Catherine Caswell is loosely based on Mary Meyer

Thanks interesting read.

Thanks interesting read.

Mary Meyer was killed along the canal where they showed her walking a few times in the movie, not on the Exorcise steps.

I am a JFK assassination researcher who frequents a Forum in which the case is discussed in detail. The story is absolutely based on the life and death of Mary Pinchot Meyer. The young neighbor who had the crush on her used to write on the Forum.

Her husband, Cord Meyer, FWIW, was identified by former CIA agent E. Howard Hunt in his "deathbed confession" as the organizer of the hit on JFK.

Her husband's boss, James Angleton, (Lucien in the movie) furthermore, was the CIA's chief of counter-intelligence. The character played by Matt Damon in The Good Shepherd is similarly based on Angleton. Some researchers have identified him as the head of a "false-defector program" whereby American soldiers would pretend to turn "commie" and move to Russia, in hopes of gaining access to Russian secrets. Some have concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was part of this program, and that he remained one of Angleton's agents until his death.

It is also interesting to note that former Washington Post Editor Ben Bradlee was Mary's brother-in-law, and that after her death--supposedly by a mugger, though no one was ever convicted of the crime--he and his wife Toni were called up by one of Mary's friends and told about Mary's diary. They were told it included details of her affair with JFK. They then raced to her art studio in order to find her diary before it fell into the hands of persons unknown. When they got there, however, they found Angleton (her ex-husband's boss) at the studio looking for the diary. They found the diary, and Bradlee claimed he let Angleton take the diary and burn it.

If I recall, the actual whereabouts of the diary have never been revealed. Angleton never wrote a book on his career, and only told bits and pieces of what he knew to interviewers. He was forced from the CIA after it became clear he'd been spying on Americans on American soil, in defiance of the CIA's charter. Ironically, after years of study, a report was written claiming Angleton's paranoia had destroyed so many careers and had paralyzed the CIA to such an extent that he couldn't have done more damage if he'd been a KGB spy. In time, he returned the favor by telling those who'd listen that the CIA chief who'd forced him out, William Colby, was quite possibly a KGB mole. William F. Buckley, himself a former CIA operative, and godfather to E. Howard Hunt's children, wrote about Angleton in his novel Spytime.

You can't be a loser if you never quit, unless being a loser means not knowing when to quit.

[deleted]

I just read Peter Janney's "Mary's Mosaic" over the past month and found it riveting. It took me back to an era I just adore and would've loved to have lived in. I believe he's coming out with a 3rd edition later in the year. It's awful that Mary Pinchot Meyer's death has remained unsolved to this day makes me wonder why the TV show, "Unsolved Mysteries," never covered it as it would've made a perfect murder case for the show. Personally, however, I do believe it was a CIA hit over what she knew and had written down in her diary.