Released FBI file, 1940–1957: informants' warnings about a ‘death ray’, the January 1943 seizure by the Alien Property Custodian, a 1943 obituary clipping, the 1945 and 1950 follow-ups, and a 1957 flying-saucer newsletter claiming Tesla came from Venus.
“DURING HIS LIFETIME, HE CONDUCTED MANY EXPERIMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH THE WIRELESS TRANSMISSION OF ELECTRICAL POWER AND WHAT IS COMMONLY CALLED THE “DEATH RAY”.” source
Scanned typewritten documents; the file index is at https://vault.fbi.gov/nikola-tesla (Parts 01–03). Parts 01 and 02 were downloaded but not read for this draft. The file gives Tesla's date of death as both 7 and 8 January 1943.
Trump's findings after examining Tesla's papers and apparatus on 26–27 January 1943, with abstracts of seventeen exhibits (A to Q), including the Amtorg agreement and the letters to the British government. Copy held in the FBI file.
“it is my considered opinion that there exist among Dr. Tesla's papers and possessions no scientific notes, descriptions of hitherto unrevealed methods or devices, or actual apparatus which could be of significant value to this country or which would constitute a hazard in unfriendly hands.” source
Same PDF as the FBI file (pages of Part 03); Trump also notes that trunks stored at the Hotel New Yorker were not examined.
OFFICIALNikola Tesla Museum, Belgrade · DATE TO VERIFY
The museum's own history: founded by government decree on 5 December 1952, opened 20 October 1955; Tesla's belongings and papers were brought from New York to Belgrade in 1951 through Sava Kosanović. Holds over 160,000 original documents.
“Залагањем Саве Косановића 1951. године су коначно сви лични предмети и списи Николе Тесле пренети у Београд.” source
In Serbian. Translation of the quote: “Thanks to Sava Kosanović's efforts, in 1951 all of Nikola Tesla's personal belongings and papers were finally transferred to Belgrade.”
OFFICIALTesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe · DATE TO VERIFY
The Tesla Science Center's account of the site: construction began in 1901 on a laboratory and tower for Tesla's planned global wireless system for communication and power.
“Consisting of a brick laboratory building and a 187-foot wooden tower” source
OFFICIALTesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe · DATE TO VERIFY
The Court upheld the Court of Claims in finding the claims in suit of Marconi patent No. 763,772 invalid, except Claim 16, discussing earlier work by Tesla, Lodge and especially John Stone Stone.
“Marconi's reputation as the man who first achieved successful radio transmission rests on his original patent” source
OFFICIALFederal Bureau of Investigation · 1940-09-22
Scanned file. Its opening pages include a letter to J. Edgar Hoover enclosing the New York Times clipping of 22 September 1940 (William L. Laurence) on Tesla’s ‘teleforce’ beam, claimed to melt aircraft engines at 250 miles.
“The appended article was printed in the New York Times issue of Sunday September 22, 1940” source
Read via machine OCR of the first pages only (the PDF has no text layer); quote lightly corrected for OCR errors. The FOIA cover sheet reads ‘Pages Reviewed - 160 Pages Released - 160’. Part 02 (opening pages, file 100-3674) concerns associates of Tesla’s circle, not the beam weapon; not read in full.
Also confirmed by the museum: https://tesla-museum.org/en/museum/heritage-protection/ (‘In 2003 ... UNESCO added Tesla’s archive ... to the Memory of the World Register’).
CLASSIFIEDDeclassifiedFILE NO. 034SHEET 2 OF 3
Press
Newspaper and magazine coverage, then and now. Linked, never copied.
Times interview at the Hotel New Yorker: Tesla claims a particle beam able to destroy 10,000 planes at 250 miles, described as defensive only.
“Invention Powerful Enough to Destroy 10,000 Planes 250 Miles Away, He Asserts.” source
Headline confirmed via the NYT archive URL; the page returns HTTP 403 to direct checks and the Wayback copy did not load, so the full text was not read.
J.P. Morgan put up $150,000; Tesla hired architect Stanford White; funding dried up after Marconi’s 1901 transatlantic signal.
“After Morgan put up the $150,000 to build the giant transmission tower, Tesla promptly hired the noted architect Stanford White of McKim, Mead and White in New York.” source
Updated 24 April 2024. The earlier 403 was a wrong URL; this is the correct article address.
