The Mapmaker's Testimony

Published May 14, 2025, 9:00 AM

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. Dovey had to convince the jury that Ray was innocent—otherwise he would face the death penalty.

Earlier this year, my producer Natalie and I went to the place where all of this began. So this towpath is it's very pretty. It runs right along a wall that's about what twenty feet high maybe that's a guess. And between the towpath and the walls is a marsh is I guess the time of year it's it's sort of got a low level of water. And to the left of the towpath as we're walking, and of course you see the skyline right on the other side of that. It's so pretty. I mean, it really is very beautiful. Is that Georgetown?

Yes, Georgetown starts that Georgetown right around here.

We wanted to see for ourselves where Mary Meyer and dove Rowntree intersected. Mary Meyer walked here, Dovey Rountree hunted for clues here. This might be the only place where the two of them cross paths. Literally, Georgetown overlooks this path. Yeah, I mean, if you looked out the window of a Georgetown dorm, you would see the path. I had this idea of what the towpath would be like. Actually, when I first heard the word towpath, I wasn't even sure what one was. I guess I assumed the towpath was heavily wooded. Like in a movie, you know, the slightly ominous scene. It's typically at the beginning of a film noir. Within five minutes of watching, you know from the pacing and the moody lighting that she's not gonna make it to the end of the film, just like Mary, who was killed too soon before her life had run its course. But here's the thing. The place Mary was murdered is actually an open public park. It's amazing how crowded it is. And obviously we're talking many decades ago, but still like you're not lone and secluded. There's a lot happening. You don't feel alone. It doesn't feel scary, it doesn't feel quiet. Absolutely, it feels busy.

When it comes to community of crime, you would think you might want to do it in a more secluded place. And this absolutely is not something that's unpopulated or shielded from many people's views.

Right.

You see the joggers kind of above your head on the bridge, and you even see the homeless people's little encampenance because the trees don't even hide those at all. But I thought, having not seen it before, that it would be much more secluded and much you know, more places where you could hide and not. I mean really you can see everything. And these days planes constantly pass overhead. The towpath has long been in the flight path of Reagan. Of course, back then it was just called National Airport. The path itself is also wider than I thought it would be. We passed people walking their dogs, soccer players, and cyclists were whizzing past us. That afternoon, Natalie and I retraced Mary's steps on her final day. We started at M and thirty fourth Street, passed Keybridge and walked west toward Fletcher's boat House, crossed the Wooden Footbridge, and even walked past the tunnel that journalist Lance Morrow would have taken to reach Mary. We used several sources about the crime to figure out where Mary died, but our best guess is roughly forty three hundred Canal Road. Natalie pinned it on her phone and we headed that way, so.

You can see us sort of approaching. That's the x Marxist spot right there. Got it.

At this point in our walk, the Canal was on the right, the Potomac was on the left, down a slope filled with brush and trees, and that's the spot where she was first shot. Yes, even in the Potomac kayaks like you're really not alone.

It's like it's almost, in a weird way, the most exposed area of the path so far.

Well, it's almost right here, like being on a beach. Right, the water is to our left, the Potomac. The path has gotten very flat and open, not too much brush, and the highway is to our right, and it's kind of just exposed. Over these last few months, I've read so much about Mary's final walk, the horror and the history of it. She was just doing what she did every day to take a moment for herself. Remember, she'd been going through a lot, getting divorced, grieving Michael's death. And yet when it came down to it, this act of violence happened in a public park that people pass every day, not far away from posh Georgetown stores. You'd think there'd be a plaque or something commemorating this death, but it's business as usual. On M Street. You can see people deciding which cupcake flavor to get as a treat as pop music blares from the speakers.

Alas, all right, so it's.

All a bit jarring. Even if we don't know it, the shadow of history is always following us. I don't think there's anybody walking on those streets fifteen minutes away who realized that a murder occurred. I don't think there's anybody who's thinking, oh my gosh, this is a site of a murder. They just don't think that way, partly because I think we forget so quickly, and partly because I think it just looks so regular. It doesn't look like a thing at all. It's just a dirt path. And yet this is where a woman's life ended, and where Dovey returned to again and again in the months following Mary's murder to unlock clues that might save Ray Crump's life. In July of nineteen sixty five, the time had come for Dovey to give everything she had to convince the jury that Ray was innocent. From Luminary Film, Nation Entertainment, and Neon Hum Media, this is Murder on the Towpath, a story of two incredible women who never met, but whose lives became forever intertwined by tragedy. I'm your host, Solidad O'Brien. This episode, we take you to the court room where we finally hear about Ray's trial. While Dovey was getting ready to defend Ray, Crump the country was chain.

