Earl T. Smith

[John Simkin]

Earl Edward Tailer Smith was born in Rhode Island in 1903. He studied at Yale University (1926-28) before becoming an investment broker and a member of the New York Stock Exchange. He also became a partner in the investment brokers, Paige, Smith, and Remick (1930-1939).

In 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Smith as special assistant in the Office of Production Management (later War Production Board). He left this post to serve in the United States Army during the Second World War. He served overseas and by the end of the war reached the rank of lieutenant colonel? In 1947 Smith married Florence Pritchett. The couple had three children.

Florence had been having an affair with JFK since 1944. The couple spent a lot of time together. Betty Spalding said that for Kennedy, "Over a long period of time, it was probably the closest relationship with a woman I know of." However, because Kennedy was a Roman Catholic, marriage was out of the question.

In June, 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Smith as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Cuba. FBI files reveal that over the next two years JFK made more than a dozen visits to Cuba in order to meet Florence. Florence also met Kennedy in Miami and Palm Beach, where their homes were conveniently adjoined.

According to one account: "JFK would elude the Secret Service on occasion in order to have trysts with women. He did this in Palm Beach when he hopped a fence to swim with Flo Smith. The Secret Service agents couldn't find him and called in the FBI. They finally turned to Palm Beach Police Chief Homer Large, a trusted Kennedy family associate. The Police Chief knew exactly where to find Jack - next door in Earl E. T. Smith's swimming pool. Jack and Flo were alone, and as Homer put it, "They weren't doing the Australian crawl."

Smith became a bitter opponent of JFK after the Bay of Pigs. Smith, who was a director of the the U.S. Sugar Corporation, had lost a lot of money as a result of Castro gaining control of Cuba. In 1962 Smith wrote an account of the Castro revolution entitled, The Fourth Floor.

Is it possible that Earl T. Smith was one of those who put the money up for the assassination of JFK? He had both personal and economic reasons for wanting him dead?

Smith remained active in anti-Castro politics. In June, 1982, Ronald Reagan appointed Smith as a member of the Presidential Commission on Broadcasting to Cuba.

Earl Edward Tailer Smith died in 1991.

Picture below shows Smith and JFK discussing ways of keeping Florence happy.

[James Richards]

Earl Smith and Batista.

James

[Ron Ecker]

Picture below shows Smith and JFK discussing ways of keeping Florence happy.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

John,

It's clear from the brace JFK is wearing that Flo wasn't good for his back problem. But did he have to flaunt the problem in front of Earl?

Ron

[Thomas H. Purvis]

Earl Edward Tailer Smith was born in Rhode Island in 1903. He studied at Yale University (1926-28) before becoming an investment broker and a member of the New York Stock Exchange. He also became a partner in the investment brokers, Paige, Smith, and Remick (1930-1939).

In 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Smith as special assistant in the Office of Production Management (later War Production Board). He left this post to serve in the United States Army during the Second World War. He served overseas and by the end of the war reached the rank of lieutenant colonel? In 1947 Smith married Florence Pritchett. The couple had three children.

Florence had been having an affair with JFK since 1944. The couple spent a lot of time together. Betty Spalding said that for Kennedy, "Over a long period of time, it was probably the closest relationship with a woman I know of." However, because Kennedy was a Roman Catholic, marriage was out of the question.

In June, 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Smith as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Cuba. FBI files reveal that over the next two years JFK  made more than a dozen visits to Cuba in order to meet Florence. Florence also met Kennedy in Miami and Palm Beach, where their homes were conveniently adjoined.

According to one account: "JFK would elude the Secret Service on occasion in order to have trysts with women. He did this in Palm Beach when he hopped a fence to swim with Flo Smith. The Secret Service agents couldn't find him and called in the FBI. They finally turned to Palm Beach Police Chief Homer Large, a trusted Kennedy family associate. The Police Chief knew exactly where to find Jack - next door in Earl E. T. Smith's swimming pool. Jack and Flo were alone, and as Homer put it, "They weren't doing the Australian crawl."

Smith became a bitter opponent of JFK after the Bay of Pigs. Smith, who was a director of the the U.S. Sugar Corporation, had lost a lot of money as a result of Castro gaining control of Cuba. In 1962 Smith wrote an account of the Castro revolution entitled, The Fourth Floor. 

Is it possible that Earl T. Smith was one of those who put the money up for the assassination of JFK? He had both personal and economic reasons for wanting him dead?

Smith remained active in anti-Castro politics. In June, 1982, Ronald Reagan appointed Smith as a member of the Presidential Commission on Broadcasting to Cuba.

Earl Edward Tailer Smith died in 1991.

Picture below shows Smith and JFK discussing ways of keeping Florence happy.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

John;

An excellent and informative post.

Just one example of the kinds of money and power which could, and in all probability did, provide a portion of the motive for elimination of JFK.

As with other "links" in the chain, the link to Smith must be generated through his money, power, position, and associations.

It is therefore quite unlikely that Mr. Smith had no connections to, and with William Pawley.

Once we get to Pawley, then one can "branch" into both the Louisiana links in this chain as well as those in Texas.

