A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request can be made for any documents relating to a deceased person that might be on file with the United States Department of Justice/Federal Bureau of Investigation. I sent a request for any FOIA documents that related to Susan Atkins and was completely surprised by the reply I received from the DOJ/FBI.
They told me "Records which may have been responsive to your request were destroyed on March 1, 1993 and October 28, 1994. Since this material could not be reviewed, it is not known if it was responsive to your request."
Can you believe that?!?! The attached letter is ambiguous, typical government speak, and I am unsure if they destroyed just the stuff relating to Atkins or maybe they destroyed documents relating to all the Family members.
The FBI retains documents on many people and old cases, some dating back to the 1920's and quite a few of them are available online to peruse at the FBI Vault. Why get rid of these particular files?
And, why would they have destroyed files in those particular years? There is so much still up in the air about whether or not the Family was involved in any other murders. We have the Tex tapes and the LA DA's office saying they are looking for connections to other murders 20 years after these files were supposedly destroyed. There is still much to be learned about the Family's activities, as least from those of us who are lay people not connected to law enforcement. Was there something so incriminating to who they considered the "wrong people" in those files that they had to be destroyed because they would make the government or law enforcement look really bad?
Can you believe that?!?! The attached letter is ambiguous, typical government speak, and I am unsure if they destroyed just the stuff relating to Atkins or maybe they destroyed documents relating to all the Family members.
The FBI retains documents on many people and old cases, some dating back to the 1920's and quite a few of them are available online to peruse at the FBI Vault. Why get rid of these particular files?
And, why would they have destroyed files in those particular years? There is so much still up in the air about whether or not the Family was involved in any other murders. We have the Tex tapes and the LA DA's office saying they are looking for connections to other murders 20 years after these files were supposedly destroyed. There is still much to be learned about the Family's activities, as least from those of us who are lay people not connected to law enforcement. Was there something so incriminating to who they considered the "wrong people" in those files that they had to be destroyed because they would make the government or law enforcement look really bad?
I guess I will just sit here in my tin foil hat and cogitate what it could possibly be that the government doesn't want us to know.
