Mystery Woman

[John Simkin]

Does anyone know who this is? It is claimed that this woman could explain why Robert Kennedy and other leading politicians failed to demand a full investigation into the assassination of JFK.

[Dave Weaver]

Does anyone know who this is? It is claimed that this woman could explain why Robert Kennedy and other leading politicians failed to demand a full investigation into the assassination of JFK.

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John,

she's Ellen Rometsch.

Flip your photo and compare the mark (don't know the english word) on her

upper lip area with the other.

Edited December 18, 2004 by Dave Weaver

[Dave Weaver]

Does anyone know who this is? It is claimed that this woman could explain why Robert Kennedy and other leading politicians failed to demand a full investigation into the assassination of JFK.

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maybe looks a little like Marita Lorenz?

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I've seen photo's of my mother from that time, and she does look like her, and my mother isn't even German (she's from Spain).

I have no doubt that the "mystery" woman is Ellen Rometsch.

Btw., I didn't know that there is also a modus of blackmailing named after her, the so called "Ellen Rometsch strategy".

http://www.judicialwatch.org/archive/ois/c...ate/stephan.htm

So I think it is very likely that she has still some things to say, after 40 years of silence (one of the view known persons around JFK that did not speak).

I hope she's still alive, and most probably still living in Germany (age around 67).

[Nancy Eldreth]

Dave,

What do you think she might say after 40 years?

I noticed the mole moved from one side of face to the other. She may have had it removed and then put a fake mole mark on the other side of her face.

It was something that actresses did from time to time back in the 50's to 60's. Not now, it isn't any longer consider a beauty mark.

Also she sure is dolled up enough.

Did a spell check on the word dolled

odd it is considered misspelled but when I went to doll it showed "dolled up."

OK

[Tim Gratz]

Does anyone know who this is? It is claimed that this woman could explain why Robert Kennedy and other leading politicians failed to demand a full investigation into the assassination of JFK.

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John, previous posts were right. It is Ellen Rometsch.

She was linked to Baker's notorious Quorum Club and many think she had a relationship with with JFK. She had also apparently had a relationship with a member of the Soviet Embassy and some claimed she was a spy.

Are you going to discuss how she was spirited out of the country in the summer of 1963 and how, in October of 1963, J. Edgar Hoover, at the personal request of RFK, had a secret meeting with Sen leaders Mike Mansfield and Ev Dirksen to persuade the Senate to back off its investigation of the sex angle of the Bobby Baker affair?

I have said this before. If J. Edgar Hoover had wanted to get rid of JFK, all he would have had to do was go public with JFK's affair with Judith Campbell (a woman he shared with one of America's most brutal gangsters) and Ellen Rometsch (a woman whose favors he shared with a member of the Soviet embassy). He probably would have wanted to wait until after the 1964 election.

All these details of the "dark side of Camelot" (as Seymour Hersh called it) came out as a result of the investigation of the assassination. (As you know, when the Church Committee talked about Campbell's mutual friendship with JFK and Giancana, they refered to her only as Kennedy's friend, without disclosing her sex.)

It is no wonder RFK was more concerned with preserving his brother's reputation rather than solving his murder.

Edited December 18, 2004 by Tim Gratz

[Dave Weaver]

Dave,

What do you think she might say after 40 years?

I noticed the mole moved from one side of face to the other.  She may have had it removed and then put a fake mole mark on the other side of her face. 

It was something that actresses did from time to time back in the 50's to 60's.  Not now, it isn't any longer consider a beauty mark. 

Also she sure is dolled up enough.

Did a spell check on the word dolled

odd it is considered misspelled but when I went to doll it showed "dolled up." 

OK

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Nancy,

one of the picture posted (either John's or mine) is flipped.

Using pictures from the internet, one has to take that always into account,

not only that, I have seen a Ebay auction here in germany, where the

book sold shows the JFK limo driving towards the TSBD (flipped frame from the

Nix film I think, see attachment), yet the cover text is normaly printed.

So, no fake mole here Nancy, at least not one that did switch sides.

What she might say after 41 years, I can not even guess.

Edited December 19, 2004 by Dave Weaver

[John Simkin]

I have no doubt that the "mystery" woman is Ellen Rometsch...

So I think it is very likely that she has still some things to say, after 40 years of silence (one of the view known persons around JFK that did not speak).

