AGENCY RECORD NUMBER : RECORD SERIES AGENCY FILE NUMBER ORIGINATOR FROM TO TITLE DATE PAGES SUBJECTS DOCUMENT TYPE CLASSIFICATION RESTRICTIONS CURRENT STATUS DATE OF LAST REVIEW OPENING CRITERIA COMMENTS Docld: 32398834 Page 1 I Date: 10/18/00 Page: 1 JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION FORM AGENCY INFORMATION CIA 104-10107-10132 JFK 80T01357A DOCUMENT INFORMATION CIA SUMMARY OF DEBRIEFING OF (SUBJECT) 02/19/69 10 NBR PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT SECRET 1B, 3 POSTPONED IN FULL 04/07/94 JFK38:F9 1994.04.07.15:45:01:680006: NOT BELIEVED RELEVANT (NBR). DECLARED NBR BY ARRB. D1 [R] - ITEM IS RESTRICTED
4 “ - 1949 Feb 1950 July 1950 1950-1953 Oct 1953 Docld: 32396634 . Summary of Debriefing of Thomas L. Roberts (19 - 21 February 1969) While an undergraduate student at Harvard, Roberts on his own initiative contacted the Boston office of the FBI when he became aware that the student movement was a highly sophisticated and organized one under outside direction, Roberts' contact with the FBI was an agent named McLaughlin, At one point Roberts planned a trip to Paris and was requested to take a written message to some leftist students in Paris, which activity was approved by the FBI, Roberts had completed his courses at Harvard but had not written his thesis and had some disagreement with the school authorities as to the subject of his thesis required for receiving honors. Therefore, Roberts went to Paris in February 1950 and remained there for three months returning in June for his graduation. While in Paris Roberts contacted French student organizations which had received invitations from the Yugoslavian students to send a delegation of students to visit Yugoslavia. Roberts was invited to visit Yugoslavia with the group. He did report this to the legal attache at the American Embassy in Paris. The FBI contacted Roberts who was working with tree crews in Bangor, Maine, and outlined to Roberts a program of targets, namely the Labor Youth League and the Student Division of the National Lawyers Guild, since Roberts had been accepted by Harvard Law School. While a student at Harvard Law School Roberts became a national co-director of the Student Division, National Lawyers Guild, and, as such, was a member of the National Board of the Lawyers Guild reporting his activities to the FBI throughout his student years. Roberts was admitted to the Massachusetts bar and took a job with a Boston law firm of Dodd & Greenberg, which firm was engaged principally.in admiralty matters, and Page 2?
Roberts did quite a bit of trial work. Greenberg was a member of the National Lawyers Guild and Roberts dis- cussed his joining the firm with the FBI who expressed no objection, Roberts! initial salary was $20.00 per week although they did pay a bonus. Aug 1955 Roberts felt that his career opportunities in Boston were limited and went to New York City and contacted a lawyer by the name of Clarence Ferguson who had been in law school at the same time Roberts was, Ferguson suggested that Roberts approach the firm of Delson, Levin & Gordon, It was at this time that Roberts met Herbert Itkin who was considered the fair-haired boy of the firm. In addition, Itkin's mother was the firm's bookkeeper. Max Delson was the senior partner of the firm and Itkin reported directly to Max Delson. Cyrus Gordon engaged in legal work for the building trade unions, Harold Levin was the third partner, Some of the associates of the firm at that time were Carl Slater, Louis Bial, Ernest Kaufman, Mario Procopio, Joshua Greenbaum, and Roger Wilkins, a nephew of Roy Wilkins. The law firm represented the Government of Indonesia, and all members and associates were registered with the Department of Justice. In the firm's business, Itkin was considered excellent in developing client relation- ships but was not considered a law technician by Roberts, and Itkin frequently relied on Roberts to assist him with the legal matters. Roberts stated the normal working hours of the law firm were 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and it was his recollection that Itkin did work much longer hours, There was available a copying machine since many times it was necessary to send documents related to cases to other members of the firm or to file papers with the court, etc. This point was asked specifically to determine if in fact Itkin could have copied files and turned them over to Philip Harbin (sic) as he has claimed to have done. Roberts' contacts with the FBI were lessened at this time and to his knowledge no members of the law firm were members of the National Lawyers Guild, nor was there any indication that any member of the firm knew Roberts was affiliated with the Guild at this time. Roberts bought a cooperative apartment on West 82nd Street from a Carl Marzani who was of interest to the FBI. Another target 2 SECRET | Docld: 32398834 Page 3
