The CIA Wife

Summary

Summary of "Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien"
Episode: The CIA Wife
Release Date: May 7, 2025

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Introduction

In the episode titled "The CIA Wife," host Soledad O’Brien unravels the intricate and tragic story of Mary Pinchot Meyer, one of America's most enigmatic figures. The narrative delves into her life, her tumultuous marriage to Cord Meyer, and the circumstances surrounding her mysterious murder in 1964. This story not only highlights personal tragedies but also intertwines with broader socio-political themes, reflecting the tensions of the Cold War era.

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Mary and Cord Meyer: Early Life and Marriage

Mary Pinchot Meyer was born into a privileged family, living a "charmed life" on Park Avenue. Educated at the prestigious Brearley School and Vassar College, Mary was known for her independence and unconventional spirit. Her upbringing at Gray Towers in Pennsylvania fostered a liberal and bohemian worldview, evident in her family's progressive practices.

Mary met Cord Meyer, a Marine veteran and intellectual, during World War II. Both shared a passionate commitment to world peace, bonding over their mutual disdain for the senselessness of war. They married in the spring of 1945, symbolizing hope for a peaceful future amidst the chaos of global conflict.

Nina Burleigh [00:22:01]: "An educated woman and a reader, and she had ideas. And her husband was also a reader, well educated. And when they got together, they bonded over ideas, and not just, you know, their passion, but they had ideas and they shared."

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Tragedy Strikes: The Death of Their Son

In December 1956, tragedy struck the Meyer family when their middle son, Michael, was fatally struck by a car while crossing a poorly lit road. This devastating event marked the beginning of the end for Mary and Cord's marriage.

Nina Burleigh [00:42:31]: "The middle son ran across the street in the dark and was hit by a car and died by the side of the road."

Mary's composed reaction to her son's death concealed the depth of her grief, signaling a profound shift in her priorities and personal life.

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Divorce and Mary’s Pursuit of Independence

The loss of their son exacerbated existing tensions between Mary and Cord, leading to their eventual divorce. Mary sought independence, dedicating herself to art and establishing a painting studio in Georgetown. Her transformation mirrored her short story written during her time at Vassar, emphasizing a desire for radical personal change.

Lance Morrow [00:13:35]: "Mary was one of those people that I think by making her representative of something, you miss a lot of her uniqueness."

Cord Meyer, disillusioned by the escalating Cold War tensions and the futility of his peace efforts, joined the CIA. This move further strained their relationship, as Mary distanced herself from Cord's secretive and high-stakes career.

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Mary's Life After Divorce

Post-divorce, Mary embraced her role as an artist and maintained her intellectual independence. She engaged in community activities, volunteered at art galleries, and continued her daily walks along the Georgetown towpath, a place that would later become the scene of her untimely death.

Mary's unique position as a divorced mother and an independent woman in the 1950s set her apart in a society that largely expected women to conform to traditional roles. Her assertiveness and refusal to adhere strictly to societal norms made her both admired and suspicious in Washington’s elite circles.

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Intersection with Dovey Rountree and the Murder Case

Mary Pinchot Meyer's life took a dark turn when she was murdered in 1964. The initial suspect was Ray Crump, a black man, whom civil rights lawyer Dovey Rountree defended. Dovey's involvement brought a racial and socio-political dimension to the case, challenging the existing prejudices and legal standards of the time.

Nina Burleigh [00:07:00]: "By the time of Mary's murder, Dovey Rountree knew she had come from a prominent family, but she didn't have the full story."

The murder trial revealed complexities beyond the apparent evidence, suggesting possible involvement of other powerful individuals connected to Mary. As O’Brien explores the scene of the crime—the towpath—she raises questions about Ray Crump's guilt and the potential for a broader conspiracy.

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Mary’s Murder and Its Aftermath

The towpath, where Mary was found dead, appeared deceptively serene. Mary, known for her tranquility and daily walks, left behind an unsettling mystery. The prosecution hinged on the evidence against Ray Crump, but inconsistencies raised suspicions about his involvement.

Soledad O’Brien [45:59]: "From Luminary Murder on the Towpath is a production of Film Nation Entertainment in association with Neon Hum Media."

The episode hints at deeper investigations into the towpath, suggesting that the crime scene did not harbor the level of seclusion one might expect for such a tragic event. This fuels the speculation about other possible perpetrators with the means and motive to kill Mary.