I hope she's still alive, and most probably still living in Germany (age around 67).

Ellen Rometsch is in fact 68 years old. The last time she was heard of she was living in Bonn, Germany. If she is still alive she is unlikely to give any interviews. In 1963 Robert Kennedy sent LaVern Duffy to Germany with a large amount of money (Grant Stockdale alone raised $50,000 for Romesch). In exchange she agreed to sign a statement formally "denying intimacies with important people". It is of course not only money that is keeping Romesch quiet.

Rometsch was not the only Soviet spy that JFK slept with. He also had sex with Maria Novotny and Suzy Chang. This was a problem because they had both initially came from communist countries and had been named as part of the spy ring that had trapped John Profumo, the British War Minister, a few months earlier. Understandably, JFK told J. Edgar Hoover that he "personally interested in having this story killed".

Hoover went along with this because he would also have been brought down by this scandal if it ever became public. The problem for Hoover is that the evidence against JFK was too good. Hoover, LBJ and Baker had created a Honey Pot Scam at the Quorum Club and the house of Carole Tyler. This had enabled them to get photographic evidence of senators having sex with these women. It was also used to get evidence of them taking bribes. This was a great way to get people to do what you wanted. However, it was evidence that was impossible to use. If Hoover did so, he would reveal his part in the scam.

It is the Honey Pot scam that explains why it was impossible for any of LBJ’s critics to give evidence against him. This included his two main critics, John Williams and Hugh Scott. This is made clear by Johnson telephone conversation to George Smathers on 10th January, 1964. The result was that after the assassination of JFK, none of them, including RFK, could say why it really happened. The cover up was complete.

I intend to explain how this is all linked to the assassination of JFK in my seminar on LBJ.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2310

[John Simkin]

Ellen Rometsch met JFK via the Quorum Club. The Quorum was a private club in the Carroll Arms Hotel on Capitol Hill that had been established by Bobby Baker. As Baker pointed out in Wheeling and Dealing its "membership was comprised of senators, congressmen, lobbyists, Capitol Hill staffers, and other well-connecteds who wanted to enjoy their drinks, meals, poker games, and shared secrets in private accommodations". (1)

The last passage of this quotation helps to explain what happened at the Quorum Club. The leading politicians only thought they were sharing “secrets in private accommodations”. In fact, their activities were being recorded. The Quorum was not only used to gather evidence of the sexual activities of politicians. It was also used to gather concrete evidence that politicians were taking bribes paid for by the Military Industrial Congress Complex. In this way, all those capable of exposing LBJ, were fully compromised.

The Quorum was not the only place this evidence gathering took place. Private parties held at the home of Carole Tyler was another source of obtaining incriminating information. So also was Fred Black’s hotel suite at the Sheraton-Carlton in Washington. (2) It was here that LBJ got the necessary information to blackmail Gerard Ford. (3)

Hoover helped LBJ obtain this information. Some of this information was used to help uncover criminal activity. However, most of it was used to apply pressure on politicians to act in a certain way. (4)

Baker used young women working at the Senate and high-class prostitutes to provide the entertainment for the politicians. He also used three women who had been born in communist countries but had fled to the west: Ellen Rometsch, Maria Novotny and Suzy Chang. (5) These three women were brought in to deal with John and Robert Kennedy. It was impossible to get to the brothers with money. Evidence that they were sleeping with women other than their wives would not have been enough. The only thing that could bring them under control was evidence that they had been sleeping with communist spies.

Not that JFK and RFK were aware these women were spies. In fact, it is possible that they were not spies. Nor did the brothers give the women any classified information. All this was unimportant. What mattered was the public perception of these events.

JFK became very concerned with something that took place in the UK on 2nd March, 1963. George Wigg (6) had made a speech where he referred to rumours that John Profumo, the British minister of war, was having an affair with a prostitute named Christine Keeler. (7) A few weeks later Profumo made a personal statement where he admitted he knew Keeler but denied there was any impropriety in their relationship.

At the time few people were aware of the significance of these events. JFK was one of those who did know why this was the start of a very big story. Ben Bradlee reports that JFK became obsessed with the case. He even got David Bruce, the American ambassador to the UK to provide regular information on the Profumo story. As Bradlee reports in his book, Conversations With Kennedy: “Kennedy ordered all further cables from Bruce on the subject sent to him immediately.” (8)

Bradlee believed JFK was interested in the case because it “combined so many of the things that interested him: low doings in high places, the British nobility, sex and spying”. However, this was not the main reason JFK was interested in this case. JFK was scared that the same thing that had happened to Profumo was about to happen to him.

