Pod Insights Conspiracy Theories JFK's Murdered Mistress: Mary Pinchot Meyer About this episode President John F. Kennedy saw his mistress Mary Pinchot Meyer as an equal during their lives. But there was one thing neither realized they’d have in common: their suspicious deaths. Police said Mary was murdered in a robbery gone awry. But some believe her death was an orchestrated hit: a move in the War on Drugs, or a way to hide her evidence that the CIA killed JFK.
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Transcript 0:07 Speaker 00 Februari 2001. Autorentre David Hayman se siede in una sala di pranzo di un posto di cure. Al di là di lui c'è il 80 anni di Cord Meyer. Cord non è il tuo vecchio cittadino senior. È un ufficio del CIA ritirato che era, per forza, a capo delle assassinazioni. Ma tra i suoi funzioni del CIA, la vita di Cord era piena di tragedie. Il suo fratello catturato era ucciso a Okinawa. Il suo figlio di nove anni è morto in un incidente di auto. E la sua ex moglie, Mary Penn Showmeyer, fu uccisa durante la sua strada quotidiana. Ora che Cord stava scominciando di infarce, probabilmente pensava a queste tragedie,
0:51 Speaker 00 specialmente Mary's. La sua uccisione rimase insollevata, ispirando decenni di speculazione. Officialmente, Mary fu uccisa in un tentativo di muggare. Ma alcune persone pensano che la sua morte abbia legami con il governo. Cord potrebbe averlo pensato anche così, come una teoria o come un conoscenza di CIA. Dopo tutto, quando il suo intervistatore, David Hayman, chiede se Cord sa chi è stato il assassino, vuoi sapere cosa ha detto? "Quelli stessi figli di pazzi che hanno ucciso John F. Kennedy." Benvenuti al Conspiracy Theories, un podcast di Spotify.
1:36 Speaker 00 Sono Carter Roy. I nuovi episodi usciscano ogni venerdì. Amiamo sentire da voi, quindi se state ascoltando sulla app Spotify, seggete e dategli un'idea, o contattarci su Instagram, @TheConspiracyPod. Questo episodio contiene discussioni di assalto sessuale, suicidio, uccisione e uso di droghe. Considerate questo quando deciderete come e quando ascoltate. Stay con noi. This episode is brought to you by Petivity. Every cat has a few unsolved mysteries. Why the 3 a.m. zoomies? What's so fascinating about that one empty box? And at mealtime, are they actually eating differently? Or does it just seem that way?
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3:57 Speaker 00 July 16, 1962. Forty-two-year-old Mary Pinchot Meyer signs into the White House Visitor Log. She's been a returning guest for the past year or so, though today she brought her host a peculiar gift. Mary's no stranger to government. The blonde artist grew up in the DC social scene, and though it may not have been her intention, she seemed destined to end up in the White House at one point or another. In 1945, she married Cord Meyer Jr., a wealthy young man on the rise. Mary's brother-in-law, Ben Bradley, thought Cord was going to be the political leader of their generation.
4:42 Speaker 00 Mary may have thought so too. As a pacifist bohemian, she wanted world peace. Perhaps she thought her husband would help bring it. However, Cord's career took a different direction. He quickly became a big shot in the CIA. Cord's covert operations seemingly dealt with planning assassinations on foreign leaders. Now, exactly whose assassinations is unclear, but we do know that at different points during Cord's CIA tenure, the agency planned to kill Fidel Castro and 58 officials in the Guatemalan government.
5:23 Speaker 00 If you remember our Castro episode, you know that this isn't what eventually brought him down. The Guatemalan plan didn't go through either, but the point is, Mary despised the direction Cord's career took. The two divorced in 1958. So, no, Cord wasn't the man who brought Mary to the White House. It was an old friend she'd first met at a high school dance, who later lived next door to Marion Cord in Hickory Hill, Virginia. At some point after Mary's divorce, their friendship reached another level. A secret affair. And today, she signed into the White House to continue it.
6:04 Speaker 00 That friend and lover is President John F. Kennedy. And...
