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Mary Pinchot Meyer


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Obviously, this ties into my theory.

If the President took LSD, the NSA and CIA would have known about it, and his security clearance would have been reviewed, and his fitness for office analyzed. He may have been found to have "incapacity" due to the government line that LSD caused "schizophrenia"....

This thread pretty much lays it on the line that JFK left himself open to this sort of speculation, and may have invited his own EXECUTIVE SANCTION by toying with pacifist women and LSD ........

This scenario allowed MAXWELL TAYLOR and C.D. DILLON to invoke a rough version of the events called for in the 25th amendment.

Of course infidelity and LSD were simple pretexts for the elimination of a popularly elected and manifestly competent President by his reactionary militant political opposition. Charges of TREASON add to the picture, but I believe classified findings concerning LSD and incapacity were the principle pretexts for Kennedy's murder by the joint agencies.......

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In August, 1953, Joseph McCarthy accused Meyer of being a communist. The FBI added to the smear by announcing it was unwilling to give Meyer "security clearance". However, the FBI refused to explain what evidence they had against Meyer. Allen W. Dulles and Frank Wisner both came to his defence and refused to permit a FBI interrogation of Meyer.

The FBI eventually revealed the charges against Meyer. This included the claim that he had been a member of several liberal groups considered to be subversive by the Justice Department. He was also accused of being associated with subversives like Norman Thomas. Meyer was eventually cleared of these charges and was allowed to keep his job. (John Simkin)

An interesting sub plot here is the relationship (allegedly intimate) between Cord Meyer and Olive Clapper during the late 1940's and early 1950's. Olive was the wife of Raymond Clapper who was killed in 1944 in a plane crash during WW2. Clapper was on board a Navy Fighter Bomber when it collided with another plane. Clapper at one time had been the manager of the Washington branch of United Press and was on staff at the Washington Post. He was very critical of the scams and nepotism among Washington politicians and vigorously wrote about it in his columns.

After Raymond's death, Olive continued his work and published two volumes of material taken from her husband's personal papers and writings which was met with some industry resistance and much condemnation from the politicians themselves. These volumes were called 'Watching The World' and 'Washington Tapestry'.

The photo below shows Cord Meyer on the left and Olive Clapper on the right.

FWIW.

James

Edited by James Richards
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After Raymond's death, Olive continued his work and published two volumes of material taken from her husband's personal papers and writings which was met with some industry resistance and much condemnation from the politicians themselves. These volumes were called 'Watching The World' and 'Washington Tapestry'.

Have you read these books? What do you think the connection was with Cord Meyer. I suspect he was a liberal between 1945-8. It was around 48/49 that he began working for the CIA (he officially joined in 1951).

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What's most interesting to me is Angleton's involvement. It's not clear whether it was Mary's wish that Angleton end up with the diary. Depending on who's tellling the story, Angleton either found the diary himself or had it handed over to him; he was supposed to destroy it right away, but he apparently did not. He either destroyed it later or gave it back to Mary's sister Tony who destroyed it. Angleton does seem to make a habit of descending vulture-like after a death to sweep up documents. He did that in Mexico City after Winston Scott's death to confiscate Scott's manuscript, The Foul Foe.

According to an interview Angleton gave to Joseph Trento (The Secret History of the CIA) the Angletons (James and Cicely) were old friends of Mary Pinchot Meyer. The Angletons were invited by Mary to attend a poetry reading in her house on 12th October, 1964. This was of course the day she was murdered. Angleton claims that when they arrived at her home he found she was out and left the area.

Angleton says that the next weekend he, along with other friends, began “frantically looking for a diary she had kept – really a sketchbook – which included details of her love affair with John Kennedy”.

Ben Bradlee tells a different story. He was phoned the night of the murder by Ann Truitt, her best friend. Mary had asked Ann to take possession of a private diary "if anything ever happened to me". Ann Truitt was living in Tokyo at the time of the murder (as a result of Bradlee sending her husband to take charge of the Washington Post office in Japan). According to Bradlee, she asked him if he had found the diary. Bradlee, who claimed he was unaware of his sister-in-law's affair with JFK, knew nothing about the diary. He later recalled what he did after Truitt's phone-call: "We didn't start looking until the next morning, when Tony (his wife Antoinette) and I walked around the corner a few blocks to Mary's house. It was locked, as we had expected, but when we got inside, we found Jim Angleton, and to our complete surprise he told us he, too, was looking for Mary's diary."