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Conclusion and Future Exploration

As the episode concludes, Soledad O’Brien sets the stage for further exploration in the next installment, promising to delve deeper into the murder trial and the lingering questions surrounding Mary's death. The intertwining lives of Mary Pinchot Meyer and Dovey Rountree serve as a microcosm of the broader cultural and political upheavals of 1960s America.

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Notable Quotes

• Nina Burleigh [00:42:31]: "The middle son ran across the street in the dark and was hit by a car and died by the side of the road."

• Lance Morrow [00:13:35]: "Mary was one of those people that I think by making her representative of something, you miss a lot of her uniqueness."

• Nina Burleigh [00:07:00]: "By the time of Mary's murder, Dovey Rountree knew she had come from a prominent family, but she didn't have the full story."

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This episode masterfully intertwines personal narratives with historical context, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of Mary Pinchot Meyer's life and the enigmatic circumstances of her murder. Through detailed storytelling and insightful commentary, Soledad O’Brien sheds light on a case that remains a compelling mystery in American history.

Transcript

[Soledad O'Brien]

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[Chiquis]

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[Soledad O'Brien]

It was December 1956, a week before Christmas. Mary and Cord Meyer had once been very in love, hopeful for the future. They'd been brought together by their shared passion for world peace, just as the Second World War was ending. Back then, they were young intellectuals in love with books, ideas and each other. Their bond was strong. But by Christmas 1956, what once seemed unbreakable had started to crack at its very foundation. This would be the Myers last Christmas all together as a family. They installed a tree in their spacious farmhouse in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. mary had hidden the presents inside closets away from her three boys. Quentin, the oldest, was 10. Michael was nine and the youngest, Mark, was six. The Meyer Children's needs were always met. But there was one thing they really wanted. A TV. The 1950s were the dawn of TV in the American living room. It's Swiss Dream Sandwich for you. Well, all right. You want a nice carpool?

[Nina Burleigh]

I'll call Princess Margaret.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Okay. TV wasn't brand new. More than half of American families owned one. But Mary didn't like tv, thought it would make her sons lazy. It was one of those small but significant ways she was willing to go against the grain. The Myers were not getting a television. So when their two older sons, Quentin and Michael, wanted to watch their favorite Western, they had to go to the neighbors. They had to cross Route 123 to get to their friend's house. The boys knew to be careful crossing. Just two years earlier, their golden retriever had been killed on the road right in front of their house. The route wasn't well lit, and on this fateful December day, sunlight had already given way to nightfall. Dick West, All American Boy on TV as the good guys were battling the bad guys, Quentin and Michael knew dinner time was fast approaching. They had promised to be home for supper, so they headed home. The older boy, Quentin, dashed across the road first and reached his family's lawn. Michael followed close behind. At home, Mary was likely preparing the final touches on dinner when she heard a horrible noise. One of Mary's biographers, Nina Burley, told us more about that moment.

[Nina Burleigh]

She heard something by the road. The middle son ran across the street in the dark and was hit by a car and died by the side of the road.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Quentin saw his brother curled up on the road, lifeless. It was Quentin's screams that caught Mary's attention.

[Nina Burleigh]

And she ran down and there was a car that had hit her son. And the driver was hysterical. So, you know, there's her son dead on the side of the road, and she's. She's trying to calm the driver, which of course is unusual behavior. But again, this is. These are people who are, you know, trained from birth to maintain kind of a facade of being unemotional. And incredibly, it rose to the fore at that moment.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Perhaps Mary was in shock or maybe she didn't want to give in to the horror of that moment. So she kept her composure. But the accident was kind of a catalyst. It changed her, changed her priorities. After that horrible evening, she chose a new course. Mary didn't want to be married anymore. She didn't want to live in the suburbs. She'd get a painting studio in Georgetown and start to take a daily walk on the towpath. From Luminary Film Nation Entertainment in association with Neon Hum Media, I'm Soledad O'Brien, and this is Murder on the Towpath, a story of two incredible women who never met, but whose lives became forever intertwined by tragedy. By the time of Mary's murder, Dovey Rountree knew she had come from a prominent family, but she didn't have the full story. Had she known what kind of powerful people Mary had known her entire life, maybe Dovey would have felt less optimistic about her case. Defending Ray, here's historian Alexis Koh.

