(You OK? Day 4)
July 1, 2025
This next update will probably be discouraging for you, but that happens in research too. Plus we’re ramping up to more…um…colorful revelations later this week, so we’re bound to have at least one slow day, right? Welcome to your slow day.
Do you remember MSL, the person who (ostensibly) wrote “Removed from Ident files” on Ron’s missing person documents on June 4 and 5, 1973? For years, I’ve tried to identify who that person was. If they’re still alive (which is growing less likely), imagine the intel that person could share about why they removed his documents from the Ident files, as well as, gosh, just what was up with the mysterious Missing Person File Room? Unfortunately, to this day, the name of the person with the initials MSL remains unknown.
With that said, I may have found a few clues regarding their career trajectory at the FBI.
MSL shows up in two ways on Ron’s documents. The first was in 1967, when Ron’s father wrote to J. Edgar Hoover to ask him if the soldier pictured in his newspaper could be Ron. It was MSL who, with assistance from someone with the initials mjb, wrote J. Edgar Hoover’s response to Mr. Tammen on October 11, 1967.
This aligns well with an MSL whose initials are typed at the bottom of Teletypes that are sent from FBI Headquarters to designated field offices and attaches in the early 1960s. For this reason, I think that MSL worked in the FBI’s Communications Section from at least August 1961 up through at least October 1967.
The next time we bump into MSL is in June 1973, when Ron’s documents are removed from the Ident files. I think MSL was fairly high up the chain of the Identification Division by this time, because, on a document dated May 22, 1973, they initialed the line next to Fletcher Thompson’s name. Thompson was the head of the Identification Division.
Our final encounter with MSL is on March 3, 1975. They’ve added their initials to an addendum of a memo with the important subject head of SENSTUDY 75. SENSTUDY 75 was the FBI’s nickname for the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. You and I know it better as the Church Committee, named for its chair, Senator Frank Church. MSL initialed the document behind the initials JH, or John Hotis, of the FBI’s Legal Counsel Division. John B. Hotis was a highly regarded official who’d held a number of supervisory roles for the FBI. He worked as a special assistant to William Webster when he was director of the FBI, and, in 1987, when Webster moved over to the CIA to direct that agency, he took Hotis with him.
I’m thinking that MSL must have been a pretty big deal by 1975 to be working for John Hotis.
As it turns out, that’s also the year that I think MSL may have retired or found a job outside of the FBI. Or, just my luck, if MSL was a woman, she may have gotten married in April, May, or June and changed her name. Whatever happened to MSL, I think it happened sometime after they initialed the SENSTUDY 75 memo and before the July 1 edition of the FBI telephone directory was printed. They’re not in it.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking: how do we know that the MSL who worked for John Hotis in 1975 is the same MSL who worked for Fletcher Thompson in 1973 or the MSL who worked for the Communications Section from at least August 1961 through October 1967, and possibly later.
All I have to go by is MSL’s initials and how they wrote them. For Ron’s documents, MSL is written in all caps, but for the others, everything is in lowercase. What makes me think it’s the same person is the “m.” Whether it’s lowercase or capitalized, that “m” always has a little flourish in the front.
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1962: Communications Section
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1973: Identification Division
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1975: Legal Counsel Division
It has crossed my mind that MSL might have been a special agent versus an administrative staff member. If so, they should be included in the FBI’s “Dead List,” which is a compilation by the Records/Information Dissemination Section of deceased FBI officials as well as random famous people and criminals. Unfortunately, there are no individuals with the initials MSL in the 2022 version, which I believe is the latest online version, and the most comprehensive listing available.
I know, I know…I could be wrong. We could have three different people with the initials MSL for all I know. However, in all my searching, I’ve yet to find anyone—anyone—with those initials. I’m no math whiz, but wouldn’t that increase the chances that it’s the same person?
Thanks to the Mary Ferrell Foundation for making these documents available.
I was wondering, would it be possible to file a FOIA request to try to identify who “M.S.L.” was? Since the initials appear on the 1973 record, maybe there’s a way to trace the person through internal logs or personnel files?
I don’t have any experience with FOIA, but perhaps things like job title, department, and dates of employment (if available) could be requested?
Thanks for this suggestion. With FOIA, I need to request specific records, so I need to have a person in mind. Plus, because I’m asking about a third party, they’re going to ask me for proof of death or authorization, which is why I can’t send them Ron’s docs and say “please send me MSL’s personnel file.” I once asked the CIA for a person’s file —someone whose name they’d just redacted—and they played dumb with me, asking me to send proof of death, etc. I did, but they weren’t going to assist me at all, even when they knew exactly who I was asking them about and that he was long dead. I’m positive that the FBI would do the same thing…even if they know exactly who MSL is. I have to make it impossible for them to say no, though still, they will usually figure out a way. But thank you again for the suggestion.
Thanks for taking the time to explain, it really does sound maddening! Bureaucracy at its finest… 🙄 Still, I admire your persistence and strategic thinking, I’m learning a lot just from reading your process!
Hello! This may be too simple, but sometimes simple google search pays off. That’s what I did. I googled: “Who had the initials MSL at the FBI in the 1960s and 1970s?.” I got this Google AI answer:
“The initials MSL in the FBI during the 1960s and 1970s most likely refer to Milo Samuel (M.S.) Livingston. He was an FBI official who held various positions during that period. Some historical records indicate that Livingston was involved in significant investigations and was a key figure in the FBI’s operations during that era.”
Could it be this simple? Please let it be so!
Well…did a google search, an Ancestry search, a Newspapers.com & Genealogybank search and got NOTHING! Went back and did another search of MSL and got nothing from Google AI! It’s like Google AI makes shit up depending on it’s mood! LOL! Then did a search on Google Gemini and it basically gave me nothing:
While it’s difficult to definitively say there was no FBI agent with the initials MSL in the 1960s, a quick search for prominent agents or historical records from that era with those specific initials does not yield any widely known figures.
Most historical records and notable FBI agents from the 1960s that are readily available online focus on individuals like J. Edgar Hoover (the long-time Director), Melvin Purvis (though he died in 1960 and was most active in the 1930s), or pioneers like Leo James McClairen (the first African-American agent in the Deep South).
It’s possible an agent with those initials existed but was not involved in highly publicized cases or leadership roles that would make their name widely known in historical records. The FBI employs many agents, and only a fraction become publicly recognizable.
I give up!
Sources
Hi! I looked up that name on the 2019 and 2022 RIDS Dead Lists and there’s only one FBI agent with the last name of Livingston. His name was Paul H. Livingston, and he died in 1982. Also, I’m not able to find anything on a Milo Samuel Livingston or any other M.S. Livingstons for that matter. Oh well…thanks for giving this the old college try!
Just did another search for M.S.L. and FBI agent and Google AI spit this back:
The query “MSL Fbi agent” likely refers to Medical Support Liaison (MSL) within the FBI. While the FBI doesn’t explicitly use the term “MSL agent,” it has a robust Medical Services program with various roles, including:
Operational Medicine (OpMed):
.
Trains and equips special agent medics to provide care in tactical situations.
Science and Medicine Careers:
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Includes scientists and medical professionals who support FBI personnel and investigations through cutting-edge techniques and advanced technologies.
Medical Requirements:
.
A dedicated team handles medical assessments and clearances for applicants and employees.
The FBI’s Medical Services program focuses on maintaining a healthy workforce and supporting investigations through medical and scientific expertise.
Was just thinking maybe it’s not a specific person but a program somehow connected to MKULTRA, via COINTELPRO.