According to both Bradlee and Angleton they could not find the diary. They claim it was found by Mary's sister, Antoinette a few days later. It was claimed that the diary was in a metal box in Mary's studio. Bradlee read the diary and says it only contained a few innocent references to her relationship with JFK. The contents of the box (a diary and a large collection of letters) were given to Angleton who claimed he burnt the diary. However, in July, 1978, Angleton admitted he lied about burning the diary. In fact, he kept it for her children. He added “you must understand that it was a personal, not a professional, responsibility.”

There are several points emerge from this story.

(1) If James Truitt had not been sent to Japan by Ben Bradlee it would have been Ann Truitt who would have got hold of the diary.

(2) Was it possible for Ben Bradlee not to have known about his sister-in-law’s affair with JFK? If he did know, why did he lie about it?

(3) Would Ann Truitt have asked Bradlee to get the diary? She would have known from her husband that Bradlee had a very close relationship with the intelligence community. Surely she would have asked one of her close women friends who knew about the affair to collect the diary.

(4) Why could they not find the diary for several days. Did Angleton find it straight away? Did he doctor the diary before putting it back for Bradlee's wife to find?

(5) Why did Angleton want the diary? According to Leo Damore (New York Post) the reason Angleton and Bradlee were looking for the diary was that: "She (Meyer) had access to the highest levels. She was involved in illegal drug activity. What do you think it would do to the beatification of Kennedy if this woman said, 'It wasn't Camelot, it was Caligula's court'?"

Why should Angleton want to protect JFK’s reputation? I suspect he was interested in protecting the CIA. Mary had many CIA secrets. These came from her husband Cord Meyer rather than JFK. These secrets date from 1948-56. This was the period that Cord Meyer was heavily involved in Operation Mockingbird. According to Deborah Davis, Meyer was the most important figure in Mockingbird after Frank Wisner and Philip Graham. Both Graham (1963) and Wisner (1965) committed suicide in the same way (shotgun to the head).

According to an interview giving by Davis after the publication of her book, she found evidence that Edward Bennett Williams organized the death of Philip Graham.

Angleton’s real friend was Cord Meyer not Mary Meyer. In fact, in 1961 Angleton tried to get JFK to appoint Meyer as ambassador to Guatemala. He did this via Ben Bradlee. JFK said no.

I suspect that Mary Meyer died because of what she knew about Operation Mockingbird. This was the most important secret that the CIA had. Without it the CIA would not have been able to cover-up all its covert activities. It was because of Operation Mockingbird that the CIA were able to cover-up the assassination of JFK. It is only because of the web that details of that the conspiracy of all conspiracies is being exposed.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmockingbird.htm

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One more point which has always troubled me, aside from Roy Crump Jr. and his bizarre behavior - Leary goes on to mention how that originally, Meyer comes to him for the LSD experience - running a session is really what she is after, plus the drug. Later, she is returning the favor, providing Leary with much higher quality LSD. How does one come by that?

Page 191

"We had eight intelligent women turning on the most powerful men in Washington.  And then we got found out.  I was such a fool.  I made a mistake in recruitment.  A wife snitched on us.  I'm scared..."

...

"This is not paranoia.  I've gotten mixed up in some dangerous matters.  It's real.  You've got to believe me....

"Look, if I ever show up here suddenly, could you hide me out for awhile?"

...

She handed me a pill bottle from her purse.  "This is supposed to be the best LSD in the world.  From the National Institute of Mental Health.  Isn't it funny that I end up giving it to you?"

As an aside - there was an MKULTRA piece I saw once on the Lousiana State Hospital, where Rose Cheramie was sent, and where Lee Harvey Oswald was looking for a job, allegedly, as an electrician ["Mental Hospital?....Mental Hospital."].

I've seen some researchers imply that the idea was to set him up as a nut. I don't think so. This hospital had allegedly had a very large MKULTRA ward. After reading many, many references to 'Hairy de Fairy' [Nagell's choice of slang for Ferrie] and his amateur hypnosis skills - it still occurs to me that the plan for Lee at some stage was for him to become 'Manchurianized.' I think there's quite a bit to support that.