You see, George Wigg, had been told by a MI5 contact that Christine Keeler was also having an affair with Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet naval attaché. (9) It was believed that a man called Stephen Ward, had arranged for Profumo to meet Keeler at a private parties. Ward had in fact being doing what Bobby Baker had been doing in Washington. Both men had even used the same women. This included Maria Novotny and Suzy Chang, two women that JFK had sex with in 1960 (10)

As further details were revealed Profumo was forced to resign on 5th June. Stephen Ward committed suicide (or was murdered) and this stopped the full story being revealed at the time. (11)

Hoover of course knew all about JFK involvement with Ellen Rometsch, Maria Novotny and Suzy Chang. Novotny and Chang were back in London but JFK was still sleeping with Rometsch. Apparently she was the most exciting woman he had ever had sex with and was reluctant to loose her.

John McCone also knew all about what had been happening. He had been told by Cleveland Cram, deputy chief of the CIA station in London. Cram had got the information from Charles Bates, the senior FBI man in London. (12)

In July 1963 FBI agents questioned Romesch about her time in East Germany. They came to the conclusion that she was probably a Soviet spy. This information was now passed onto RFK, who arranged for LaVerne Duffy to take her back to Germany. Duffy was an inspired choice. He was not only a close friend of JFK who could be trusted, he was also involved in a passionate affair with Romesch. In fact, Romesch was in love with Duffy. He was the one man who could get Romesche to do as she was told.

Kennedy now contacted Hoover and asked him to persuade the Senate leadership that the Senate Rules Committee investigation of this story was "contrary to the national interest". He also warned that other leading members of Congress would be drawn into this scandal and so was "contrary to the interests of Congress, too". (13)

It had now become a game of bluff. RFK suspected that Hoover would be unwilling to leak the full story. To do so would expose him as setting up a Honey Trap to obtain evidence against his president. RFK was right but Hoover gambled and increased the stakes. Along with Johnson he needed to keep the pressure on JFK and RFK because of the Bobby Baker case. Hoover therefore leaked the story to one of his assets, Clark Mollenhoff. On 26th October, 1963, Mollenhoff wrote an article in The Des Moines Register claiming that the FBI had "established that the beautiful brunette had been attending parties with congressional leaders and some prominent New Frontiersmen from the executive branch of Government... The possibility that her activity might be connected with espionage was of some concern, because of the high rank of her male companions". (14)

Mollenhoff did not name Rometsch or Kennedy. But he did say that John Williams "had obtained an account" of this woman’s activity and planned to pass this information to the Senate Rules Committee, the body investigating Bobby Baker. This was a direct message to JFK and RFK. Hoover and LBJ had discovered that RFK had been passing information about the Baker case to Williams. This was revealed in an interview that Burkett Van Kirk gave to Seymour Hersh in 1997. (15)

Kirk was chief counsel in 1963 for the Republicans on the Senate Rules Committee. He said that the information that Curtis and Williams were getting about Baker, was coming from RFK. The reason for this, according to Kirk, was to “dump Johnson” as vice president. The warning was clear, unless, JFK backed off, he would be exposed as a president who had been sleeping with a Soviet spy. JFK acknowledged that he could not survive the story being published. Harold Macmillan had resigned prime minister in October, 1963, over the Profumo scandal, although he was allowed to say it was on health grounds. (16)

Kennedy knew that even if he soldiered on he would be defeated in 1964. He therefore decided to agree to Hoover’s terms and said he would help cover up the Baker scandal. The problem was that it had gone too far. Williams had now been contacted by Don Reynolds with information that LBJ had been receiving a rake-off from the Fort Worth TFX contract. Reynolds was now due to testify on 22nd November, 1963. (17) Although it was in a closed session, LBJ knew that Williams would leak it to the press. LBJ had no option. JFK had to die before 22nd November. It was only as president could he cover up this story.

As Reynolds told John Williams after the assassination: "My God! There's a difference between testifying against a President of the United States and a Vice President. If I had known he was President, I might not have gone through with it."

