Remembering a towering figure in Md. politics - Bismarck Tribune
Although he certainly did not look the part, Marvin Mandel thought of himself as a latter-day Duke of Windsor. Just as the duke had abdicated the British throne to marry "the woman I love," so did Mandel lose the Maryland governorship and even go to jail so that he, too, could be with the woman he loved. Mandel died Sunday. The woman he had so loved, Jeanne Blackistone Dorsey, had died in 2001. They had been married since 1974. She was a striking beauty and, like the Duchess of Windsor (from Baltimore, remember. Mandel, the son of a garment cutter, was smitten. As governor, Mandel would barrel down to Dorsey's place in St. Mary's County in an unmarked police car. Mandel was injured. The Washington Post dispatched me, as a former insurance investigator, to the accident scene to determine how fast the governor's car was going. I looked at the skid marks and concluded — based on what I'd seen in various movies — that Mandel's car was going fast. A bit later, the same editor who had insanely ordered me to the accident scene ordered me to confront Mandel: Was he returning from a rendezvous with Jeanne Blackistone Dorsey in Leonardtown. Source: bismarcktribune.com