- Jack Ruby and his lack of memory, odd behavior, weeping.

- Sirhan Sirhan and his lack of memory, odd behavior especially at the scene in the hotel.

- George DeMorhrenschildt and his strange behavior and hospital confinement.

- Lee Bowers state after his automobile accident

- Frank Olsen, etc.

http://www.winterboy.com/dejavu12.html

The Rockefeller Commission issues its final report on CIA abuses, and coverage of the report in the Washington Post mentions an Army scientist who had jumped from a New York hotel room in 1953, days after being slipped LSD . Eric Olson believes this refers to his deceased father Frank. Eric’s family contends that in the final days of his life, Frank Olson became morally distraught over his work and had decided to quit. Personnel records show that Agency officials were concerned that he had become a security risk. Eric Olson begins a crusade to uncover the truth.

The CIA admits that- as part of an experiment- it had slipped LSD into Frank Olson’s drink at a 1953 private conference, several days before his death. On July 21, President Ford personally apologizes to Frank Olson’s family for an ‘experiment gone awry,’ and promises that the government will reveal everything about the case. Three days later, CIA Director William Colby hands the family previously classified documents. A year later Congress provides the Olsons with a financial settlement of $750,000.

[NOTE: The Ford administration continues to conceal information about Frank Olson, particularly his role in some of the CIA’s most controversial research of the Cold War: anthrax, Ebola and other biological weapons. White House memos show that two of the key officials involved in squelching information about the Olson affair are White House aide Richard Cheney and Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld.

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Have you read these books? What do you think the connection was with Cord Meyer. I suspect he was a liberal between 1945-8. It was around 48/49 that he began working for the CIA (he officially joined in 1951). (John Simkin)

I have only been able to get a hold of exerpts but the overview is critical exposes of government nepotism. I suspect that Meyer was originally recruited by the CIA in the late 40's tasked with sourcing potential recruitments from within the print media. I submit that Meyer's early attempts to gain a foothold in the business was via Olive Clapper.

James

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Lee-

Mary Meyer gave Tim Leary a bottle of NIMH acid?

That bottle was probably good government issue Swiss Sandoz, the benchmark.

Tim Leary had experienced the good MK ULTRA SWISS SANDOZ LSD but probably Leary was getting it from a private chemist in 1963, so it is entirely possible that the Meyer Lsd was better than the Leary Lsd in the transaction quoted above.

The MK/ULTRA SWISS SANDOZ LSD-25 was of a very high quality according to test recipients Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg.

Leary was a notorious "Free Love" womanizer, so the accounts about Mary Meyer having an affair with him ring true to me....

add that to JFK's classified oversight file:

"Sleeps with Tim Leary's girlfriend"

that in iself is very Profumo-esqe, or worse, to have that phrase in your file....

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In his 1994 book, "Wedge: The Secret War Between the FBI and the CIA," author Mark Riebling suggests that Cord Meyer was Deep Throat. As Lisa Todorovich, pointed out in the Washington Post (13th June, 1997)

Meyer joined the CIA in 1951 at the behest of Allen Dulles, director of central intelligence, after a stint as president of the U.N.-centric United World Federalists, a post which got him denounced by Moscow Radio as "the fig leaf of American imperialism" and accused of Communist activity by Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy. At the CIA, Meyer adopted a strident anti-Soviet stance and became a top aide to Richard Helms, director of central intelligence under presidents Johnson and Nixon. Helms was fired from his post in 1973 after he refused to help Nixon use the CIA to stall the FBI's Watergate probe.

According to Riebling, Meyer fits the Deep Throat profile that Bob Woodward has sketched: intellectual, combat veteran, heavy drinker and chain smoker. Like Woodward, Meyer attended Yale. He described his experiences in a 1983 book, "Facing Reality: From World Federalism to the CIA."

Meyer also personifies the uniquely Washington phenomenon of the intermingling of government and the press. Meyer's wife, Mary Pinchot Meyer, was the sister of Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee's second wife, Tony Pinchot Bradlee. Meyer was estranged from his wife at the time of her murder on the towpath along the C&O Canal in Georgetown in 1964. The case has never been solved.

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Obviously, this ties into my theory.

If the President took LSD, the NSA and CIA would have known about it, and his security clearance would have been reviewed, and his fitness for office analyzed.  He may have been found to have "incapacity" due to the government line that LSD caused "schizophrenia"....