6:11 Speaker 00 They're about to get stoned. Mary walks into JFK's bedroom and gives him her gift. Six joints for them to share. JFK reportedly smokes three. Mary offers him a fourth, but JFK refuses. It's the middle of the Cold War. A long stalemate between the US and the Soviet Union. Each side fears the other will start a nuclear war. What if the Russians call while he's high as a kite? Perhaps because of this anxiety, this is the only confirmed instance of Mary and JFK smoking weed together. There may be others, as Mary signs into the White House visitor logs more than a dozen times.
6:53 Speaker 00 Usually when JFK's wife, Jackie, is out of town. According to People Magazine, JFK reportedly has at least seven mistresses over the years. The most famous being Marilyn Monroe. But despite the drugs and the sneaking around, Mary isn't just another fling. She knows how to work the room. She's been rubbing elbows with future government officials since her prep school days. Even at events where politicians' wives splinter off, Mary doesn't follow. If she's not able to be with the boys talking shop, she picks a spot nearby,
7:35 Speaker 00 keeping an ear on everything going on. According to Mary's biographer, she's almost a part of the furniture at the White House. JFK considers her his equal and even allows her to sit in on Oval Office meetings. The pair often debate JFK's next move. But the affair goes even deeper. Some claim she's his last true love. If you're watching the video, you'll see a love letter he wrote her. The relationship is equally important to Mary. In October 1962, the world hinges on it.
8:18 Speaker 00 It starts when a New York senator calls up Washington with troubling news. The Soviet Union is building nuclear missiles in Cuba. If they finish them, Cuba will be able to strike the US. DC is on pins and needles as they send recon jets to verify the senator’s claim. On October 16th, the jets return with pictures confirming the missiles’ construction. JFK has to decide. Will he strike Cuba before they finish and start World War III? Mary, ever the pacifist, urges him not to.
9:00 Speaker 00 She wants to find a peaceful resolution with Nikita Khrushchev, the head of the Soviet Union. For nearly two weeks, tensions rise. JFK speaks to the nation, telling Americans that they’re on the brink of war. But thankfully, as some believe, Mary gets through to JFK. Two days after JFK’s speech, he and Khrushchev manage to make a deal. The Soviets remove their missiles from Cuba, and in exchange, the US removes the ones they have in Turkey. In 13 days, the world goes from expecting total nuclear Armageddon to completely avoiding it.
9:46 Speaker 00 Huge relief for Mary. Not only is the nation safe, but her dream of world peace is just a bit closer. She couldn’t achieve that with Cord by her side, but maybe she’ll be able to with JFK.
10:04 Speaker 00 Until, of course, that fateful day in Dallas. First, the official story. On November 22nd, 1963, JFK is on a campaign tour aiming to secure his bid for reelection. So he, the governor of Texas and their wives, ride in an open convertible throughout Dallas. They’re on their way to a luncheon where JFK will give a speech, happily waving to citizens lining the street. They pass the Texas School Book Depository, and three gunshots ring through the crowd.
10:41 Speaker 00 Two bullets pierced JFK from behind, one in the throat and one in the head. He's pronounced dead about half an hour later. Officially, an important word there. The three shots are fired from the book depository by Lee Harvey Oswald and no one else. But Oswald says he didn't shoot. He's just a fall guy for the real killer. If that's true, he makes a believable suspect. He's a communist who defected to the Soviet Union after joining the US Marines at 17,
11:22 Speaker 00 a decision that leads many to believe he did kill JFK as some Marxist mission against the country. Two days after JFK's death, Oswald is killed on live TV by Jack Ruby. This opens the conspiracy theory floodgates. We've covered this in the past, but for this episode, the two key theories are: A. Oswald told the truth about being a patsy. The CIA were the real killers, who then hired Ruby to silence Oswald. Or B. Oswald was the killer, but he didn't act alone.
12:01 Speaker 00 A second CIA-trained shooter fired another shot from the grassy knoll in front of JFK's motorcade. That explains why his head seemed to jerk backward in the Zapruder film. Why, many will ask, would that happen if the shots came from the book depository behind him? For this story, what you need to know is that Mary Pinchot Meyer believes wholeheartedly that the CIA killed JFK. Remember, JFK wasn't just Mary's lover. She'd known him since she was a teenager. She thought he'd bring world peace.
12:44 Speaker 00 Perhaps she suspects the CIA killed him because she has to believe his death is something bigger than an arbitrary assassination. Life can't be that randomly unfair. Or perhaps she suspects the CIA because she has proof.
