by Peter Janney
8. Ron Rosenbaum and Phillip Nobile, “The Curious Aftermath of JFK’s Best and Brightest Affair,” New Times, July 9, 1976, p. 29. “Mary Meyer was accustomed to leaving her diary in the bookcase in her bedroom where, incidentally, she kept clippings of the JFK assassination.” In 1976, the authors interviewed some of the people closest to Mary Meyer who had intimate knowledge of her habits during the last year of her life. In addition, according to Leo Damore, Mary also talked with presidential adviser Kenneth P. O’Donnell shortly after the Kennedy assassination. See note 2 above.
9. Nina Burleigh, A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer (New York: Bantam, 1998), p. 304.
10. Anne and James Truitt had moved to Tokyo shortly after Anne’s sculpture exhibit Black, White, and Grey opened in January 1964 at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut. Her husband, James, was Japan’s bureau chief for Newsweek.
11. Morrow, First Hand Knowledge, p. 277. As noted in note 4 above, this event was also mentioned by former CIA official Robert T. Crowley in a conversation to author Gregory Douglas in January 1996. See Chapter 13 for further discussion of the way in which these sources are mutually corroborating.
12. Leo Damore revealed Mary Meyer’s altercation with Cord Meyer to his attorney, James H. Smith, Esq., during the above-referenced telephone call of March 31, 1993. Smith took six pages of notes on this call, which are reproduced in Appendix 3.
13. Confidential source who asked to remain anonymous, interview with the author, Washington, D.C., March 10, 2006.
14. Rosenbaum and Nobile, “Curious Aftermath,” p. 22.
15. I am indebted to award-winning Boston fine artist Shelah Horvitz for her insightful analysis of some of the last paintings of Mary Pinchot Meyer, as well as Horvitz’s overall knowledge of the Washington Color School artists.
16. Rosenbaum and Nobile, “Curious Aftermath,” p. 22. Part of this description was based on the authors’ interviews with principals in 1976, as well as the clothing Mary Meyer wore that day, which was documented in the trial transcript, United States of America v. Ray Crump, Jr., Defendant, Criminal Case No. 930-64, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C., July 20, 1965. Volume 1: pp. 4-7.
17. Burton Hersh, The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA (New York: Scribner, 1992), p. 439.
18. Burleigh, A Very Private Woman, p. 11.
19. Damore, interview.
20. Ibid. According to Damore, Kenny O’Donnell had shared with him that Mary Meyer had pushed hard for President Kennedy to protect the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath area.
21. Herbert S. Parmet, JFK: The Presidency of John F. Kennedy (New York: Dial, 1983), p. 306. In addition, Leo Damore said he had interviewed Mr. Parmet, who gave him a number of other details about what he had learned about Jack’s relationship with Mary Meyer.
22. Bernie Ward and Granville Toogood, “Former Vice President of Washington Post Reveals JFK 2-Year White House Romance,” National Enquirer, March 2, 1976, p. 4. In addition, Leo Damore had interviewed an anonymous source who was a close friend of Mary Meyer’s who gave him more details about this encounter, which he discussed with me in 1992.
23. Ibid. Ward and Toogood, National Enquirer, March 2, 1976, p. 4. Damore interview with anonymous source, as with me in 1992.
24. The extent of John F. Kennedy’s difficulty with emotional intimacy, particularly with women, has been well documented in the following: Nigel Hamilton, JFK: Reckless Youth (New York: Random House, 1992), and two books by Ralph G. Martin: A Hero for Our Time: An Intimate Story of the Kennedy Years (New York: Macmillan, 1983) and Seeds of Destruction: Joe Kennedy and His Sons (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1995). In addition, presidential historian Robert Dallek’s An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963 (Boston: Little, Brown, 2003) further documents this arena thoroughly, as does Doris Kearns Goodwin’s The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys (New York: St. Martin’s, 1987). All five volumes address John Kennedy’s emotional maternal deprivation and the toll it took on him. President Kennedy’s sexual addiction and reckless philandering is further documented by Seymour Hersh’s The Dark Side of Camelot (New York: Back Bay Books, 1997). See also chapter 6 for further discussion.
