Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released 230,000 FBI files around Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination.
“Today, after nearly 60 years of questions surrounding the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we are releasing 230,000 MLK assassination files, available now at http://archives.gov/mlk,” Gabbard wrote on X. “The documents include details about the FBI’s investigation into the assassination of MLK, discussion of potential leads, internal FBI memos detailing the progress of the case, information about James Earl Ray’s former cellmate who stated he discussed with Ray an alleged assassination plot, and more.”
MLK was murdered on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the murder on March 10, 1969. He died in prison in 1998.
However, many people, including the King family, believe the government, mafia, and Memphis police conspired to assassinate the civil rights leader.
I’m going through the files now. I’ll update this post. Some of these documents are hard to read.
Okay, I’m going to try to keep this organized.
In July 1978, a memo went out to address a newscast that published pictures and composite photos of a man given by the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
The committee hoped these items would “shed additional light on the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” The members said the photos belonged to “part of the information on Lee Harvey Oswald.”
CIA Career Associate Petr Sergeyevich Deryabin identified the man as “journalist” Nikolay Sergeyevich Leonov.
Deryabin knew Leonov as a journalist who published a glowing article in a Soviet publication for Fidel Castro on his birthday:
Written in connection with Castro’s 50th birthday, the article praised Castro highly and implied a personal acquaintance between Leonov and the Cuban leader. It also briefly mentioned that the CIA had planned “a physical liquidation of F. Castro.” Deryabin comments that he knows “journalist” Leonov to be a KGB officer who has worked in Moscow headquarters as well as in Mexico and Cuba. He believes that Leonov’s implied personal acquaintanceship with Castro in fact stems grom his official position as a KGB officer.
A memo from January 1978 confirmed the CIA and FBI had files on MLK:
1. An intensive search of the files and indices of this Directorate has surfaced the attached CIA information concerning Dr. Martin Luther King. There will be a separate memorandum concerning James Earl Ray. 2. In addition to the information mentioned in . paragraph one above, there are two documents which this Directorate is not able to locate. 3. The FBI has information concerning Dr. Martin Luther King. 4. Dr. Martin Luther King was the Subject of OGC requests 76-S403 dated 14 October 1976, 76-6616 dated 23 November 1976 and FOIA request 76~382 dated 27 July 1976.
The next memo detailed more FBI documents on MLK.
An October 1976 memo listed other documents, including MLK allegedly meeting with members of the Italian Communist and Socialist Parties.
Then another memo, dated December 1976, said the FBI & CIA had 82 documents that reference to MLK. However, 66 were destroyed in 1974, two have been lost, and 14 were located.
A memo from John Walker to William W. Wells, the CIA deputy director for operations, was about a visit from Richard Sprague, the general counsel for the House Committee investigating JFK and MLK.
It seems Sprague did not trust the CIA. He told them that he didn’t want to have to request the removal of documents from the CIA, instead offering to view confidential documents at headquarters.
He also kept stressing that he hoped no one would destroy anything connected to his investigation.
I guess Sprague knew that the CIA would do something like destroy documents or keep them close.
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