[Chiquis]

Mary Meyer had the sort of background that you would see in the New York Times vows section. She was born into wealth. Her uncle was Teddy Roosevelt's chief forester.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Mary had lived a charmed life. She lived on Park Avenue in Manhattan and went to the Brearley School on the Upper east side. Brearley was academically rigorous and of course, exclusive. Girls with last names like Matisse, Roosevelt and Graham attended. Mary studied math, history, Greek, Latin and French. She played basketball and smoked cigarettes. In between classes, she'd duck into a smoking room at Brearley. That was for seniors only. Mary would continue to smoke socially for the rest of her life. She first crossed paths with JFK long before he was president. It was a winter formal in 1936. Mary was just 15. Among the new England prep school set, winter was the season of the formal dance. Bill Atwood, a future ambassador to the un, invited Mary to a weekend of festivities at Choate Rosemary Hall. In the dance hall, there were tuxedos with coattails and intricate formal dresses. John F. Kennedy had graduated from Choate the year before and was already a freshman at Princeton. But he turned up that night on the Choate dance floor alone. He was confident, not embarrassed to return to a high school dance, not embarrassed to go stag. As Bill and Mary danced, JFK's eyes rested on her. He tapped Bill on the shoulder and cut in. According to Bill's memoir, Kennedy cut in on his dances with Mary again and again that night. Mary had an effect on the future president. He wouldn't soon forget her. But it wasn't just wealth and beauty that made Mary Pinchot stand out. Her family was also liberal and unconventional. Here's Nina again.

[Nina Burleigh]

Well, she was raised bohemian by the standards of that day. They summered on this property in Pennsylvania where they swam nude. Everybody was nude. They went horseback riding nude. You know, things in the 1920s and 30s that you would associate with very bohemian, upper crust society people.

[Soledad O'Brien]

There was plenty of space to frolic at Gray Towers. That's what they called the family estate outside Milford, Pennsylvania. Mary and her father Amos played tennis together growing up. He was the parent she looked to please.

[Nina Burleigh]

Her dad started the American Civil Liberties Union. Her mother was his second wife and had been a writer for the Nation.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Mary's mother, Ruth, spent hours behind closed doors writing her stories and was much more hands off when it came to parenting. Her father had left his first wife to marry her. Divorce was generally unheard of in the early 1900s. Mary's father knew his choice would open him up to scrutiny, but he took the risk anyway. In that way, Mary took after her father. But when it came time for college, Mary did follow in her mother's footsteps and went to Vassar. She daydreamed about studying to become a doctor. But the truth is, that's not really why Mary went to college. Here's historian Alexis Koh.

[Chiquis]

We tend to think of Vassar because it's produced women like Lee Miller, the artist and photographer, and other women who have gone into the arts as a progressive institution that perhaps is launching women in the world. But it wasn't. Vassar was a place women went because they wanted to go to college. It was close to the city, though, so they could date professional men and they could get on their way to becoming homemakers. And I think that that was what she was supposed to be and that's what she was.

[Soledad O'Brien]

For a while, Vassar women were divided into two camps, career types and those who got hitched and had children. But Mary was also hard to categorize. One famous classmate, Scotty Fitzgerald, daughter to F. Scott, called her an independent soul and even compared her to a fawn. Maybe the best way to put it was she was one of a kind, not one to care what other people thought. Vassar classmate Frances Field told Nina Burley as much. She remembers an incident during finals time their senior year. The study room was dead quiet. Stress was high. Mary got up to use the bathroom, but before she left, she paused by a vase, bent down, and took a bite out of a tulip. Mary chewed her mouthful without saying a thing.

[Lance Morrow]

Mary was one of those people that I think by making her representative of something, you miss a lot of her uniqueness.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Like her mother, Mary was also a writer. She published a short story in the Vassar Review in 1941. It was called Futility and the Window. It provides into Mary's mind.

[Nina Burleigh]

Well, it.

[Lance Morrow]

It was a very strange story, and it indicated she had an unconventional imagination.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's author Ron Rosenbaum. Mary's story revolves around a young woman named Ruth, who's something of an outsider.