One of the most important sources of information that supports this view of events is a telephone call made by LBJ to George Smathers on 10th January, 1964. (18)

Lyndon Johnson: Have you heard about this tape recording that's out?

George Smathers: No.

Lyndon Johnson: Well, it involves you and John Williams and a number of other people.

George Smathers: You mean, some woman?

Lyndon Johnson: Yep.

George Smathers: Yeah, I've heard about it. And it involves Hugh Scott.

Lyndon Johnson: But it's a pure made-up deal, isn't it?

George Smathers: I don't know what it is. I never heard of the woman in my life... But she mentions President Kennedy in there.

Lyndon Johnson: Oh yeah, and the Attorney General (Robert Kennedy) and me and you and everybody. And I never heard of her.

George Smathers: Thank God, they've got Hugh Scott in there. He's the guy that was asking for it. But she's also mentioned him, (laughs) which is sort of a lifesaver. So I don't think that'll get too far now. (Everett) Jordan's orders.

Lyndon Johnson: Can't you talk to him? Why in the living hell does he let Curtis run him? I thought you were going to talk to Dick Russell and go talk to Curtis and make Dirksen and them behave.

George Smathers: Jordan has assured me over and over again.

Lyndon Johnson: Well, he's not strong enough though, unless someone goes and tells him now.

George Smathers: That's right. Now Dick Russell is the man that ought to do it. And I've asked Dick to do it and Dick has told me that he would....

Lyndon Johnson: They had this damned fool insurance man, in and they had him in a secret session and Bobby (Baker) gave me a record player and Bobby got the record player from the insurance man (Don Reynolds). I didn't know a damned thing about it. Never heard of it till this happened. But I paid $88,000 worth of premiums and, by God, they could afford to give me a Cadillac if they'd wanted to and there'd have been not a goddamned thing wrong with it.... There's nothing wrong with it. There's not a damned thing wrong. So Walter Jenkins explained it all in his statement. This son of a bitch Curtis comes along and says, well, he wouldn't take any statements not sworn to. They had their counsel come down and Walter Jenkins handled it, told him exactly what was done.... A fellow said Manhattan is the only company that would write on a heart attack man.... Bobby said, "Hell now, wait, let my man handle it and he'll get a commission off of it." So we said all right... Now he said - Walter - "I'll swear to it." "No, I want a public hearing so I can put it on television." Now that oughtn't to be. Now George, I ought not to have to get into that personally.

George Smathers: Absolutely not.... And Dick Russell has got to exercise his influence. He must do this and I think you've got to talk to him about it and just say you've got to do it. I'll talk to Jordan. Jordan thinks I'm guilty of something. So he thinks I may be covering up trying to protect myself. Hubert has been really good in this and, believe it or not, Joe Clark' has finally gotten the picture and he's trying to stop it now. But Hugh Scott and Carl Curtis are going wild, and Jordan doesn't have enough experience or enough sense to gavel them down and shut them up. But if Dick will talk to him-really talk to him and say

Lyndon Johnson: I think he needs to talk to Curtis too. Why don't you tell Dick to do that?

George Smathers: I will. I've already talked to him.

Lyndon Johnson: I hate to call him.... Get Dick to go see Curtis in the morning and just say, "Now quit being so goddamn rambunctious about this, Carl."

George Smathers: Can I tell Dick this is not right and you know about it? And naturally it makes you apprehensive and you've got all these damn problems and to have this little nitpicking thing. It's just not fair.

Lyndon Johnson: It's not.

George Smathers: So I'll do it.

Lyndon Johnson: Tell him he's the only one can do it. And he can do it. And if he was involved I'd damned sure walk across the country and do it.

George Smathers: Exactly. All right, that's a damned good thought and I'll do it. I've already talked to him about it, but I

Lyndon Johnson: The FBI has got that record.' Now you know I think you ought to leak it. I don't know who you can leak it to. But I've read the goddamn tax report and I've read the FBI report and there ain't a goddamn thing in it that they can even indict him on. The only thing that they can do is that he puffed up the financial statement, which everybody's done. If he pays that off, they couldn't convict him on that....

