I’ll be tuning into this re-examination of the Mary Meyer case, not for the conspiracy theories (which I don’t find convincing) but for the details of the case that emerged at the trial of her alleged (and acquitted) assailant.
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).
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.
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.
A friend forwards this CSPAN interview in which retired Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee talks about finding the diary of his sister-in-law Mary Meyer, the mistress of President Kennedy, and how CIA Counterintelligence Chief James Angleton took possession of the diary
British historian John Simkin adds important detail to the story of Ben Bradlee and CIA Counterintelligence Chief James Angleton after the assassination of President Kennedy.
I find Simkin to be a credible and knowledgeable writer. If he has made any mistakes, please let me know via email.
In response to Ben Bradlee’s thoughts on JFK’s assassination, a friend asks, “Do you think Bradlee feared tangling with Angleton? Angleton was supposedly livid because Bradlee spread the story that Angleton had lock picked the studio of Mary Meyer [JFK’s mistress, slain in October 1964]?”