I had written out a check to the United Farm Workers and given it to Margie Shepherd on December 6th the night before the first bomb threat was mailed.
I had totally forgotten about that whole visit--and now I remembered something else about her. She had never removed her coat or gloves in the half hour she sat in my sweltering apartment. And Joy remembered that also when I called then to ask if she remembered Margery. ****
My lawyers were very excited when I called them with the discovery and told me to immediately go through lists of Scientologists, because it would be most helpful (to say the least) if we could prove that someone who might know the complainant (Meisler)[[the Scientology PR man who had claimed to have received the bomb threats and named me as a likely suspect]] had been in my apartment the night before the first bomb threat was mailed.
I was going through John Seffern' s[[*]] lists with no luck on Margie when I almost fell over. There, among a list of high ranking Scientologists was the name '"Jerry Levin" -- the same man who had been living in my apartment for at least six months.
I simply did not want to believe it. Barbara [[my best friend, a writer who lived in the building]] and I confronted Jerry with it, but he rightly pointed out that it was a common name, especially in New York, and he turned on me. After all he had done for me, how could I accuse him of being a Scientologist?
He almost completely convinced me that I had gone so crazy that I was now suspicious of everyone. I ended up feeling guilty for doubting and accusing him, even more so when he left shortly thereafter.
This strong suspicion of betrayal [[**]] added to my bad mental state, as did the fact that once he left I was alone. If I was wrong, then I had self-destructively driven away someone I could have leaned on during the trial. (Indeed, Jerry had offered to be a character witness for me at the trial, and I cringe now when I think of the scenario if that had happened!)
Almost everyone was gone. Bob [[my boyfriend]] had left me completely around August, after he had come over one evening and I had been too depressed to even fix myself up or clean the place before his arrival. Paula [[***]] was gone. Jerry was gone. Most of my friends avoided me because I was hardly a cheerful companion. (1)
[[** note the word "suspicion." I simply refused to believe that Jerry was a Scientologist until I saw the Washington documents about 8 years later.]]
[[*** Paula Tyler, unbeknownst to me, was also a Scientologist, and she was introduced to me by Margie Shepherd and Paula in turn introduced me to Jerry. So that's how I was set up: from Margie to Paula to Jerry.]]
[[**** I may have mentioned in an earlier entry that I now believe Margie may have had stationery taped to the back of the clipboard (holding the petition I signed for the United Farm Workers) and that's how they got my fingerprint..
Or more likely, she grabbed a piece of stationery when I went into get her a drink, and the stationery was Joy's which I had touched and that's how they got my fingerprint. Or she unlocked the little latch for the door so someone else could come into the apartment later and get my stationery.
According to the FBI, Jerry was the one who actually obtained the stationery, so she either gave it to him, or he entered the apartment when I wasn't there and grabbed some paper.]]
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