George Smathers: They won't print that 'cause I tried to leak that the day before yesterday to ... two different sources and it hasn't been printed. They just want to print this ... ugly stuff.... That Curtis is mean as a snake. (Everett) Dirksen sat in the room the night of the day after you became President with me and Humphrey and agreed that this thing ought to stop and that he would get Curtis to stop it. ... You know, there's some statement about Dirksen and Kuchel with this German girl.' So he said, "It is just ridiculous and it ought to stop.". . . . I think we can handle everybody on our side. Howard Cannon is the smartest fellow over there, but he's a little afraid to do anything because he himself figures he was involved out in Las Vegas. So he's a little afraid to be as brave as he ought to be. ... I'll tell Dick this. I've already told him once, but

Lyndon Johnson: Tell him he ought to talk to Dirksen and Curtis both. Please do it, and also Jordan. He's just got his work cut out Monday 'cause they're going to meet Tuesday and they're going to want a public hearing.' And then that's a television hearing, and then a television hearing about my buying some insurance. And what in the goddamn hell is wrong with my buying insurance? I paid cash for it, wrote them a check for it, made my company the beneficiary, and they didn't deduct it. No tax deduction. We'll do it after we pay our taxes. We pay the premium-only reason being if I died, my wife would have to pay estate tax on me on account of she'd have to sell her stock and they want the company to have some money to buy her stock so she doesn't have to lose control of her company.

Notes and References

1. Bobby Baker, Wheeling and Dealing (1978) pages 78-80 and 180-81

2. Tony Mauro, A Peek Into Justice White’s FBI File (2003)

3. Bobby Baker, Wheeling and Dealing (1978) page 170

4. Anthony Summers, The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (1993)

5. Seymour Hersh, The Dark Side of Camelot (1997)

6. George Wigg: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRwigg.htm

7. John Profumo: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRprofumo.htm

8. Ben Bradlee, Conversations With Kennedy (1976)

9. Seymour Hersh, The Dark Side of Camelot (1997) page 391

10. Anthony Summers & Stephen Dorril, Honey Trap (1987)

11. Philllip Knightley and Caroline Kennedy, The Profumo Case and the Framing of Stephen Ward (1987)

12. Seymour Hersh, The Dark Side of Camelot (1997) page 392

13. Meeting between Robert Kennedy and J. Edgar Hoover on 28th October, 1963.

14. Clark Mollenhoff, The Des Moines Register (26th October, 1976)

15. Seymour Hersh, The Dark Side of Camelot (1997) page 406

16. Harold Macmillan: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRmacmillan.htm

17. Don Reynolds: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKreynoldsD.htm

18. Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and George Smathers (10th January, 1964)

[John Simkin]

In his book, The Dark Side of Camelot, Seymour Hersh interviewed Grant Stockdale’s son. Grant Stockdale Jr. provides some interesting insights into the events surrounding the assassination of JFK.

Grant claims that his father had taken part with JFK in private sex parties at the Carlyle Hotel in New York (1962). Stockdale was invited to the White House at the beginning of November. JFK told Stockdale “I need you to raise some dough – fifty thousand dollars.” “Why me?” he replied. “Because I need it and I count on you to keep it quiet”. “What’s it for?” “It’s for personal use.”

Stockdale did as he was asked. He returned to the White House with a family friend. Kennedy said “thank you,” and opened a nearby closet door, and threw the briefcase in there.” According to the family friend, the closet was full of briefcases.

Grant Stockdale Jr. said that after the assassination of JFK his father was: “Very worried about Bobby Baker. Why would my father be worried about Bobby Baker?”

It is a very good question. Seymour Hersh does not try to answer the question. In fact, one of the major problems with the book is that Hersh appears to know very little about the events surrounding the assassination.

Stockdale is indeed linked in very closely with Bobby Baker. According to William Torbitt (Nonmenclature of an Assassination Cabal ), Stockdale was involved with Bobby Baker, Fred Black, George Smathers and mobsters Ed Levenson and Benny Sigelbaum in a company called Serve-U-Corporation. Established in 1962, the company provided vending machines for companies working on federally granted programs. These contracts were being obtained via the LBJ corrupt network.

Torbitt falsely claims that Stockdale was President of Serve-U-Corporation. That post was held by Eugene Hancock, Stockdale’s business partner and a pall-bearer at his funeral.

Was Baker putting Stockdale under pressure in November, 1963? Was he worried that he was willing to testify before the Senate Rules Committee looking into the business activities of Baker?

