Biography: Peter Janney

[Peter Janney]

I grew up in Washington, D.C. in the 1950s and 1960s. My father (Wistar Janney) was an upper echelon CIA official, and I knew very little of what he was doing in his career because it was so highly classified. Later on, I was able to put some pieces together, having talked to a number of other CIA “brats.” As a family, we were close friends with other CIA officials families like the Angletons, Cord and Mary Meyer, etc. I knew (and still do) the Meyer family very well; in fact Michael Meyer and I were best friends when he was killed by a car at age 9 while crossing a street in McLean, Virginia. I helped Nina Burleigh write her book A Very Private Woman on Mary Meyer, and I also had many conversations with Leo Damore about his book about Mary Meyer which was to be titled Burden of Guilt. Damore’s book was never published because he committed suicide in October of 1995.

I have been a clinical psychologist for nearly 25 years but left health care in 2000 and went to business school at Duke University. I am currently an independent film producer working on a Hollywood drama, which will be announced in June 2005.