9 episodes
Murder on the Towpath Luminary
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- True Crime
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4.1 • 48 Ratings
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Soledad O'Brien takes us back to 1964 when a well-connected white artist was murdered, a Black man stood accused, and a barrier-breaking civil rights lawyer rose to his defense—in what would become one of the most fascinating unsolved cases in US history.
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Bad Luck, Mary
It was a baffling mystery. A socialite and artist with powerful connections was murdered on her daily walk in a posh DC neighborhood. Nobody knew what to make of Mary Pinchot Meyer’s murder. A Black man named Raymond Crump Jr. soon became the suspect – and in 1964, that was bound to capture everyone’s attention. But was he Mary’s killer or a scapegoat??
[Originally published in 2020, this encore presentation marks the 60th Anniversary of JFK's assassination.] -
Married to the Law
Dovey Johnson Roundtree became a lawyer at a time when no one wanted Black women to amount to anything. She’d grown up with the KKK terrorizing her neighborhood. A lucky break landed her at Spelman College. Her intellect got her into Howard Law. But it was her courage that made her take on the daunting case of Ray Crump Jr. — the Black man accused of killing Mary Pinchot Meyer.
[Originally published in 2020, this encore presentation marks the 60th Anniversary of JFK's assassination.] -
The CIA Wife
Mary Pinchot came from a wealthy, eccentric family. The kind of folks who rode horses naked on their East Coast estate and hobnobbed with Kennedys. She was fiercely committed to world peace, but ended up marrying a CIA man named Cord Meyer. It was only after a tragic accident that she threw herself into painting in Georgetown. What started as a hobby became a lifeline in the years before her death.
[Originally published in 2020, this encore presentation marks the 60th Anniversary of JFK's assassination.] -
The Mapmaker's Testimony
For a whole year, Dovey retraced Mary’s last steps on the towpath in order to build her defense. Meanwhile, the aggressive, gum-smacking prosecutor portrayed Ray as a ruthless killer without morals. It was up to Dovey to convince a jury that Ray didn't deserve the death penalty.
[Originally published in 2020, this encore presentation marks the 60th Anniversary of JFK's assassination.] -
Just Say Yes
In the year before her death, Mary was coming into her own as a painter. She was experimenting with her art and drugs. But what Dovey didn’t know at the time of Ray’s trial was that Mary was having an affair with a very powerful man: President John F. Kennedy.
[Originally published in 2020, this encore presentation marks the 60th Anniversary of JFK's assassination.] -
Exhibit A
A witness for the prosecution said he saw Ray after Mary’s murder. But did he? Dovey’s final defense hinges on one important piece of evidence: Ray Crump himself. By then, he’d spent 9 months behind bars, some of it in solitary confinement. Would he go free?
[Originally published in 2020, this encore presentation marks the 60th Anniversary of JFK's assassination.]
Customer Reviews
Great story with glaring omissions
While this podcast does a great job of telling two stories about two remarkable women, it totally misses the mark when it comes to the arrest of the man falsely accused of murder. The most likely scenario is that he is innocent, there was no big CIA conspiracy to kill Mary, and police did what they did so well back then and still often do - set their sights immediately on one guy and not investigate further. The “eyewitness” evidence? Obviously faulty. But further, something listeners could’ve benefited from knowing, eyewitness evidence is one of the main reasons for false convictions among those who have been since exonerated. On top of it, the police, both now and, particularly, then, are very good at manipulating or coercing witnesses into seeing things their way. The podcast came close, but never really touched on that as a very possible likelihood. Since the murder was so scantily investigated, it’s impossible to know who killed Mary or why. The “jogger” also was more likely a liar or another person manipulated by police to strengthen their case. It’s actually much more likely a guy with different names and more than one Social Security number is a petty criminal or con man than in the CIA. Maybe he had a reason to lie that had nothing to do with some tangled conspiracy, but rather to do with a robbery gone bad or sexual assault in which he didn’t expect the victim to put up a struggle. Blood evidence shows Mary was dragged a little toward the bushes - what does that tell you?
This all isn’t to say that I didn’t like the podcast - I did! Particularly the remarkable story of Dovey Roundtree. But to ignore those important issues that have clouded our justice system for so long - and in fact to say the most simple solution may be that Ray WAS guilty - to stress that possibility more than once - without delving into the incompetent and racist investigation, makes it incomplete. And oh yeah, where Soledad saw the letter from JFK to Mary as making him vulnerable and romantic, I saw it as a narcissist who won’t take no for an answer trying to manipulate a woman he wanted, but who was resisting him. So yeah, only four stars.
Extraordinary!!!!!
This was so much fun! I could not stop listening and I had to binge. You did an amazing job!!! Thank youuu!!!
Well that was a surprise!
Thought it was going to be one kind of podcast; turned into something really different!