~~ of the FBI was Dan Watts, a Negro architect and Black Nationalist editor. Herbert Itkin's father-in-law, E. Kent Kane, used to frequent the law offices with proposals to invest sums of money in oil exploration schemes. . Kane's financial status was described as vacillating from being very wealthy to being wiped out, 1956-1957 It should be noted that during this period Roberts was Chairman of.the New York City's chapter of CORE, The FBI was interested in the activities of CORE at this time and Roberts reported to them on certain aspects. Indi- cations were that the younger associates at Delson, Levin & Gordon, namely Herbert Itkin, Walter Hertz, Mario Procopio, Joshua Greenbaum and. Thomas.Roberts submitted to the firm a profit-sharing plan for fees on personal injury cases which these associates brought into the firm. After six months, the firm had not, taken any action on the plan, and Itkin, Roberts and Greenbaum decided to leave and set up their own firm. Apr 1957 Each partner contributed $5,000 to the establishment of the firm. They were all equal partners on a share and share alike basis. The three partners then leased offices at 270 Madison Avenue and Mario Procopio came to work. full time with the firm as an associate. A Professor John Calameria from Fordham Law School was a part-time employee as was Professor Ray O'Keefe, also from Fordham Law School, 1958 An unusual occurrence was that the law firm of Itkin, Roberts & Greenbaum invested about $100,000 in a bowling alley operation in the vicinity of Columbia University. The significance was that the. firm lost their investment when the Mafia decided they were going to assume control of the bowling alley operations and squeezed the firm out of this venture. It was later understood that as remuneration for their $100,000 loss, the firm was subsequently engaged as counsel for a group of tavern owners who were organized in Greenwich Village. The obvious relationship to the Mafia was indicated when Roberts one day stopped in at one of the taverns for lunch and was introduced as a SECRET Docld: 32398834 Page 4
member of the law firm who represented the tavern owners! association at which time he was advised of the name of the individual who had shot Costello, the Mafia leader. Roberts could not recall the name and did not report this information to the FBI. 1959 Roberts went to the Communist Youth Festival in Vienna and the FBI paid part of his expenses. He was accom- panied by his brother, Alfred Roberts, a Dr. W. Godfrey Cobrenner, an associate professor of sociology, and a Varda Rozowsky, an Israeli who taught at the Wiltbert School for Boys. June 1960 The Itkin, Roberts & Greenbaum firm moved-to 103 Park Avenue and took on expanded office space, and three accountants joined in renting office space from the firm. It was at this time that Roberts' FBI activities picked up because of their increased interest in CORE, and at the same time Roberts became affiliated with African political refugees. Some of the people with whom he had contact were Barumba Karena, Oliver Tambo, Sam Njoma and Jararetunde Kozanguize. The principal aspects were the United Nations trusteeship related to Southwest Africa and the problems that arose when South Africa took over control of Southwest Africa. Late 1960 Roberts became more dissatisfied with the slipshod method or of operations by which the firm's business was being carried Early 1961 on, specifically, that dates for filing court papers were ignored, statutes of limitations on claims were expiring, and generally it was a poorly run office. Roberts was faced with a dilemma of whether to remain practicing law or pursue some government employment. He was inter- ested in possible Peace Corps work and had received an offer from Lester Granger, Director of the Urban League, to accept a job with either the Treasury Department or the Justice Department, Apr 1961 Roberts made an appointment and came to Washington to talk to Robert Amory, the then DDI, who had previously taught Roberts at Harvard, After talking with Mr. Amory, SECRET Docld: 32398834 Page 5
of a? SEURET AA — Roberts decided to apply for employment with CIA and, as far as he recalls, he was never overtly processed. Roberts was under cover during his processing and training. After deciding to work for CIA, he then made a decision to take a leave of absence from the law firm, He talked with his partners and reached an agreement whereby the firm would pay him $100 a week for two years as a means of retrieving his capital from the firm. Roberts indicated that his cover for coming to Washington was a general statement of being involved in work for the Peace Corps. This was never questioned by any member of the firm, and none of them were advised of his true employment, Prior to Roberts' entering the training program at Isolation, he was instructed to make one member of his family witting and he chose to advise his brother, Alfred. Roberts recounted the fact that while in training at Isolation he spent most of the time on the base, but when he did have to leave he traveled only by plane. <A rather humorous note, however, was Roberts! description of some of the operational exercises he went on in Norfolk and Richmond, While involved in this training program Roberts indicated to his various contacts in New York City, other than those with the law firm, that he was actually spending time in the Midwest doing some work for CORE but was attempting to recruit people for the Peace Corps. This story appears to have been plausible because at one point Sargent Shriver, then head of the Peace Corps, did try to contact Roberts through his old firm. It should be noted that Roberts! record of monies received from his former law firm are as follows: 15 September 1961 - $200. 00 4 December 1961 - 100. 00 10 January 1962 - 100, 00 1 June 1962 - 100. 00 18 June 1962 - * 500. 00 July 1962 Roberts went to Paris and there became a charter member of the American Society for African Culture (AMSAC). The Executive Director of AMSAC was John Davis, professor of | Docld: 32398634 Page 6