Tom

[John Simkin]

Robert Howard has posted this interesting passage from Thomas G Paterson's book, Contesting Castro - The United States & The Triumph of the Cuban Revolution (1994)

Like many other prominent Americans, the young Democratic U.S. Senators John F. Kennedy and George Smathers partied on the island. In December 1957, Kennedy and Smathers journeyed to Havana. They visited Ambassador Smith, a Kennedy friend from Palm Beach, and his wife and former model, Florence Pritchett Smith with whom the Massachusets politician had had a love affair some years before. The pleasure seeking senators apparently never discussed the rebellion, although Smather's, as he himself put it "had made a career of Cuban problems." Instead golf, sailing, nightclubs, and women occupied their time. Crime boss Meyer Lansky's widow claimed later that during that trip her husband helped locate women to satisfy Kennedy's now-famed sexual athleticism. "Kennedy wasn't a great casino man," remembered Smathers, "but the Tropicana night-club had a floor show you wouldn't believe."

[Guest Tom Scully]

Interesting... I don't know the significance if these family relationships, except that it could partially explain 47 years of relative silence, if you agree blood is thicker than water. Earl T Smith's two children by his first marriage were Vanderbilts, from the relatively narrow line of family patriarch, Cornelius I, his son & daughter-in-law, William Henry Vanderbilt and Maria Louisa Kissam. Their son, William Kissam Vanderbilt was married later in life to Anne Harriman, and William's son was William K. Vanderbilt II, father of the Consuelo Vanderbilt who married Earl T. Smith. 1957 NY Times article tells us that Earl T. Smith was still the advisor of Consuelo Vanderbilt Smith, although she had been married and divorced twice since their 1935 divorce, and Smith himself was married then to hia third wife, Florence Pritchett.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=14613&view=findpost&p=170389

...Arthur Cheney Train was an assistant district attorney in New York who later devoted himself to writing novels.

In 1896, Ethel Kissam Train's aunt, Maria Louisa Kissam Vanderbilt willed the annual income from the sum of $150,000 to Ethel.

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=dep...n&scoring=a

WCTU CONVENTION; NEARLY FIVE HUNDRED DELEGATES GATHER IN ST. …

New York Times - Nov 14, 1896

Chauncey M. Depew yesterday filed the will of Maria Louisa Vanderbilt, ... OOO be invested by the executors and the income paid to Ethel Kissam during her ...

Maria was the widow of the richest man in the world, William H. Vanderbilt.

In 1897, Arthur Train married Ethel Kissam, daughter of Benjamin Kissam, the brother of Maria Maria Louisa Kissam Vanderbilt:..

Earl T. Smith's first wife was Consuelo Vanderbilt, Daughter of William K. Vanderbilt II. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kissam_Vanderbilt_II

Consuelo Vanderbilt's grandfather, William K. Vanderbilt, married Oliver Harriman's daughter Anne, in 1903.

Before Earl Smith and Consuelo divorced in 1935, the couple had two children.

Consuelo Vanderbilt's father, William K. Vanderbilt II, was the son of William K. Vanderbilt. William K. Vanderbilt's second wife was Anne, the first cousin of E.H. Harriman. William K. Vanerbilt's mother, Maria Louisa Kissam, wife of William Henry Vanderbilt, was the aunt of Ethel Kissam, the first wife of John Train's father, Arthur, and the mother of all of John Train's older siblings...

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=%22*Paine+.2.d.+of-+%22&btnG=Search+Archives&hl=en&ned=us&scoring=a

Newcomer to Diplomacy; Earl E.T. Smith

- New York Times - Aug 3, 1957

EARL EDWARD TAILER SMITH, the new United States Ambassador to Cuba, who has found himself plunged into a controversy over diplomatic procedure,

Smiths have= a:.4.year : old son, Earl E. T; Smith Jr. : Smith husband to Cuba. They left : behind but arranged to later. Mr. Smith has two daughters by his first marriage. They are Mrs. William L. Hutton of New York and Mrs. Augustus.'Paine .2.d. of- Valley, N. Y. His first wife was the Consuelo Vanderbilt, daughter of the, late William K. Vaziderbilt _find the--late Mrs. Graham Fair 'Panderbilt, and a great-grant-granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. Mr. Smith's first and second marriages ended in divorce. His first wife was subsequently married to and divorced from Henry Gassaway Davis and William J. Warburton. thereafter she resumed the name of Consuelo Vanderbilt Smith. lair. Smith remained her adviser.

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=Earl+T+Smith+Consuelo+Vanderbilt+son&btnG=Search+Archives&hl=en&ned=us&scoring=a

Heiress of Vanderbilts Weds Smith

Pay-Per-View - Chicago Tribune - ProQuest Archiver - Jan 8, 1926

Miss Consuelo Vanderbilt, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, ... William K. Vanderbilt, married today to Earl 1:. T. Smith, son of Sydney J. ...

