On October 12, 1964, a shooter fired two bullets on a quiet Georgetown towpath, ending the life of a woman who held Washington’s highest secrets. Mary Pinchot Meyer was not a typical 1960s housewife. She was an abstract artist, the ex-wife of a high-ranking CIA operative, and a frequent, private guest in John F. Kennedy’s White House.
Her daylight murder remains officially unsolved decades later, clouded by vanished evidence, destroyed documents, and a cast of intelligence agents lingering suspiciously near the crime scene.
A Secret White House Romance
Mary Meyer navigated the deepest networks of the United States government. She had been married to Cord Meyer, a CIA agent, and frequently entertained CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton in her home. Following her divorce, she began a secret relationship with President John F. Kennedy in early 1960.
The two met regularly at the White House until his assassination in 1963. Meyer brought marijuana and LSD to these meetings, engaging the president in serious conversations regarding nuclear war, foreign policy, and the national security apparatus.
Gunshots on the C&O Canal
Just before noon on October 12, 1964, Meyer finished a painting and went for a walk along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. Shortly after, a mechanic named Henry Wiggins claimed he heard a woman scream, followed by two gunshots. Wiggins reported seeing a man standing over a woman’s body.
Police found Meyer dead from two point-blank gunshot wounds—one to the head and one to the back. A reporter who reached the grass before police noted that her fatal wounds appeared strangely bloodless.
CIA Operatives and Ghost Vehicles
The official investigation immediately produced glaring inconsistencies. The stalled car Wiggins claimed to be towing did not exist in any garage records. A jogger who passed Meyer moments before her death was later identified as William Mitchell, an alias used by a CIA employee.
Furthermore, police homicide squads arrived before anyone had called an ambulance. Authorities arrested a man named Ray Crump Jr. near the scene, but no murder weapon was ever recovered, and a jury ultimately acquitted him of all charges.
The Vanished Personal Diary
The most crucial piece of evidence never reached a courtroom. Meyer kept a private diary detailing her daily life, her relationship with the president, and her interactions with the intelligence community. Immediately following her death, James Angleton confiscated the journal directly from Meyer’s sister.
Angleton reportedly destroyed the diary at CIA headquarters. No other suspects were ever identified, and the police permanently closed the file as an unsolved homicide. The only personal effect found on Meyer was a tube of bright red lipstick.