CLASSIFIEDDeclassifiedFILE NO. 034SHEET 3 OF 3
Analysis
Our own reading of the file, written from the sources on the other sheets. Opinion is marked as such.
Tesla's real achievements are large, and that is part of the problem: a man who did that much could, the reasoning goes, have done anything. In his last decades he made bold public claims, including a 1934 plan for a defensive beam and, in 1940, a ‘teleforce’ he said could melt airplane motors at 250 miles. He offered such ideas to the Soviet trading company Amtorg in 1935 for a fee and to the British government in the late 1930s, which politely declined.
When he died in January 1943, wartime nerves did the rest. Informants told the FBI that his notes held a working death ray and might fall into enemy hands. The Office of Alien Property Custodian sealed his belongings, and John G. Trump, an MIT engineer, examined them. His verdict was that Tesla's work of the previous fifteen years was primarily of a speculative, philosophical, and somewhat promotional character, and that the apparatus in his hotel deposit box was standard electrical measuring equipment decades old. The papers were not kept secret; they went to Belgrade in 1951 and form the core of the museum's archive.
Our label is Explained for the myths: the seizure happened, but what was seized has been examined, described and made public. The label does not diminish Tesla's genuine work on alternating current and wireless; it only means the ‘secret weapon’ story has a documented answer. It would change only if a credible record showed a working device that Trump missed.
What it shows
That the US government did seize Tesla's property in January 1943, and that the FBI was told he had worked on a ‘death ray’.
That a qualified examiner reviewed the papers within weeks and found nothing of significant military value or danger.
That the papers were not destroyed or hidden: they went to Belgrade in 1951 and are held by the Nikola Tesla Museum.
What it doesn't prove
That Tesla's ideas were worthless. Trump called his early contributions to electrical engineering solid; his criticism concerned the later work.
That every page was read. Trump states that trunks stored at the Hotel New Yorker for ten years were not examined.
That the Supreme Court named Tesla the inventor of radio. Its 1943 ruling concerned the validity of specific Marconi patent claims.
The other side
The strongest argument against closing the file: the 1943 examination was not complete. Trump's own letter, kept in the FBI file, says that no investigation was made of material in trunks that had sat untouched in the basement of the Hotel New Yorker for ten years. Wartime officials were openly worried about secrecy, the FBI's own records show interest in his effects as late as 1945, and in 1950 a warehouse supervisor told the FBI that some papers appeared to have been microfilmed in 1943. For believers, a partial review by a government examiner is not the same as a public inventory.
Tesla built a working death ray that could down aircraft at great distances. [fbi-tesla-file]
He announced plans in 1934 and 1940. The 1943 examiner found his beam proposals unworkable and the apparatus in his deposit box to be standard measuring instruments. [trump-1943]
Seized papers
The government seized his papers and hid what it found. [fbi-tesla-file]
The Alien Property Custodian seized them in January 1943; they went to Belgrade in 1951 and are held by the Nikola Tesla Museum. [tesla-museum-history]
Free power
Tesla had found a way to make the world's electrical power ‘absolutely free’ (as an informant put it to the FBI in 1945). [fbi-tesla-file]
His Wardenclyffe tower for worldwide wireless ran into financial difficulties before completion and was demolished for scrap in 1917 to pay his debts. [tsc-tower]
Radio
The Supreme Court ruled that Tesla, not Marconi, invented radio. [marconi-1943]
The 1943 case held most claims of one Marconi patent invalid, mainly on John Stone Stone's prior work; the Court noted Marconi's reputation for first successful radio transmission rests on his original patent. [marconi-1943]
A 1957 flying-saucer newsletter said so. The FBI filed a copy after an informant complained its authors were exploiting Tesla's reputation. [fbi-tesla-file]
Open questions
A warehouse supervisor told the FBI in 1950 that some papers appeared to have been microfilmed during the 1943 examination. Who made those films, and where are they?
What exactly did the ‘trunks’ stored for years at the Hotel New Yorker contain? Trump's 1943 examination did not open them.
TO VERIFY Candidates, not yet checked
The New York Times, 11 July 1934 (‘Tesla, at 78, Bares New Death-Beam’): article URL and headline confirmed; full text not read (HTTP 403, Wayback copy failed).
Library of Congress, Nikola Tesla Papers (loc.gov/item/mm79046190): still returns 403.
FBI file Parts 01 and 02: only the opening pages read via OCR; the rest not read for this draft.
Found, but not linked to a source we trust. Not on the sheets until they are.
Majestic Archive
