One of the primary goals of my research is to determine when and how Jay Reid became involved with the CIA.
To that end, I am considering the possible impact of cross pollination during the year that constitutes the major inflection point in Jay’s life: the summer of 1947 to the summer of 1948.
In June 1947, Jay, as a working journalist, was about to move from the New York Herald Tribune over to the the Wall Street Journal. This move would involve a shift from day-to-day reporting to (less frequently published) reported columns.
Just shy of his 32nd birthday, Jay was about to receive an increase in pay in exchange for a less grueling work life.
At this time, he was also in the third year of a serious relationship with another Washington journalist.
That summer, she would travel to Boston with her girlfriends, sending Jay postcards that lamented his not being there.
Fast forward to August 1948.
Jay has just started working at the International Monetary Fund, where he is the first, and only, press relations officer.
Outside of work, Jay has a new love interest. His previous, long-term relationship having ended, Jay has just begun dating Virginia Galliher, the woman he would ultimately marry in 1951.
Were these big changes - personally and/or professionally - in any way connected to Jay’s work for the CIA? Remember, the CIA formally set up shop in September 1947, which places it within the one-year stretch of major changes in Jay’s life.
There is also the possibility of a precipitating event: Karl Harr’s wedding on October 11, 1947.
The wedding, as reported in The New York Times, took place at Prospect Presbyterian Church in Maplewood, New Jersey. Maplewood is just a stone’s throw away from Montclair and South Orange, where Jay and Karl, respectively, grew up.
It is very likely that Jay attended Karl’s wedding, although documentary proof remains elusive.
In addition to Jay’s and Karl’s relationship as cousins, there is the possibility that Jay’s sister, Florence, knew Karl’s bride, Patricia Adams.
Both went to Mrs. Beard’s School for their secondary education, although their years of attendance may not have overlapped.
The real question is who else might have attended that wedding? The Times article lists Raphael “Rock” Semmes, one of Karl’s Princeton roommates, as the ceremony’s best man.
It’s a good bet that their other roommates attended, as well.
Who else?
Perhaps some people Karl met during the war?
This possibility speaks to the importance of establishing whether or not Moon Duck Harr is really a pseudonym for Karl Harr. If it is, then this one fact - that Karl received special operations training from the OSS, a precursor for ongoing work as an intelligence agent - would completely change the complexion of Karl’s wedding.
As I continue to detail each step that led Karl to the fateful summer of 1960, pay attention to the characters who come in and out of Karl’s professional orbit.
Who works for whom? Who has a real impact on Karl’s career? And, most importantly, who has interests, and connections, in Jay’s orbit?