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Fawn Hall

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Fawn Hall
Hall attending a White House Christmas party in 1984
Born (1959-09-15) September 15, 1959 (age 65)
Annandale, Virginia
Alma materAnnandale High School (1977)
OccupationSecretary
EmployerU.S. National Security Council (1983–87)
Known forIran–Contra affair
Spouse(s)Danny Sugerman
(m. 1993–2005,
his death)
Partner(s)Rob Lowe
(1987)
Arturo Cruz Jr.
(1985–86)

Fawn Hall (born September 15, 1959) is a former secretary to Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North who gained fame for her role in the Iran–Contra affair by helping North shred confidential documents.

Early life

Born in Annandale, Virginia, in 1959, Hall graduated from Annandale High School in 1977. She began working part-time in a clerical position for the United States Navy, beginning in January 1976 while she was in VGA high school.[1] After graduating, she began working full-time for the Navy at the Pentagon.[2]

In 1987, Hall lived in Annandale, with her mother and stepfather.[3][4]

Involvement in Iran–Contra

Hall was detailed from the Navy to work at the National Security Council on February 26, 1983, as Oliver North's secretary. She worked for North until she was fired on November 25, 1986, at the height of the scandal.[1] Hall's mother, Wilma Hall, was secretary to Robert McFarlane,[5] Reagan's national security advisor, North's superior and a major player in the Iran–Contra affair.

In one mishap, Hall transposed the digits of a Swiss bank account number, resulting in a contribution from the Sultan of Brunei to the Contras being credited to a Swiss businessman's bank account instead of the intended account.[6]

In June 1987, Hall, herself, began two days of testimony in front of the United States Congress.[7] She confessed to altering, shredding a large number of documents (so much was destroyed, she said, that the office shredder jammed), and smuggling others in her boots and inside her clothing and giving them to North on November 25, 1986, who was fired after his role in orchestrating potentially illegal aid to the Nicaraguan Contras became public.[8][9] Among her other testimony was an assertion that, "Sometimes you have to go above the law."[9][10] Journalist Bob Woodward recorded that her legal defense justification was summarized in her words: "We shred everything".[11] In 1989, in exchange for her testimony against North for Iran–Contra affair, she was granted immunity from prosecution.[12]

Life after the Iran–Contra affair

After the Iran–Contra affair broke, Hall briefly went back to work for the Navy in 1987 for less than 6 months. She was invited to the 1987 White House Correspondents' Dinner by journalist Michael Kelly.[13] After her congressional testimony in June 1987, she left government service and signed with the William Morris Agency[14] and unsuccessfully pursued a media career in the Washington, D.C., area.

Playboy and Penthouse, however, did make six-figure offers to Ms. Rice, as well as to Ms. Hall and Ms. Hahn, to pose nude, according to spokesmen for the magazines. Whereas Ms. Rice and Ms. Hall have rejected the offers, Ms. Hahn accepted..[15][16][17]

In April 1990, Hall was a freelance TV reporter in Pittsburgh.[18]

In 1992, Hall worked for a law firm in Los Angeles, California,[19] and she pursued a modeling career for several years.[20] Hall dated the actor Rob Lowe who tracked her down after seeing her at the Oliver North trial,[21] and the couple attended Jack Lemmon's AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony in 1988.[22]

In April 1993, Hall married Danny Sugerman, former manager of The Doors.[20][23] The Sugermans lived in the Hollywood Hills.[20] She was a cocaine user when she held jobs on the National Security Council staff and at the Pentagon.[24] It was reported that Sugerman introduced Hall to crack cocaine shortly after their marriage. She developed a crack cocaine addiction and suffered a non-lethal overdose, in 1994, following which she went into rehab.[20] Sugerman died in 2005 of lung cancer, and in 2007 Hall listed the house for sale for almost $2.5 million,[20][25] and in 2014, it was acquired for only $1.96 million.[26]

As of 2012, Hall was living a quiet life[27] in West Hollywood, working at a bookstore[28] and staying out of the public eye.[20]

Citations

  1. ^ a b Meet Iran Affair's 'Mystery Woman', The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 25, 1987.
  2. ^ Hall, Carla; Kastor, Elizabeth (February 24, 1987). "The Afternoon of a Fawn". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
  3. ^ Schneider, Keith (February 26, 1987). "Fawn Hall Steps Into the Limelight". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
  4. ^ "Fawn Hall: Oliver North's Angel". Time. March 9, 1987.
  5. ^ Reeves, Richard. President Reagan: Triumph of Imagination. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2005, p. 367.
  6. ^ "Brunei regains $10 millions". The New York Times. July 22, 1987.
  7. ^ "Understanding the Iran-Contra Affairs - the Legal Aftermath".
  8. ^ Hall Details Effort To Hide North's Role Destroyed Documents On Contra Aid, The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 9, 1987
  9. ^ a b Morgan, Dan; Pincus, Walter (June 10, 1987). "Hall Testifies of Necessity 'To Go Above Written Law'". The Washington Post.
  10. ^ "Shredding Not Cover-Up Move, Fawn Hall Says". Los Angeles Times. June 9, 1987.
  11. ^ Bob Woodward: Veil: the Secret Wars of the CIA 1981–1987, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987, p. 501
  12. ^ Hall, North Trial Testimony, 3/22/89, pp. 5311–16, and 3/23/89, pp. 5373–80, 5385–87; Chapter 5 Fawn Hall 147
  13. ^ Green, Joshua (July 6, 2017). "The Remaking of Donald Trump". Bloomberg News. Ever since 1987, when, in the wake of the Iran–Contra scandal, the journalist Michael Kelly brought one of its central figures, Fawn Hall, the documenting-shredding secretary to Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North [...]
  14. ^ "Fawn Hall Signs With Superagent". Los Angeles Times. August 19, 1987. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
  15. ^ Yarrow, Andrew L. (September 28, 1987). "Celebrities of Summer Are Cashing in". The New York Times. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |ldate= ignored (help)
  16. ^ "Fawn Hall limits her exposure".
  17. ^ "$500,000 for Posing in Nude? Fawn Hall Says That's Disgusting". Los Angeles Times. March 5, 1987.
  18. ^ "Fawn Hall, freelance reporter, visits Virginia Beach | April 1990". April 7, 2019.
  19. ^ "Fawn Hall Says She Was Proud Secretary". April 23, 1992.
  20. ^ a b c d e f Al Kamen (April 18, 2012). "Catching up with Fawn Hall". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013.
  21. ^ "Rob Lowe on his early years as an actor, his friendship with the Sheens and Tom Cruise, and the movie that launched his career, The Outsiders". Vanity Fair. March 29, 2011.
  22. ^ Lowe, Rob (2011). Stories I Only Tell My Friends. New York: Henry Holt and Company. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-8050-9329-2.
  23. ^ "Fawn Hall to wed author Sugarman". Daily News. April 12, 1993.
  24. ^ "Fawn Hall Reportedly Admits Cocaine Use when at NSC". Los Angeles Times. June 4, 1989.
  25. ^ "The Real Estalker: Fawn's Swan Song". February 7, 2007. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
  26. ^ "Steve Sugerman Los Angeles | 9306 Warbler Way". February 23, 2016.
  27. ^ "Obituary for Wilma Gray Hall at Parrish Funeral Home, Inc".
  28. ^ "West Hollywood Legacies: Book Soup". March 2, 2020.

General and cited references

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