The Washington Post
December 2, 1979
pg G1
The Mysterious Connections of John Ellsworth
IT WAS AT a White House Christmas party in 1977 that First Lady
Rosalynn Carter, standing beside the holly-decked mantle in the State
Dining Room, was first introduced to a 300-pound, self-proclaimed
Santa Claus named John Ellsworth….felon, forger and government
informer on friends and foes alike…
…Ellsworth ensnared Mrs. Carter and later her son Chip into lending
respectability to the International Children’s Appeal, a questionable
charity scheme that one participant has since described as “the scam
of the century.”
Who is John Ellsworth and how has he managed to cause so much trouble
for so many people — including the Carters — and still ride around
Manhattan in a chauffeured baby-blue Lincoln limousine, seeming to
have no troubles of his own? …Ellsworth, a high school drop-out, has
told people he once drove a taxi. Using the name John James he toured
with the Rolling Stones and appeared on camera in the film “Gimme
Shelter.”