[Lance Morrow]

It separated her from the chic crowd that surrounded her, separated her in the story, and also separated her from the actual people.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Ruth is at a cocktail party, and the room is almost grotesquely decorated. Expensive but gauche silver wallpaper, a shiny mantle with a fish tank above it. Inside are overfed goldfish. Here's an excerpt from Mary's story. Everything in this room is cold and angular, she thought. The furniture all chromium and corners, the women chicly cadaverous, the conversation brittle and smart and insignificant. Ruth isn't impressed by any of these trappings. She tells the host she's leaving. She can't make her excuses quickly enough. Riding down the elevator, Ruth looked at herself in the mirror. And she saw the floors slipping away behind her, one by one, as the elevator descended. And that, she thought, is a portrait of my life, year by year. Ruth is leaving because she has a plan. She's going to get surgery. Elective surgery. Surgeons will switch Ruth's nerves, so her optical nerves are connected to her hearing and her hearing to her eyes. Everything she sees, she'll hear, and everything she hears, she'll see. It doesn't exactly make sense, but that is the point. Mary's heroine craves the unconventional, the weird. Or, as Ruth says as she leaves the party, it will all be different tomorrow. Everything that I see and hear, people that I meet, every sensation will be new and exciting and different and interesting. Dr. Morrison promised me. So Ruth wants to cure her boredom through radical change. Did Mary want that, too? Her heroine was willing to do whatever it took. Here's Ron Rosenbaum again.

[Lance Morrow]

I think the importance of the story was not its literary merit, but that it showed that this was an unconventional person who thought that she was not going to be just another link in the Vassar daisy chain.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Mary Pinchot might show up to the party, but that didn't mean she'd follow any of the rules. And whatever she did do, she did with a confidence that usually made others notice. After graduation, the world was going to war.

[Nina Burleigh]

And one of the aspects of her very tragic, really generation, even though they call it the greatest generation, the World War II boys, is that, you know, the boys all left in 1939, 40. And the women were left behind.

[Soledad O'Brien]

In New York, Mary started writing features for United Press International, a newspaper syndication service.

[Nina Burleigh]

So she went to work as a journalist, and lots of women went to work. That's where you get Rosie the Riveter, right? All the men are gone and the women are now doing the jobs the men used to do.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Mary knew she'd eventually get married and have children, but for now, she wanted something more. The war took its toll on so many young people, made them realize the senselessness of killing, the futility and waste of it all. She wanted a world free of war. She wanted a husband who also believed in that cause. And as the wounded young men started coming home from battle, Mary found Cord Meyer. He was a man of many talents, a poet, an intellectual. But the thing he wanted most was world peace.

[Chiquis]

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[Alexis Koh]

Tucson is a city that stays with you. And it's not just the majestic saguaros and breathtaking mountain views. Let's start with the food. Tucson is home to great Mexican food. It's a UNESCO's City of Gastronomy. With 4,4000 years of gastronomic traditions. The Old Pueblo's culinary roots run deep. History is everywhere here. Stroll through Barrio Viejo's colorful adobe homes, visit the iconic Mission San Javier, or explore downtown where every street has a piece of the past waiting to be discovered. Tucson is a blend of indigenous Mexican, Spanish and American influences, creating this vibrant community full of art and music and celebration. From lively festivals to local galleries and performances, there's always something to experience. Tucson isn't just a destination, it's an opportunity to connect with the land, with the past, and with the people who make it so special. Start planning your adventure [e-mail] Viva at.

[Lance Morrow]

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[Nina Burleigh]

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[Lance Morrow]

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[Soledad O'Brien]

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[Nina Burleigh]

An educated woman and a reader, and she had ideas. And her husband was also a reader, well educated. And when they got together, they bonded over ideas, and not just, you know, their passion, but they had ideas and they shared.

[Soledad O'Brien]

The young couple was married in the Pinchot family's apartment on Park Avenue. Mary wore a green and white day dress with a string of pearls and a pair of reading glasses around her neck. Cord wore his Marine dress uniform. In one image of that day, Mary, arm in arm with Cord, cranes her gaze upward toward her new husband, wide eyed and flashing a white smile through red lips. It's as if she sees her future in Cord. By the time they married, Cord knew war was absurd. He had been sent home after he lost an eye in a grenade explosion. He had become a pacifist. On the day of the nuptials, Cord got some good news. He learned he'd get to go to a UN convention in San Francisco to work toward world peace. Mary joined him there. The perfect honeymoon for two idealists. Not on a beach, but at an international conference to end all war. But in San Francisco, Cord became quickly disillusioned. The U.S. france and China demanded veto power over UN resolutions. Cord knew world peace had no chance if one country's interests won out. Cord was interviewed at the convention by a reporter for the New York Times. He barely mustered any optimism. He just said it had been a step in the right direction. There was one more journalist at the convention who wanted to talk to Cord, but Cord wouldn't allow it.