This thread pretty much lays it on the line that JFK left himself open to this sort of speculation, and may have invited his own EXECUTIVE SANCTION by toying with pacifist women and LSD ........

This scenario allowed MAXWELL TAYLOR and C.D. DILLON to invoke a rough version of the events called for in the 25th amendment.

Of course infidelity and LSD were simple pretexts for the elimination of a popularly elected and manifestly competent President by his reactionary militant political opposition.  Charges of TREASON add to the picture, but I believe classified findings concerning LSD and incapacity were the principle pretexts for Kennedy's murder by the joint agencies.......

Hi Shanet!

Did you ever expand on this somewhere else? I'd very much like to see more. Very interesting.

I think the problem I have is accepting that Mary Meyer came up with her own idea and was looking to 'turn on' the most powerful leaders of our Country at that time. If it was all her idea, [and if we believe Leary] how does she manage to come by such high quality LSD? Just considering the angles here, but it almost makes more sense for someone to have handed someone an assignment like this, with some form of hidden agenda.

Anyway - just thinking out loud, but your theory is very intriguing.

- lee

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I think the problem I have is accepting that Mary Meyer came up with her own idea and was looking to 'turn on' the most powerful leaders of our Country at that time.  If it was all her idea, [and if we believe Leary] how does she manage to come by such high quality LSD?  Just considering the angles here, but it almost makes more sense for someone to have handed someone an assignment like this, with some form of hidden agenda. 

There is another possibility. Mary Meyer, like her husband, Cord Meyer, was “turned” by the CIA in the late 1940s. Meyer was therefore used to “spy” on JFK (I think Bradlee might have been playing a similar role). Remember, by 1963, JFK was trying to pursue a foreign policy that he was attempting to keep secret from the CIA. I suspect Mary was being run by James Angleton. Maybe she was being used to set up Leary. However, it all changed when JFK was assassinated. Understandably, Mary thought that the CIA had gone too far with this one (I suspect Frank Wisner took a similar view) and therefore became dangerous (such as her comments to Leary). Like Florence Smith (another one who was probably being used against JFK) she had to go.

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John

You know more about her than I do, but I see Mary as a women under the influence of her pacificism and idealism. If she was acting in a way that compromised the President, I think that can be explained by their own dynamic, and while they were closely monitored and observed, I doubt if she was being "run" by Angleton or anyone else.

However, her Georgetown Liberal CIA associates may have provided the NIMH (sandoz?) grade LSD that she shared with her bedroom allies, Tim Leary and Jack Kennedy.

She was killed for knowing to much and having dangerous ideas, which was fine if you were a poor Greenwich Village beatnik but a fatal flaw if you were of the Georgetown MICC cultural milieux...

I think the ONI kept a lifelong file on JFK's mind and body, and about the time of these trysts and sessions, he lost clearance and was declared incapacitated.

Mary Meyer's experience triggered my understanding of the capacity/clearance issue and executive sanction event.

"If you take LSD it makes you clinically insane" a bit of common idiom from the 1960s, and don't you think they took that into consideration at the Joint Agencies?

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In the late 1980s the journalist, Leo Damore began investigating the death of Mary Pinchot Meyer. This was as a result of research he was carrying out into Edward Kennedy and the death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquidick. Damore had difficulty getting the book, Senatorial Privilege, published, even though it had been initially commissioned by Random House.

While carrying out his research, Damore gave several interviews where he said that a CIA contact had told him that Meyer’s death had been a professional hit. His book was never published. He committed suicide in October 1995. Like Frank Wisner and Philip Graham he shot himself in the head with a gun.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmeyerM.htm

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We start off with a stalled Rambler. There's a call made to a service station. When Wiliam Branch and Henry Wiggins arrive from a local Esso station, they just step out of their truck when the screaming begins. Initially, they ignore it, until they hear a cry for help followed by gunshots. Wiggins, hearing the cry and shots, runs to the nearby bridge to see what is happening, and witnesses the black male, in a dark cap and light tan jacket standing over the body, thrusting something into his pocket.

Roy Cump Jr. allegedly has no memory of the event. One of his stories is that he woke up and heard gunfire. At one time he told his attorney that he had gone to the towpath with a prostitute. He is found in the water - his jacket and hat have been thrown in. He says he was fishing, but his tackle and pole are found in a closet in his home. His wife believed he was going for work that morning as usual, lining up for 'as they come' construction assignments in the NorthWest part of Washington.