What was the link with JFK? Was Baker blackmailing JFK? We know that it was Baker who provided him with Ellen Rometsch. In October, 1963, Robert Kennedy arranged for LaVern Duffy to take a large sum of money to Germany in order to buy the silence of Rometsch. Baker would no doubt want money to keep quiet about this matter. In fact, he probably knew Rometsch’s links with the KGB when he arranged the introduction.

We now know that it was Robert Kennedy who had been leaking information to John Williams about Baker’s corrupt activities. Was the Rometsch/JFK story leaked in retaliation? Or was it done to enable negotiations to take place. Did Baker offer JFK a deal? Get the Senate Rules Committee investigation called off and I will not publish the full story about Rometsch. Did he also want money as well? Does this explain why Stockdale was raising money? Did JFK tell Stockdale why he needed the money? Is that why Stockdale had to die? Did JFK refuse to use his influence to get the Baker investigation stopped? Is that why JFK had to die. Remember, JFK was assassinated on the very day that Don Reynolds provided evidence before the Senate Rules Committee that Baker and LBJ were getting rake-offs for the Fort Worth TFX contract. Although it was in a closed session, LBJ knew that Williams would leak it to the press. LBJ had no option. JFK had to die before 22nd November. It was only as president could he cover up this story.

[Tim Gratz]

Does anyone know who this is? It is claimed that this woman could explain why Robert Kennedy and other leading politicians failed to demand a full investigation into the assassination of JFK.

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Here is an interesting post that includes portions of an interview with Michael Beschloss on Booknotes.

Cannot get a link. Try to search Google Groups for Ellen Rometsch and go to a post called "presidential blackmail" dated April 22, 1998, by Jim Hoffman. An interesting post and discussion on Booknotes!

Hope you can find it.

Edited December 22, 2004 by Tim Gratz

[Tim Gratz]

Does anyone know who this is? It is claimed that this woman could explain why Robert Kennedy and other leading politicians failed to demand a full investigation into the assassination of JFK.

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Don't know how many people remember this but I discovered it last night while researching Rometsch on the Internet. During the Clinton impeachment proceedings one of his supporters apparently created a firestorm by suggesting that Clinton was considering an "Ellen Rometsch" defense. By this I believe he was refering to Hoover's suggesting to Senate leaders Mansfield and Dirksen that if the Senate Rules Committee continued to probe the sexual activities of Baker's associates, there was a lot of sexual "dirt" on the investigating senators that might see the light of day.

Who knows, perhaps that reference accomplished its purpose.

[John Simkin]

Interesting passage from G. R. Schreiber's book, The Bobby Baker Affair (1964)

There was a great deal of going and coming at the townhouse, and there were parties inside and out back on the patio, but the parties were circumspect and there were no complaints from the neighbors. One of the guests who came over for parties was statuesque, twenty seven-year-old Mrs. Ellen Rometsch, wife of a West German army sergeant who was assigned to the German Military Mission in Washington. The curve some brunette arrived in the United States in April, 1961, with her husband and their three-year-old son. They rented a $200 a month brick house in North Arlington, Virginia, not far from the Washington Golf and Country Club. But Elly Rometsch spent very little time at home-especially after she discovered the Quorum Club.

The Quorum was an intimate drinking and eating spot hidden away on the second floor of the Carlton Arms Hotel, just across the street from the Senate office buildings. It was founded in 1961, the year Elly Rometsch arrived from West Germany. One of the Quorum Club's incorporators was Bobby's law associate, Ernest Tucker. The club's first president was Scotty Peek, Bobby's buddy, from Senator Smathers' office, and the first secretary of the club was none other than the indefatigable secretary to the senate majority, Bobby Gene Baker himself. As might be imagined, one of the members was North American Aviation's man in Washington, Fred B. Black, Jr. Another was Melpar's president, Ed Bostick. The membership of the club, all male, included many of Washington's top lobbyists, four Democratic Senators, two Republican congressmen, two top level aides to President Lyndon Johnson, several big business executives, and a smattering of congressional staff administrators from both political parties.

