Reviewer's Notebook lawyer and beat the rap. lb conspiracy theorists left and right, on the other hand, Meyer was "hit" because she knew too much. Without a doubt the Central Intelli gence Agency was keeping a close eye on Mary Meyer, say intelligence sources. As apparently befits anyone who fools around with a presidentof the strange Death , her telephone was tapped, her bedroom bugged, her home subject to clandestine searches. Where, conspiracy theorists ask, were her watchers on that fatal day? Well, we know where at least one of of Mary Meyer her watchers was shortlyafterthe mur der. , then executive editor By John Elvin of and Mary's brother-in-law, recalls in his autobiog Anew book raises questions about a murder in the inner raphy that, when he and his wife entered Mary's locked house the morn circles ofWashington In 1964. Fiction rarely gets stranger ing after the murder, "we found Jim than this, and journalists are saying it is too true to he good. Angleton." That's , per haps the mostenigmatic, controversial and determinedly patriotic counterin- telligence specialist who ever peeked under a bed for the CIA. He also was a friend of Bradlee's at the time, and the husband of one of Mary Meyer's best friends. What did he wantin ±ehouse? What were all of those close to her feverishly searching for — not her apparently substantial stash of LSD and marijuana, but her diary. Later that day, Bradlee says, the thought struck that perhaps the diary was secreted in Mary's art studio. Having no key, he took along a few tools to aid his entry, "only to run into Jim Angle- ton again, this time actually in the process of picking the padlock." Byall accounts the diary ultimately was located, and its contents deemed sufficiently volatile that it was left to the keeping of seniorCIA operative Angle- ton. Though quite the happy warrior when it came to shredding the reputa tion of another president — Richard Nixon—Bradlee played mother hen for the JFK-related contents of the diary that certainly would, at that time, have Crime scene: There were no witness ^ documented anexplosive story. MaryleadingPinchotrole in conspiraMeyer's es to the murder, and the \ He and a few others read cy lore was secured one case is unsolved. ^ \ Mary's notes, butnoone ever autumn afternoon in \ has talked substantively 1964 when, on her pre secrets involving \ \ aboutthesmoking accounts dictable afternoon walk sex, drugs andper- \ \ \ therein. outof Washington's Georgetown neigh hapsmore. \ V \ According to a recent borhood into the tamed wilderness of Those who have \ \ biography, AVery Private the Chesapeake & Ohio Canaltowpath, gone to the greatest of * vV \ Woman: The Life and she was shot and killed. Perplexing lengths to defend the \ Unsolved Murder of questions linger about who murdered "Camelot" image of the Presidential Mistress herand why. Clues may have existed in Kennedys contend that Mary Meyer, the diary Meyer's diary, thought to have con Meyer was killed by a & eventually went up in tained secrets of an intimate relation predatory derelict who smoke. At least the ship with John F. Kennedy — assassi subsequently obtained ' ' original was burned. nated the year before in Dallas — the services of a brilliant Author , a for-

March15,1999 mer Time reporter who now is a con became irrational, depressed and sui tributing editorfor New Yorkmagazine, Bradlee recalls in cidal. suspects thatatleastone copy may still Mary Pinchot attended Vassar Col exist. his autobiography lege and first metJohn F.Kennedy dur Passionately feminist and sensu ing those years, published accounts say. ously pro-Clinton, Burleigh became that, when he and After graduation she joined UPI as a something of a media celebrity during feature writer and espoused radical the recent unpleasantness, having sug his wife entered politics, though that was more the turf gested that "American women should of her well-to-do and idealistic fiance. be lining up with their presidential Mary's locked . An ardent pacifist at Yale, kneepads on to showtheirgratitude for Cord reacted to the treachery of Pearl keeping the theocracy off our backs." house the morning Harbor by joining the Marines. He Burleigh's book is fairly devoid of served heroically, and lost aneye when such provocative quips, however, dryly after the murder, a Japanese grenade blew up in his face abiding by the serious biographer's in a foxhole on Guam. mandate to stick to verifiable facts. She 'vue found Jim After the war, convinced he should "didn'twant... to seem too salacious or have remained a conscientious objec pui-ple," Burleigh tells Insight. Those Angleton' there. tor, Cord joined the World Feder^ist who come to her book for its murder- movement. Coincident with marriage mystery promise may find it only teas- to Mary, he was named a U.S. delegate ingly fulfilling, a bit like ordering a big to the San Francisco convention at steak and being served a cow and a which the was founded butcher knife. under acting general-secretary Alger Burleigh says her fascination with Hiss. At those meetings in San Fran Mary Meyer developed through read cisco, attended in lieu of a honeymoon, ing Bradlee's autobiography, A Good Mary Meyer renewed her acquain Life. Bradlee may not appreciate the tance