The Woman Who Knew Too Much: The Mysterious Death of John F. Kennedy's Secret Mistress

They met in high school, and in the early 1960s a secret affair began between them, which lasted until the tragic death of the president. A year later, on October 12, 1964, Mary Meyer was shot and killed during an afternoon walk in the park. We are looking into whether it was an order from the special services or she became an accidental victim of violence.

In July 1965, Ray Crump Jr. appeared in court, but was found not guilty for lack of evidence. Despite the fact that he was the only official suspect in this case, there were many rumors that in fact Mary Meyer's death was connected with her secret affair with the president.

The murder scene of Mary Meyer, 1964

One of the (allegedly) accidental witnesses to Mary's murder was a local resident, Lieutenant William Mitchell, who decided to go for a run in the park in the middle of the working day. He testified and literally "disappeared into thin air." Subsequently, investigators discovered that none of the Georgetown residents knew any "William Mitchell", and no records of such a person were found in the city archives.

Another strange circumstance that was not included in the official investigation was the fact that a few hours after Mary's death, an outsider entered her workshop. The incident was witnessed by the artist's son-in-law, Ben Bradley, who lived in a neighboring house.

As Ben himself wrote, Engleton confessed to him that he intended to destroy all Mary's personal records that could compromise the murdered John F. Kennedy. Despite the high status of the person standing in front of him, the artist's son-in-law did not give Mary's personal diary, although he knew where it was kept. According to Ben, his wife subsequently burned all the records of the murdered woman in the home fireplace.

Roger Schaefer, Anthony Duke and Mary Meyer in Central Park in New York, 1937

Mary Meyer was the daughter of a wealthy and successful lawyer. Her mother was engaged in writing, and also supported social projects. According to Nina Burley, Mary was "a real American aristocrat and a wonderful daughter. She grew up on Park Avenue, educated in the best schools… She was practically an American "princess"."

However, long—term romantic relationships between young people did not work out - at least then. After graduating from Vassar College, Mary married a high-ranking official working for the CIA, Cord Meyer. Since Mary's husband was constantly traveling on business trips, the entire household and the upbringing of children fell on the shoulders of a woman. Occasionally she managed to attend classes at the Cambridge School of Design — she really liked painting.

Mary Meyer and Cord Meyer

She didn't know much about her husband's work. Mary knew that the CIA department in which he was listed was engaged in intelligence, wiretapping of civilians, as well as experiments with the use of drugs (such as LSD). At the same time, there were rumors that Cord had secret ties with the Communists. Senator McCarthy even insisted on conducting a special investigation. But nothing could be proved, and Cord was left alone.

Mary Meyer and Cord Meyer 1945

Therefore, over the years, the couple began to move away from each other. And shortly before On Christmas Day, 1956, a tragedy occurred in their family — one of the sons was hit to death by a car — and this was the last straw for Mary's crumbling marriage and Korda. Two years later, the woman filed for divorce.

After that , Mary moved to Georgetown, where she began to develop her own career and communicate with many celebrities, politicians and figures of the art world. One of her close friends was the American sculptor Ann Trutt, who worked with her in the same studio.

Mary settled in a prestigious neighborhood, and the Kennedys became her neighbors. Then she and John resumed their communication. And Sister Mary married the editor of the Washington Post, Ben Bradley, who was also a good friend of the American senator, which was another factor that brought their families closer together.

John and Jackie Kennedy, 1963

Although it is not known exactly when the secret affair between Mary and John, Berkeley believes that this happened in 1961 or 1962.

According to Kennedy's political aide, Mayer Feldman, Mary visited the White House so often that employees began to perceive her "as an integral part of the interior." In his memoirs, Bradley claimed that he knew nothing about Mary's secret affair and John—at least during the president's lifetime.

But after Ben got acquainted with the contents of Mary's diary, he realized that "she was the mistress of the President of the United States — although his name was never mentioned." He also added that he was "deeply shocked to realize the extent of this deception."

Nina Burley, like many other researchers of Mary Meyer's life, believes that a special relationship has been established between the artist and the president, built on "intellectual kinship". Unlike Kennedy's other mistresses, she was interesting to him primarily as an extraordinary person who shared his views on politics and art.

Mary Meyer In April 1962, Mary met with a well-known psychologist, a participant in the campaign for research on psychedelic drugs and a lecturer at Harvard University, Timothy Leary. Subsequently, he wrote in his autobiography that the artist asked to teach her the latest practices using LSD.

Leary also added that Mary actively hinted that this psychedelic experience interested not only herself, but also another person — as the psychologist later realized, she meant John Kennedy.

According to Leary, Mary believed that if influential people take psychoactive substances, it will expand the scope of their consciousness, which in turn will help put an end to all world conflicts.

Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy in Vienna, 1961

According to one version, Mary Meyer, who has never hidden her sympathies for communists and socialists, got together with John on the basis of common interests and carefully documented their ideas in her personal diary. However, a few years later she became disillusioned with him, as in politics, and left him.

According to another version, she herself was a participant in a conspiracy aimed at eliminating the "weak" president. That's why she distanced herself from him a few months before his murder—to divert suspicion from herself.

The only material evidence of this scandalous affair was a letter written by John to his mistress a few days before his murder. Written, but never sent. A letter that raises a lot of additional questions about their relationship and gives practically no answers.

John F. Kennedy in his office

As we said at the beginning of the article, Mary's murder is still considered unsolved today. This only contributes to the emergence of new conspiracy theories around this story. For example, the son of one of the best CIA agents of the last century named Peter Jenny wrote the book "Mary's Mosaic", in which he claimed that his father participated in a special operation to eliminate this woman.

However, Nina Burley considers this version unlikely. She is of the opinion that Mary's killer was the same man whom the police detained at the scene of the crime.

We may never know who killed Mary Meyer.