Mary's Mosaic

Book excerpt: Who really murdered Mary Pinchot Meyer in the fall of 1964? Why was there a mad rush by CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton to immediately locate and confiscate her diary? What in that diary was so explosive and revealing? Had Mary Meyer finally put together the intricate pieces of a bewildering, conspiratorial mosaic of information that revealed a plan to assassinate her lover, President Kennedy, with the trail ultimately ending at the doorstep of the Central Intelligence Agency? And was it mere coincidence that Mary Meyer was killed less than three weeks after the release of the Warren Commission Report? Based on years of painstaking research and interviews, much of it revealed here for the first time, author Peter Janney traces some of the most important events and influences in the life of Mary Pinchot Meyer—including her first meeting with Jack Kennedy at the Choate School during the winter of 1936, her explorations with psychedelic drugs, and finally how she supported her secret lover, the president of the United States, as he turned away from the Cold War toward the pursuit of world peace. As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination—and Mary Meyer’s—Mary’s Mosaic adds to our understanding of why both took place. This paperback edition has been updated and revised with a significant postscript that focuses on Meyer’s alleged assassin, who the author finally located and confronted in person in August 2012, as well as the ongoing saga of Janney’s attempt to reopen the case based on new evidence.