25. Anne Truitt, Daybook: The Journal of an Artist (New York: Pantheon, 1982), p. 165.
26. Parmet, JFK, p. 306.
27. Burleigh, A Very Private Woman, p. 226.
28. See Chapter 8. Mary Meyer’s initial foray into psychedelics, according to James Truitt, appears to have taken place in the San Francisco Bay area during a late-1950s visit with Jim Truitt and his wife, Anne. Deborah Davis, interview by Leo Damore, February 23, 1991; Deborah Davis, interview by the author, March 17, 2009. During Davis’s research for her book Katharine the Great in 1976, she traveled to Mexico to interview Jim Truitt for more than ten hours over a three-day period. The two then corresponded further by mail. Nina Burleigh also references the likelihood of Jim Truitt’s influence for “Mary’s initiation into drug experimentation.” See Burleigh, A Very Private Woman, pp. 171–172).
29. During his never-before-published two-hour interview by Leo Damore on November 7, 1990, Timothy Leary commented extensively on Mary Meyer’s experience with psychedelics and the impact it had on her worldview and in her life. Timothy Leary, interview by Leo Damore, Washington, D.C., November 7, 1990. See also Chapters 8 and 9.
30. Timothy Leary, Flashbacks: An Autobiography (Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher, 1983), p. 129. Also, during his 1990 interview with Leo Damore, Leary spoke at some length about how Mary Meyer defined her mission with psychedelics. See chapter 9.
31. Leary, interview. See also Leary, Flashbacks, p. 156.
32. Ward and Toogood, “White House Romance,” p. 4; Damore, interview. Damore repeatedly stressed that Mary Meyer had been in large measure “a healer” in Kennedy’s tortured emotional life. Some of Damore’s insight had been based on his talks with Kenny O’Donnell regarding Mary Meyer’s influence on the president.
33. Leary, Flashbacks, p. 191.
34. Ibid., p. 162. In addition, since the first edition (1979) of Deborah Davis’s Katharine the Great (which was recalled and shredded due to pressure from Ben Bradlee and Katharine Graham), there has been controversy over whether Phil Graham actually mentioned during his infamous “meltdown” in Phoenix at a newspaper convention in January 1963 the fact that Mary Meyer was having an affair with President Kennedy. Carol Felsenthal, whose 1993 book Power, Privilege and the Post was thoroughly checked and vetted, maintains that Phil Graham did, in fact, reveal the affair during his drunken tirade. In an interview for this book, Ms. Felsenthal stated the following: “Because of what happened to the Deborah Davis book, my book was vetted and re-vetted. I would never have been able to get away with something that wasn’t thoroughly checked.” In addition, Felsenthal also revealed that Ben Bradlee “told a journalism class at USC that he had read every entry [in the Felsenthal book] and he thought it was fair.” Carol Felsenthal, interview by the author, August 10, 2010.
35. In an interview Nina Burleigh conducted with CIA wife Joanne (“Joan”) Bross, Ms. Bross stated that James Angleton bragged on more than one occasion that he had wiretapped Mary Meyer’s telephone and bugged her bedroom. See Burleigh, A Very Private Woman 18, pp. 124–125. In addition, during Leo Damore’s above-mentioned telephone call to his attorney, James H. Smith, Esq., on March 31, 1993, Damore said that he had just talked for several hours with “William L. Mitchell,” who confessed to being part of a surveillance team assigned to Mary Meyer around the time of the Warren Report’s release to the public in September 1964.
36. Rosenbaum and Nobile, “Curious Aftermath,” p. 29.
37. The description of the final seconds of Mary Meyer’s life and what occurred at the scene of her death was outlined in detail in prosecuting attorney Alfred Hantman’s fifteen-page opening statement at the trial of Ray Crump, Jr. in July 1965. See trial transcript, United States of America
v. Ray Crump, Jr., Defendant, Criminal Case No. 930-64, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C., July 20, 1965, Vol. l: pp. 2–17.
38. According to the 1965 trial testimony of Dr. Linwood Rayford, the deputy coroner, the second shot was placed over Mary Meyer’s right shoulder blade, “angling from right to left and slightly downward,” where its trajectory would traverse the chest cavity, “perforating the right lung and the aorta …” Trial transcript, pp. 71–72. In 1991, Dr. Rayford told Leo Damore that “whoever assaulted this woman intended to kill her.” Dr. Linwood L. Rayford, interview by Leo Damore, Washington, D.C., February 19, 1991.
Chapter 2. Murder on the Towpath
1. Henry Wiggins Jr., interview by Leo Damore, Washington, D.C., April 2, 1992.
2. Trial transcript, United States of America v. Ray Crump, Jr., Defendant, Criminal Case No. 930-64, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C., July 20. 1965, pp. 132–133, 293.