with Kennedy, then a young honor. The authorof a honeyed homage reporter covering the event for the to his friend JFK, That Special Grace, Hearst newspapers. Cord reportedly Bradlee seems to have done his best to snubbed Kennedy, turning him down bury the Meyer story deep in history's for a requested interview,and Kennedy dustbin. But Burleigh says she has -- never forgot it. Cord believed in later heard Bradlee considers her book years, the commentators say, that JFK "accurate." Now retired and devoted to hadsidetrackedhis intelligence career church work in a quaint village on out ofpersonal dislike. Maryland's Eastern Shore, Bradlee did Ambitious and dashing, Cord not respond to Insight's request for a became a national figure as president firsthand assessment. of the World Federalists; he then helped Bradlee devotes scant and cautious found the American Veterans Commit mentions in his autobiography to the Mistress in training:Meyerfirst met tee, or AVC, to further the internation murder of this mysterious, free-spirit- John Kennedy while a student at alist cause. But, though he plowed ed woman who not only was his sister- . ahead with his chosen course, Cord is in-law but JFK's intimate in more than said to have become increasingly disil one way. Coached as a guide for LSD nated society photographers, became lusioned with the prospects for inter trips by , who spun the legendary for buck-naked, thunder- national cooperation and with the com heads of anentire generation with psy hooved, moonlight rides across the munist worldview in particular. chedelic mumbojumbo, says Burleigh, estate. In the audience, coincidentally, dur Meyer was a member of a circle of Mary's father, — a ing one of Cord's speeches to the AVC female mystics who spoke among founder ofthe left-wing,antiwarAmer opposing a Communisttakeover ofthat themselves of a mission to turn world ican Progressive Party and a noted organization, was Timothy Leary, an leaders on to LSD and thus secure forester — came from an eccentric idealistic Berkeley psychology student. peace on earth. It was the sixties, after family that shaped American conser This coincidental link took on some all. Of the bizarre clique, Meyer may vation policy; his brother, Gifford, significance a decade or so later, the have had the best shot at success. guided IfeddyRooseveltin creating the story goes, when Leary became Mary Drawing on Burleigh, Bradlee and government's vast national-forest hold Meyer's mentor in learning to guide the diverse array of related books and ings. Amos also helped launch the psychedelic "trips." articles, readers will learn that young National Civil Liberties Bureau, which In the interim, afterteachingat Har Mary Pinchot grew up between the became the American Civil Liberties vard, Lea^ became the guru of the World Wars in a wealth-fortified won Union, and was active in defense ofthe psychedelic generation. To the later derland. Her home was Grey TDwers, anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bar- chagrin of his "drop-out" flock, he 3,600 acres of woodland, orchard and tolomeo Vanzetti, the convicted bank acknowledged links for funding and gardens on the Delaware River, where robbers and murderers. Later in life, drugs to the CIA, where mind-control Pinchot women "often wandered the Amos became disillusioned with the experiments were being conducted in grounds near the pool and waterfall left and turned for political balm to hopes of finding a truth serumand tem naked," to the delight or bemusement Father Charles Coughlin, a firebrand porary destabilizer. It seems likely to of guests, staff and peeping townies. populist and anti-Semite. He also those who followed his career during Herhalf-sister, Rosamund, a disturbed, sought solace in alcoholand, like many this period that Leary was a prized ultimately suicidal beauty who fasci- of its ardent devotees, eventually (continued on page 44)

March15.1999 Insight' 15 MARY MURDER the establishment aristocracy in gen days had the CIA to thank for it. "No one (continuedfrom page 15) eral. These were the sons and daugh could enter the world of psychedelics ters of the advantaged few chronicled without first passing, unawares, informant, eventually adding to the by F.Scott Fitzgerald in his novels, and through doors opened by the Agency." Meyer dossier as well as to many oth in fact his own daughter, Scottie, was A number of researchers say that the ers. (At the same time, he developed a among the Meyer crowd. "[0]ne code CIA had access to a reservoir of top- hearty disrespect for the FBI, which quality LSD, enough to destabilize the had sicced G. Gordon Liddy on him at collective consciousness of the entire a Milbrook, N.Y., estate provided by a Mary Meyer had nation, and dispensed some within the scion of the Mellon family. In the general population — some of it to bizarre course ofevents to follow, Leary access to LSD and unknowing victims who later sued. and Liddy later became friends and (Crackpot as these assertions may launched themselves as antagonists in to JFK, and became sound, they are detailed in two books a college-circuit road show.) cited by Burleigh and reviewed for this Cord Meyer, via family connections an Oval Dffice fix article, Acid Dreams by Martin