[Nina Burleigh]

Kennedy shows up there as a journalist, which, it was ridiculous. It's so hard to believe Kennedy as a journalist. But for one shining moment, he had a press pass and he went to this conference about world peace.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's right. Cord refused JFK's request for an interview. Kennedy wrote skeptical remarks about Cord's pessimistic takeaway from the convention in a personal notebook. The two men, who were both war vets from prominent New England families, couldn't find common ground. But fate kept Kennedy in Mary's close orbit. And then on their way back east, the newlyweds got unforgettable news that shook the world.

[Nina Burleigh]

They're literally in a train going back from their honeymoon, and they stop in Chicago and pick up a newspaper. The headline is that this incredible weapon of mass destruction has been dropped.

[Soledad O'Brien]

For Cord, the writing was on the wall. His world peace mission felt doomed.

[Nina Burleigh]

The most important moment in these lives of people born in 1920 was the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima, followed by the dropping of the second atom bomb on Nagasaki. Needless.

[Soledad O'Brien]

I realize the tragic significance of the atomic bomb. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans. The newsreels showed the unimaginable, and everyone was watching.

[Nina Burleigh]

For people who didn't grow up with nuclear weapons, for humans that didn't grow up with the knowledge, like we did, that humans can now incinerate the planet. This was a traumatic experience because they remembered what it was like before, and they were grappling with this existential new situation.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Cord wrote a letter to the New York Times. The pillar of smoke over Japan on August 8, spelled in large letters for all who dared to read, not only the end of that war, but the end of our own security. For a few years, Cord set out on the lecture circuit, going from college to college. He made advocating for world peace alluring, apparently because students pinned images of Cord the pacifist with an eyepatch on the walls of their dorm rooms. But Cord was growing pessimistic. The US fight against communism had ramped up and nuclear testing continued. So when Cord's father set him up with a meeting, Cord was despondent enough to listen to what the CIA had to say. Here's Lance Morrow.

[Lance Morrow]

And then he went over to the CIA almost mysteriously that he, Allen Dulles, recruited him, or seems to have recruited him for the CIA.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Cord hoped the agency could help quell the threat of nuclear war.

[Nina Burleigh]

And so the CIA, the excuse that they would make for what they were doing was that they had to prevent this from happening. They had to keep control over everything.

[Soledad O'Brien]

If Cord couldn't work toward world peace through international cooperation, maybe this was the next best option. Cord took the job.

[Chiquis]

Hey, what's up, guys? This is Chiquis from the Cheekies and Chill podcast. And you know, I was thinking, buying a home used to be a huge headache. You had to go to a bunch of different places for listings for pre approval for financing. It was exhausting and confusing. But now Rocket is putting everything you need in one place. Rocket.com a single, seamless homeownership platform to help you find, buy, sell, finance, even refinance your home. You'll find smarter tools, personalized dashboards, real time insights, and more. All the things you need to make the kind of informed decisions that can make a big difference for you and your family. So whether you're buying your first home, managing home ownership tasks, or unlocking equity for future opportunities, there's only one destination that has everything you need all under one roof. Every home at one address. Rocket.com, the new home for all things home ownership. Whether you're buying or refinancing, you have to just give a look because it is all there.

[Alexis Koh]

Tucson is a city that stays with you. And it's not just the majestic saguaros and breathtaking mountain views. Let's start with the food. Tucson is home to great Mexican food. It's a UNESCO's City of Gastronomy. With 4,000 years of gastronomic traditions, the Old Pueblo's culinary roots run deep. History is everywhere here. Stroll through Barrio Viejo's colorful adobe homes, visit the iconic Mission San Javier, or explore downtown, where every street has a piece of the past waiting to be discovered. Tucson is a blend of indigenous Mexican, Spanish and American influences, creating this vibrant community full of art and music and celebration. From lively festivals to local galleries and performances, there's always something to experience. Tucson isn't just a destination, it's an opportunity to connect with the land, with the past, and with the people who make it so special. Start planning your adventure [e-mail] Viva at.

[Lance Morrow]

California Psychics, we know that sometimes you can wake up thinking.

