Mary Pinchot Meyer
| Mary Pinchot Meyer | |
|---|---|
Mary Pinchot Meyer at JFK's 46th birthday Party on the presidential yacht Sequoia
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| Born |
Mary Eno Pinchot October 14, 1920 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | October 12, 1964 (aged 43) Georgetown, Washington D.C. |
| Cause of death | Homicide |
| Resting place | Milford Cemetery, Pike County, Pennsylvania |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Brearley School |
| Alma mater | Vassar College |
| Occupation | Painter |
| Spouse(s) | Cord Meyer (m. 1945; div. 1958) |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent(s) |
Amos Pinchot Ruth Pickering Pinchot |
| Relatives |
Gifford Pinchot (uncle) Rosamond Pinchot (half-sister) Antoinette "Tony" Pinchot (sister) |
Mary Eno Pinchot Meyer (October 14, 1920 – October 12, 1964) was an American painter living in Washington D.C. At the time of her death, her work was considered part of the Washington Color School and was selected for the Pan American Union Art Exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires. She was married to Central Intelligence Agency official Cord Meyer from 1945-1958, and she was linked romantically to the late President John F. Kennedy after her marriage to Meyer. Rumors and tabloid press reports of her affair with Kennedy were confirmed by her late brother-in-law, Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, in his 1995 autobiography A Good Life. A love letter Kennedy wrote to Pinchot Meyer one month before his assassination surfaced in June 2016 and was auctioned for just under $89,000.
Meyer was shot to death on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal towpath on October 12, 1964, three weeks after the release of the Warren Commission Report, whose conclusions Meyer allegedly challenged. Meyer’s long history of criticism of the CIA, the timing of her killing, the CIA’s wiretapping of her phone, and the effort by CIA counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton to retrieve Meyer’s diary immediately after her death have prompted investigation of possible CIA involvement in her murder. Additionally, Army personnel records for prosecution witness Lt. William L. Mitchell, released in 2015 and 2016 under the Freedom of Information Act, corroborate his ties to the intelligence community. CIA involvement has also been suggested by the phone call that was placed by top Agency official Wistar Janney to Ben Bradlee, hours before the police had identified Meyer’s body. The man accused of the murder, Ray Crump, Jr., was acquitted at trial in July, 1965. The murder remains officially unsolved.
Pinchot was born in New York City, the elder of two daughters of Amos and Ruth (née Pickering) Pinchot. Amos Pinchot was a wealthy lawyer and a key figure in the Progressive Party who had helped fund the socialist magazine The Masses. Her mother Ruth was Pinchot's second wife and was a journalist who wrote for such magazines as The Nation and The New Republic. She was also the niece of Gifford Pinchot, a noted conservationist and two-time Governor of Pennsylvania. Pinchot and her younger sister Antoinette (nicknamed "Tony") were raised at the family's Grey Towers home in Milford, Pennsylvania. As a child, Pinchot met such left-wing intellectuals as Mabel Dodge, Louis Brandeis, Robert M. La Follette, Sr., and Harold L. Ickes. She attended Brearley School and Vassar College, where she became interested in Communism. She started dating William Attwood in 1935 and, while with him at a dance held at Choate, first met John F. Kennedy in 1936.
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