When a girl is new in town, as Elly Rometsch was, the Quorum Club could provide a springboard to a number of levels in Washington society including the sportier ones. Elly got herself a job as one of the Club's waitresses. Clad in a scanty black skin-tight uniform, with black mesh hose, the West German beauty compared favorably with the nude painting which adorned the plush back bar. Whether it was the Quorum Club outfit or her natural endowments, or both, Elly began moving in a real swinging set. Once, at least, she went along with Bobby and Nancy Carole and Paul Aguirre, a friend from Puerto Rico, on a jaunt to New Orleans.

The chief counsel for the Senate Rules Committee said that Bobby's Puerto Rican friend told committee investigators that if he were "asked anything about what took place [on the trip to New Orleans] he would take all the amendments, from 1 to 28." The Rules Committee did not call Paul Aguirre, but Senator Hugh Scott reported on some of what the Puerto Rican told the committee's investigators. "Mr. Aguirre admitted that Baker brought Carole Tyler and Ellen Rometsch with him from Washington to New Orleans on the May, 1963, trip."

[Guest John Woods]

Interesting passage from G. R. Schreiber's book, The Bobby Baker Affair (1964)

There was a great deal of going and coming at the townhouse, and there were parties inside and out back on the patio, but the parties were circumspect and there were no complaints from the neighbors. One of the guests who came over for parties was statuesque, twenty seven-year-old Mrs. Ellen Rometsch, wife of a West German army sergeant who was assigned to the German Military Mission in Washington. The curve some brunette arrived in the United States in April, 1961, with her husband and their three-year-old son. They rented a $200 a month brick house in North Arlington, Virginia, not far from the Washington Golf and Country Club. But Elly Rometsch spent very little time at home-especially after she discovered the Quorum Club.

The Quorum was an intimate drinking and eating spot hidden away on the second floor of the Carlton Arms Hotel, just across the street from the Senate office buildings. It was founded in 1961, the year Elly Rometsch arrived from West Germany. One of the Quorum Club's incorporators was Bobby's law associate, Ernest Tucker. The club's first president was Scotty Peek, Bobby's buddy, from Senator Smathers' office, and the first secretary of the club was none other than the indefatigable secretary to the senate majority, Bobby Gene Baker himself. As might be imagined, one of the members was North American Aviation's man in Washington, Fred B. Black, Jr. Another was Melpar's president, Ed Bostick. The membership of the club, all male, included many of Washington's top lobbyists, four Democratic Senators, two Republican congressmen, two top level aides to President Lyndon Johnson, several big business executives, and a smattering of congressional staff administrators from both political parties.

When a girl is new in town, as Elly Rometsch was, the Quorum Club could provide a springboard to a number of levels in Washington society including the sportier ones. Elly got herself a job as one of the Club's waitresses. Clad in a scanty black skin-tight uniform, with black mesh hose, the West German beauty compared favorably with the nude painting which adorned the plush back bar. Whether it was the Quorum Club outfit or her natural endowments, or both, Elly began moving in a real swinging set. Once, at least, she went along with Bobby and Nancy Carole and Paul Aguirre, a friend from Puerto Rico, on a jaunt to New Orleans.

The chief counsel for the Senate Rules Committee said that Bobby's Puerto Rican friend told committee investigators that if he were "asked anything about what took place [on the trip to New Orleans] he would take all the amendments, from 1 to 28." The Rules Committee did not call Paul Aguirre, but Senator Hugh Scott reported on some of what the Puerto Rican told the committee's investigators. "Mr. Aguirre admitted that Baker brought Carole Tyler and Ellen Rometsch with him from Washington to New Orleans on the May, 1963, trip."

[John Simkin]

Last night C5 showed a documentary entitled JFK’s Women – The Scandals Revealed. The programme was produced, directed and written by Harvey Lilley. It included interviews with Cartha DeLoach, Bobby Baker, G. Robert Blakey, Gus Russo, Tony Summers and Stephen Dorrill.

The film ignored JFK’s relationships with Florence Pritchett and Mary Pinchot Meyer. It started off with looking at his affair with Inga Arvad during the Second World War. Apparently, Arvad was a Nazi spy.

Then it went onto look at his relationship with Judith Campbell. It was claimed that the relationship began in early 1960 and was a Mafia set-up.

It was followed by a look at the Marilyn Monroe. It was claimed that she was under surveillance by the FBI because of her “leftist” views. It was claimed that she was possibly passing on nuclear secrets to the Soviets. Summers told the story of how Monroe went to Mexico in February 1962 to meet with a communist named Frederick Field. Summers, Russo and Blakey all argued that JFK probably did not order her murder but that died at a convenient time. Blakey added that JFK “emotionally” murdered her. In other words, that he was the reason that she was psychologically disturbed at the time.

