Richard Sprague, Esq.

Richard Sprague, Esq.

The Wellington building, 

Suite 400 135 south 19^th St.

Philadelphia Pa.

December, 2012

Dear Mr. Sprague,

In 1978 in support of your efforts as chief counsel to the HSCA I wrote the attached “Blood on the history books” letter published in the Philadelphia Bulletin and in 1992 the following “free the files” letter in the LA Times.

While you were chief counsel to the HSCA I learned that you had your staff read a number of books on the assassination of President Kennedy including “Legacy of Doubt,”  which concerns the activities of Jim Braden, a suspect taken into custody at Dealey Plaza. That book refers to the Camden (NJ) Police Department records of Braden’s 1948 arrest in a gambling case. Through my father, a Camden PD officer, I obtained the original arrest reports, copied them and hand delivered one copy to you at your Philadelphia law office. [ JFKcountercoup: Braden's Camden Arrest Report / JFKcountercoup: Jim Braden 1948 Camden, NJ Mug Shot]

Years later, G. Robert Blakey, the man who replaced you as chief counsel, contacted me requesting a copy of the 1948 Camden arrest records, and I told him I had given them to you. Blakey told me that you did not turn over all of your records to him when you left, and I told Blakey I’m glad he didn’t because he - Blakey had them all sealed and locked away for 50 years.

When the JFK Act of 1992 was passed, I testified before the Assassinations Records Review Board (See: x 
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/arrb/index50.htm) and informed them you still maintained some records on the assassination, but they apparently failed to ask you for them or obtain them. 

The NARA recently informed me that they only recently requested your records on the assassination, - primarily the documents created or compiled while you were serving as chief counsel to the HSCA, records that according to the JFK Act of 1992 now belong in the JFK Collection at the NARA and open to the public.

Other records recently discovered, including a tape recording of Air Force One radio communications, and Secret Service records previously thought destroyed but found among the effects of a retired agent, have now been added to the public collection, and your HSCA records should also be among them.

Please let me know, when you are able, if you have identified the HSCA files among your records, including the Jim Braden’s 1948 Camden arrest report, and turned them over to the NARA so they can be declassified and released to the public.

Thank you,

William E. Kelly, Jr.