The Nation - News from July 18, 1988

A police investigation into the 1968 death of the second wife of Melvyn R. Paisley, a central figure in the Pentagon procurement scandal, has found no evidence of foul play, a newspaper in Seattle reported. King County police interviewed nearly three dozen people in their investigation into the death of Mary Lou Paisley, an inquiry that was opened earlier this month, the Seattle Times reported. Officers are close to ending their investigation, the paper said. The death was ruled an accident at the time, and there was no formal police investigation. Paisley’s attorney, E. Lawrence Barcella Jr., said that Paisley has not been contacted by police and “has no inclination to dredge up a sad and tragic event that was closed out 20 years ago.” Paisley found his wife, Mary Lou, dead in her son’s bathroom face down in a pile of towels covered with carbon tetrachloride, a toxic cleaning solvent.