Then they looked at the women provided by Bobby Baker for JFK. This included Maria Novotny and Suzy Chang, two women who had also been named as part of the spy ring that had trapped John Profumo, the British war minister. Baker spoke at length about this case, but he was never asked about who had paid him to entrap JFK. In fact, LBJ was not mentioned in the film.

Stephen Dorrill explained how JFK got Novotny and Chang chucked out of the US. Novotny then told her story, on tape, to Peter Earl of the News of the World.

Guy Richards, the editor of New York Journal American, put two of his journalists, James D. Horan and Dom Frasca on the case. (It is interesting to note that Dorothy Kilgallen of the same journal was the first person to write an article linking JFK to Monroe). They interviewed Earl and heard his tapes. However, when the article was eventually published, JFK was not named.

Baker argued that Bill Thompson asked him if he would arrange a meeting between Ellen Rometsch and JFK. Baker said that: "He (Kennedy) sent back word it was the best time he ever had in his life. That was not the only time. She saw him on other occasions. It went on for a while."

In July 1963 FBI agents questioned Romesch about her past. They came to the conclusion that she was probably a Soviet spy. Hoover actually leaked information to the journalist, Courtney Evans, that Romesch worked for Walter Ulbricht, the communist leader of East Germany. When Robert Kennedy was told about this information, he ordered her to be deported.

JFK told Hoover that he "personally interested in having this story killed". Hoover refused and leaked the information to Clark Mollenhoff. On 26th October he wrote an article in The Des Moines Register claiming that the FBI had "established that the beautiful brunette had been attending parties with congressional leaders and some prominent New Frontiersmen from the executive branch of Government... The possibility that her activity might be connected with espionage was of some concern, because of the high rank of her male companions". Mollenhoff claimed that John Williams "had obtained an account" of Rometsch's activity and planned to pass this information to the Senate Rules Committee, the body investigating Baker.

The following day Robert Kennedy sent La Verne Duffy to West Germany to meet Romesch. It was claimed that Romesch was offering her story to German newspapers. In exchange for a great deal of money she agreed to sign a statement formally "denying intimacies with important people." Kennedy now contacted Hoover and asked him to persuade the Senate leadership that the Senate Rules Committee investigation of this story was "contrary to the national interest". He also warned on 28th October that other leading members of Congress would be drawn into this scandal and so was "contrary to the interests of Congress, too".

J. Edgar Hoover had a meeting with Mike Mansfield, the Democratic leader of the Senate and Everett Dirksen, the Republican counterpart. What was said at this meeting has never been released. However, as a result of the meeting that took place in Mansfield's home the Senate Rules Committee decided not to look into the Rometsch scandal.

According to Summers, Russo and Blakey, the Republicans had this story and would have used it to prevent JFK from being elected in 1964. They even speculated that he would have been impeached before the election. They added that the assassination of JFK therefore saved his political reputation. In other words, JFK enemies had no motive for killing him.

None of the participants were asked any real questions about the links between these events and the Bobby Baker scandal. JFK was clearly being blackmailed into calling off the Senate investigation into LBJ, Baker and the Quorum Club. However, JFK was not willing to do that. He knew that so many Senate members were involved in this scandal, that everyone was scared to bring Baker to justice. It was because JFK refused to succumb to blackmail that it was decided to kill him.

The two most important things to come out of the documentary were the interviews with Blakey and Baker. It had nothing to do with what they actually said. What it did reveal was that Blakey is far happier talking about JFK’s love affairs than his botched investigation of his assassination.

Baker is still an articulate speaker. It would have been great to have had the opportunity to ask him some searching questions about his activities in 1963.

[Nathaniel Heidenheimer]

In Burton Hersh's new book Bobby and J. Edgar, Hersh writes of Ellen Rometsch ( he spells it with a t ):"She would be linked in future FBI investigations

with the August 1963 suicide of Philip Graham, publisher fo the Washington Post" (p. 364). First I've heard of a possible connection between Philip Graham and

the women Hersh describes--emphasizing her international citizenship skills-- as a "wall-banger of a date." Does anyone know any further details of this

link?