[Nina Burleigh]

I don't know if I'm in the right career ew or the right relationship.

[Lance Morrow]

But whatever your life dilemma, at California Psychics, we'll give you the guidance you need to feel certain about your life choices. And because we only connect you with the very best, we guarantee if your reading isn't life changing, it's free. California psychics call 1-800-PREDICT today and get 20 minutes for just $20.

[Soledad O'Brien]

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[Lance Morrow]

She was having this suburban life across the river in McLean, Virginia.

[Soledad O'Brien]

But for years tension had been brewing.

[Nina Burleigh]

In her marriage, and so they no longer had this kind of intellectual relationship that had inspired her in the first place. So that was a problem.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Their shared hopes for a peaceful future had all but vanished. Here's Nina Burleigh again.

[Nina Burleigh]

He was depressive and he stopped. He sort of went into kind of a more withholding position vis a vis her.

[Soledad O'Brien]

They started taking their grievances about each other to an especially personal space. Cord's diary.

[Nina Burleigh]

Cord was keeping a journal and apparently Mary had access to it at some points.

[Soledad O'Brien]

I know it sounds odd or even unhealthy, but it indicates how unhappy they were. Still, for Cord, his diary was the place he felt comfortable expressing his frustrations.

[Nina Burleigh]

Otherwise he was very repressed and he was drinking a lot and he kept a journal because one of his issues was that he felt that he was a writer and he was not able to write. And he was not also getting public acclaim the way Kennedy was, because if you work in the CIA, you can't get public acclaim.

[Soledad O'Brien]

His diary wasn't something that was meant to be kept private from his wife, at least not according to Mary's handwritten annotations inside of it.

[Nina Burleigh]

And so you can see in the journal his writing and then her notes on the side, like something straight out of who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

[Soledad O'Brien]

Cord would write about his disappointment over his career and the dimming prospects of peace. And then Mary would dive in.

[Nina Burleigh]

At one point, Cord wrote of the growing Korean conflict, quote, I am without hope and yet I live from day to day as before. And in the margins. Mary wrote in her large loopy script, quote, when you say you are without hope, you imply that you thought humans were not what they are. Humans.

[Soledad O'Brien]

There were more personal jabs too.

[Nina Burleigh]

Another example, he wrote poem about a beautiful woman who, quote, who wears her beauty carelessly like a bright dress lent for a night by some indulgent guest. And in the margins, Mary drew an arrow to the last lines and observed, she bites her fingernails, fails to shave under her arms, has no sense of humor and is a totally mundane soul. But silence fires the imagination of the spiritually timid.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Mary was not a gentle editor, so.

[Nina Burleigh]

She'S making fun of him in his own journal. Very toxic relationship.

[Soledad O'Brien]

It wasn't easy to be the wife of a CIA man to begin with. What do you tell the children?

[Nina Burleigh]

Their kids thought that they worked at the post office.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Accord was definitely not delivering the mail. And over time, this high stakes secrecy took its toll.

[Lance Morrow]

The strain on the families of the CIA in the 1950s during the Cold War was extreme. There was a great deal of alcoholism, there was a great deal of suicide, there was a great deal of family dysfunction. Very, very unhappy kids, very unhappy wives. Guys who would disappear forever and ever on these CIA missions. They could never talk about what they were doing. The drinking was fantastic.

[Soledad O'Brien]

This is Lance Morrow again.

[Lance Morrow]

Cord used to go and get blitzed every lunchtime at a favorite French restaurant. And it was a world under a great deal of stress.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Some CIA men had lived through war. They'd seen death from the front lines and they woke up to the reality of nuclear weapons.

[Nina Burleigh]

All these men had PTSD before they called it ptsd, and especially when they all went into the CIA and decided, you know, now we're going to, we're going to keep this world under control and we're never gonna have a world war like that again, so we have to control everything around the planet. Of course, that stressed them out.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Meanwhile, women were compelled to be caretakers and homemakers, both out of duty to their husbands and families. And of course, systemically, by design.

[Chiquis]

In the late 50s and early 60s, women were still seen as homemakers. Women couldn't get a credit card without having their husband, husband's approval.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Their signature, that's Alexis Ko. Men put women on a pedestal, which.

[Chiquis]

Is a great way to keep women in their place.

[Soledad O'Brien]

And that place for CIA wives, it was a job they took very seriously. Hosting dinner parties.

