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.
“FBI file”20 pages
## CONFIDENTIAL
1968; Director-93261, dated 20 April 1968; Director- 93260, dated 20 April 1968; Tokyo-9600 (IN-94797), dated 20 April 1968; Director-93236, dated 20 April 1968; Director-93538, dated 22 April 1968; Bogota- 0707 (IN-9553), dated 22 April 1968; Director-93603, dated 23 April 1968; La Paz-4254 (IN-96327), dated 23 April 1968; Guatemala City-8934 (IN-99192), dated 26 April 1968. Dispatches: ONHA-3982, dated 22 April 1968; HMMW-16358, dated 22 April 1968. Memoranda: Official Routing Slip, dated 22 October 1975; Official Routing Slip, dated 23 October 1975; Memoranda, dated 23 April 1968.
2. The following agency documents are exempt from release. Exemptions are as cited:
(a) Bogota-0703 (IN-95025), dated 20 April 1968; this cable concerns an American National with a striking resemblance to Eric Starvo Galt; exempt under (b)(3)(a) and (b)(6).
(b) Bangkok-9432 (IN-00056), dated 29 April 1968; Airforce Intelligence advised that a person formerly in Bangkok knew James Earl Ray; exempt under (b)(3)(a).
(c) Rome-5861, dated 3 May 1968; concerns a James Ray, DPOB 8 March 1928, information provided by Siena police to (DEPARK/DEGOTIST); exempt under (b)(1)(5)B(1).
(d) Memorandum, dated 17 April 1968; Subject: Gerald Lee Richards; exempt under (b)(3)(a) and (b)(6). $ \textcircled{1} $
(e) Memorandum, dated 1 May 1968 is a request for preparation of a transmittal to the FBI that deals with King Assassination; exempt under (b)(3)(a).
(f) Memorandum, dated 14 May 1968; Subject: Assassination of Martin Luther King. Subject in this memorandum is a James Ray, born 8 March 1928 in Los Angeles. (CSCI-316/01763-68); the information was provided by an Italian intelligence service; exempt under (b)(1)5B(1). Not linked to a story yet.
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.