Ted Kennedy's FBI files reveal constant death threats, point to rich source of Freedom of Information Act data

FBI documents released earlier this week reveal that the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was the subject of constant death threats. Those documents, requested by news organizations under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), are available on the FBI’s website. While perusing those files, I discovered that the FBI’s website has a FOIA page which provides access to a wide assortment of documents made public as a result of FOIA requests. The subjects of those documents are diverse: Rock Hudson, Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, Albert Einstein and John Steinbeck. The details contained in those some of those papers – such as the reports on the Massacre at Colorado’s Columbine High School – are startling and troubling. The records on the FOIA site span decades. It could be of particular use to students searching for primary sources about particular criminal investigations of historical interest.

Trial(s) of the Century(ies)

On April 5, 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. You'll find a wealth of primary source material about that case at Famous Trials . That site, compiled by Douglas O. Linder at the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law, features a copy of the indictment handed down against the Rosenbergs, excerpts of the trial transcript, the judge's sentencing statement, and the couple's heartbreaking letter to their two young sons, written on the day of their execution - June 19, 1953. Linder's site has similarly rich collections for more than four dozen landmark criminal proceedings - from the trial of Socrates to the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th September 11 hijacker. Ethel Rosenberg's arrest photo (above) comes from the National Archives and Records Administration.

Someone checked out the book you need? Don't stress.

Spring break is over and the semester’s end nears; research paper anxiety season is approaching. This is about the time freshmen history students show up at the reference desk looking for a copy of Salem-Village Witchcraft: a Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England. I usually have to tell them they are out of luck. That item, along with other primary source materials in our collection dealing with the witchcraft trials in Salem, is particularly popular. No need to stress. An amazing collection of primary source documents is available at the University of Virginia’s Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project. There, you’ll find transcriptions of court records, record books from the Salem Village church and digitized historic maps of Massachusetts Bay Colony and Salem Village. So don’t worry if someone beat you to the stacks.
Above is a an image of the Trial of George Jacobs of Salem for Witchcraft, a painting by Thompkins Harrison Matteson. That image comes from the Library of Congress.