Former Consuelo Vanderbilt Gets 8-Minute Reno Divorce

Pay-Per-View - The Sun - ProQuest Archiver - Feb 22, 1935

Earl E. T. Smith. Slipping quietly into court late this afternoon, Mrs, Smith, ... Sena- tor James G. Fair, to Smith, a grand. son of the late Edward N. ...

I am hoping Linda Minor might pipe in here, she is copied on this linked email:

http://osdir.com/ml/culture.discuss.cia-drugs/2005-06/msg00055.html

Oliver Harriman Oliver Harriman (1820-1904) began his business career

in the dry goods commission house of McCurdy, Aldrich & Spencer, with

the father of Richard A. McCurdy. When they retired, he formed a firm

called Low, Harriman & Co., with James Low (1809-1898) as the senior

partner. He later married Low's daughter, Laura.

E. H. Harriman (he meant Oliver, not E.H.) was a director of the Guaranty Trust, a trustee of the

Mutual Life Insurance Company between 1879 and 1900 and a director of

Bank of America. He had five sons and three daughters. His oldest

daughter, Emeline, married William Earl Dodge III, the son of William

E. Dodge Jr., and the grandson of William E. Dodge of the Phelps, Dodge

& Co. His second daughter, Anne, married William Kissam Vanderbilt in

1903. His daughter, Lillie, married Frederick Christian Havemeyer, the

son of Henry Osbourne Havemeyer of the American Sugar Refining Trust.

Oliver Harriman was the uncle of Edward H. Harriman, who joined the

board of the Guaranty Trust in 1899. (Death of Oliver Harriman. New

York Times, Mar. 13, 1904. p. 7; Two of the Harrimans Seek Paris

Divorces. New York Times, June 25, 1925.)

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9B03E2D71E3AE733A25750C1A9659C946597D6CF

DEATH OF OLIVER HARRIMAN.; Prominent in City's Commercial and Social Life for Many Years.

March 13, 1904,

..Anticipating that the name "Paine" might arouse curiousity, here is some background on Earl T. Smith's son-in-law. I can help thinking that Jupiter Island, almost always referred to in print as "Hobe Sound", must have been a crowded little

island....

Mr. Paine's great-grandfather was born in Maine and his father was George Eustis Paine.:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9902E4D81238E633A25754C2A9659C946496D6CF

AUGUSTUS G. PAINE DEAD.; Financier Expires at the Hotel Plaza, in ...

G, Paine, senior member of] Augustus the firm of A..G. Paine Co., and aI m former ... He was born In Brownfield, Oxford County, Me., and after living in ...

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=Peter+S.,+president+of+o+the+New+York+and+Pennsylvania+Company%3B+*+&scoring=a&hl=en&ned=us&sa=N&sugg=d&as_ldate=1946&as_hdate=1947&lnav=hist3

AUGUSTUS G. PAINE

$3.95 - New York Times - Oct 24, 1947

He also leaves four sons, Peter S., president of o the New York and Pennsylvania Company; George Bustis, chairman of the board, Hugh E. of this city and ...

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=Brookville%2C+N.+Y..+and+Augustus+Gibson+Paine+II.%2C+son+of+Mr.+and&btnG=Search+Archives&hl=en&ned=us&scoring=a

CYNTHIA HOWE, AUGUSTUS PAINE MARRIED IN NY

Pay-Per-View - Chicago Tribune - ProQuest Archiver - Oct 19, 1941

... daughter of Mrs. Brooks Howe and W. Deering Howe of Brookville, N. Y.. and Augustus Gibson Paine II., son of Mr. and Mrs. George Paine Of New York, ...

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/10/obituaries/augustus-g-paine-2d-a-paper-executive-73.html

Augustus G. Paine 2d, A Paper Executive, 73

Published: May 10, 1993

Augustus G. Paine 2d, a former paper-industry and Wall Street executive who had been secretary of the board of trustees of the New York Zoological Society, died yesterday at his home at Hobe Sound, Fla. He was 73 and moved to Hobe Sound 20 years ago.

The cause of death was throat cancer, his family said.

Mr. Paine, a former resident of Locust Valley, L.I., was also a longtime trustee of New York Hospital and was active in other nonprofit organizations.

He joined the New York & Pennsylvania Company, a producer of paper, in 1941 and went on to be the company's secretary, vice president and president before becoming a partner in the Wall Street firm of Clark Dodge & Company from 1963 until retiring in 1973.

Over the years he was a director of the Willsboro Realty Company, the Armstrong Realty Company and Armstrong Forest Company, among others.

Mr. Paine, who was born in Manhattan, graduated from St. Mark's School and earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton in 1941.

He was a Navy officer in World War II and president of The Brook, a Manhattan club, from 1961 to 1976.

His marriages to the former Cynthia Brooks Howe, in 1941, and the former Iris Ada Smith, in 1953, ended in divorce. He was married in 1964 to the former Alison Grace. She died in 1987.

He is survived by three daughters, Abby Paine Taylor of Philadelphia, Alix Ellis Paine of Shekomeko in Dutchess County, N.Y., and Helen Paine Engelhardt of Palm Beach, Fla., and eight grandchildren.

Edited July 25, 2010 by Tom Scully