The FBI and the Missing Tesla Papers Page 471

A Further Investigation of the FBI Files. On October 17, 1945, E. E. Conroy from SAC (probably Strategic Air Command) sent two copies of the Trump report to J. Edgar Hoover and reviewed once again the situation heedful of Fitzgerald, Spanel, a censored person "X" and Kosanovich. Conroy said that "X" (probably another FBI agent) suspected that Spanel was "definitely pro-Russian in attitude" and that he had spread pro- communist propaganda in full-page ads in various newspapers, but that Spanel was suing said newspapers for libel. Conroy also reiterated that Spanel had ties to Vice President Wallace so that caution was advised.

It appears that Spanel had met Fitzgerald, (a friend of "X") at an engineering meeting in November, 1942. Fitzgerald, at the time, was an army private at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. He was described in the FBI report as "a brilliant 29-year-old scientist who spent endless hours with Tesla before his death.... Fitzgerald had developed some sort of anti-tank gun." Spanel tried to form a partnership with Fitzgerald in order to sell this weapon to the Remington Arms Company but from some reason "Spanel blocked the final sale" (10/17/1945) and then tried to arrange a more lucrative deal with Eiogens Ship Building Company of New Orleans.

In November, 1943, Eiogens Company fired Fitzgerald and a year later the young engineer was inducted into the army.

Today, [1945, Fitzgerald was]...engaged in a highly secret experimental project at Wright Field... In spite of his rank of private, Fitzgerald is actually director of this research and is working with many top young scientists...on perfection of Tesla's "death ray" which in Fitzgerald's opinion is the only defense against offensive use by another nation of the atom bomb. (Conroy, 10/17/1945)

Conroy suggested cooperating with Fitzgerald in order to secure "legal possession of Tesla's effects." The goal, of course, was to obtain and protect the details of the weapons system, yet also to set up a "memorial foundation...for the preservation of the inventor's memory." Fitzgerald purportedly even interested Henry Ford in the project.

During this same time, Brigadier General L. C. Craigee, Chief Engineering Division, Control Equipment Branch, Wright Field, writing at the request of Bloyce Fitzgerald, David Pratt, Herbert Schutt and P. E. Houle, all engineers working at Wright Field, contacted Harvey Ross of the FBI in New York (10/19/1945) in order to officially "request