Tag: Mary Meyer

JFK’s last birthday: Gifts, champagne and wandering hands on the presidential yacht 

On May 29, 1963, Kennedy and about two dozen others boarded the 104-foot Sequoia, the presidential yacht, for a dinner party cruise down the Potomac River. It was a family-and-friends-only affair. Aside from a few Secret Service agents, the roster of guests gleamed with a touch of Hollywood — actors David Niven (“Separate Tables” and “The Pink Panther”) and Peter Lawford (a Rat Packer who was married to Patricia Kennedy, the commander in chief’s sister).

Source: JFK’s last birthday: Gifts, champagne and wandering hands on the presidential yacht – The Washington Post

The Garrison Group: What one top CIA official said about Clay Shaw

Wistar Janney, CIA officer
Wistar Janney, CIA officer who monitored Jim Garrison

In response to a JFK Facts post on the CIA’s still-secret file on New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, author Peter Janney  sent the following comment about the CIA’s secret monitoring of Garrison’s JFK investigation.

The fact that counterintelligence chief Jim Angleton oversaw this effort is very telling. Angleton’ job was to prevent penetration of the agency  by a foreign powers. Yet his Garrison Group showed no interest in whether Garrison was cooperating with or advancing the agenda of another intelligence service. So why did Angleton care? To me the most plausible explanation is that Angleton feared Garrison might uncovered evidence of a counterintelligence operation in New Orleans or Angleton’s pre-assassination interest in Oswald. Or both.

To the story Janney, the son of a CIA officer, adds an important detail that I had forgotten.

The Mary Meyer story

This is a decent summary of Nina Burleigh’s fine book, A Very Private Woman. If you want to know the whole story, buy the book.

The Meyers became highly visible members of capital society. Their friends included powerful journalists and even more powerful CIA officials, including legendary counter-intelligence officer James Angleton, who would destroy Mary’s papers after her murder, and Mary and Frank Wisner, who was Cord’s boss. Then there was neophyte Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, with whom Mary would become close.

Source: Mary Meyer’s Most Enigmatic Life & Oh So Weirdly Mysterious Death | Crooks and Liars

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