13:02 Speaker 00 After the assassination, Mary starts asking around about JFK's death. And we don't know much about her investigation, but she apparently talks to two presidential advisers who tell her that JFK was hit from the front. Which is important, because it contradicts the later official story. That he was hit from the back. At least, that's according to researchers Leo Demore and Peter Janney. We'll get into their work in more detail later. Whether the officials confirm that those bullets came from the CIA is unknown. Nevertheless, it's a pretty damning claim.
13:45 Speaker 00 One Mary expects to see in the official report. A week after JFK's death, new acting president Lyndon B. Johnson assigns Chief Justice Earl Warren to look into the assassination. What follows is an investigation into 550 witnesses, 3,100 FBI and Secret Service reports, and the bombshell Zapruder film. The results of the investigation are published a year later as the Warren Commission Report. On her video, you can see the sheer thickness of the report. It's like an encyclopedia.
14:26 Speaker 00 Mary likely flips through the pages, expecting to see what the officials told her. But it tells a different story. Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone gunman. There was no second shooter from the front. And more importantly, the US government and the CIA had nothing to do with the assassination. Mary's outraged. Her brother-in-law, Ben Bradley, future head of The Washington Post, details this in interviews. Mary apparently goes up to her ex-cord and to James Angleton, another top CIA operative.
15:07 Speaker 00 She says, quote, "If you guys don't tell how Jack Kennedy was really killed, then I'm going to blow the whistle on you and all your doing."
15:19 Speaker 00 Now, whether Mary suspects that her ex-husband helped kill her lover is unclear. She may have meant the Royal You, the CIA in general. Either way, she's prepared to go public. But she never gets the chance. Ten days after the Warren Commission report, shortly after Mary threatens Cord, she's walking the tow path near her home. It's her usual stroll, a short break from painting in her studio. Then, she's attacked. According to some reports, an assailant grabs her and drags her 20 feet toward the woods.
16:01 Speaker 00 Truck drivers nearby claim to hear her scream for help. Mary fights against her attacker until a gunshot silences her, followed by another. Two shots, just like the officials told her about JFK. Mary Pinchot Meyer dies at 43 years old, just two days shy of her 44th birthday. Shortly after the shooting, Ben Bradley receives a phone call. A man named Wister Janney is on the other line. He tells Ben that he heard on the radio that a woman was killed, and he not only thinks,
16:41 Speaker 00 but confirms that it's Ben's sister-in-law, Mary. Ben is probably distraught over the news. He may not even believe it at first, but of course, Wister is correct. The odd thing is, the police haven't identified Mary's body yet. To them, the victim is a random woman. So how did Wister know that it was Mary?
17:11 Speaker 00 Well, according to Worcester's son, Peter Janney, it's because Worcester had inside knowledge. He was part of the CIA. And, he says, the CIA were the ones that took her out.
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18:31 Speaker 00 Like many people, Mary Pinchot Meyer didn't believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. She reportedly even got two government officials to admit that there was a second shooter. Proof in hand, she threatened to publicly accuse the CIA of killing her lover JFK before she was murdered. And just like JFK's, her death fuels countless theories. To this day, the murder remains unsolved. Author Peter Janney, a childhood friend of Mary's son, thinks the CIA killed her. That would explain how his father, a CIA operative,
19:14 Speaker 00 was able to inform Mary's brother-in-law of her death before that brother-in-law identified Mary's body in the morgue that night.
19:24 Speaker 00 But back in the fall of 1964, the police have their own suspect. About an hour after they arrive at the crime scene, they find a 25-year-old man named Ray Crump. He's oddly soaking wet, claiming to have drifted off to sleep on the bank of the Potomac River and fallen into the water. Mary died on the tow path along that same river, and Crump matches the description of the man witnesses saw running away from Mary's dead body. He's arrested on the scene. Now the police just have to prove he's the killer. In those next 48 hours, however,
20:07 Speaker 00 a different investigation is happening at Mary's home. A day or so after Ben Bradley identifies Mary's body and her death hits the news, Bradley's phone rings. His wife and Mary's sister, Toni Pinchot Bradley, answers. It's a friend of Mary's saying that Mary left explicit instructions if something were ever to happen to her. Get her diary before the police do. This was supposedly so her private life wouldn't be a matter of public record. Now, Mary isn't the only person in the world to have a diary. You may have one, but you're probably not thinking
20:51 Speaker 00 about the police learning your secrets. Why would they care? Unless, of course, you're hiding something bigger than yourself. For example, something concerning the president? Ben and Toni wait until the next morning to search Mary's house for the diary. But oddly, when they arrive, the door is unlocked. Somebody's already inside. James Angleton, one of the men Mary went to with her threat to expose the CIA.