From 'A very private woman,' Nina Burleigh, Bantam, NY, 1998, page 292:

"Morrow...He claimed that shortly before the Warren Commission's report came out, Marshall Diggs, deputy controller of the treasury under Roosevelt and one of those people in the federal government Morrow claims was writing of the conspiracy, 'requested an urgent meeting,' with Morrow about two weeks before Mary's murder.  Morrow wrote that Diggs told him "a prominent lady here in Washington knows too much about the Company, it's Cuban operations and more specifically about the President's assassination.'  In Morrow's account, Diggs said that Mary Meyer had told a close friend of his 'she positively knew that Agency-affiliated Cuban exiles and the maffia were responsible for killing John Kennedy.'  Morrow claims Diggs also told him that CIA official Tracy Barnes was 'concerned' about Mary and the the Cuban exile leaders ought to be informed.  Morrow passed it on and the exile leader, Robert Kohly, supposedly replied, 'Tell Diggs I'll take care of the matter.'  A week later Mary Meyer was dead."

Speculation:

You round up some of your Cuban Exile operatives, who are still most likely engaged in some interesting clean-up projects in the Dallas area. Stopping by a place known for picking up labor for hire, you hide in the backseat and use a prostitute to entice one to the car -- someone that resembles one of your team. He gets in the car, in the front seat - you smack him on the head and knock him out, which accounts for blood being found on his head later on. Maybe you cut his hand also, while he's out. Put him in the woods nearby where the sight has been selected. Mary walks her dog here routinely.

You head over to Mary's house, where she is being watched, and radio communication has been set-up. She's going for a walk. You take your Cuban that looks like Crump, and have him tail her - maybe even wearing some of Crump's clothing - that would be ideal. You make sure you are witnessed.

A call is made to set the stage. You wait until your unsuspecting witnesses show up at the scene, and start your murder. One witnesses your impersonator, just after he's finished putting a bullet in her head and her back, at point blank range. Your Cuban operative tosses Crump's hat and jacket in the water, and escapes through an already known path, which doesn't appear on the topographical maps.

Crump wakes up during the dragnet - he's got blood on his head, a cut on his hand, no jacket and no hat. Doesn't know what the hell is going on, and suddenly he is being accused of murder - but he can't remember anything. No murder weapon is found at the scene.

:up

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I have managed to get hold of a copy of Nina Burleigh’s A Very Private Woman. It is full of very interesting information. Here are just a few points that are worth pondering.

(1) The FBI had a file on Mary Pinchot when she first met Cord Meyer in 1944. The reason for this was that Mary was a member of the American Labor Party. There were also files on both her parents. Amos and Ruth Pinchot had been associated with left-wing causes since the early 1900s. Amos had been one of the principal backers of the radical magazine The Masses when it started in 1911. Ruth Pinchot wrote for The Masses as well as other left-wing journals such as The Nation.

Pinchot believed that the First World War had been caused by the imperialist competitive system. This was the point of view expressed by The Masses. In July, 1917, it was claimed by the authorities that articles by John Reed, Floyd Dell and Max Eastman and cartoons by Art Young, Boardman Robinson and H. J. Glintenkamp had violated the Espionage Act. Under this act it was an offence to publish material that undermined the war effort. The legal action that followed forced the journal to cease publication.

Amos Pinchot was one of the main financial backers of the Progressive Party and played an important role in the campaign to save the lives of the two Italian anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.

Mary, like her parents, was a pacifist, and campaigned against American involvement of the Second World War. Cord Meyer’s experiences in the war helped to make him a pacifist and anti-nuclear campaigner (1945-48). However, it seems that Mary’s influence was far more important.

(2) Mary first met JFK in 1935. It was at a dance. Her boyfriend at the time was William Attwood. Yes, the same Attwood who carried out secret negotiations for JFK with Fidel Castro in 1963.

(3) After they got married the Meyers became part of the “Georgetown Crowd” that included all the major figures working under Frank Wisner at the OPC. According to interviews carried out by Burleigh, Mary seemed to be better informed about these CIA activities than other wives. It was assumed that Cord Meyer, unlike other husbands, spoke about his work at home. Mary was the only Georgetown wife who was openly critical of CIA covert activities.

