Below you can find a PDF of the Gordon B. Hinckley FBI file. Here's what it took to get it:

I filed the Freedom of Information request the morning after Hinckley died. Such FBI files are supposed to become public upon the subject's death. (Check out the Evil Knievel file sometime.)

A few weeks later, FBI headquarters replied with a letter saying... You ready for this?... it needed proof Hinckley was dead!

My original letter included the URL for Hinckley's obituary in The Tribune, but apparently the house that J. Edgar Hoover built isn't so keen on 21st Century technology... or television or radio or large newspapers — all of which devoted coverage to Hinckley's death. Instead, the FBI instructed me to send a death certificate or a hard copy of an obituary.

Wanting to vent, I called the FBI office in Salt Lake City. The chief division counsel at the office (he had nothing to do with the letter from headquarters) was sympathetic and helpful. In passing, he mentioned: "We helped with security for the funeral."

So, to recap: The FBI wanted proof of death for someone whose funeral it attended.

I sent another request — this time with hard copies of some obituaries. From there, I called the FBI's FOIA processing center every few weeks inquiring about my request's status.

By the way, I learned last week The Tribune has other old FBI files dealing with various aspects of the LDS Church. I'm pushing for us to scan them and post them here on The Vault, just like the Hinckley file.

— NC

Hinckley-FBI.pdf

Labels: FBI, FOIA, LDS Church