JFK Assassination System Date: 6/15/201 Identification Form Agency Information Peleased under the John AGENCY: FBI . Kennedy RECORD NUMBER: _ 124-10284-10094 Wssassination Records ollection Act of 1992 RECORD SERIES : HQ (44 USC 2107 Note). asex#:NW 531350 Date: AGENCY FILENUMBER: — 100-30067-2 PS-31-2017 Document Information ORIGINATOR: — FBI FROM: SAC, SF TO: DIRECTOR, FBI TITLE: DATE: 06/10/1941 PAGES: 2 SUBJECTS : JOP, ADMIN, CUSTODIAL DETENTION DOCUMENT TYPE: PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT CLASSIFICATION : — Unclassified RESTRICTIONS: 4 CURRENT STATUS: — Redact DATE OF LASTREVIEW: — 01/07/1998 OPENING CRITERIA: INDEFINITE COMMENTS : INC MEMO v9.1 HW 53130 Bocld: 32303582 Page 1
HW 53130 y Federal Bureau of Investigation United States Department of Justice Sen Francisco, California June 10, 1941 Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington, D. C. RE: JOHN PITT INTERNAL SECURITY (¢) 7 i Dear Sir: i Attached is a custodial detentién memorandum prepared on the above nmmed subject. ns he csr, Very truly yours. m4. & & Ne Je Le PIEPER WY Special Agent in! Charge j i i q ‘ \ OAE:GC | 150-1465 Enc. FEOERAL B: OREAL 0: OF eee a 7 ye ME yp” DoclIda: 32303582 Page 2? aes
CUSTODIAL DETENTION MEMORANDUM a “ALL INFORMATION CONTAINED JOHN PITTMAN HEREIN IS UNCLASSIFIED COMMUNIST 1667 Hyde Street DATES “43-74 BYSPS Mage Ue. Se Citizen San Francisco, California (sf) Ss F. file 100-1465 The name of the above individual is being submitted to the Burcau for consideration for custodial detention in the event of a national emergency. The following information is summarized from the San Francisco file: Name, address, and nationalistic tendency are given above. JOHN PITTMAT, colored, is enployed as Foreign Editor of the PEOPLES WORLD, West Coast Communist newspaper, 583 Market Street, San Francisco. He is probably a U. S. citizen, reportedly born in Georgia. Investigation on this point is being conducted. Confidential Informant SF-296 reports that as a member of the Communist Party from September 1936 to February 1937, he had occasion to view the records of the Newspaper Guild Fraction of the Communist Party, and among the names listed was the name of the subject, who is identified as holding a position at the PEOPLES WORLD newspaper, a Communist organ. According to this informant, subject attended Communist Party meetings of the Newspaper Guild Fraction during the time from September 1936 to February 1937 while this informant was a member of the Party. Confidential Informant SF-296 further advises that Subject's wife, MERLE PITTMAN, is believed to be white, and quit her position at the CIO to accept a position at the state headguarters of the Communist Party, 121 Haight Street, San Francisco. Confidential Informant SF-2 advises that subject asso-~ clates with BILL SCHNEIDERMANN, secretary cf the 13th District of the Communist Party for the State of California, and that he met with JAMES We FORD, Vice-Presidential candidate for the Communist Party in Los Angéles, California in October 1940. The San Francisco Police Department under date of March Ts 1941 reports that subject Spoke at a mass meeting held in the Mission. Turnvere Hall in May 1935, and under date of October 4, 1937 the WESTERN WORKER carried an article stating he was elected as a member of the Executive Board of the San Francisco County Council Committee of the Communist Party. This report reflects he is a member of the Northern California Newspaper Guild, and active in organizing negroes in trade unions; also that he was registered as a Communist from San Francisco in 1938. Subject writes a daily column in the PEOPLES WORLD, and it is to be noted that he is outspoken in his opinion in upholding Russia. COPIES DESTROYED 2-43-24. / O?¢ — Dee ay oa a HW 53130 DocId:32303582 P