Nikola Tesla FBI Files - Page 148

Hotel New Yorker, New York City. During his lifetime, he conducted many experiments in connection with the wireless transmission of electrical power and ... what is commonly called the death ray. According to information furnished by X [name deleted], New York City, the notes and records of Tesla's experiments and formulae together with designs of machinery ... are among Tesla's personal effects, and no steps have been taken to preserve them or to keep them from falling into hands of people ... unfriendly to the war effort of the United Nations...." (The FBI was, however, advised by the office of Vice-President Henry A. Wallace that the government was "vitally interested" in preserving Tesla's papers.)

        Bloyce D. Fitzgerald, "an electrical engineer who had been quite close to Tesla during his lifetime," continued Foxworth, "advised the New York office that on January seventh, nineteen forty three, Sava Kosanović, George Clark, who is in charge of the museum and laboratory for RCA, and Kenneth Swezay ... went to Tesla's rooms in the New Yorker [author's note: the correct date would have been January 8], and with the assistance of a locksmith broke into a sale which Tesla had in his rooms in which he kept some of his valuable papers.... Within the last month, Tesla told Fitzgerald that his experiments in connection with the wireless transmission of electrical power had been completed and perfected.

        "Fitzgerald also knows that Tesla had conceived and designed a revolutionary type of torpedo which is not presently in use by any of the nations. It is Fitzgerald's belief that this design has not been made available to any nation up to the present time. From statements made to Fitzgerald by Tesla, he knows that the complete plans, specifications and explanation of the basic theories of these things are some place in the personal effects of Tesla. He also knows there is a working model of Tesla's, which cost more than ten thousand dollars to build, in a safety deposit box belonging to Tesla at the Governor Clinton Hotel, and Fitzgerald believes this model has to do with the so-called death ray or the wireless transmission of electrical current.

        "Tesla has also told Fitzgerald in past conversations that he has some eighty trunks in different places containing transcripts and plans having to do with experiments conducted by him. Bureau is requested to advise immediately what, if any, action should be taken concerning this matter by the New York Field Division."²

        Kosanović later reported to Walter Gorsuch of the Office of Alien Property in New York that he first went to Tesla's rooms with the other men to search for a will. After the safe was opened, Swezey took from it a book containing the testimonials sent to Tesla on his seventy-fifth birthday, while Kosanović took from the room three pictures of Tesla. According to the manager of the New Yorker Hotel and Kosanović, nothing else was removed. The safe was closed under a new combination, which combination was in Kosanović's exclusive possession.

        On January 9, Gorsuch of OAP and Fitzgerald went to the New Yorker Hotel and seized all of Tesla's property, consisting of about two truckloads of material, sealed it and transferred it to the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Company. It was added to about thirty barrels and bundles that had been there since about 1934, and these too were sealed under orders of the OAP.

        In addition to the question of the legitimacy of Alien Property's involvement in the case is the question of why Kosanović was allowed to have access to the safe's combination, from which he later claimed the Edison Medal had vanished. Tesla's American naturalization paper, which he so prized that he always kept them in his safe, may now be seen at the Tesla Museum in Belgrade; but it is not known what other papers or objects were in the safe.

        The Washington Bureau of the FBI went so far as to advise the New York Bureau "to discreetly take the matter up with the State's Attorney in New York City with the view to possibly taking Kosanovich into custody on a burglary charge and obtaining the various papers which Kosanovich is reported to have taken from Tesla's safe." New York was also told to contact the Surrogate Court so stops could be placed against all of Tesla's effects, so that no one could enter them without an FBI agent being present, and New York was to keep Washington advised of all developments.³

        The idea of arresting the Yugoslav ambassador was quickly dropped. And very soon the Washington headquarters made a curious decision. Edward A. Tamm of the FBI in Washington advised D. M. Ladd of that Bureau that the whole matter was being turned over to the Custodian of Alien Property, and Tamm noted, "There appears to be no need for us to mess around in it."⁴

        Soon the well-known electrical engineer Dr. John G. Trump, who was serving as a technical aide to the National Defense Research Committee of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, was asked to participate in an examination of Tesla's scientific papers. Present at the Manhattan Warehouse & Storage Company in addition