A. Lee and his own credentials, meanwhile and Bruce Shlain, and The Searchfor was recruited into the Central Intelli ture. According to the Manchurian Candidate by John gence Agency and became one of its Marks). Mary Meyer had access to prized superspooks. Before long he was one aide, 'Mary LSD and to JFK. masterminding many of the agency's Probably the mostfascinating reve covert operations. Following a show was almost a part lation in Burleigh's book concerns the down in which his patriotism was ques extent to which Meyer became an Oval tioned in lightof pastassociations, Cord of the furniture Office fixture. One aide is quoted as became known as a rock-solid CIA telling Burleigh, "Mary was almost hard-liner. around Kennedy.' part of the furniture around Kennedy." lb put a kinder, gentler spin on Author Leo Damore believed JFK was Burleigh's unsympathetic account, going to dump Jackie for Mary, but his Cord developed an increasing depen book on Mary Meyer never material dency on alcohol and became less and ized due to his suicide. Deborah Davis, less grataat dinner parties which were authorof the controversial biographyof the regular ritual among the Meyers' , Katharine the clique, with guest lists drawn from the Great, also made that assertion in an most prominent of journalists, diplo interview with the countercultural mats, statesmen and spooks — people Steamshovel Press. who mattered in Washington and who Apparently the first public mention could make things happen in of the Mary Meyer-JF^ affair came and the world. when Washington Post publisher Phil Asked by Insightfor his assessment Graham, another suicide-in-the-mak- of Burleigh's book. Cord Meyersaid: "I ing, seized the podium at a newspaper- don't want to discuss it." Though he editors convention in 1963 and, in a hasn'twritten a post-CIA memoir, Cord bizarre rant mentioned President made a perhaps ill-advised sacrifice of Kennedy's "newfavorite," Mary Meyer. privacy when he donated his papers to "[N]ot one newspaper carried a whis the Library of Congress, where perof Graham's revelation. Perhapsthe researchers such as Burleigh are free fact Graham also was taking off his to prowl his daily journals in search of High life? Both Angleton and Leary clothes on stage affected his credibili tidbits. contended that Kennedy and Mary ty ...," Burleigh observes. There is agreementamongthe com dropped acid together. IfMary did introduce her presiden mentators that among the closest of tial chum to LSD, it doesn't seem like Cord and Mary's friends at that time of behaviorapplied to the peasants and ly that she had to twist Kennedy's arm. were Bradlee and Angleton. A dashing middle class, another to the sophisti JFK was known to rely on "ampheta and glib establishment newsman, cates, who were betterequipped to han mine cocktails" popular at the time, Bradlee was married to Mary's sister, dle certain emotional ambiguities," reportedlycourtesyof celebritydoctor Antoinette, or "Tbny," and spy-hunter Burleigh notes. The Meyer marriage, Max "Dr. Feelgood" Jacobson, men Angleton was the husband of Mary's less than cohesive for some time, hitthe tioned as Kennedy's "personal physi chum from Vassar, Cicely d'Autremont. rocks when Mary fell for a charismat cian" in the bookAcid Dreams. Jacob- Burleigh initially is somewhat dismis ic Italian count who wanted to come to son was sought after by sive of the aesthetic, half-Mexican America to be a cowboy. Mary and the and other wild and crazy sorts for "vit Angleton, citing "problems with alcohol countmade plans for a ranch life in the amin" injections thought to include and his penchant for imagining elabo American West. Cord, furious when methamphetamine and cocaine. He rate Communist plots." In fact, revela informed, refused to divorce her, but "added psychedelics to his speedball tions from KGB and GRU files and the she persisted and won. Dumped by her iryections" after visiting Leary at Mill- Venona intercepts have shown Angle- Italian lover, she threw herselfinto her brook, according to Acid Dreams. ton's "paranoia" regarding molesinside artworkand the bohemian Georgetown In one incident mentioned in pub the U.S. government to have been more art scene, becoming more flamboyant lished accounts quoted by Burleigh, than justified. and indiscreet. JFK closed his eyes after three mari Hedonistic behavior was accepted Burleigh quotes a source as saying juanajoints and refused a fourth, com among the elites in Meyers' circle and thatanyone who obtained LSD in those menting: "Suppose the Russians did