[Nina Burleigh]

What those women were able to do was, you know, they were entertainment and they were social. They had dinner parties and they kept the men amused.

[Soledad O'Brien]

And at those gatherings, they knew they weren't supposed to repeat what they overheard.

[Nina Burleigh]

And in those interactions, these social interactions, they did pick up, you know, lots of gossip. You know, let's say Alan Dulles thought about a certain, you know, journalist being a spy. You know, they. They would pick up little bits and pieces here and there. And the danger of that kind of a woman in that society for the men, is that they're gonna blab it or they're gonna tell somebody else what was going on, or, you know, this is the Cold War. I mean, the Cold War, and, you know, the stakes are incredibly high.

[Soledad O'Brien]

And given these high stakes, an independent thinker like Mary Meyer would have been looked at with suspicion.

[Nina Burleigh]

Washington at the time was just riven with spies. And so, you know, if you have a woman like that in your crowd who is not on board with what's happening, which she eventually was not, then, you know, that person could pose a challenge to people like Dulles or, you know, James Angleton, the super paranoid counterintelligence chief, because she was very attractive. So she presented a challenge because women are, by definition, subversive, because they're not members of the power structure there, so not to be entirely trusted.

[Soledad O'Brien]

So women, Mary included, continued to play the roles assigned to them. Driving kids in carpools, gardening, and cooking family dinners. But Mary also did something for herself. Self care, before we called it that. She took art classes at American University, and when she had time, she painted in the shed in her backyard. Still, being a mother took precedence. Both Mary and Dovey came up long before Betty Friedan argued that women should and could work outside the home. The Feminine Mystique was only published in 1963, just a few years before I was born and the year before Mary's murder. In the 1950s, most women lived with certain limits.

[Nina Burleigh]

They didn't fully step out and into, you know, these roles of I'm the artist, I'm the lawyer, you know, I'm a career woman. That didn't even occur to them. She was busting out of that a little by the time she got divorced.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Maybe Mary thought she'd be a CIA wife forever, but she chose independence. After her son died, her life took a different turn. And that was true for Dovey, too. She'd married her college sweetheart, William Roundtree. But Dovey and William wanted different things by the time she decided to pursue the law. Here's Dovey speaking to the National Visionary Leadership Project.

[Lance Morrow]

Well, he knew he had a job coming up in civil service, and he thought he'd rather try that. He'd rather try that.

[Nina Burleigh]

And I could go on to law.

[Lance Morrow]

School and, you know, we'd have a marriage. But there's a strenuous thing with law school. You ain't married to nobody but the law.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Dovey said she didn't want to be reined in by her husband. She took a job in another state. He went into the civil service, and they parted ways. Incredibly, both Mary and Dovey got divorced at a time when ending a marriage wasn't common, when doing so would have opened them up to no small amount of ridicule. Mary's father had divorced his first wife. Still, he was a man. He had money. Mary was not only a woman, but a mother, choosing independence over family. In the 50s, it was so unusual. Most women wouldn't dream about it, let alone do it. As for Dovey, well, she had neither an example to follow or money. She had only her own will, her own goals to follow. Both Mary and Dovey were ahead of their time. Lance Morrow saw the similarities between them.

[Lance Morrow]

He said Dovey had an independence, which, as I said, reminds me a little of Mary. And Dovey went her own way. You know, when her husband, Mr. Rountree, objected to her going to Howard University Law School, Dovey just basically said, okay, fine. Well, see you around. She was going to pursue her law career and she was going to do what she wanted to do. And Mary was the same way.

[Soledad O'Brien]

By 1954, cord, unfulfilled by his job, was continuing to drink heavily, but was also rising quickly through CIA ranks. Mary's patience wore thin. She went on a European trip with her sister Tony. Each sister had affairs with new men. Tony's was with Ben Bradley, and they married the following year. Mary met a man that a family friend described as an Italian count. She went back home to the suburbs feeling liberated, and Cord sensed a shift. It was the beginning of the end of their relationship. He thought he could wait out his wife's love affair, but the distance between them grew. Mary stopped attending CIA dinners and social outings. And then came that awful day, that December day that would break up her family for good.

