Biggest Georgetown Social Scandal Arrests: Socialite Viola Drath Murdered

(Photo via) 91-year old Viola Drath was murdered this week in her home in Georgetown, and papers are pointing the finger at her husband Albrecht Muth, 44-years her junior and gay.

Why anyone would want to kill a sweet 91-year old woman is beyond us. German-born Drath was a correspondent for German newspaper Handelsblatt, had a column in the Washington Times, authored several books and was a member of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy

If convicted, Muth will join a long list of social--not political--scandals that have shaken Georgetown in the last few decades.

Mary Pinchot Meyer (mistress of John Kennedy, friend of Jackie Kennedy and ex-wife of a top CIA man, Cord Meyer) was murdered in along the C&O canal in Georgetown in 1964, and it's still an unsolved mystery. Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post identified her body at the morgue (he was married to Mary's younger sister Antoinette at the time). There is a book about Meyer called A Very Private Woman. [Smithsonian Magazine]

Marlene Chalmers Cooke was married to the late Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke when she was arrested on a drunk driving charge at 1 am in 1993. But there's more. She was seen speeding down M Street in Georgetown with a man clinging to the hood of her Jaguar convertible and pounding the windshield. This article goes on to talk about the low cut dress she was wearing that night, her deportation issues involving cocaine, and her accidental gunshot wound. The town was abuzz when she came back in 2008 with a temporary visa to attend some high profile parties and visit her son Rodrigo Garcia, who owns the new (and drama-free) Serendipity 3 in Georgetown.

Howard Arenstein, CBS Radio Correspondent, was caught growing pot in home in North Georgetown. This article detailing the arrest was also one of the top 10 most read blog posts on the Washington Post in 2010.

Maybe they weren't socialites, but surely these three Georgetown University students had their nights of fun at Third Edition before a drug lab was found in their dorm. [DCist]

The Bush twins, who often frequented Georgetown hot spots like Smith Point, were arrested for underage drinking while their father was in office. [BBC]

Then...there was that whole "tase me" incident at Fashion For Paws last year. An inebriated Michael Thomas, 34, caused a scene as he left the posh Washington Humane Society event at the Italian Embassy in front of a crowd of about 50 people waiting for their cars. "I go to Georgetown, I work at Google and I am going to have you all fired," he famously shouted as he impatiently waited for his ride. Secret Service had to pin him down, handcuff him, and arrest him. [Washington Examiner]