May 1963 July 1963 Dec 1963 & Jan 1964 Spring 1964 political science, New York University, who was a member of the New York State. Commission Against Segregation, He remained in Paris until January 1963, studied French speaking courses, and made contact with the Society for African Culture. He was interested in this organization since their head office was located in Lagos, Nigeria. Roberts submitted written notice of his withdrawal from the partnership of Itkin, Roberts & Greenbaum, effective 1 June 1963, Roberts received a grant from the J. Frederick Brown Institute of Public Administration to study the legal profession and judicial system in West Africa. He traveled with the following itinerary: Paris - one week; Dakar - two weeks; Conakry - one week; Freetown -. four weeks; Monrovia - one week; Abidjan - two weeks; Accra - two weeks; Lome - two weeks; Cotonou - one week; Lagos ~- four weeks; Upper Volta and Ouagadougou, Roberts was in Bamako, Mali, spent two weeks at Dakar, went to Paris for ten days, went skiing in France for three weeks, spent one week in London, and returned to New York in April 1964. He wrote a book entitled "Judicial Organi- zations and Institutions of Contemporary West Africa" on the ten countries visited, and it was his Opinion that Ghana was pretty far out because they had already nationalized the legal profession, Two of Roberts! contacts who are co-chairmen of the Africa Law Association are D, N. Allot, who is a member of the African Law Department, London School of Oriental and African Studies, and Michelle Alliot, head of the Department of African and Malagasian Law, University of Paris, and now Minister of Education, Roberts saw Itkin, met his new wife, Jane, and visited them in their Greenwich Village apartment where the two boys (the children of Jane's first marriage) lived with them, Roberts discussed the money that was owed to him from the law firm, and Itkin explained that he was prevented from making the payments because of the. Docld: 32398834 Page fF
et demands of his first wife, the cost of the divorce, etc. Itkin mentioned that he was attorney for the Haitian Government in Exile, that the leader was living in New York, and that Itkin had made several trips to the Caribbean on behalf of this client. (NOTE: Roberts - claims to have reported this to the Agency.) Roberts commented that in his opinion Itkin would not be a good ‘observer since he was egocentric and would only look upon things in the light of how they would affect Itkin. Roberts felt that Itkin talked entirely too much and wo Roberts had virtually no contact with any of Itkin's friends. Dec 1964 - Roberts worked on the legal staff, International Division, Mar 1965 Radio Corporation of America, working on African problems, _ This was a cover assignment arranged for him by CCS. When he departed for Africa, he had a stand-by retainer with RCA to represent them in Dakar. In addition, he had retainers from Pan Am and Pepsi Cola.: May 1965 Itkin gave Roberts a check for $2,500 and said that $1,250 was to be applied to the firm's debt to Roberts. Itkin asked Roberts to hold $1,250 for him to be payable to Itkin's wife when needed, Itkin explained this by saying that his first wife was attempting to get hold of all of Itkin's money. June 1965 Roberts wrote to Itkin about sending the desk and swivel chair to him indicating this was the only furniture that could be used in Dakar since IBM typewriters were not appropriate. It was at this time that Roberts sent a. $500 check to London to Mrs. Itkin. This came from the $1,250 Roberts was holding for Itkin. The address was 51 London Road, Daventry, England, 19 July 1965 Itkin wrote back and said the desk and chair had been sent to the forwarding agent. 8 Oct 1965 Desk and chair not delivered. Roberts again asked Itkin; no reply. 19 Nov 1965 Roberts wrote Itkin about the desk and chair which letter crossed in the mail with one written by Itkin to Roberts SECRET Docld: 32398834 Page &
asking that $100 be sent to Adah Itkin at Daventry, England, Roberts sent the $100 check to England, 27 Dec 1965 Roberts again wrote about the desk, Jan 1966 Roberts, in Dakar, received a telephone call from Itkin in New York in which the transmission was very bad and Roberts could not fully understand the conversation. 10 Jan 1966 Itkin. wrote recounting the conversation which in fact described some of the activities of Conestoga Investments, Limited, 1 Feb 1966 Itkin wrote Roberts a letter stating that Roberts was to be retained by Conestoga, Ltd., as their African counsel, Roberts made no monetary contribution to Conestoga. Mar 1966 Roberts went to Austria for a ski vacation and subsequent to his departure his office received a letter indicating that people interested in Conestoga would be visiting Dakar. The secretary wrote back and stated that Roberts was not there and could be reached in Austria. Roberts received word in Austria to meet Itkin at the Beau Rivage (phonetic) Hotel in Geneva on 15 March 1966. 15 Mar 66 Roberts met the following people to discuss Conestoga Investments, Ltd: Mr. and Mrs. Itkin, Jim Marcus, and Mr. and Mrs. Littman. The meetings lasted for three days in which a great deal of background material was discussed about the potential of combining English and American financiers to invest in underdeveloped countries. There were a great many investment opportunities examined. One of the specific proposals was the use of trunk line helicopter service in association with Olympic Airways. It should be noted that the names of Ambassador John Lodge (Marcus's father-in-law) and Henry Cabot Lodge were frequently mentioned as being interested in the program. Roberts felt that he needed cover work and therefore this appeared like a legitimate enterprise for him. (NOTE: Itkin told Roberts while in Geneva that the furniture had not been shipped because the storage company refused to send it to the forwarding agents until the storage bills were paid by Itkin. 8 Stunt Docld: 32398834 Page 93