The FBI and the Missing Tesla Papers Page 472

...in the interest of National Defense, access...to the effects of Dr. Nikola Tesla held in Manhattan Storage, Warehouse."

As the FBI had no jurisdiction over the Tesla estate, Fitzgerald, Conroy and Craigee were referred to the the OAP.

This above section was taken from the FBI files and does not appear in the Chaney book. Cheney (1981), however, had access to the OAP files and she fills in the details from this perspective. It appears that on September 5, 1945, Lloyd Shaulis of the OAP mailed off two copies of the Trump report to Col. Holliday of the Equipment laboratory, Propulsions and Accessories Subdivision, who, no doubt, forwarded them to Fitzgerald. "These were the full photostatic copies, not merely the abstracts" (p. 277, emphasis added), i.e., they must have also contained the file of Tesla's papers "removed" by Trump.

By 1950, Kosanovich was still barred from the warehouse (FBI memorandum, 4/17/ 1950). He was now officially the ambassador from Yugoslavia and his patience had reached its limit. Kosanovich wanted his uncle's effects in Belgrade where they would be rightfully honored. In March, he went to the warehouse to inform them of the inventor's wishes to send his estate to the Tesla Museum. It was at this time that the ambassador was informed that the FBI had microfilmed the entire contents (FBI memorandum, 3/29/1950, even though, they most likely had not). Therefore, Kosanovich called J. Edgar Hoover to request a copy of the microfilm, but it is doubtful that his wishes were fulfulled.

Having reached one roadblock after another, he contacted violinist Zlatko Balokovic, a fellow Serbo-Croatian, to ask if he could help. Balokovic, in turn, called Andrija Puharich, a young medical doctor at the time, of Croatian heritage, who had contacts with the armed forces and congress. Puharich (1986) helped apply pressure to gain the release of the Tesla estate.

Finally, in 1952, arrangements were made and the entire 80 trunks were shipped to Belgrade. Included were many valuable original papers completely unknown to O'Neill such as Tesla's 1899 Colorado diary, various photographs, thousands of letters and most of Tesla's inventions including the remote controlled robotic boat, wireless fluorescent lamps, AC motors, turbines, plans for his vertical takeoff flivver plane and a model of the magnifying transmitter. The ashes of the inventor were sent later.

Spanel would be questioned by Joseph McCarthy and the death ray papers moved further underground, Cheney (1981) stating that they now reside in a top secret library