So nineteen sixty five is this both exciting and depressing year?

That's Georgetown professor Marcia Chatteling.

Pass is the measuring. The Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four is signed at the.

White House, which is ending Jim Crow segregation in the South. In nineteen sixty five, the Voting Rights Act is supposed to secure the right to vote for every American and is considered a victory, particularly for black voters in the South.

Those major victories were exciting, but America had far to go to right certain wrongs.

But it isn't just about being able to go to a store and to vote. It's thinking about how African Americans are going to be full citizens. How are they going to be selected and seated in juries? How are they going to be able to then advocate for themselves to get loans at banks?

Segregation was only now just ending. It would take longer for white people to consider black people their equals. Many people still don't. Dovey felt the weight of all of this. It was the weight of defending Ray in a society that devalued black men. But it was also the weight that she felt whenever she entered a courtroom. Here's historian Alexis Co.

The Civil Rights Act has just passed and that abolished segregation. So that means that she has just started to be able to physically walk into these areas that as a black person, as a woman, that she has been barred from the courtrooms, from libraries, to do research, like every place that you would need access to in order to do the kind of work that she needed to do.

According to Dovey, her mere presence irritated the white judges and lawyers. A year before the trial, the DC Bar Association actually protested her membership. The all white group didn't like a black woman in their midst. Some board members even resigned over Dovey. So while she was fighting for justice for Ray, Dovey also had to fight for herself. She carried all of this with her that morning as she walked into the DC Circuit Court on July twentieth, nineteen sixty five. People wanted her to fail. She had to prove them otherwise. On that hot summer Tuesday in DC, all eyes were on Ray's trial This was.

The hottest case in the courthouse.

That's Bob Bennett. Back in nineteen sixty five. Bob was a newly minted lawyer working as a clerk.

It was a big deal, and of course the press was there. Mary Pinchot Meyer was a very prominent, wealthy woman. She was on the social pages and everything, and so had to all those characteristics, and yeah, it was a big story.

A successful lawyer these days, and he knows a thing or two about being part of a noteworthy case. In the nineties, he was one of President Clinton's defense attorneys during his impeachment hearings. But Ray's case was one of the first times he was in a courtroom.

Was an exciting case, and yes, I did enjoy it.

Bob was clerking for Judge Howard Corkran, who'd recently been appointed to the District Court bench. President Johnson nominated him and he was confirmed by the Senate in March. Some thought the judge wasn't ready for such a high profile murder case. Guess Dovey wasn't the only one out there with something to prove.

I mean, Judge Corkran was a very patient, kind of laid back fellow. He was calm. He was deliberative because he was new. He wanted to do everything just perfectly right.

Dovey knew he wouldn't suffer fools. She had to be exemplary. Crowds of people gathered in the fourth floor courtroom. The space was all wood and cavernous. Thankfully, it was air conditioned, which offset that muggy July heat in the district. There were two tables, one for the prosecutor and one for the defense. Behind the lawyers sat a large crowd who'd come to watch justice be served.

There were a lot of people sitting in the benches in the rows.

Throngs of journalists were covering the trial. Stylish Georgetown women like Cicily Angleton came for all eleven days. You'll recall her husband, Jim Angleton, was the chief of CIA Counterintelligence. Ray's mother, Martha Crump, had her church friends there for support, and sitting in front of all of them were Ray and Dovey. Ray wore a new blue suit, his mother bought it for him for the trial.

You know, he looked very young, and he wasn't threatening at all. He was a little guy. As I remember it now, he may have I don't know what his height was, but he gave the appearance of being smallish and thinnish.

As I remember it, Ray was only five'. Five he looked sharp in his, suit but he was. Scared he was visibly. Shaking if he was, Convicted ray could face a death. Penalty at one, point he reached out to Touch dovey's.