21:29 Speaker 00 He was the CIA's Chief of Counterintelligence, nicknamed "The Locksmith." There wasn't a lock he couldn't pick open, which explains how he got into Mary's house. According to the documentary series "Hardcover Mysteries," Angleton is considered by some to be "the most powerful man in Washington." He had more secrets than J. Edgar Hoover. If you're new here, Hoover was the FBI Director from 1924 to 1972. According to Ben, Angleton is embarrassed to be caught. What was "The Locksmith" even doing here?
22:09 Speaker 00 Well, he claims that his wife got the same call the Bradleys got, so he's also looking for the diary. It's unclear if the Bradleys are suspicious. Sure, it's awkward, but it's not totally crazy that Angleton's wife got that call. The Angletons were close with Mary. The Locksmith was actually the godfather of her sons. In the end, the trio band together and search the house, but find nothing. They go their separate ways. Later that day, the Bradleys check their home garage, which is also Mary's art studio. Maybe the diary is in there.
22:51 Speaker 00 They walk up to the door, and, again, James Angleton is there, picking the lock. What the hell? Now, the Bradleys may have not been suspicious, but at this point, I sure would be. Remember, this is after Angleton knows the Bradleys are looking for the diary. Couldn't he have just asked them if he can check their garage? Why is he being so secretive? Was he trying to find out what was in the diary before they could?
23:26 Speaker 00 Angleton's claim that his wife got the call about the diary is odd, too. If Mary didn't want the police to find the diary, why would her friend call a CIA officer's wife about it? That feels like going to the CEO with a mistake that you don't want your manager to know about. Could Angleton have found out about the diary a different way? Like through tapping Mary's phones? Around the time of her death, Mary was getting paranoid. She thought somebody was rummaging through her things when she wasn't home, that she was being watched. Turns out, she was right.
24:06 Speaker 00 She was put under CIA surveillance a month after JFK's assassination, maybe even earlier. In the documentary series Hardcover Mysteries, former CIA operative David Denisella confirms it. According to biographer Leo Demore, Mary was being watched by the CIA because of her suspicions about JFK's assassination. Angleton seemed to think it was only a matter of time before she went public, so he had to keep an eye on her. And it went beyond just following her around. At some point, likely when they rummaged through her things, they planted wiretaps,
24:48 Speaker 00 practically erasing any privacy Mary could have. There's even one account of Angleton bragging about doing it. Perhaps his team heard Mary tell her friend about the diary. They probably also heard one call she made in December 1963. Distraught over JFK's death, Mary exclaimed over the phone, "They couldn't control him anymore. He was changing too fast. They've covered everything up." Who was on the other end of the phone? None other than Timothy Leary, the godfather of psychedelics.
25:33 Speaker 00 Now, if JFK and Mary smoking pot together didn't tip you off to how crazy this story will get, get ready, because Mary was into much more than weed. She was exploring the boundaries of consciousness.
25:52 Speaker 00 So Timothy Leary was a Harvard University lecturer and psychologist at the forefront of LSD research. His and Mary's relationship was something in between trusted friend and teacher-student. In his autobiography, Flashbacks: A Personal and Cultural History of an Era, Leary claims that Mary came to him one day in 1962. She spoke about being friends with a very important man. She wanted to learn how to lead an LSD session for him. Many people, including Leary, believe that JFK was that very important man.
26:37 Speaker 00 One biographer of Mary even cross-referenced the dates of Mary's visits with Leary and her entries into the White House visitor log, and they line up! So, maybe this means she went to the White House right after getting drugs from Leary? And if that's not proof enough, CIA Chief Angleton himself reportedly confirmed that Mary and JFK took LSD together. I'm sorry, am I hearing this correctly? Are you telling me the President of the United States was tripping in the White House? Can you imagine being in the White House, tripping out? Feels like I'm in the White House. I am in the White House. George Washington's talking to me.