Insight March 15,1999 something now." Both Angleton and The party line on why the various and Anne and goddaughter of Mary Leary contended that Mary and JFK princip^swanted thediary kept secret Meyer. While she did spend a lot of time dropped acid together. is that they were being loyal to Mary. at the as a toddler, "Mr Angleton rivaled J. Edgar Hoover as There are, however, other dramatic Kennedy is not my father," she told the an intimate observer of those he con possibilities. Perhaps it was chock full Post. sidered suspect orvulnerable to black of gossip. In 's case, for Many of the old alliances collapsed mail — the latter including JFK. during the years; both Angleton and Though a friend of Mary's, it is clear Cord Meyer reportedly cameto despise from the published reports that he also Speculation on the Bradlee, who exchanged his wife — bugged her phone and bedroom and Mary's sister — for Sally Quinn. entered her home in her absence on possible contents Burleigh cites friends as suggesting severaloccasions to search for notes or thatIbny Bradlee had become increas her now-famous diary. Burleigh told of Mary's diary and ingly reclusive and developed "a con Tferry Gross of National Public Radio suming interest in mystic^ spiritual that the CIA kept tabs on Mary Meyer tlie alleged contin ism after her sister's murder." Yet, for because of the possibility of blackmail, all the falling out, no one who knows and out of concern that she might be ued existence of what was in the diary has come forward "lobbying Kennedy, sort of, in bed." with details. Due to his agency's extensive and copies has fueled a If the secrets they are keeping are maverick research into the matter, part of a cover-up, what sort of cover- Angleton would have been well aware continuing contro up? One explanation dovetails neatly that LSD causes extreme distortions in with former House Judiciary Commit perception and sometimes lasting per versy. Perhaps it tee counsel Jerome Zeifman's theory, sonality changes. Did he express con detailed in Insight, of an ongoing full- cerns and towhom?Noneof^ese com was full of gossip. court press by Kennedy loyalists to mentators claims to know. For whatever keep a lid on "the crimes of Camelot" reason, MaryandJFKsaw less and less (see "Starr Crossed Out by Old of each other, and then JFK was shot Camelot," Dec. 21, 1998). Burleigh while visiting Dallas. Almost a year gives that idea credence in describing later, Mary met a similar fate while the Warren Commission's seeming walking along the C&O towpath. whitewash of"a Pandora's box ofcuri In those rough-and-tumble days of ous and embarrassing facts, assassina law enforcement, crimes were some tion plots and Mafia ties" in the Eisen times solved by grabbing the nearest hower/Kennedy-era. Perhaps the diary derelict and, if it happened to be the made reference to Camelot's dirty laun nearest black derelict, all the better dry. The case was prosecuted under the If Burleigh has her own theory, it supervision of Robert Kennedy, who leaks out enigmatically in a fairly eso still was attorney general, and under teric conclusion. "Like high priestesses the direct control of U.S.attorney for the guarding the Eleusinian mysteries, District ofColumbia David Acheson, a those ancient Greek fertility rites of Washington insider who was close to blood and sex, her friends have pro both Mary and Cord and the son of for tected the mystery of their lost fnend's mer secretary of state Dean Acheson. life and with it thesecrethistory of their The judge was Howard Corcoran, group, once so important and now fad brother of legendary Washington fixer Mystery man: Bradlee caughtAngle- ing into old age, death and history." Tbmmy "the Cork" Corcoran, who gen ton "in the process ofpicking the Secret history? This secret history erally was assumed to have been padlock" to Mary's art studio. wasshaped in weekly "spiritual" meet appointed to the benchin return for his ings involving cosmic mysteries, psy- ; brother's favors to Lyndon Johnson. instance, there might have been refer chedelics and the hatching of schemes Corcoran's law clerk was Bob Bennett, ences to her husband, James, a Wash to bring on the dawning of the Age of now 's legal eagle. ington Post executive and "party Aquarius. "Theoccult had always beck The jury found the alleged shooter buddy" of and Ben oned," Burleigh says of the George innocent. Bradlee, who was much under the spell town-based circle of eight strange Since then, speculation on the pos of MaryMeyer Fired by the Postwhile , ladies, connected to the CIA, appar sible contents of Mary's diary and the reportedlyexperiencing"mentalprob ently to a stash of mind-bending drugs alleged continued existence of copies lems,"Hiiittdivorced hiswifeand went and to the real movers and shakers of has fueled a continuing controversy. In offto raise mushrooms among the Hui- the social order a letter to the Washington Times chol Indians in Mexico. Prior to com Burleigh agreed with an interview regarding a review of Bradlee's auto mitting suicide in 1981, he sold the tale erthat "there's a lot missing." What was biography, Mary's friends Cicely of Mary Meyer and JFK to the Nation the "too much" that MaryMeyerknew? Angleton and Anne Truitt disputed al Enquirer, where it appeared in print And, put bluntly, to what dark secrets Bradlee's account of the discovery of for the first time. is the 25-year code of silence sur the diary. Regardless, all agree that The gossip possibilities seembound rounding ^e murder of Mary Meyer Jim Angleton got his hands on it and less. In a 1997 story on men and women linked? Was it really witchcraft? "I think held it for three years. He eventually rumored to be the children of John F. the ladies of Mary PinchotMeyer's set returned it to Tbny Bradley, they say, Kennedy, the New York Post inter might consider 'coven' an accurate who burned it. viewed MaryThiitt, daughter of James description," Burleigh tells Insight. •

March 15.1999