3. Ibid., p. 240–241.
4. Ibid., p. 240–241, p. 246.
5. Ibid., pp. 133–137; Henry Wiggins Jr., interview by Leo Damore, Washington, D.C., April 2, 1992.
6. Trial transcript, pp. 262, p. 264.
7. Ibid., p. 218.
8. Ibid., p. 240, p. 248.
9. Ibid., p. 343; p. 345.
10. Ibid., p. 352; Roderick Sylvis, interview by the author, Wake Forest, North Carolina, July 23, 2008.
11. Trial transcript, p. 354.
12. Ibid., pp. 348–349.
13. Wiggins interview.
14. Trial transcript, p. 452.
15. Rosenbaum, Ron and Phillip Nobile, “The Curious Aftermath of JFK’s Best and Brightest Affair,” New Times, July 9, 1976, p. 24.
16. Trial transcript, pp. 232–265. Henry Wiggins reiterated his account several times throughout the trial.
17. Ibid., p. 359.
18. Ibid., p. 361.
19. Ibid., p. 381.
20. Ibid., p. 370.
21. Ibid., p. 407, p. 413. Byers told prosecuting attorney Alfred Hantman that it had been “[a]bout 1:00 o’clock or a little after” when he got the radio request to look for the jacket and cap (407). Under cross-examination by defense attorney Dovey Roundtree, he reiterated that it was “approximately 1:00 o’clock” when he received his instructions to look for the jacket (p. 413).
22. Ibid., p. 419.
23. Ibid., p. 67.
24. Ibid., p. 710.
25. Ibid., p. 254.
26. Unnamed colleague of Detective Bernard Crooke, interview by Leo Damore, Washington, D.C., October 28, 1990.
27. Ibid.
28. Rosenbaum and Nobile., “Curious Aftermath,” p. 24.
29. Wiggins, interview.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. Trial transcript, pp. 455–456.
36. Ibid., p. 634.
37. George Peter Lamb, interview by Leo Damore, Washington, D.C., December 20, 1990.
38. Ibid.
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. “Laborer Is Charged in Slaying of Artist; Mrs. Meyer Shot to Death on Towpath,” Evening Star, October 13, 1964, p. B-1.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid.
45. Dr. Linwood L. Rayford, interview by Leo Damore, Washington, D.C., February 19, 1991.
46. Ibid.
47. Trial transcript, pp. 71–75.
48. Ibid., pp. 71–72.
49. Ibid., pp. 71–75.
50. Rayford, interview.
51. Although Detective Edwin Coppage testified at the trial that the gloves were removed at the murder scene by Detective Bernie Crooke, Dr. Rayford testified that he remembered the victim had been wearing the gloves at the murder scene. Trial transcript, p. 67, p. 79, p. 81, p. 90, p. 669. Crooke had already left the murder scene with Ray Crump before Rayford arrived at approximately 2:00 P.M. Rayford, interview. Rayford specifically remembered that the gloves were removed at the autopsy and given to Crooke after 3:45 P.M on the day of the murder.
52. Dovey Roundtree, interviews by Leo Damore, 1990–1993. During these interviews, Dovey Roundtree shared numerous documents relating to her defense of Ray Crump, including the account given to her by Robert Woolright the morning he came to pick up Crump for work.
53. Ibid. In a discussion with Leo Damore regarding the testimony of Elsie Perkins, Dovey Roundtree mentioned that Crump’s jacket had been a Father’s Day present given to him by his wife, Helena, and their children the preceding June. See also the testimony of Elsie Perkins, trial transcript, pp. 485–507.
54. Trial transcript, p. 468, pp. 485–507.
55. Ibid., p. 486.
56. Ibid., pp. 467–505. Also, Dovey Roundtree told Leo Damore during several interviews that no one in Ray Crump’s family, church community, or anyone she interviewed ever recalled Ray Crump with a firearm of any kind. Ray’s brother, Jimmy Crump, had at one time years earlier owned a.22-caliber rifle, but that was the extent of any firearm noted in Crump’s immediate and extended family.
57. Trial transcript, pp. 43–47.
58. “Woman Shot Dead on Tow Path,” Evening Star, Washington, D.C., October 12, 1964, p. A-1.
59. Alfred E. Lewis and Richard Corrigan, “Suspect Seized in Canal Slaying; Woman Dies in Robbery on Towpath,” Washington Post, October 13, 1964, p. A-1.
60. “Laborer Is Charged,” p. A-1.