27:20 Speaker 00 Okay. Now, we already discussed how JFK found a peaceful resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and this could have been a direct result of Mary's LSD sessions. You see, Mary knew that the CIA was experimenting with the drug around this time, probably thanks to her Washington connections. We've covered this in past MKUltra episodes, but here's a quick refresher. From 1953 to 1964, the CIA was trying to find out how to weaponize drugs and hypnosis. They thought LSD could act as a truth serum, or even help in influencing people to kill on command.
28:04 Speaker 00 But Mary had heard another psycho not on TV say that LSD could bring world peace, and she wanted to make it happen. Living in DC, she knew that power-hungry men had one weakness. And she told Leary they can only be changed by women. So, along with seven other women, some of whom we'll get into later, Mary hatched a plan. They'd introduce LSD to the most powerful men in Washington. Their hope was that the psychedelic would broaden the men's minds away from war and toward world peace.
28:48 Speaker 00 The results of this plan were supposedly what Mary meant by JFK changing. Maybe enlightened by psychedelics, he sought world peace. And the CIA hated that. Like we mentioned, they wanted LSD to be a drug for war. Mary and her group using it for peace could jeopardize that and maybe even the CIA's existence. The agency already thought that JFK's resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis was a mistake. Agreeing to remove nuclear weapons from Turkey made the US look weak.
29:30 Speaker 00 They wanted America and JFK to be a war machine, not a peace-loving hippie. According to Timothy Leary, this is why Mary was killed. Okay, we have a lot going on here. Psychedelics, secret influence groups, the sitting president using drugs? Let's, uh, break it down really quick. So, the CIA wants the US to be feared worldwide. They want control. But Mary is threatening their control, showing the president how to lead without espionage and engineered violence. Without them to keep their power, the CIA assassinates Mary.
30:17 Speaker 00 Is that a good enough reason? You can decide for yourselves. But some say her death was less about her specific influence on JFK and more about the larger war on drugs. One day in September 1963, about two months before JFK was killed, Mary met up with Timothy Leary. She told him that one of the women in her group snitched. She didn't name names, but it had to be someone powerful who'd found out, because now Mary feared for their lives. This wasn't the first time Mary thought Leary was in trouble. She told him to be careful when she called him about JFK's death, too.
31:02 Speaker 00 Mary didn't expand on why he needed to be careful, but both times, the implication seemed to be that someone would come after him and anyone else involved with supplying psychedelics to politicians. Leary received other threats as well. One day in the winter of 1964, two FDA agents arrived at his home. They were appalled by his drug research and warned him, "Maybe Kennedy went along with this kind of thinking, but Johnson is different. He has made it very clear that he wants a drug-free America."
31:44 Speaker 00 One theory is that President Johnson had Mary killed to make that drug-free America happen. It's not clear if Leary was worried by these threats, but the same can't be said for everyone in Mary's LSD group, mainly a woman named Anne Chamberlain, Mary's college classmate. According to author Peter Janney, "When Mary died, Anne fled Washington. She refused to even be associated with her late friend." A choice that continued years later, when Janney began investigating Mary's death and tried to interview her. Jenny wonders if this was because she knew something she shouldn't have,
32:29 Speaker 00 like perhaps more details on Mary's mission to influence global politics by giving the president mind-altering drugs. There are also fringe reports claiming that two noteworthy newscasters were part of this LSD world peace plot: Lisa Howard and Dorothy Kilgallen. Lisa died of a drug overdose in an apparent suicide on July 4, 1965. However, some believe she was killed for acting as a liaison between Fidel Castro and JFK. She apparently saw herself as a Joan of Arc rushing between the two sides to help bring peace.
33:15 Speaker 00 Perhaps she gave LSD to Castro while Mary gave it to JFK? In hopes the enlightened leaders would achieve world peace?
33:26 Speaker 00 Who knows? Then there's journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. Now, you may remember from our past episodes on her that Dorothy's demise is much stranger. She investigated many topics throughout her career, including JFK's assassination. She even claimed that she was close to uncovering the truth about it. Unfortunately, she would never tell the world what she found. On November 8, 1965, she was found sitting upright, fully dressed, and dead in her apartment. Officially, her death was an accident: a bad mix of alcohol and barbiturates.