Hand he was one of her. Children she, acted IF i remember, right very kindly towards, him and she created the image that she was going to take care of this poor fellow who was incorrectly, charged and she created a very motherly appearance in the courtroom as a protector Of Raymond crump.

Women five men sat on the. Jury according To, dovey they were black and white in equal number and came from every walk of. Life there was a taxi, driver a social, worker a, nurse and a. Counselor and then there was the prosecutor representing the, STATE Us Attorney Alfred.

Hantman he Was he was a very strong. Prosecutor he was a very big. Fellow he's very, aggressive very, capable very.

Capable hantman was a twenty five year veteran of THE dc criminal. Courts he knew these kinds of cases better than most trial lawyers prosecuted dozens of. Them he was confident he.

Prevailed one thing that JUST i clearly can never forget is he chewed gum throughout the whole, trial and he chewed it in a very aggressive. Way AND i could tell that irritated one or more of the tourists because you could almost hear, it and it wasn't really respectful of the cord of their.

Proceedings chewing gum aggressively didn't exactly win over, jurors or at least annoyed one or. Two according To, bennett it smacked of over. Confidence hamptman took the floor and began his account of what happened that faithful day Of october, twelfth nineteen sixty. Four he recounted the murder blow by, blow growing louder and louder with each gruesome. Detail The Washington post printed all the details Of hamptman's opening. Statement the assailant shot the victim first in the left. Temple then she was dragged twenty or twenty five feet toward the. Embankment the, Witness Henry, wiggins heard a. Scream, god somebody helped. Me mary struggled back across the towpath to the canal's. Edge she crawled on her hands and, knees tearing at her Assailant he shot her a second, time this time in her right. Shoulder the bullet ripped through the main blood, vessel leading into her. Heart the details were hard to hear. Then they're hard to hear now decades. Later Once hantman had the courtroom, horrified he tore Into. Ray according To, Hantman crump was a killer with no, motive a black man who enjoyed the thrill of, violence who killed for the sake of. Killing the jury looked. Terrified hantman's details were. Graphic that was the. Point it seemed like his strategy was to scare jurors into a guilty. Verdict but he didn't just want jurors to Think ray was a mindless, killer a man without a moral. Compass he also wanted them to know he was a. Liar hantman brought up the fishing.

Rod and one thing That hantman did quite, effectively why was That raymond told the police he was, fishing yet there was no recovery of any fishing.

Equipment we Know ray hadn't told the. Truth as you might, remember he Told dovey he was with a lover that. Day but the, Woman, bibian didn't want to testify because she didn't want her husband to find. Out but During hamptman's opening, statement the jury Thought ray was lying because he had Killed. Mary it was a devastating moment in. Court hantman finished his opening. Statement the fairest verdict was the guilty. One THE us attorney sat. Down it was an unforgettable. Opening usually at this, point a defense lawyer tells their version of events so jurors will believe that the accused is actually, innocent, not As hantman, argued a killer who enjoyed the thrill of. Violence dovey. Rose then she did something out of the, ordinary even though everyone was expecting she. Would she didn't make an opening. Statement it was a bold, move But dovey had her. Reasons she didn't want to give away the main points of her. Case if she, did Then hamptman might not call one important, witness a gentleman who mapped out the area Where mary. Died So dovey bided her time and let the witness testimonies. Begin hamptman called Upon ray's Neighbor Elsie perkins to testify about the fishing. Gear elsie And ray's apartment sat side by side On Stanton. Terrace she testified she Saw ray leaving his apartment at eight that. Morning he was wearing the same cap and jacket that the police found Near mary's body later that, day and mind, you he had no fishing gear with. Him she also said she Knew ray owned only one fishing, rod she saw it in a closet in his family's. Apartment later that, Day Dovey pross Examined. Elsie The Evening star documented the. Exchange why Was elsie so certain of What crump wore on the day of the? Murder elsie, responded Mister crump's wife AND i are in the habit of checking to see who's coming or. Going isn't that being? Nosy dove, asked you could call it? That the housewife, Answered dovey wasn't getting. Anywhere the media didn't think so. Either The Washington stars headline the next day Read meyer Witness link's cap To. Crump that didn't sound. Good dovey knew she had to be. Strategic hamtonman may be, aggressive but maybe she could outmaneuver him in other.

