Who, Me?

During the Army v. McCarthy hearings, Hearst Gossipist Walter Winchell bubbled with tips, inside stories, and the kind of scoops that are his stock in trade. But last week the biggest Winchell exclusive of the hearings backfired and landed him before the Watkins committee considering the McCarthy censure charges (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). The committee, which is trying to decide whether McCarthy improperly received and used secret Government documents, thought Winchell might help them. Four months ago Winchell had bragged in print that he had his own copy of the "Personal & Confidential" document on the loyalty of Fort Monmouth personnel that got McCarthy into trouble. The Watkins committee wanted to know where Winchell, who is a good friend of both Joe McCarthy and Roy Cohn, got his copy of the document.

The Forgetful Reporter. Columnist Winchell was a reluctant witness. Under questioning by Assistant Committee Counsel Guy G. de Furia, at first he said: "I would not reveal my source of information on any news." Senator Watkins suggested that Winchell was "laboring the point a little" and asked pointedly: Did he actually know who delivered the document to him? Winchell replied: "I do not know. I am not sure." Later, he added: "I am pretty sure that it was not Senator McCarthy" or anyone on his staff. Winchell explained why he was not sure: "There are so many people offering material to me [that] sometimes [I just] let them place [it] in my hand, sometimes just with the acknowledgment, 'Thank you very much.' " Winchell said that he must have got the secret document during the hearing while he was standing outside the Senate caucus room chatting with newsmen. It was just another piece of paper, said he, among the dozens that friends and tipsters passed to him.

Winchell recalled that later, inside the caucus room, when he looked at what he had been handed, he turned to other newsmen at the press table and said, "Gee, look what I have." Although he insisted that he could not recall who gave it to him, he was dead sure he never let anyone else read it. Instead, he went to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who warned Winchell that if he printed the document the FBI would be obliged to arrest him. About eight or ten days later, Winchell testified, he burned the document and flushed it down a hotel toilet like the good, security-conscious naval officer he is (Lieut. Commander, U.S.N.R.).

In the Corridor. Other newsmen who had often chatted with Winchell outside the caucus room during the hearings could not remember seeing anyone actually handing him the document. None of them volunteered to step up and corroborate or deny that part of Winchell's story when Committee Chairman Watkins offered them the opportunity. Last week, after his appearance on the witness stand, Winchell in his column offered another explanation of how he got the document. Wrote he: "In the corridor, some Good Fairy waved his wand and there it was, in my li'l ole pocket."

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