The FBI and the Missing Tesla Papers Page 473

of a "well-known defense research agency" (p. 309). From my own investigation, I have received negative replies from the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency (which took an inordinate amount of time to respond to my inquiry), the National Archives and Records Services and also their Modern Military Headquarters and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, (all located in Washington, D. C.).

The Probable Trail of a Secret Tesla (1937d/1985) Paper. Puharich (1986) stated that the original source of the particle beam weaponry report, which was recently published, was Ralph Bergstresser, a former employee of RCA in the 1940's, and an author of an important Tesla treatise (1957). Puharich thought that Bergstresser, along with an associate, (who may have been Bloyce Fitzgerald), was linked to the FBI, and thus, obtained the paper in that capacity. In the 1940's, Bergstresser (1986) worked for RCA and "Marconi's boys. I always believed that Marconi was the inventor of the wireless.... Then I found out it was all a lie." He further said that Marconi had lived on a ship on the high seas to avoid the subpoenas Tesla tried to give him. At some point, Bergstresser began to work for the government, and he began to meet with Tesla on "behalf of the war effort... [when] he (Tesla) turned over to me [his various papers]. I would take and read through them and return them to him."

Bergstresser said that he had only known Tesla during the last six months of his life. "He was skinny, tall, stooped, emaciated — didn't eat right." In further questioning, Bergstresser said that he had known John O'Neill (1944) and his colleague, "Bill" Lawrence, both men who had interviewed and dined with the inventor on many occasions through the years (pp. 267-270). It had been Lawrence who had written the 1940 New York Times death ray article which sparked such interest by the FBI and factions of the armed forces, and he and Bergstresser had attended Tesla's funeral together in 1943.

During the conversation, I asked Bergstresser if he had any proof to support his contention (from a Health Research flyer accompanying his article) that Tesla's papers had been systematically removed from libraries. He said the the conspiracy was massive and extremely complex going back to J. Pierpont Morgan, and the wish to suppress Tesla's wireless power distribution inventions. He was upset that Tesla's entire estate was "hauled away...behind the Iron Curtain," and he said that he later found out that Lawrence was a communist, probably meaning that Lawrence was somewhat responsible for sending this important information to the other side. He agreed that the Cheney