(4) In 1955 the Meyers pet dog was ran over and killed. Cord Meyer interpreted this as some sort of threat. At the time he was seeking to leave the CIA. The following year, their son Michael, was knocked down and killed at exactly the same spot.

(5) Cord Meyer had a deep hatred of JFK. This goes back to an incident in 1945 when JFK tried to seduce his new bride. Ben Bradlee believed that JFK hated Cord Meyer. That is why he did not carry out Angleton’s request in 1961 to try and persuade JFK to appoint Cord to the post of ambassador to Guatemala.

(6) Mary was being watched very closely by both the FBI and the CIA when she died. Angleton admitted that he had personally bugged her home (maybe he was removing these bugs when Ben Bradlee found him in Mary’s home a few hours after her death). Angleton befriended Mary soon after she divorced Cord in 1956. This mainly involved taking the children out fishing, etc. and it was assumed he was doing it as a favour for Cord. He could have course been spying on Mary.

(7) The last person to speak to Mary before she was murdered was Frank Wisner’s wife.

Points 2 and 7 are probably coincidences. However, the other five points might well be significant.

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I have now finished Nina Burleigh’s book, A Very Private Woman. Burleigh is no conspiracy theorist and does not come up with any conclusions about the murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer. However, she has done considerable research into the case and has interviewed a large number of the “Georgetown Crowd” and their sons and daughters. Some of these were unwilling to be named. However, some of those interviewed believe Mary was murdered by the CIA.

Burleigh is not very well-informed about the CIA and she often misses the links between what she has found with covert activities of the agency. She also does not appear to be very interested in the JFK assassination. At one stage a witness is dismissed as a “conspiracy theorist”.

The first thing to say is that it is highly unlikely that Raymond Crump murdered Mary Meyer. However, it is possible that he was the man seen standing over the body. He had arrived on the scene as a result of Mary’s screams. When he saw Henry Wiggins looking down on him with the body. He panicked and threw his jacket and hat in the canal.

What the prosecution was unable to do is to provide evidence that Crump murdered Mary.

(1) Crump had no motive to kill Mary. She was carrying no money with her. Mary went on the same walk everyday (same place, same time). The police claimed that Crump’s trouser zip was undone when he was arrested. They were implying that he was proposing to rape Mary. However, there is no evidence that this was the case.

(2) Police tests were unable to show that Crump had fired the .38 caliber Smith and Wesson gun. There were no trace of nitrates on his hands or clothes. Despite an extensive search of the area no gun could be found. This included a two day search of the towpath by 40 police officers. The police also drained the canal near to the murder scene. Police scuba divers searched the waters away from where Mary was killed. However, no gun could be found. Nor could the prosecution find any link between Crump and any Smith and Wesson gun.

(3) Police made a false claim that all the exit routes were sealed within minutes of the murder. This was untrue. There were several places where you could exit the canal towpath that were not blocked by the police.

(4) Mary appeared to be killed by a professional hitman. The first bullet was fired at the back of the head. She did not die straight away. She was able to scream out and grapple with her killer (no forensic evidence was found on Crump to suggest he had been involved in a struggle with Mary). A second shot was fired into the heart. The evidence suggests that in both cases, the gun was virtually touching Mary’s body when it was fired. As the FBI expert testified, the “dark haloes on the skin around both entry wounds suggested they had been fired at close-range, possibly point-blank”.

(5) Crump’s lawyer, Dovey Roundtree, was convinced of his innocence. A civil rights lawyer who defended him for free, she argues that Crump was so timid and feeble-minded that if he had been guilty he would have confessed everything while being interrogated by the police. By the way, on McAdams’ website, Roundtree is portrayed as an experienced courtroom lawyer who was well known for getting guilty people off murder charges. Nothing could be further from the truth. Her experience up until this point had been as a civil rights lawyer.

No newspaper reports identified the true work of her former husband, Cord Meyer. He was described as a government official or an author. A large number of journalists knew that Meyer had been married to a senior CIA officer. They also knew that she had been having an affair with JFK. None of this was reported. In fact, the judge ruled that the private life of Mary Meyer could not be mentioned in court.

