Serial 2690

[Letter from Peoples Temple Receiver to FBI]

[From] Robert H. Fabian
Receiver of Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ
(San Francisco Superior Court No. 746571)
220 Bush St.
San Francisco, CA 94104

March 16, 1983

[To] The Honorable William H. Webster
Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
Ninth Street & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20535

Dear Bill:

In 1979 your San Francisco office released some Peoples Temple related material to me, upon the instructions of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice. The attorney handling the case was James G. Bruen, Esq.

The material, made up of about 115 portfolios numbered A-1 through SS-1 and occupying sixteen cubic feet of space, is almost entirely photocopies of Peoples Temple documents recovered by the Bureau in Jonestown, Guyana, following the tragedy of November 18, 1978. It also includes two portfolios of photographs as well as the “final hour tape”. To my mind it is of historical value only.

I am about to make the third and final distribution of assets to 588 claimants and to close the Receivership. In my final petition to the Court I am asking for authority to turn over all the files which I have collected to the California Historical Society for indexing and creation of an archives to be available for use by scholars.

I notified your San Francisco office of my intention to include the Bureau-provided material and was advised that the Bureau’s permission would be required. Special Agent Don Hale of your San Francisco office said he would submit to Washington the question of whether there was any objection to release of the documents to the California Historical Society. He said he did not want them back since the Bureau has the originals, and that if they were returned to him he would destroy them.

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The Honorable William H. Webster
March 16, 1983

Will you have someone write me or Special Agent Don Hale to the effect that there is no objection to my releasing this material to the California Historical Society?

You may recall that we met in Phoenix at the ABA Council meeting a few years ago.

With best regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,
/s/ Robert H. Fabian