File No. 100-2237 — Freedom of Information Act Release — Public Domain
These are the complete FBI Freedom of Information Act files on Nikola Tesla, exactly as released. They are United States government documents and are in the public domain. Nothing has been altered. The redactions you see were made by FBI agents in 1943 — not by the FOIA review process. Where a page reads "Redactions on this page are not FOIA deletions," those blacked-out passages were classified by the original authors, not by the 2016 release.
What is in these files: The FBI began tracking Tesla in 1940, three years before his death, because of his Teleforce weapon. After he died on January 7, 1943, the Office of Alien Property Custodian seized his belongings within hours. MIT professor John G. Trump (Donald Trump's uncle) examined the papers and reported "nothing of significance." The FBI files document what was taken, who examined it, and — by what is absent — what questions remain unanswered.
The Documents
FBI File 100-2237 — Primary Release
The main FBI file on Nikola Tesla. Contains the January 1943 death memos, the Hoover handwritten note, the Tamm memorandum, OAP seizure documents, Kosanović surveillance, the Trump examination, and public correspondence from 1943–1980. 160 pages reviewed and released.
291 pages • FBI File No. 100-2237 • Source: The Black Vault
Additional materials released by the FBI in September 2016 via FOIA request by John Greenewald Jr. (The Black Vault). Contains documents not in the primary release, including additional Kosanović surveillance materials and correspondence.
355 pages • September 2016 release • Source: The Black Vault
The most recent FOIA release, April 2018. Contains 69 pages of previously withheld or newly processed materials. Includes additional OAP inventory documentation and post-transfer records.
69 pages • April 2018 release • Source: The Black Vault
A parallel archive of the FBI Tesla files maintained by Monoskop, an independent cultural archive. Same underlying documents, different digitization pass. Useful for comparison where pages in the primary release are difficult to read.
These are the most significant individual documents in the collection, with page references into the primary release (tesla_blackvault_main.pdf):
pp. 3September 24, 1940 letter to Hoover— 3 years before Tesla's death
A citizen warns Hoover that if Teleforce has been perfected, Tesla should be protected from kidnapping by "alien enemies." The FBI opens File 100-2237. The redacted name is from Weehawken, N.J.
pp. 6–7January 12, 1943 teletype — Tesla's death and the safe
Written 4 days after Tesla died. Describes Kosanović's visit to the hotel room, the opening of Tesla's safe, and "approximately two truckloads" of material removed. Mentions 80 trunks in storage.
pp. 8–9January 9, 1943 teletype — the eighty trunks
References Tesla's trunks "indifferently stored" containing plans, transcripts, and experiments. Mentions a working model at the Governor Clinton Hotel worth "more than ten thousand dollars."
pp. 10January 13, 1943 Washington memorandum
The formal FBI memo on Tesla's death. Lists the full routing slip — every senior FBI official who initialed it. J. Edgar Hoover, E.A. Tamm, Mr. Ladd, and others.
pp. 11Hoover's handwritten note ★
In Hoover's own hand: "L.M.C. Smith is handling this with Alien Property Custodian so there appears to be no need for us to mess around in it." The FBI Director personally decides to stand aside.
pp. 12January 12, 1943 Tamm memorandum
Edw. A. Tamm documents that the Alien Property Custodian is handling the matter and "there did not appear to be any action which the Bureau could or should take." The institutional handoff documented.
pp. 17April 17, 1950 Kosanović surveillance memo
Seven years after Tesla's death, the FBI interviews the floor supervisor at the Manhattan Warehouse and Storage Co. Confirms the examination of January 26–27, 1943. Men in U.S. Navy uniforms present. A microfilm reproduction was made of some papers. Subject line: "SAVA N. KOSANOVIC, INTERNAL SECURITY-YU, Espionage-M."
What the Redactions Mean
Multiple pages carry the handwritten notation: "Redactions on this page are not FOIA deletions." This means those black bars were applied by the original FBI agents in 1943 — before FOIA existed — to protect the identities of informants, the names of persons being surveilled, or the contents of classified material. The FOIA release did not add them; the 1943 documents already had them.
What this means in practice: the information under those bars may never be released. It was classified at origin, not for FOIA purposes. Some of the redacted content covers personal names (exempt under privacy provisions even if the person is now deceased). Some may cover the substance of Tesla's technical documents that were deemed classified in 1943.
The question the files cannot answer: whether any of Tesla's technical papers — particularly the Teleforce documents — were retained separately from what was transferred to Belgrade. The inventory of what the OAP seized and the inventory of what arrived at the Nikola Tesla Museum do not reconcile. The gap is real. The files do not close it.
Authoritative Source
The official FBI FOIA release is available directly from the federal government at vault.fbi.gov — search for "Nikola Tesla." That source is authoritative. The files here are the same underlying documents, provided for convenience alongside this book.