◆ SpookStack

Memorandum for Messrs. Tolson, DeLoach, Sullivan, Bishop June 19, 1969 line on this is that Mr. Tolson wrote (Carl) Rowan about his slanderous column last Sunday and he, Rowan, wrote back in which he asked a series of eight or nine questions, such as, did we tap the telephone of a half dozen leaders like Wilkins?.. of the NAAcp, Farmer, eight or nine others, Abernathey; or if we said he was not asking all that. I told him he could certainly print what I say because we are writing back to Rowan today that since he did not seek any facts before printing his column, he was not entitled to any information from us at this time, but as to the question he has asked, the dates that these wiretaps were on, I have the original copy of it on my desk. It was signed by Kennedy in his own handwriting on October 10, 1963.. said if I had one minute, could he repeat back to me what. he understood I had said to him so there would be no misunderstanding and also could he tell me that he was adding into it some details that he thought they already understood about this from other sources they have talked to. He said it was his understanding that in June, 1963, Mr. Kennedy did suggest through a liaison man that he had with me, that I should keep an eye on Martin Luther King because of his association with people that he, Robert Kennedy, was concerned about and. was particularly talking about Stanley Levinson and a fellow named Jones, both of whom were supposed to be of Marxist leanings and that the Attorney General was concerned about King's relations with these people and he thought it might be a good idea to put an electronic surveillance device of some type into the picture to see what he was doing; that the FBI suggested at that time that this would be a difficult thing to do because of the fact that King traveled around so much and there were a lot of political repercussions that might result; but then subsequently on the 7th of November (and I corrected him and told him October 7, 1963) -- on October 7, 1963, I reported, and this is a memorandum from me to the Attorney General, a four-paragraph document, that I had determined the feasibility of establishing taps on the telephones of the SCLC headquarters at Atlanta and New York and if he authorized it, I was prepared to go ahead and do it and that came back to me, the memorandum, with his initials. I told him with his full name, Robert F. Kennedy.. continued - o.k. 'd by him, dating that. 10/10/63. I told that was correct.. 2 -