Nikola Tesla

If you have masochistic tendencies, and nothing better to do with your time, you could download and read the FBI files on Tesla. To be honest they are only of interest to the dedicated historian. The majority of the files included are simply correspondence between individuals wanting to read the papers that John J. O'Neill, in his book Prodigal Genius, The Life of Nikola Tesla, had claimed were impounded by the FBI, and denials by the Bureau that they ever had the files (many of the papers are over the signature of J. Edgar Hoover). Despite the fact that the FBI had seen the book, Prodigal Genius whilst it was in manuscript form, it was decided that the publisher would not be contacted. Following Tesla's death in January 1943 Sava N. Kosanovic, claiming to be the cousin of Tesla, illegally entered his room and together with a locksmith broke into the safe. A couple of items were removed. The remaining items were impounded by the Office of Alien Property. Subsequently they were removed to the Tesla Museum in Belgrade. Kosanovic was variously Yugoslav Ambassador to the USA, and a Minister of State of the Yugoslav government. Kosanovic was also intensely disliked by Tesla.

If, despite what I have said above, you really want to read the files they are available under the Freedom of Information Act in the FBI Electronic Reading Room. The files are available as two 6mb files in .pdf format, and you will therefore need a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader, on your computer.

The FBI had certainly been interested in Tesla prior to his death. It seems unlikely to me that the first entry in the available files, namely a letter dated 24th September 1940, was the first time interest was shown by the Bureau. This letter referred to, and enclosed a cutting from the NY Times, referring to the development of a death ray. In fact, from elsewhere in the files, we can be certain that they at least had a biographical file on Tesla. In fact this file is referred to time and again throughout the documents released under the FOIA.

What actually happened in the Hotel New Yorker as described by an agent of the NY office of the FBI, is quite interesting to my mind. Following Tesla's death in his room at the hotel on 8th January 1943 (note not the 7th as you may find elsewhere), Sava Kosanovic, together with George Clark, Kenneth Sweezey, an unknown employee of Shaw Walker & Co, together with three hotel staff, illegally opened the safe with the aid of a locksmith, and examined its contents. Clark was an archivist for RCA, and Sweezey a popular science writer. In addition they removed some items and re-locked the safe with a new combination. Kosanovic told Walter Gorsuch of the NY office of the Alien Property Custodian, what they had done. Gorsuch then went with Bloyce Fitzgerald, a close associate of Tesla, to the hotel and there impounded all of Tesla's property. It was taken to the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Co and placed under seal, along with other property that had been stored there by Tesla. Some of this latter material had been there ten years or more. It is also revealed in the files that other material was held by at least one hotel in respect of unpaid bills. Certainly in one case the manager refused to hand over the material to the Alien Property Custodian unless the bill was paid. The files do not indicate that anybody ever paid. As Tesla was a naturalised US citizen, officials of the Alian Property Custodian were uncertain as to whether or not they had jurisdiction in the matter.

The material held at the warehouse was examined by a number of naval personnel, and others on 26th & 27th January 1943. Some of the material was photographed. The examination took some two days. There is a résume of the contents of the papers, they are singularly uninteresting, held in the FBI files. My comment is simply this, that these papers indicate the decline of Tesla's faculties in the later years of his life, and add nothing that is not readily available elsewhere. These materials were later impounded, as it was thought that they might have been of interest to the axis powers. As the matter was being dealt with by the Alien Property Custodian, the FBI again took no action. However both Military Intelligence and the office of Vice President Walace were advised that action might be required. Certainly a number of people in the scientific and defence community had opportunity to examine copies of the papers, including John D. Trump who at that time was working for the NDRC at MIT, Willis George of the Office of Naval Intelligence, Chief Yeoman Edward Palmer (USNR) and Chief Yeoman John J. Corbett (USNR). Their report is summarised in the FBI file, it reveals that nothing novel was included amongst the Tesla papers. In addition apparatus examined was several decades old. It is interesting to note that during the cold war there was a renewed interest by the American military in Tesla's work, and that it is believed (I am trying to follow this up at the moment), that the photographic records referred to earlier were transferred to Wright-Patterson AFB during the 1950s.

The FBI noted that there was a possibility that Tesla did some work for the Yugoslav government in exile. The exact nature of this is unknown, but at one time he was receiving $600.00 per month from them. This was described as a sort of pension!

There is a five year gap between 1943 and 1948 in the file. This seems rather strange to me that the FBI should have been inactive during this time. There then follow dozens of pages of requests for the FBI to hand over the Tesla papers and FBI responses stating that they never had the items in question. Some of the requests are obviously serious requests by students, scientists and others, but some are distinctly bizarre. In addition there are copies of numerous newspaper and magazine cuttings about Tesla.

A number of papers from the Tesla file have not been released under the Freedom of Information Act. The contents of these is unknown, but they are probably not of great significance. Some papers have almost certainly been lost in the system. One interesting part of the file is a list giving brief details of Tesla's associates.