---
aliases:
- Leonard N. Weigner
category: Intelligence & Government
created: 2026-05-17
location: Washington, D.C.
summary: Colonel Leonard N. Weigner was a confirmed CIA military officer identified
  in an unverified 1990s memo as the officer who directed Marion Pettie to embed within
  Washington counterculture circles as an intelligence asset, a claim with no corroboration
  in primary sources.
tags:
- Person
- CIA
- Military
- TheFinders
- ColdWar
title: Leonard N. Weigner
updated: 2026-05-17
---

Colonel Leonard N. Weigner was a U.S. military officer whose CIA career is confirmed in contemporaneous press records. He is known primarily through his appearance in an anonymous three-page investigative memo of unknown provenance that circulated among researchers studying [The Finders](/organizations/the-finders/) in the mid-1990s.[^1]

### Anonymous Memo Claims

The unsigned "Investigative Leads" memo, whose author, date, and provenance are unknown, claims that Weigner was the senior officer who directed [Marion Pettie](/people/marion-pettie/) to embed within Washington counterculture circles as an intelligence asset beginning in the late 1950s or early 1960s. The memo describes this as part of an arrangement also involving newspaper publisher [Charles Marsh](/people/charles-marsh/) and [General Ira Eaker](/people/ira-eaker/), in which Pettie's alleged counterintelligence training was arranged and his subsequent activities in Washington's bohemian milieu were directed by Weigner.[^1]

No corroborating primary source for this specific claim exists. The anonymous memo is the sole source for Weigner's alleged relationship with Pettie. The Finders investigation documents in the 2019 FBI Vault release (FOIA case number 1372462-0) do not mention Weigner.[^1]

[^1]: Minnick, Wendell L. "The Finders: The CIA and the Cult of Marion David Pettie." *Unclassified*, No. 35, Winter 1995. Unsigned "Investigative Leads" memo, no author or date, mid-1990s circulation.