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This file concerns the 1916 Black Tom munitions depot explosion in New Jersey, widely attributed to German sabotage during World War I, and related efforts to establish German liability. The released records are mainly Bureau of Investigation and interagency correspondence from 1922 through 1934, rather than a contemporaneous criminal investigation file. They show the bureau obtaining or reviewing Military Intelligence material, reporting that its New York office held no dedicated Black Tom file, and identifying related files on Albert Giessen and John Kristoff. Later correspondence addresses claims that Ernst Hanfstaengl and others were implicated through an affidavit attributed to James Larkin, while the bureau says it lacked information supporting the allegations and directs possible evidence to the German Mixed Claims Commission.

FBI file number: 78-3206 | Documents span: 1922-1934 | Released in 1 part
Names in this file: Ernst Hanfstaengl, James Larkin, Frank Pease, W. H. Martin, J. Edgar Hoover, William J. Burns, Albert Giessen, John Kristoff, Stuart Heintzelman, J. K. McConville
Subjects: Black Tom explosion, German sabotage, World War I, Mixed Claims Commission, Military Intelligence, Hanfstaengl allegations