ronaldtammen-business-1-1-mp4

If you're interested in keeping up with the finer details of my research (e.g., small developments that may not warrant a full blog post), here are some quickie updates on Facebook.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find: My Search for Ronald H. Tammen, Jr.

2 weeks ago

--->New comment on my latest post: Can we talk a little more about who MSL might have been? That was a question that I’d spent some time trying to figure out a year or so ago. I’d submitted a FOIA request for the FBI to send a 1973 staff phone directory and they promptly turned me down on the basis of (b)(6) and (b)(7)(c) exemptions, both of which have to do with privacy concerns. I then asked the good folks of MuckRock (muckrock.com) if they had any suggestions, and they did. They sent me a couple 1975 FBI directories that had been released as part of a different FOIA request. I’m including a link to those telephone directories here: ronaldtammen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/1975-FBI-Staff-telephone-directories.pdf.Note that Fletcher Thompson had retired earlier in 1975 and his name is not listed. Also, I’m not finding anyone in Identification with the initials MSL. (If you spot anyone who I may have missed, please let me know.)I filed a follow-up request through MuckRock for a June 1973 directory (or thereabouts) on the basis that equivalent materials had previously been released. The FBI responded that they had no responsive documents. I appealed saying that they’ve sent conflicting responses: that first they’d said they had something but they couldn’t send it due to privacy concerns, and later they said that they had nothing. I submitted my appeal in January 2021 and I’m currently awaiting a ruling on my appeal. (I’ll also add this synopsis to the score card, but I wanted to let you know here.)Btw, there’s another possible way for us to find out who MSL was. When Hoover died, several of his closest associates (e.g., Clyde Tolson, Alex Rosen, Helen Gandy, etc.) retired shortly thereafter. Did MSL retire at the same time as Fletcher Thompson? I’ll try to find some issues of the FBI’s employee magazine FBI Investigator from early 1975 and check the retirement listings.In the meantime, if you'd like to follow my request through the MuckRock site, it's here: www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/1973-fbi-employee-telephone-directory-identifica... ... See MoreSee Less

1973 FBI Employee Telephone Directory -- Identification Division

www.muckrock.com

Jennifer Wenger made this request to Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States of America.

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A Good Man Is Hard to Find: My Search for Ronald H. Tammen, Jr.

2 weeks ago

You know how I love timelines? I'm starting to love charts too. Here's some new intel about Ron's "Ident files"... ... See MoreSee Less

Putting a dent in the Ident files: more evidence that the FBI knew what happened to Ron Tammen in 1973

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Turns out, I guess I’ve been needing to spend a little more time with Ron’s “Ident” files. I’m referring to Ron’s missing person documents that I’d obtained through my 2010 Freedom of In...

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A Good Man Is Hard to Find: My Search for Ronald H. Tammen, Jr.

3 weeks ago

On the AGMIHTF blog, we've discussed the Lavender Scare of the 1950s, a time when gay federal workers were being targeted and fired from their jobs. For those who'd like to learn more, Lisa Ling's next episode of This Is Life will be focusing on the Lavender Scare tomorrow night (Sunday, 11/14) at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CNN. Be sure to set your DVRs! (Thanks to my brother and avid CNN watcher for the heads up!) :) ... See MoreSee Less

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A Good Man Is Hard to Find: My Search for Ronald H. Tammen, Jr.

3 weeks ago

Here you go, Good Man followers: a brand new web page for those keeping score at home... ... See MoreSee Less

The ‘Good Man’ Public Records Request Score Card

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Recently, long-time AGMIHTF visitor and commenter Stevie J requested a score card of sorts to help us track how some of my more recent public records requests are faring. In response, I’ve created ....

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A Good Man Is Hard to Find: My Search for Ronald H. Tammen, Jr.

3 weeks ago

I have some news. You know how someone from the university had interviewed Carl Knox’s former secretary (we’ve been calling her AD, short for assistant to the dean) relatively recently but the one-page sheet that summarizes the interview isn’t dated? First, I’d guesstimated that it occurred within the last 20 years based on the summary’s appearance. Then, based on other evidence, I kept narrowing it down to the point where I felt that it happened sometime between 2006 and 2008 as part of the Miami Bicentennial’s Oral History Project (OHP). That’s essentially where things have stood until now.Truth be told, I’d always thought that AD’s interview had probably taken place in 2008. That’s the year in which the vertical file, which housed the Ghosts and Legends folder (where the summary was kept), was last updated. It was my suspicion that the interview summary was the last document to go into the vertical file before the file was moved off of Western Campus to become part of University Archives.Although 2008 may well have been the year in which the summary was put into the vertical file, I don’t think that’s when the interview took place. I think AD’s interview took place in…wait for it…2007.I arrived at this answer by doing some side-by-side comparisons of two OHP web pages followed up by a little math. I compared the OHP interviews on the Special Collections and Archives page, which lists the Special Collections’ holdings that can be requested in person, with those that were published in video format on the Digital Collections web page. The lists are practically identical, though I did find notable differences. I then counted up the interviews for the years 2006, 2007, and 2008 from both pages and compared those numbers to the 2006-2008 Progress Report that I’d obtained through a public records request. Here’s what I found:In 2006, 31 interviews were posted in video format on the Digital Collections web page. However, the number of interviews on the Special Collections page was 32, with the difference being an interview with Letty Thomas Angerer, who was a 1956 Miami graduate. The 2006-2008 Progress Report confirmed that 32 recordings had been conducted that year, and, at the bottom of the report, they also state that 3 recordings were never posted online “for miscellaneous reasons.” I think Letty Thomas Angerer’s recording is one of the unposted recordings, for whatever reason.Let’s jump to 2008. That year, 36 interviews were posted on the Digital Collections site, while Special Collections also lists 36 recordings from that year. What’s more, the 2006-2008 Progress Report states that 36 recording sessions were conducted in 2008. From what I can tell, every interview was posted online, and none of the interviewees was Carl Knox’s secretary, AD.Which brings us to 2007. The 2006-2008 Progress Report says that 23 interviews were conducted that year. However, only 20 interviews are posted on the Digital Archives site. (If you count them, it appears as if there are 21, however Clarence Wheeler’s interview was erroneously listed as being in 2007, when it actually occurred in 2008.) The total sessions on the Special Collections web page is also 20. That’s three more interviews that are unaccounted for. I think that AD is one of those three unposted interviews from 2007.And that’s the question I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to have answered: is AD’s interview one of the three—actually, more like four—Oral History Project interviews that weren’t posted online? It seems like an easy enough question to answer…easy, that is, if the answer is no. Special Collections page: 134.53.225.206/repositories/2/archival_objects/5929Digital Archives page: digital.lib.miamioh.edu/digital/collection/mustories/searchDigital Archives/Western College: digital.lib.miamioh.edu/digital/collection/western/search ... See MoreSee Less

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