34:12 Speaker 00 The weird thing is that she was found with an open book in her lap, but not with her reading glasses on, like she was propped up by someone who didn't know she needed them. Plus, there was something missing from her apartment: her notes on the JFK assassination.
34:32 Speaker 00 Okay, so I think a brief recap is in order. We have three women either thought to be or confirmed to be supplying world leaders with mind-altering drugs: Mary, Lisa, and Dorothy. Judging by JFK's resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the plot may have put them on the path to world peace, but then all three of these women die under mysterious circumstances. Could all three deaths be related? Remember, Leary was warned that President Johnson wanted a drug-free America. These women knew JFK was doing LSD.
35:16 Speaker 00 Mary had threatened to talk to the press, and Dorothy and Lisa were the press. If they went public with stories about a beloved president doing LSD, especially if it averted nuclear war, it'd be hard to convince America that psychedelics should be banned. So maybe President Johnson's first step to eliminating drugs was eliminating the women who made them look cool. Okay, admittedly, it could be a stretch, but the motive is there, and perhaps that's
35:56 Speaker 00 why Angleton wanted to get a hold of Mary's diary. Coming back around, it could have included all the details about their LSD operation. But the diary could have mentioned something else as well, something much more dangerous for Angleton: the proof that he and the CIA killed JFK, and they'd do anything to make sure it didn't go.
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37:31 Speaker 00 JFK's assassination being a CIA hit is probably one of the most well-known conspiracy theories. His lover, Mary Pinchot Meyer, believed the war-hungry agency killed him to solidify their power. This is why she told Timothy Leary that they couldn't control him anymore. And supposedly, Mary uncovered the CIA's conspiracy, so they had to kill her too. Okay, okay, now, hold on. Didn't the police arrest someone at Mary's crime scene? Well, yes. Ray Crump was found near Mary's body and matched an eyewitness's description.
38:15 Speaker 00 Some believe he attempted to sexually assault or rob Mary, then shot her when she resisted. But there are a lot of inconsistencies. For one thing, there's that witness statement. Crump seemingly matched the description in that he was black and wearing similar clothes, but the killer was also supposedly a bit heavy-set and nearly six feet tall. Crump was short and thin. Crump's clothes didn't even have any blood on them, nor did his hands have any gunpowder residue. There were also no hair or clothes fibers that matched Crump at the scene.
38:58 Speaker 00 And then there's the gunshots themselves. They seem too professional and clean. One behind the ear, one behind her shoulder blade, i.e. one to the brain, just like JFK, and one to her aorta. Pretty much a guaranteed kill. A little too precise for a random mugging or sexual assault. The gun itself was never found, even after scuba divers searched the Potomac River where Crump was found. Plus, it's odd that Mary was killed during her usual afternoon stroll. Of course, muggings can happen at any time, but most research shows that it's more likely
39:41 Speaker 00 at night killings, too. Though I guess it's not unheard of. JFK was assassinated during the day, too. But in terms of witness statements about Mary's death, perhaps the biggest inconsistencies have to do with a man named William Mitchell. A day after Mary's murder, while the police are investigating Ray Crump, Mitchell comes forward as a witness. He's an Army lieutenant who read about Mary's death in the paper. It reminded him that he was on that tow path that day. He apparently saw a woman matching Mary's description and a man matching Crump's following her around.
40:26 Speaker 00 The authorities use this as another nail in the coffin trying to convict Ray. Mitchell even testifies at the trial. But who exactly is William Mitchell? Well, he says he's a member of the military and a math professor at Georgetown University. The thing is, there's no record of him teaching anywhere, and the home address he gives the court, it's a known CIA safe house. Plus, there's no record of him even living there. Also, while investigating him, author Peter Janney finds that Mitchell has two known social security numbers associated with him, which, I mean, that's odd, right? His entire identity is shrouded in mystery.
