FBI Referral re Martin Luther King…
- p. 140 …Association, care of the Rev. M. L. King, Dexter Ave. Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama.'
The above…
- p. 144 …Martin Luther King, Jr.:
1. All receipts for any letters, cables, documents, reports, memorandums, or other…
- p. 145 …Coretta King
Rev. Samuel B. Kyles
Rev. Andrew Young
Harry Wachtel
9. All notes or memorandums…
- p. 147 …Martin Luther King, Jr. since April 15, 1975.
17. All notes, memoranda, correspondence or investigative reports…
- p. 158 …Some disturbing parallels; assassination of M.L. King and J.F. Kennedy." Ramparts Magazine, 29 Uma…
- p. 162 …28-31, 90.
"Ruby and the King of Torto." Times Literary Supplement, 17 March 1966, p…
- p. 164 …10.
"Did Ray Kill King?" National Review, 23 April 1968, pp. 376+.
"Doctor King." National Review…
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
inform me of this as soon as possible. I would also request that you indicate what standards, if any, you have established for determining whether or not a request for waiver should be granted.
You state that you can proceed no further with Mr. Weisberg's request "unless and until we are in receipt of notarized statements of release from Mrs. Coretta King and James Earl Ray, respectively." Because Mr. Weisberg's request undoubtedly comprises records which do not involve any proper claim of privacy, this cannot be true. I do enclose, however, a copy of a notarized waiver by James Earl Ray. I will immediately contact Mrs. King about a waiver by her. In the meantime, I request that you proceed to make available those records responsive to Mr. Weisberg's request which do not involve any proper claim of invasion of privacy.
Sincerely yours,
James H. Lesar
James H. Lesar
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About this file
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 295 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.