University of Virginia Library

REPORT ON LISTENING DEVICE

The President reported that on 3 October 1969, during a meeting of the full Board, a small electronic listening device was discovered by Mrs. E. Parker Brown in the Board Room on the second floor of Pavilion VIII. The device had fallen from the underside of the meeting room table to which it had been affixed with several strips of masking tape.

The device was delivered by the Secretary of the Board, Raymond C. Bice, to W. Wade Bromwell, Director of the University's Department of Security, and an investigation of the incident was ordered.

On 4 October, the device and masking tape strips were transmitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington, for analysis. In a report dated 13 October, the F.B.I. Laboratory identified the device as a miniature FM radio transmitter complete with microphone and battery and with an operational capability or useful range, depending upon conditions, of approximately fifty (50) feet. The transmitting device is manufactured in New York State and is not sold locally. On 16 October, the F.B.I.'s Latent Fingerprint Section reported that no latent fingerprints of value were found on or developed from the masking tape.

Later, the Field Engineering Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission took custody of the device for examination. On 1 December, Mr. J. J. Freeman, Engineer in Charge, advised that with variations to the antenna, the device would transmit from fifty (50) to one hundred (100) feet and further, that an FCC investigation had revealed no possible suspects. Investigations by the F.B.I. are being continued.

To date, inquiries by Department of Security personnel have failed to disclose any suspects.