41:11 Speaker 00 Many believe that Mitchell was hired by the CIA to say he saw Crump kill Mary, effectively getting the heat off anyone suspecting the agency. It supposedly wouldn't be the first time the CIA found a patsy. Lee Harvey Oswald famously claimed to be one for JFK’s assassination. Is Crump a victim of the same tactic? Well, if that’s the case, then it didn’t totally work this time. At trial, Ray Crump was found not guilty. His lawyer’s defense really hung on the fact that witnesses saw a much bigger man than Crump.
41:52 Speaker 00 As of 2026, Mary’s murder is officially unsolved. There are some people who believe Crump really did kill Mary and got away with it. But others believe the true killer was William Mitchell. Maybe he was watching Mary on the towpath that day, then he saw Crump walk by and chose him as the patsy. He disguised himself in clothes similar to Crump’s, carried out the hit, and escaped. If a witness saw Mitchell, they’d mention his clothes, which would match Crump’s outfit. And, Bob’s your uncle murderer. Now, of course, this is all speculation.
42:36 Speaker 00 Unless you believe author Leo Demore. In his research notes, he claims to have gotten in touch with Mitchell. And Mitchell confessed to the murder. He even said that it was “standard CIA procedure.” If Demore is to be believed, why hasn’t Mitchell ever been arrested? Well, Demore was probably afraid to go to the authorities. While researching, Demore felt like he was being followed. And he received late-night phone calls threatening to burn his house down. Perhaps because he knew too much.
43:17 Speaker 00 Unfortunately, we'll never truly know all that Demore did. He died, suddenly, before he could finish the book. We only know some of his findings because author Peter Janney purchased the notes and used them in his book. Like we mentioned, Mary also felt like she was being followed during her JFK investigation, and rightfully so. Angleton was keeping tabs on her. Perhaps she was afraid of knowing too much. Just like Demore, her research could have exposed the CIA like she threatened to do. That's why it was so important for Angleton to get her diary, so the CIA's secrets stayed
44:02 Speaker 00 secret. Now again, this is just speculation. Details conspiracy theorists cling to and question. But did the diary have the proof? Well, while Bradley and Angleton's initial search was unsuccessful, they did eventually find the diary in Mary's studio. It turns out, with Mary being a painter, the diary was mostly just a sketchbook filled with paint swatches. There were only a few sentences in the whole book that referenced Mary having an affair, and while it was apparently clear that it was with JFK, it didn't mention him by name.
44:45 Speaker 00 The Bradleys decided to give the book to Angleton for safekeeping. This is all on record, confirmed by Ben Bradley himself. But you have to wonder, if the diary just said Mary had an affair with an unnamed man, what's the big deal? In Ben Bradley's autobiography, he said that Angleton wanted the diary out of concern for JFK's reputation. But Bradley also states that JFK's philandering was kind of a known secret. Sure, if the diary confirmed the philandering back in 1964, a year after JFK's death, it would have been a scandal. Officially, his affairs weren't public knowledge yet.
45:28 Speaker 00 But would an unnamed man in a woman's diary be enough proof?
45:34 Speaker 00 At some point, the diary was given back to Mary's sister, and she destroyed it in front of Angleton's wife. Some claim she even burned it in the fireplace. Again, a lot of work for something that only said an unnamed man had an affair?
45:53 Speaker 00 Or was this sketchbook diary just a decoy? Peter Janney believes that there was actually a second diary, a real one, not just a sketchbook, that contained details about Mary's JFK investigation. He thinks that Angleton actually found this diary before he was caught by the Bradleys and planted the sketchbook as a red herring. One report even notes that Angleton actually went to Mary's home the night of her murder. This was reportedly to retrieve the kittens she was taking care of. Could he have found the original diary then? Well, think about it.
46:37 Speaker 00 James Angleton was a top CIA operative. He's gone down in history as a literal master spy. Would a master spy really have been caught twice sneaking into a dead woman's home? Not unless he wanted to. If we believe his story, that Mary's friend called him about the diary, he probably knew that the Bradleys would get the same call. So he had to let them find something. And it had to have something juicy in it for Mary to be worried about the police finding it. So he let the Bradleys see the sketchbook he planted mentioning an affair and ran off with Mary's notes on the CIA.
47:23 Speaker 00 And what was in these notes? Could Mary have detailed why the US government assassinated the sitting president?
