Cuba spy charges surprise neighbors in D.C.
By CHRISTINE SIMMONS
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON -- Behind the massive English gates that herald the luxury
co-op complex have lived senators, Cabinet members, judges.
Now add a retired State Department worker and his wife accused of spying
for Cuba for 30 years to the list of The Westchester's residents.
Walter Kendall Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, have
traded The Westchester's leafy, well-manicured grounds and burbling
fountains for a federal prison cell - at least until Wednesday, when a
judge will decide whether to continue to hold them.
An indictment unsealed Friday said the couple were so valued by the
Cuban government that they once had a private, four-hour meeting with
President Fidel Castro.
Gail Prensky, a resident of the complex, was taken aback by news of the
arrest. "It's intriguing on the one hand," she said. "It's a sense of
you never know who your neighbors are in a place like this, where it's
so safe and pristine. And there's espionage going on?"
Down the sixth floor hallway of worn carpet and paint a name plate
identifies the Myers' apartment. No one answered repeated knocks.
Next door, W. Russell Pickering tried to digest the allegation that the
neighbor he'd traded newspapers and legal cigars with, and shard an
occasional drink, had led a shadow life for three decades.
"Holy smokes!" the 78-year-old retired financier kept saying.
Pickering knew Kendall Myers' mother - "just a wonderful lady, lots of
fun" - and has lived next to the Myerses for nearly a decade. They moved
into The Westchester, into the sixth-floor apartment next to Pickering,
after Myers' mother died.
The indictment charging the Myerses described as acting out of love for
Cuba, not for money.
Pickering, however, said he had never heard the Myerses talk about Cuban
relations. "They're both very strong, loyal Americans as far as I know,"
he said.
"They're just wonderful people - good neighbors, great friends - The
kind of people you want to know all your life," said Pickering. "And
they're innocent until proven guilty."
Built in 1931, The Westchester reigned as one of two Washington
apartment houses with the greatest concentration of distinguished
residents, according to its Web site. At the beginning of World War II,
for instance, its residents included two Cabinet members, 31
congressmen, 12 senators, and 14 judges. Among them was the late Arizona
Sen. Barry Goldwater.
William Simpson a security guard at the complex, said he has known the
Myerses for several years and they regularly asked him to clean their
windows. "They treated me nice, they treated me real nice," Simpson
said, adding that they offered him something to eat or drink when he
came to their home.
He said the Myerses seemed like ordinary, nice people. There was nothing
suspicious about them. "It shocked me when I heard it," said Simpson.
"I'm still shocked."
Cuba spy charges surprise neighbors in D.C. - Politics AP -
MiamiHerald.com (6 June 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1084214.html
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