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.

Open the PDF at page 59 Original source ↗

“Nevers”14 pages

  • 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…
# Administrative - Internal Use Only

15 July 1976

MEMORANDUM FOR: Office of General Counsel

ATTENTION C/FOIA/PA

SUBJECT Request For Opinion--FOIA (b)(6) & Privacy Act

REFERENCE : FOIA Request 76-382, copy attached

1. Mr. Weisberg has requested under the FOIA information on:

a. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

b. Earl Ray

c. Other individuals involved with the assassination of Dr. King.

2. To ensure consistency in making determinations for release under both the FOIA exemptions (b)(6) and the Privacy Act, of requests such as Mr. Weisberg's, would you please state the current legal criteria to apply to these type cases. Specifically, it would be helpful to the DDO to have a clearly enunciated legal opinion regarding what, if any, privacy rights the family of a deceased individual might have vis-a-vis the deceased individual. Further, what, if any, privacy rights does a convicted felon have.

3. We are aware that each case must be judged on its own facts. Hence, we would be grateful for your opinion regarding the criteria to apply to Mr. Weisberg's request. However, a general rule applicable to the type of request also would be very useful, would expedite the processing of such requests, and would apply some consistency in the decision-making process.

Charles A. Briggs Chief, Services Staff

Attachment: Reference

cc: Paul Haefner, OPS/ITG

Administrative - Internal Use Only

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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.