Mary Pinchot Meyer

Mary Pinchot Meyer    (journalist, painter)
Born	14th October, 1920
Died	12th October, 1964 (Age 43) Georgetown, USA
Cause of death	Gunshot
Spouse	Cord Meyer
Victim of	Murder

In 1944 Mary met Cord Meyer, a lieutenant in the US Marines who was recovering from serious shrapnel injuries that had resulted in him losing an eye. The couple married on 19th April, 1945.

On 18th December, 1956, Mary's nine-year-old son, Michael, was hit by a car on the curve of highway near their house and killed.

In January, 1962, Mary began a sexual relationship with US President John F. Kennedy. No newspaper reported this incident but Kennedy decided to bring an end to the affair.

Murder

On 12th October, 1964, Mary Pinchot Meyer was shot dead as she walked along the Chesapeake and Ohio towpath in Georgetown. Henry Wiggins, a car mechanic, was working on a vehicle on Canal Road, when he heard a woman shout out: "Someone help me, someone help me". He then heard two gunshots. Wiggins ran to the edge of the wall overlooking the towpath. He later told police he saw "a black man in a light jacket, dark slacks, and a dark cap standing over the body of a white woman."

Mary appeared to be killed by a professional hitman. The first bullet was fired at the back of the head. She did not die straight away. A second shot was fired into the heart. The evidence suggests that in both cases, the gun was virtually touching Mary’s body when it was fired. As the FBI expert testified, the “dark haloes on the skin around both entry wounds suggested they had been fired at close-range, possibly point-blank.”

Raymond Crump was tried for her murder, and on 29th July, 1965, acquitted by judge Howard Corcoran (brother of Tommy Corcoran, a close friend of Lyndon B. Johnson) who appears to have conspired to avoid mention of the CIA in his courtroom. Peter Janney argues: "There were rumblings swirling all over Washington and elsewhere about CIA involvement in President Kennedy's assassination, and Corcoran likely sought to steer clear of any mention of the Agency altogether."

Ben Bradlee was the first witness called to the stand, Alfred L. Hantman, the chief prosecutor, asked him under oath, what he found when he searched Mary's studio. "Now besides the usual articles of Mrs. Meyer's avocation, did you find there any other articles of her personal property?" Bradlee replied that he found a pocketbook, keys, wallet, cosmetics, and pencils. He did not tell the court that he found a diary that he had passed on to James Jesus Angleton.