Newspapers also reported incorrectly that Mary had been killed during a rape attempt. No evidence was ever put forward for this other than Crump’s unzipped fly.

The trial judge was Howard Corcoran. He was the brother of LBJ’s pal, Tommy Corcoran. Howard had been appointed by LBJ soon after he became president. It is generally acknowledged that Howard was under LBJ’s control. His decision to insist that Mary’s private life should not be mentioned in court was very important in disguising the possible motive for the murder.

As Nina Burleigh points out, Alfred Hantman, the prosecutor, was probably “alone among the white men in the courtroom, not privy to the social connections that linked the victim, the U.S. Attorney General (Robert Kennedy) and the CIA.”

In an article published in 1992, Nancy Druid argued that Mary Meyer was in “cahoots with journalists Lisa Howard and Dorothy Kilgallen”.

Also in 1992, Robert Morrow claimed that just before the publication of the Warren Commission Report, Marshall Diggs requested a meeting. Diggs told Morrow that Tracy Barnes was concerned about information Mary Meyer had about the assassination of JFK. He asked Morrow to pass this information onto Cuban exile leader, Robert Kohly. When told, Kohly replied: “Tell Diggs I’ll take care of the matter.” A week later Mary Meyer was dead.

I have already mentioned that Leo Damore committed suicide while writing a book about this case. I discovered this morning that another investigator, Steve Kangas, a former member of army intelligence, was murdered in 1999.

There are several unanswered questions:

(1) Why did Ben Bradlee (a journalist and family member) hand over Mary’s diary and letters to the CIA for destruction. Surely he must have realized that the contents of the diary and letters could have helped the police to solve the case. Also, these documents did not belong to the CIA, they should have gone to Mary’s two sons. The existence of these materials were not disclosed during cross-examination of Bradlee in the witness box. When he was asked what items of Mary private property he found in her house he mentioned a pocketbook. He did not mention the diary and letters. Nor did he tell the court that he found James Angleton in her house searching for documents.

(2) Why was James Angleton still spying on Mary in 1964? Why did he think it was necessary to break-in to Mary house soon after the murder to search for the diary and letters? He says it was to protect JFK’s reputation. If so, why was it so important for him to protect JFK’s reputation after his death. Anyway, Washington was full of women who had affairs with JFK. If this protection of the Camelot Myth was so important to Angleton, what did he intend to do to keep all the others quiet?

(3) The behaviour of Anne Truitt is very strange. One can understand why she phoned up Antoinette Bradlee on the night of the murder in order to get hold of the diary. But why would she ask Ben Bradlee to do this? Also, why would Anne phone James Angleton about the diary? Anne knew that Mary was highly critical of the CIA covert activities. Angleton would have been the last one Mary would have wanted to know about the diary.

(4) Is there any connection between Angleton searching for Mary’s diary and his stealing of Winston Scott’s manuscript in 1971. Scott was former CIA station chief in Mexico City who died suddenly while trying to get his memoirs published. According to Scott’s son, a CIA photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald at the Cuban embassy in Mexico City was taken away at the same time.

(5) All JFK’s friends have argued that he was unlikely to have spoken much about politics to his numerous girlfriends. However, several have said, if he discussed these matters with any woman, it would have been with Mary. Did JFK tell Mary anything of importance? As the former wife of a senior CIA official, Mary would have had other information to put together with this information. Is it a coincidence that Mary was murdered within days of the publication of the Warren Report? Would Mary have been able to testify that she had information that contradicted the Warren Report.

(6) Without the testimony of James Truitt in 1976 it is possible that this story would not have ever emerged. Truitt was probably Mary’s lover. They were definitely very close. As Philip Graham’s right-hand man, Truitt was almost certainly involved in Operation Mockingbird while working for the Washington Post. It was also a member of the Georgetown Crowd. In 1969 he was fired from his senior position at the Washington Post. At the time he was paid a large sum of “hush money”. In 1976 this was discovered by Washington Post reporter, Timothy Reardon, Ben Bradlee refused to allow the story to be published.

(7) Like others involved in Operation Mockingbird, Truitt became a heavy drinker. Like Wisner and Graham, he committed suicide with a gunshot to the head. His widow, Evelyn Truitt, claims that CIA agent Herbert Burrows stole all his documents. According to Evelyn these papers “covered thirty years of close work with government”. Was Truitt also murdered?

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