Ways and a contrast started to develop during the case where you Have dovey who was sort of soft and grandmotherly or, motherly and you Have, hamptman who is this hard charging, prosecutor And dovey knew exactly what she was. Doing she played it up.

Some she tried to win over the jury by showing That ray was a man worth tending, to not a, monster but a, slight short man who was somebody's. Son hampman brought another witness to the. Stand it was one Of ray's, Friends Robert. Woolbright robert was the guy who was supposed to take him to the construction job that day he stopped by, RaSE but that Morning ray was nowhere to be. Found he told the jury he didn't see his friend on the job. Either this anecdote didn't Make ray a, murderer but the prosecution was painting a picture for the. Jury they were Saying ray was an unreliable, man, shifty someone who didn't keep his, word someone whose own friend would testify against. Him we still don't know Why Robert woolbright did. That hantman said all of these testimonies were a textbook. Case of circumstantial. Evidence in other, words he was asking the jury to connect the. Dots you don't need to look. Far the murder is in plain, sight right here in the blue suit in front of. You sounds strange to say, it But dovey And hamptman saw eye to eye on one. Thing there was no direct evidence Linking ray to the. Crime without, It hamptman had to try for a conviction in a roundabout. Way he Portrayed ray as a killer and a liar who was found Near mary's, body and hoped the jurors would convict him of murder without direct. Evidence dovey had other. Plans at every, turn she was going to point out the lack of evidence that Tied ray To mary's. Death take the, gun for. Example police never found the murder weapon after the. Shooting forty police officers combed through fifteen hundred feet of. Dirt the park police even drained the, canal hoping to find a thirty eight Caliber smith And wesson laying at the bottom of that murky, water but they. Didn't he certainly never found a pistol On. Ray the government worked hard to find, it and still. Nothing dovey knew there was no real evidence Connecting ray to the. Crime she just needed to convince the jury of that. Too to build their, case the prosecution brought out technical. Experts, first AN fbi hair and fiber expert. Testified the, Man Paul, stambaugh compared a hair taken From crump's head with hairs found near the scene of the. Crime he told the jury they. Matched he said there were no dissimilar, characteristics but this was a time BEFORE dna, testing so all THE fbi expert could say with that weird phrase was that the hair on the jacket and cap looked like it could Be ray's. Hair there was no way of knowing if the strands of hair were genetically. Identical not exactly. Science If ray were tried, today that alone could have changed the course of the. Trial under cross, Examination dobby forced him to admit what was actually, true that hair cannot positively be traced to a particular. Source stombaugh sat back. Down up next was ANOTHER fbi, figure this time a gunpowder expert Named Warren. Johnson he said the gunpowder residue found On mary's blouse and sweater showed the murderer put a gun up To mary's body or very very near. Contact but at the same, time no gunpowder compounds were found on the jacket and cap that were supposedly. Raised hampman argued it was Because ray was wet when the police found. Him he Suggested ray had deliberately fallen into the water to clean himself. Off then the prosecution brought out their next bit of, evidence and boy was it.

Big, LITERALLY i remember That hantman put up on the wall of the courthouse what had to be a twenty five foot.

Map The Evening star said it was thirty feet, long and some records say the map was as large as fifty five feet. Wide point is this map was hard to. Miss it's pretty likely the prosecution was resting a large part of their case on the. Map hantman even wanted to keep the map up during the, trial But Judge corkoran thought it could sway the, jury so every Time hantman examined a new witness about the crime, scene he'd clumsily put the map back up like a tenth grade geography. Teacher the map itself covered a substantial, area everything Between keybridge And. Chainbridge it wasn't just the crime scene Where mary. Died it included potential exits, too where the killer could have escaped after the, murder.

And his position was that after this came to the attention of the, police that they blocked off every possible exit from the, park And ray was caught in the park that he couldn't get.

