Mary Bancroft on C. W. Barron and W. G. Harding

 “Remember that facts are not the truth. They only indicate where the truth my lie!”

                                                                                                – C.W. Barron

Clarence Walter “C.W.” Barron, publisher of the Wall Street Journal – the pioneer of financial journalism as we know it today, and stepfather of Mary Bancroft, the author of “Autobiography of a Spy” (William Morrow, NY, 1983)

The facts in the case of the murder of President Kennedy have been bent, twisted and lied about, but the facts lead us to where the truth may be so we can find it.

When the CIA began its “detailed study” of the German military’s Valkyrie plot to kill Hitler to be adapted for use against Fidel Castro, they didn’t have to go very far to get the details, as former CIA director Allen Dulles, his OSS assistant Mary Bancroft and their primary agent in the conspiracy Hans Bernd Gisivious were all available for consultation.

Mary Bacroft's book "Autobiography of a Spy" is a key source for information on Dulles, Gisivious and the plot to kill Hitler.  

Almost as an after thought, the references to her dear benefictor C. W. Barron, go unnoticed, as she says Barron had knowledge of the death of President Harding before it became news, intimidating that Barron knew that Harding was going to be killed on a train on his way home from Alaska, as he did die of possible food poisoning.

(p. 27): "I was present myself on one occasion when CW's 'nose' was at work. We were playing bridge at his home in Cohasset. CW was an excellent bridge player, but on this particular evening he revoked several times and, finally flinging down his cards, said he couldn't continue. Important news was about to break. Every ten minutes or so he sent one of his secretaries to phone the office to see what was coming over the wires. For over an hour the secretary would report that there was nothing. Finally he returned to say there was still nothing - except that President Warren G. Harding, on a visit to California, had had crabs for dinner and was suffering fro man upset stomach. 'That's it!' CW exclaimed. 'Get me the Vice President.'"

"Calvin Coolidge, the Vice-President and a good friend of CW's, was visiting his father at his home in Vermont. CW finally got in touch with him, told him about Harding, and added that Coolidge should stay where he was and be sworn in as President of the United States by his father - a notary public - preferably by candlelight as that might be more picturesque."

"My stepmother was greatly annoyed with CW for 'burying poor Mr. Harding before he was even dead.' But CW was adamant. He was positive Harding was going to die - and, of course he did. Calvin Collidge was sworn in as President of the United States by his father - and by candlelight at that."

While some mainstream historians admit that Harding, because of the impending scandal over the Navy oil reserves, made his assassination a possibility, I was disappointed when John Dean dismissed the probability.

Just by coincidence I sat next to Watergate White House lawyer John Dean at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Archives II, while I was researching the JFK assassination records, and recognized him sitting in the booth next to me. As I have a friend of the same John Dean name, I asked him to autograph one of his business cards - which he did, for my friend. 

I then asked him what he was working on, and he said he was writing a biography of President Warren G. Harding, who I was familiar with as a golfer who played a round at the Seaview Country Club in New Jersey, where he lost a bet with the club owner, that a ten year old local golf prodigy, James "Sonny" Frazer, could play the round in under 100 strokes. Which he did. 

I also was familiar with Bancroft's statements of Barron's foreknoweldge of Harding's death, as well as John Dean's role in the Watergate mess. 

So I was quite surprised and perplexed when I got a copy of John Dean's bio of Harding that doesn't even question whether his death was a murder or mystery at all. 

In any case, I accept Bancroft's statements regarding her benefictor C. W. Barron, the founder of the Wall Street Journal and Barrons Magazine, and that he did know Harding was not going to live long.