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 66 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…
## 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).

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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.