Out the map maker was a lifelong government. Employee his name Was Joseph, roncisvale and he was an. Engineer he testified that there were multiple official exits to the, towpath Including, Keybridge, Chainbridge Foundry tunnel And fletcher's Boat. House, remember the police Caught ray within forty five minutes of the. Murder the police had probably been manning those exits within ten to fifteen minutes Of mary's body being. Found so, essentially the map maker was saying the murderer was trapped in the, area there was no way he could have, escaped so the killer had to Be. Ray that's what the prosecution. Argued dovey quickly seized on the map maker's. Argument in her cross. Examination she asked him if he had ever walked the towpath. Area he. Hadn't dovey's long days traversing the towpath were about to pay. Off unlike the map. Maker she had been to the towpath a. Lot by this, point she had memorized its. Pathways she listed off all the numerous small and unofficial entry and exit points in the, area and it was clear to me the killer didn't have to leave the towpath through an official. Exit natalie AND i noticed that immediately when we walk. THERE i, mean you're so close To rhodes on both, sides so sure there's not an official. Exit but if you walk over, here, right if we head kind of toward The potomac and we walked through this, bramble there's a path right. Here i'm sure that's not an official, path but clearly somebody else has come down, here and you can see where they've tucked through, there and they could make their. WAY i, mean it's a thirty foot, drop but you could see how you could scoot down, there not, easily.

You, Know so it's sort of a tunnel that brings you somewhere other than.

Oh, yeah, yeah try not to fall off this edge. Here so but, yeah, oh look at. That there's a little tunnel that you can see pretty. Clearly that's not an official exit by any stretch of the, imagination but could you get, out you Could could you go down these, stairs maybe run over that? Way could you jump into the? WATER i mean those aren't official, exits but are there ways? Out you could run across the, marsh you AND i we go to the other. Side but, LOOK i mean we you AND i could could just jump right into This it's it's, mucky but it's not it's not full of water like it is down. Further you could run across that and scale up over that. WALL i MEAN i could hop. That, YEAH i mean truly anybody could do. That you, Know so this idea that, yes it's not a it's not an official, exit but if you're, asking could someone in fact, exit yes they. Could it seems as Though dovey came to the same conclusion back in nineteen sixty. Five the map maker was no contest For. Dovey after she listed all the potential unofficial, exits he. Relented he couldn't counter her argument he hadn't been to the, towpath so in open court he had to admit he wasn't sure there were a fixed number of escape. Routes the implications were. Huge it meant the fact That ray was in the area didn't mean that he was. Guilty it meant that if the murder was, planned someone could have quickly left the area in any number of, ways and someone could even have gotten away before the cops started their. Dragnet dovey scored big for raised. Defense Here's Bob bennett.

Again AND i think that map hurt him Because Dovey roundtree pointed out that in such a vast, area while there would be a limited number of official, exits it was such that the true murderer could hide in the trees or escape through a non official. Exit SO i think the map actually turned out to hurt.

Him hantman grew visibly. Angry he. Objected Judge corkoran overruled. Him the map maker's testimony was fair. Game ray's case wasn't looking as hopeless as it had after opening. Arguments dovey was going toe to toe with the gum chewing aggressive. Prosecutor she was, smart she knew what she was. Doing dovey was finding gaps In hantman's. Argument what she didn't, know what Only mary's inner circle, knew was That mary had had an affair WITH. Jfk had she, known she might have argued her case. Differently BUT jfk was known to have countless women at his. Fingertips look At Marilyn. Monroe but WHAT jfk And mary had was not a typical.

AFFAIR jfk wrote to her and, said you know you need to give me WHAT i.

Want, yes that's. RIGHT jfk Wrote Mary meyer a, letter an epic love. Letter next time you'll get to hear it From Luminary murder on The toepath is a production Of Film Nation entertainment in association With neon Hum. Media our executive producers are Me solidad, O'Brien Alyssa, Martino Milan, papelka And Jonathan. Hirsch lead producer Is Shara. Morris associate producers Are Natalie rinn And Lucy. Licht senior editor Is Catherine Saint. Louis music and composition By Andrew, Eapen sound design and mixing By Scott. Somerville fact checking By Laura. Bullard special thanks To Alison, Cohen Sarah, Vacchiano Rose, Arsa Kate, michikin AND. Michaela sealella

Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien

One of America’s greatest unsolved mysteries, and the two women at its core; One black, one white. O 
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