47:33 Speaker 00 If she did, she'd probably mention how the CIA and JFK were always at odds. And before he was elected, the CIA and President Eisenhower had more of a "I didn't see anything" relationship. According to Eisenhower's National Security Advisor, the president did not feel that he wanted to know the specifics of what the CIA was doing. If he didn't know the details, he couldn't talk to Congress about it in case something went wrong. This obviously helped the CIA do whatever they wanted with little oversight.
48:13 Speaker 00 Under Eisenhower, they even hatched their own plan for invading Cuba, a plan that JFK technically inherited once he was sworn in. A few months into JFK's presidency, the CIA went through with it. The agency invaded Cuba, but Cuba was prepared. The invasion ended with 114 US soldiers being killed. The event went down in history as "The Bay of Pigs Disaster," an embarrassing start to JFK's tenure. JFK walked away from the fiasco thinking the CIA was too powerful.
48:55 Speaker 00 The organization had been left unchecked for too long. He threatened to cut their budget and even told The New York Times he was going to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds. That's a quote. If JFK was willing to say that to the press, what did he tell Mary behind closed doors? Some believe they traded CIA secrets, with Mary telling him what she knew from her days married to Cord. Maybe this is how Mary knew the CIA was experimenting with LSD.
49:37 Speaker 00 So the diary may have not only contained the proof that JFK's hit was an inside job, but also everything JFK ever told her about the CIA.
49:51 Speaker 00 Plus, Angleton had a personal reason to make sure Mary's diary never went public. You see, Mary was particularly outraged about the Warren Commission report not telling the truth. And Angleton was the liaison between the Warren Commission investigators and the CIA. According to Richard Nixon's chief of staff, Angleton even practiced what he would tell the Warren Commission with a member of the FBI, who is also being investigated. This was reportedly to make sure the Commission wouldn't find the agency responsible for killing JFK.
50:31 Speaker 00 And to add more heat to the fire, writer Leo Demore apparently saw the diary himself. He confirmed that it proved the CIA assassinated the president. Plus, Angleton's involvement with it. No wonder Demore was getting those threatening phone calls. So, maybe Angleton wasn't trying to get the diary to protect JFK's reputation, but his own. For him, all this fuss about finding it was probably well worth it. He had to protect the CIA and himself. It was the smoking gun.
51:14 Speaker 00 And by extension, he had to kill the owner of that gun. Or, maybe, this is all. Just theories. The thing about Mary's case is that it's interwoven with all things JFK. In conspiracy circles, anything associated with him can get its own spinoff theory. So, let's zoom out for a second. Away from fringe reports, secondhand sources, interviews quoting interviews, etc.
51:53 Speaker 00 There are those who believe Ray Crump murdered Mary in and attempted mugging or sexual assault, just like the police said. After the trial, he was arrested for another woman's rape. His ex-wife also claimed that Crump tried to kill her. She had the knife scar on her neck to prove it. Some point to these facts as proof that Crump was capable of killing Mary. Those closest to Mary think he was the killer as well, including her brother-in-law, Ben Bradley, and maybe even her ex-husband, Cord. Okay, I know, hold on, you're saying. In the beginning, we quoted Cord saying Mary's murders were "the same sons of bitches that killed John F. Kennedy."
52:37 Speaker 00 That is a great line. But again, that's a reporter recounting his interview. It would be dishonest of us, not to mention Cord's own firsthand account. In his autobiography, he mentions being "satisfied with Crump's arrest." He seemingly believed the official story. So really, the most important question for now is, do you? Or will you follow in Mary Pinchot Meyer's footsteps and keep on looking for the truth? Thank you for listening to Conspiracy Theories.
53:21 Speaker 00 We're here with a new episode every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram, @TheConspiracyPod. If you're watching on Spotify, swipe up and give us your thoughts. For more information on Mary Pinchot Meyer's death, amongst the many sources we used, we found the Hard Cover Mysteries episode, David Baldacci, extremely helpful to our research. Until next time, remember, the truth isn't always the best story. And the official story isn't always the truth. This episode was written by Brandon Rizzuto, edited by Maggie Admire, Pete Ritchie,
54:00 Speaker 00 and Miki Taylor, researched by Brandon Rizzuto and Sapphire Williams, fact-checked by Sophie Kemp, and engineered, video-edited, and sound-designed by Alex Button. I'm your host, Carter Roy.
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