Nikola Tesla FBI Files - Page 51

[REDUCTED]

Clarence M. Kelley
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Washington D.C. 20535

Dear Mr. Kelley,

        Thank you for your letter of the 19th of July. I appreciate the information about the Office of Alien Property and its connection with the impounding of the effects of Dr. Nikola Tesla. In my letter of the 16th I did not mean to imply the FBI had impounded his effects, as I was aware of the O.A.P.s general part in the affair. The fact remains that to the best of my knowledge, it WAS agents of the FBI who did in fact break into his safe only hours after his death, and did remove the papers therein. Now, in so far as the Bureau was connected, I wish to understand that extent. I do appreciate your referring my communication to the appropriate persons in the Justice Department, but perhaps you could see that the above mentioned connection of the Bureau could be further leaked into. I am curious as to who asked the Bureau to perform such an act, whether is was a person in the O.A.P. or what, and on what grounds they were carried out, and to whom they were responsible. Also, to what person were the purloined papers delivered? Names of the agents involved would be appreciated. As to what happened to any other effects of his, that is probably a question more ably answered by the O.A.P., yet if Bureau agents participated once, they may have done so on other occasions. If the persons who did open the safe were NOT FBI agents, then we are faced with the fact that persons apparently posed as Bureau operatives, an even more interesting situation. Perhaps this whets your own curiosity