Timothy Leary
Appearances
Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien
Just Say Yes
It's the social set of Georgetown in the 50s. They're very international, cosmopolitan people. They're also very provincial. I mean, they're from a small group of upper-crust people in New York and Boston. But they had put in a lot of time in Europe
Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien
Just Say Yes
It was Georgetown, and they had, you know, pretty relaxed ideas about moral behavior. I don't think that there was a whole lot of disapproval, let's say, in her crowd. In fact, I mean, some of them were women were openly married to gay men. Beards. I mean, it was a very... sophisticated place.
Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien
Just Say Yes
She could hook up with artists if she wanted to, and she could, you know, make herself known in an artistic community and pursue creativity, which a lot of them did. You know, her friends were into, you know, other painters. Cicely Angleton wanted to write poetry. Anne Truitt was actually a very well-known artist, her friend. So they had the leisure of...
Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien
Just Say Yes
with which to pursue activities that were not conventional.
Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien
Just Say Yes
Mary and her friends weren't conventional, but they weren't feminists. They weren't living like feminists.
Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien
Just Say Yes
Yeah, it's incredible that she never showed a painting to Kenneth Nolan, who was one of the leaders of the Colorfield School, in which she was so influenced by in her work. It's sad. You know, again, it goes back to the position of post-war women in America and everywhere.
Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien
Just Say Yes
So, you know, she had a certain image of herself probably as somebody who could do these things, and was very confident. The confidence that comes with having been born to a lot of money. And that kind of confidence, you know, it goes a long way. But it does not go long enough to take your dabblings and then put them in front of a Kenneth Noland and say, look, I'm an artist.
Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien
Just Say Yes
She started to hang out with Timothy Leary, at least if you believe his account, more than once. She dropped acid with him.
Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien
Just Say Yes
The logistics of the affair are recorded for posterity in the White House logs that are kept in the Kennedy Library. They are handwritten. And you can see the secretary saying, Mrs. Meyer is here, or Mrs. Meyer arrived at a certain hour of a certain day.
Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien
Just Say Yes
You can take those logs and you can put those dates next to what is known about Jackie's whereabouts, also recorded elsewhere. And you can see that when Jackie was out of town, she was in the White House.
Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien
Just Say Yes
I think it was pretty well known during the affair by the people who hung around with Kennedy and people who went to parties in Georgetown and the people who knew her.
Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien
Just Say Yes
They are the opposite of our generation and the younger generation of sharing and oversharing on social media. They knew things and they kept their mouths shut. And that's why you have Ben Bradley knowing that Mary Meyer was having an affair with the president. And he was a major, major journalist in Washington and he never reported on it.
Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien
Just Say Yes
I mean, she got the joke. She was from his social class. You know, she was in the club. And so there was that. And she was very beautiful. and had, you know, radiant seductiveness that he noticed. And he was a superstar, like two beautiful people, one with lots of power. She was on the in, and he liked that.