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- o 1 : m+ he wey _— ai y- \ JOHN... HOOVER - . “f _f PEF; CDW * t Federal Bareat of Investigation . Anited States Departipent of Justice Washington, B.¢. ATT, THEOQ upp tow pare OA, : PRT Tir oye regen, ostpinpne ; | eo EY OD a Bt D i x Wine - VE QS - RY SDL tite Gem Oo wee . MEMOPANDOi FOR MR. al oo. Re: “Hindenburg* nie, | . Ad telephoned Mr. Connelley at Newark, New Jersey, and informed him that_Senator | Copelend had telephoned the Bureau upon receiving a call from Lakehurst from one t- of his men, Roper! lliameon, who, Mr. Connelley informs, is 2 clerk on the wy “\ Air Commerce Committee. Williamson informed Senator Copeland that about 1,000 , feet dom from where the accident occurred, they found certain footprints which “~~ were suspicious, but that the G-Men were not interested in these at all, or rere not impressed with the footprints. Mr. Connelley said that he knows ebout v this, having gotten the information from Lieutenant Commandep¥Reicheldorf, who re said that two young boys, who had been down in the ewamp from the field there, _ climbed over the fence and were within about 1,000 feet of the scene of the Le al accident when one of the guards accosted them and took them down to headquarters where Lieutenant Commender Reicheldorf gave them a lecture about coring into } the field by climbing over the fence and turned them loose. a . . ; Mr. Connelley said that Commander Reicheldorf saw nothing in thie incident to get excited about, and he personally sees nothing in it. The incident in question occurred more than 36 hours efter the ship had gone down, and before that time, the field wes covered with tracks of people who were there and who a : as gathered at the time of the accident. : Mr. Connelley said that he explained to both Williamson and catssiflastoy the position of the Bureau as observers in this situation, and told them that if they had anything they wanted us to leok at, we would, of course, be glad to do that, but in so far as any investigation is concerned, they would have to see Comiender Reicheldorf. Mr. Connelley said he is sure that these tracks were made on the 7th, for the reason that he personally heard Coamcnier Reichei- dorf tell the man in charge of the change of watch about the incident. Mr. Connelley said that he further referred Williamson and Hertney to Commander Reicheldorf for any further information about the tracks. He said he is sure that the Bureau can be subjected to no criticism at a leter date in the event sabotage does arise by reason of our not conducting an investigation relative to these tracks. Mr. Connelley is going to get the names and addresses of these boys just for our general informetion. RECORDED & INDEXER 1Y2~GS | Mr. Connelley said that nothing of interest has developed today. avy Depertment and the Depertment of Commerce hed a little squabble today over which vas going to hold its hearing first, and it washielly dab3ded that the Departaent of Commerce would proceed first, and accordingly, «he ship _ ‘vores BREE BS over officielly to the Departaent of Commerce for yse 55 SC AMETIG ivva ~~ x | File | 085, RR erie te ET