In 1978 a House of Representives Select Commitee on Assassinations was created to explore the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. The file that was obtained mainly deals with requests made by the Committee for interviews with certain FBI agents and for documents held by the FBI pertaining to King's assassination.
Inexplicably there is a document on page 38 of the file that was sent to the FBI director in reference to a couple of organizations that the Los Angeles office of the FBI identified as possibly being pertainent to the Committee's requests. The two organizations are COBRA and FREE RIGHT. The document goes on to name Nancy Laura Pitman, saying that COBRA was an alias used by her.
First, Cobra is not an alias that has been documented anywhere that I know of for Nancy Pitman. The document does not give any indication of when that intel was obtained by Los Angeles.
Second, why would Pitman have been included in an FBI file in the first place? She did not commit any federal crimes unlike Manson or Susan Atkins who was charged with the Dyer Act for the stolen car across state lines in 1966. There are probably a lot more FBI files on the Manson Family and hopefully we will see them some day.
I can't help but think that this is the kind of stuff that spawns conspiracy theories.
Interesting post. Thanks, Deb.
ReplyDeleteDebS said:
why would Pitman have been included in an FBI file in the first place?
Ongoing involvement with the Aryan Brotherhood through her husband, perhaps? No doubt, the AB would be on the FBI radar.
DebS said:
I can't help but think that this is the kind of stuff that spawns conspiracy theories.
Undoubtedly. Let's face it, history is a litany of conspiracies... but sadly most "conspiracy theorists" seem completely unable to differentiate between "reasonably likely" and "bat shit crazy". All too often they ascribe some kinda omnipotent wisdom & efficiency to whichever group they think is conspiring and completely forget that government (or corporate) bureaucracies are always riddled with good ol' human incompetence and stupidity. Nancy Pitman being in a file about the MLK assassination could as easily be a product of that as anything else. Though of course anything's possible. :-)
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ReplyDeleteVery, very unlikely we will ever get to see any of the really substantial FBI files/documents related to Manson or the "Family".
ReplyDeleteThanks DebS.
ReplyDeleteMelcher was familiar with the name “Cobra” producing and providing vocals for the song, “Hey Little Cobra”.
“Hey little Cobra, don't you know you're gonna shut 'em down”
Hah!
ReplyDeleteThat tune is welded somewhere into my memory, along with Summer Means Fun, Surfer Joe, and Little Deuce Coupe.
Might have gotten her mixed up with Snake.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely off topic here: Nancy, over at True Crime and Moonshine, has posted the only photo of Billy Doyle in circulation a day ago.
ReplyDeleteDoyle is the chap on the left, not the one with the hat on. The photo is dated to 1985, so we are seeing Doyle 16 years post murders.
Many thanks to True Crime and Moonshine for posting this much anticipated photo. Now, if Billy would only agree to an interview.