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…
# CONFIDENTIAL

Cables:

(a) Kingston-4005, dated 8 April 1968; according to (RUABBE/1) a Jamaican service four groups are trying to get demonstrations going against the Amembassy, but without success; exempt under (b)(1)(5)B(1).

(b) Bogota-0654, dated 10 April 1968; (GISOY/GIJAY) unit intercepted propaganda items from Cuban mail pouch. Disclosure to the requestor would identify a clandestine method of the station for obtaining information; exempt under (b)(3)(a) and (b)(6).

(c) Mexico City-5210, dated 15 April 1968; Para. 3 of this cable mentions an intercepted letter addressed to President Johnson protesting the King assassination. (LITEMPO/12) a member of a Mexican service provided the information; exempt under (b)(1)(5)B(1).

(d) Mexico City-5249, dated 17 April 1968; the Legal Attache provided composite photos of suspect in connection with King assassination and asked for check of visitors to Soviet and Cuban embassies; exempt under (b)(3)(a).

(e) Bogota-0703, dated 20 April 1968 (GISOY) surveillance team followed an American National with a striking resemblance to Galt; exempt under (b)(3)(a) and (b)(6).

(f) Paris-9506, dated 22 April 1968; concerns Forman's arrival in Paris, incidental reference to the Subject; exempt under (b)(3)(a) and (b)(6).

(g) Nairobi-3000, dated 14 June 1968; source (TGFLER/1) stated he had an interview with Robert F. Williams. Incidental reference to the Subject; exempt under (b)(3)(a) and (b)(6).

(h) Director-48988, dated 7 November 1968; concerns a Richard George Perrin, incidental reference to the Subject in a record pertaining to another subject and should not be considered a document responsive to the requestor; exempt under (b)(3)(a) and (b)(6).

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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.