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Leon Trotsky, the exiled Bolshevik leader, was attacked in Mexico City on August 20, 1940, by an assassin using a pickaxe or ice axe and died soon afterward. The FBI's file concerns the investigation of the murder, including the assassin's background, possible Soviet or Communist connections, and people around Trotsky who had links to the United States. The OCR shows a translated criminological and psychiatric analysis of the killer, identified in the text as Jacson, weighing whether he was a political criminal, a neurotic criminal, or a man suited to be sent by an organization to kill. The records also discuss possible accomplices and clues involving money, letters, false identities, and names such as Pedro, Carmen, Bartolo Perez, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. The material includes references to statements by Natalia Sedova and Joseph Hansen, the earlier May 24, 1940 armed attack on Trotsky's home, and Trotsky's own fear that a single agent posing as a friend could murder him.

Documents span: 1940 | Released in 5 parts
Names in this file: Leon Trotsky, Ramón Mercader, Natalia Sedova, Joseph Hansen, Sylvia Ageloff, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Maria Ricaud, Enrico Ferri, Franz Alexander, Hugo Staub, Cesare Lombroso, Luis Jimenez de Asua
Subjects: assassination, Trotskyism, Soviet intelligence, Mexico City, political violence, psychiatric evaluation