On January 20, 2017, it will be 13 days after the 74th anniversary of Nikola Tesla's death on Jan 7 1943
(for those who might have missed the memo, Nikola Tesla was a brilliant scientist, many compare him favorably to the likes of Einstein)
Tesla died of heart failure alone in room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel, on 7 January 1943.
Despite having sold his AC electricity patents, Tesla died with significant debts. Later that year the US Supreme Court upheld Tesla's patent number 645576 in a ruling that served as the basis for patented radio technology in the United States.
Soon after his death Tesla's safe was opened by his nephew Sava Kosanovic. Shortly thereafter Tesla's papers and other property were impounded by the United States' Alien Property Custodian office in Tesla's compound at the Manhattan Warehouse, even though he was a naturalized citizen.
A notable Professor at M.I.T. was appointed to go over Tesla's secret papers after his death in 1943. This professor was also a well-known electrical engineer serving as a technical aide to the National Defense Research Committee of the Office of Scientific Research & Development, Technical Aids, Div. 14, NDRC (predecessor agency to the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence).
After examining Tesla's papers at the Manhattan Warehouse & Storage Co., the professor reported afterwards that no examination had been made of the vast amount of Tesla's property, that had been in the basement of the New Yorker Hotel, ten years prior to Tesla's death, or of any of his papers, except those in his immediate possession at the time of his death. The final report concluded that it was unlikely that any of those materials would constitute a hazard in unfriendly hands.
At the time of his death, Tesla had been working on the Teleforce weapon, or 'death ray,' that he had unsuccessfully marketed to the US War Department. It appears that Teleforce was related to his research into ball lightning and plasma, and was conceived as a particle beam weapon. The US government did not find a prototype of the device in the safe.
After the FBI was contacted by the War Department, his papers were declared to be top secret. The personal effects were sequestered on the advice of several presidential advisers to FDR and J. Edgar Hoover declared the case most secret, because of the nature of Tesla's inventions and patents. One document stated that "Tesla is reported to have some 80 trunks in different places containing transcripts and plans having to do with his experiments". Altogether, in Tesla's effects, there were the contents of his safe, two truckloads of papers and apparati from his hotel, another 75 packing crates and trunks in a storage facility, and another 80 large storage trunks in another storage facility. The Navy and numerous federal officials spent two days microfilming many of the contents at the Office of Alien Properties storage facility in 1943.
Tesla's family and the Yugoslav embassy struggled with the American authorities to gain these items after his death because of the potential significance of some of his research. Eventually Mr. Kosanovic won possession of the materials, which are now housed in the Nikola Tesla Museum.
Tesla's funeral took place on 12 January 1943, at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan, New York City. His body was cremated and his ashes taken to Belgrade, Serbia, then-Yugoslavia in 1957. The urn was placed in the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade.
The name of the Professor who examined Tesla's papers and possessions?
Professor John G. TRUMP, Uncle of Donald Trump.
As Paul Harvey used to say, "now you know the REST of the story".