[Nina Burleigh]

The middle son ran across the street in the dark and was hit by a car and died by the side of the road.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Mary ran downhill to her son's body. He had died instantly in the crash. She kept her computer composure in the moment, but later it all sunk in. She gave away Michael's Christmas presents and found other ways to cope. She encouraged Michael's friends to come visit and pick one of his toys to keep for themselves. I'm a mother of four. The idea of Mary giving away those toys is absolutely heartbreaking. Was it because she couldn't bear to look at them? Or did she want his toys to bring joy to other children, a way of having his memory live on? It's hard to fathom the depths of Mary and Cord's sadness.

[Nina Burleigh]

The death, of course, was devastating. She never got over it. He probably didn't either, as you don't when you lose a child.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Cord was hoping that this tragedy would bring them closer together, but it was not to be.

[Nina Burleigh]

That accident actually was the catalyst for her divorce and really for her changing her life from, you know, to being more of an artist and practicing more creatively.

[Soledad O'Brien]

In her grief over her son, over her marriage, over the hopes for her future, Mary needed to regain her sense of self. She would breach society's expectations of her. She would start volunteering at an art gallery and establishing her own home. She'd get a painting studio in Georgetown. She'd begin painting in the morning and taking a daily walk along the Georgetown towpath. And just like Mary's short story at Vassar, everything was about to be new and exciting and different and interesting. Next time on Murder on the Towpath, we return to Mary's murder trial, where Ray Crump is facing the death penalty. The police found him soaking wet near the tow pack. But could someone else else have committed the crime and had time to escape? To find out, I go to the scene of the crime, to the towpath itself. It's almost not secluded enough to make you feel afraid or to get a sense of foreboding about what's coming on Mary's last walk. In her moments of solitude, she was surrounded by beauty, an exposed path in nature. Mary. Mary wouldn't have had reason to be scared at all. From Luminary Murder on the Towpath is a production of Film Nation Entertainment in association with Neon Hum Media. Our executive producers are me, Soledad O'Brien, Alyssa Martino, Milan Papelka and Jonathan Hirsch. Lead producer is Shara Morris. Associate producers are Natalie Ryn and Lucy Licht. Senior editor is Catherine St. Louis. Music and composition by Andrew Epin. Sound design and mixing by Scott Somerville. Fact checking by Laura Bullard. Special thanks to Allison Cohen, Sarah Vacchiano, Rose Arce, Kate Mishkin and Mikayla Salella. And to Liesel Schillinger for reading Mary's short story Foreign.

[Chiquis]

Hey, what's up, guys? This is Chikis from the Cheekies and Chill podcast. And you know, I was thinking buying a home used to be a huge headache. You had to go to a bunch of different places for listings, for pre approval for financing. It was exhausting and confusing. But now Rocket is putting everything you need in one place. Rocket.com a single, seamless homeownership platform to help you find, buy, sell, finance, even refinance your home. There's only one destination that has everything you need all under one roof. Every home at one address. Rocket.com the new home for all things home ownership.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Hola Todos tienen que Provar Los Nuevos Ma Crispy Strips the McDonald's Es Pollo Echo para dipping hablamos de pollo empanisado ju goso yun poco picante esta tanrico que tienes supropia salsa la Creamy Chili McCrispy Strip Dip Es Cremosa Dulce y Picante a la Vez Dip Mordisco Dip mordisco riquisimos o puedes poned pollo echo.

[Nina Burleigh]

Para dipping Nuevos McCrispy strips solo in.

[Soledad O'Brien]

McDonald's it's almost mother's Day and you can now get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost almost anything. So no, you can't order a relaxing shower, but some beautiful flowers? You bet we deliver those. A bird bath?

[Chiquis]

No.

[Soledad O'Brien]

A bath bomb? Absolutely. It's no to a chocolate lab, but yes to some chocolate truffles. So whether it's a last minute gift for Mother's Day, fresh groceries or food from your favorite restaurants, get it delivered today with Uber Eats. Order now. Product availability varies by Regency app for.

[Alexis Koh]

Details Tucson is a city that stays with you. The food here isn't just a meal, it's a legacy. And whether it's the kick of a chiltepin, which is a very hot pepper for those of you who don't know, or enjoying a Sonoran hot dog after a night out on the town, every dish has a story to tell. And beyond the culinary journey, each neighborhood offers a glimpse into a rich tapestry of cultures blending into the Sonoran Desert. Tucson isn't just a getaway, it's a journey into heritage and a community that feels like home. Learn [e-mail] Viva.

[Lance Morrow]

You're listening to an iHeart podcast.