61. Ben A. Franklin, “Woman Painter Shot and Killed on Canal Towpath in Capital,” New York Times, October 14, 1964.
62. Trial transcript, pp. 438–449.
63. Report of the FBI Laboratory, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington, D.C., October 16, 1964, addressed to Mr. Robert V. Murray, Chief, Metropolitan Police Department, Washington, D.C., DB 72000, HO.64.2623, pp. 1–4. See Appendix 1.
64. “Rape Weighed as Motive in Death of Mrs. Meyer,” Evening Star, October 14, 1964, Metro sec., p. B-1.
65. “Meyer Slaying—Police Have ‘Mystery’ Witness,” Washington Daily News, October 14, 1964.
Chapter 3. Conspiracy to Conceal
1. Leo Damore, interview by the author, Centerbrook, Conn., February 1992. During this interview, Damore revealed many of the details that Kenneth O’Donnell had shared with him about what had taken place between Mary Meyer and President Kennedy during the dedication of the Pinchot Institute for Conservation at Grey Towers on September 24, 1963.
2. Nina Burleigh, A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer (New York: Bantam, 1998), pp. 16–25.
3. Alfred E. Lewis and Richard Corrigan, “Suspect Seized in Canal Slaying; Woman Dies in Robbery on Towpath,” Washington Post, October 13, 1964, p. A-1.
4. Susan Fletcher Witzell, “Gardeners and Caretakers of Woods Hole,” Spritsail: A Journal of the History of Falmouth and Vicinity (Woods Hole, Mass.: Woods Hole Historical Collection) 19, no. 2 (Summer 2005): p. 31.
5. Bishop Paul Moore, interview by Leo Damore, February 5, 1991.
6. Ibid.
7. “Bishop at Meyer Rites Asks Prayer for Killer,” Evening Star, October 15, 1964, p. B2.
8. Ibid.
9. Moore, interview.
10. Joseph J. Trento, The Secret History of the CIA (Roseville, Calif.: Prima, 2001), p. 282.
11. Moore, interview.
12. Bernie Ward and Granville Toogood, “Former Vice President of Washington Post Reveals JFK 2-Year White House Romance,” National Enquirer, March 2, 1976, p. 4.
13. Ron Rosenbaum and Phillip Nobile, “The Curious Aftermath of JFK’s Best and Brightest Affair,” New Times, July 9, 1976, p. 33.
14. Ibid., p. 22.
15. Burleigh, A Very Private Woman, p. 244.
16. Ben Bradlee, A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 266.
17. Trial transcript, United States of America v. Ray Crump, Jr., Defen
dant, Criminal Case No. 930-64, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C., July 20. 1965, p. 43.
18. Rosenbaum and Nobile, “Curious Aftermath,” p. 32.
19. Bradlee, Good Life, 266; Ben Bradlee, interview by the author, Washington, D.C., January 31, 2007.
20. Testimony of Ben Bradlee, trial transcript, p. 43.
21. Bradlee, Good Life, pp. 266–267.
22. Rosenbaum and Nobile, “Curious Aftermath,” p. 33.
23. Ibid., p. 32.
24. Ibid., p. 29.
25. Ibid.
26. James DiEugenio, “The Posthumous Assassination of John F. Kennedy,” in The Assassinations: Probe Magazine on JFK, MLK, RFK, and Malcolm X, ed. James DiEugenio and Lisa Pease (Los Angeles: Feral House, 2003), pp. 339–345.
27. Rosenbaum and Nobile, “Curious Aftermath,” p. 29.
28. Ward and Toogood, “White House Romance,” p. 4.
29. Bradlee, Good Life, p. 267.
30. Rosenbaum and Nobile, “Curious Aftermath,” p. 32.
31. Trial transcript, pp. 46–47.
32. Cicely D’Autremont Angleton and Anne Truitt, “In Angleton’s Custody,” letter to the editor, New York Times Book Review, November 5, 1995.
33. Ibid. This was further confirmed by the account that Tony Bradlee gave to author Sally Bedell Smith. See: Sally Bedell Smith, Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House (New York: Random House, 2004), p. 286.
34. William Safire, “Editor’s Notes,” New York Times, October 1, 1995.
35. Tom Mangold, Cold Warrior: James Jesus Angleton; The CIA’s Master Spy Hunter (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), pp. 327–330; Trento, Secret History, pp. 410–411; Newton “Scotty” Miler, interview by the author, February 15, 2005. All three of these sources attest to the fact that Angleton kept a voluminous set of files in a number of different safes at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Scotty Miler became Angleton’s chief of operations and was part of Angleton’s elite unit known as the Special Investigations Group (CI/SIG). He mentioned several times that Angleton never destroyed any file or document. “He kept everything,” said Miler.