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JFK Assassination System

Identification Form

Agency Information

Date:

12/6/201

AGENCY: FBI

RECORD NUMBER :

124-10188-10399

RECORD SERIES: NK

AGENCY FILE NUMBER :

100-57235-33, 34,35, IST NR 35

Released under the John

F. Kennedy

Assassination Records

Collection Act of 1992

144 USC 2107 Notel.

Case#:NW 55509 Date:

12-07-2017

Document Information

ORIGINATOR :

FROM:

TO:

TITLE :

DATE :

PAGES:

SUBJECTS :

00/00/0000

0

NAR

DOCUMENT TYPE:

CLASSIFICATION:

Unclassified

RESTRICTIONS:

Not Assassination Related

CURRENT STATUS : Withhold

DATE OF LAST REVIEW: 08/02/1994

OPENING CRITERIA: INDEFINITE

COMMENTS :

v9.1

H# 55509 DocId: 32177315 Page 1

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FD-36 (Rev. 7-27-76)

TRANSMIT VIA:

LX Teletype

Facsimile

Airtel

FBI

PRECEDENCE:

Immediate

Priority

*Routine

CLASSIFICATION:

• TOP SECRET.

• SECRET

• CONFIDENTIAL

I CLEAR

Date -6/8/78

097-

FM NEWARK (100-57235)

TO DIRECTOR (62-117290)

ROUTINE

BT

UNCLAS E F TO

HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON ASSASSINATIONS (HSCA) , BUDED: JUNE 12,

1978.

RE BUREAU TELETYPE, JUNE 5, 1978.

FOR INFORMATION OF THE BUREAU, A REVIEW OF APPROPRIATE

FILES FOR PERTINENT TIME PERIOD FAILED TO DISCLOSE EXISTENCE

• OF ANY COMMUNICATION MEETING CRITERIA SET OUT IN REFERENCED

BUREAU TELETYPE.

NEWARK CONDUCTING NO FURTHER INVESTIGATION.

BT

Gener

#

School s

-100-57235233

Approved: —

Transmitted

001

(Nun

er)

3: 32/em por

(Time)

GPO: 1977 0 - 225-539

NN 55509 DocId:32177315 Page 2

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QUNITED STATES GOVERMENT

memorandum

DATE:

REPLY TO

ATTN OF:

SUBJECT:

TO:

8/29/78

SA FRANCIS J. THIEL

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION CONCERNING THE ASSASSINATION

OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

SAC, NEWARK

100-57235

1620)

on 8/18/78, ROBERT J. HORDESKY, Special Agent,

Coast Guard Intelligence, Cape May Coast Guard Training

center, cape May.

New Jersey,

telephone number (FTS)

346-9507,

telephonically contacted the Camden Resident

Agency of the FBI.

HORDESKY stated that he wished to furnish some

information to the FBI concerning circumstances in which

he was involved at the time of the assassination of

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR

HORDESKY advised that he was attending the

U.S. Coast Guard's Jet and Propulsion Engine School in

Memphis, Tenn., during the time period involving the

assassination.

He stated that he and another Coast

Guardsman, MICHAEL BUTLER, had diven to the y.w.C.A. in

Memphis, Tenn., where they were waiting for a couple of

girls.

They were in HORDESKY's black, 1965 Chevelle, and

were listening to the radio.

The news of the assassina-

tion came over the air and the girls came out to the

car.

The news was also being broadcast on local tele-

vision.

The broadcast stated

that the police were look-

ing for a white Ford Mustang in connection with the

assassination. One of the girls mentioned that the

motel where the shooting had occurred was only about two

blocks away from their current location. At that point,

a white car, either a Cougar or a Mustang, came down

the street and went past them. HORDESKY recalls that the

driver was a white male, in his late 20's or early 30's

and that the car was not brand new. HORDESKY stated tha

he really did not see the driver clearly and.does not

believe he would recognize him if he were to see him

FJT/lan

(2)

Casedismussed 8/8642

100-57235-34

SEARCHED_

AUG 2 9 1978

FBI - NEWARI

Buy U.S.. Savings Bonds Regularly on the Payroll Savings Plan

OPTIONAL FORM N

(REV. 7-76)

GSA FPMR (41 CFR) 101-11.6

5010-112

NN 55509 DocId:32177315 Page 3

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NK 62-0

again. HORDESKY stated that he was looking more at the

car than at the driver, but did not notice anything

unusual.

The car was not speeding nor was it being

driven

erratically.

He and his friends only noticed it

because they had just heard the broadcast relating

to the white Mustang and were saying that they were glad

they had a black car so they would not be stopped.

HORDESKY stated that he had never thought about

this event as being significant, but in the light of the

current re-investigation of the

assassination, he

decided to relate this to the FBI.

2*

HW 55509

DocId:32177315 Page 4

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FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)

SAC

ASAO (C)

AGAIC LA!

Her?

7-2

7-3

(Mount Clipping in Space Below)

icate page, name of

wspaper, city and state.)

The Star-Ledger

Newark N.J.

Date:

Edition:

11/6/80

Title:

C-?0

FCI-1

FCI-2

Night Super.

SIA

Character:

or

100-57235

Classification:

Submitting Office:

NEWARK

Ray appeals for a pardon

NASHVILLE (UPI) - James Earl Ray, serving a

99-year sentence for the assassination of Dr. Martin Lu-

ther King Jr., asked Tennessee officials yesterday, to

• pardon him.

Ray, 52, facing imprisonment until the year 2034,

submitted a 38-page document to the state board of pa-

role requesting a hearing: on his bid for executive

.Board Chairman Nevin Trammel said the board will

probably decide in about a week whether to grant the

hearing, which would be held in 60 to 90 days.

"What he is asking for is a full and complete par-

" said Trammell,-adding that some lesser form of

relief, such as commutation of séntence, also could. be

Ray, imprisoned for various crimes for all but 14

months since 1959, claimed in a statement that he had

been placed in solitary confinement for years for his

,atter.pts.to gain a trial in the killing of King, felled by a

sniper's bullet on April 4, 1968, in Memphis.

/: Trammell said the board decides most executive

clemency requests "eyeball-to-eyeball" with the prison!

er at the time the hearing is completed. He said the Ray

petition was so complicated, however, that the board

would probably have to take it under advisement "unless

he presented some startling thing - like a witness who

said, 'I killed him.'"

Only the governor has pardoning powers under the

Tennessee constitution and Trammel said the board

recommends pardons only under, the most unusual cir-

cumstances to prisoners with exemplary records.

Ray's petition said he had spent six of his more than-

• 12 years in the Tennessee prison system in solitary con-

finement - three of those years as a result of "efforts by

me then to gain trial in the MLK case."

The application notes that Ray had been disciplined

for a Nov. 3, 1975, attempted escape from the fortress-

like Brushy Mountain State Prison in east Tennessee.

"The reason for the attempt (sic) escape is that I

have been led to believe escaping is the only way I will be

released (sic) from prison, whether guilty or innocent,"

- Ray typed on the petition.

Can dissessed stele

100 - 57235-35

SEARCHED_

INDENED

NOV - 6 1980

B1.N19819

FBI/DOJ

HH 55509 DocId: 32177315 Page 5

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