LOUIS WERNER II KILLED WITH 4 OTHERS AS PLANE HITS IDAHO CANYON WALL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400460054-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 16, 1999
• Sequence Number: 54
• Publication Date: September 25, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

L 0 VY9
WEV -7Y5=
WITH 4'OTHERS AS PLANE
PHITS IDAHO CAN.10N.JLLL.
Kill
d in Pl
C
h
e
ane
ras
Louis Werner II
George Skakel Jr.
Member of prominent Brother of
St. Louis family Mrs. Robert, F. Kennedy
BROTHER..JN..LAW:
ALSO VICTIM OF
AIRSTRIP CRASH
Elk Hunting Party on
Way to Guest Ranch
CrW
Tried Secs
CPYRG
YRGHT
itnesses said their sln_le.
engine lane 1,.,4,d -;&W
hunt
ing gear, overshot a small all':
strip at the ranch. The pilot
tried to pull up for another ap=
proach, found himself in the-
deadend Crooked Creek Can.
yon, and crashed against the
canyon wall.
White House Ex-Aid Victim
Omer victims were:
Dean P. Markham, McLean,
Va., an assistant to Skakel and
former White House aid do the
administration of the late Presi-
dent John F. Kennedy.
Earl,Ranft, president of Gray.
city, IN. J.
Sgt. Donald Adams, Mountain
'' The bodies of the five men
Of the Post-Dispatch . were taken from the wreckao
BOISE, Idaho, Sept. 24-Louis '
___ , .. be
f th
o
e
nent St. Louis family, and four
other persons were killed late
yesterday in a crash of a light
plane near here.
Another victim was George
Skakel Jr. of New York, a
brother-in-law. of United State$
Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
Werner and Skakel were clcsq
friends. - '_
For the last 15 years Werner
was cTiief of the St. Louis re?
gional office of the Central Iii-, the iaou-toot grass and gravel
telligence Agency. landing strip a few hundred
The five were in one of fouz yards from the main Salmon
planes carrying an elk-hunting- ;River._`
party of 20 persons to a guest
ranch in an Idaho wildernes's;
area an the Salmon river, about"
24 miles north, of here.
moved them to an airstrip
downstream where an ambu-
lance waited to return them
here.
Idaho Aeronautics Director
Chet Moulton said the pilot of
the Cessna 185 apparently was
unfamiliar with the rugged
country. He said the plane, the
third of the four taking the
hunting party to the ranch, at.
Vice President of Great
Lakes Carbon Cor .
'Hit Knoll, Bounced
that's fast," Moulton said. "He
'hit a knoll and bounced. He
"gave it throttle and tried to
pull up for another approach."
Moulton said the only way to
go if a pilot does not land after
making his approach is up the
Crooked creek, a stream that
rises fast into a narrow steep
canyon.
There is no room for a plane
to turn around in the canyon.
The pilot apparently discovered
this about five miles upstream,:.
tried to turn and then crashed,
Moulton said.
"If they'd have used some
schooled pilot who had known
city, a member of the hunting
party, said he,was on an earlier
plane and saw the Cessna try
to land. "He overshot the run-
way and came down on the run-
way, and then took off again,"
he said. .
All Thrown Clear
Wyman and other friends of
the victims went into the
canyon in the night and found
the wreckage. They had heard
the plane crash. He said all
five occupants were thrown
clear of the wreckage. The
plane, he reported, hit very few
trees and struck the bank of
Crooked creek and landed in the
water.
The plane crash was the
second in Idaho's, primitive area
f' this month. On Sept. 14 a small
;,plane crashed near Stanley,
killing Idaho's Democratic
'nominee for governor Charles
Herndon, and two other men.
Werner, 42 years old, left St,
Louis Thursday for the elk-
trip. An avid sports-
Man, lie had made 91milar trips
in the past with Skakgel. Both
were expert polo players and
often played together in matches
in 'St. Louis and New York.
In addition to his service as
chief of the St. Louis regional
office of the CIA, Werner was
a director of Mercantile Trust
Co. and had been appointed last
June as a member of the Open
Space Council, wh'ch is working
for passage of the $25,000,000
i county park bond issue.
Princeton Graduate
Werner was born in St. Louis.
He attended St. Louis Country
Day School and was graduated
from St. Paul's School, Con-
cord, N.H., in 1941. He was a
cum laude, graduate from
e serv in World War
as a Navy fighter pilot. He was
twice decorated for combat
services in the South Pacific.
Werner was a private invest-
ment banker, associated writ'h
his brother, Joseph G. Werner,
with offices in the Boatmen's;
Bank Building. He was a mem- I
ber of the Bridlespur Hunt'
Club.
Werner lived on S'hackleflord
.road in Florissant, a St. Louis
suburb, with his wife and four
'children. Mrs. Werner, , the
former Anne Kennett Farrar
Desloge, was Veiled Prophet;
tern, Elsie and Anne D., and
two sons, Louis G. and Peter
D. Werner. Other survivors are
his mother, Mrs. Joseph L.
Werner of St. Louis, and a sis-
ter, Mrs. Horace F. Henriques
Jr., Greenwich, Conn.
Headed New York Firm
Skakel, who lived at Gre~n-
wich, Conn., was president of
the Great Lakes Carbon Co. of
New York. He was 47. His par-
ents were killed in a crash of
a company plane in 1953.
Markham, 47, was a vice
president of Great Lakes Car-
bon in charge of the firm's
Washington office. In the Ad-
ministnaition of the late Presi-
dent Kennedy he served on the
..President's Council of Physical
Fitness and was executive di-
rector of the President's Advis-
ory Commission on Narcotics
and Drug Abuse.
sanitiz4a pprove , or a ease
1