Reagans Meet Privately With Klinghoffer’s Widow, Family
NEW YORK — President Reagan today embraced Marilyn Klinghoffer, widow of the man killed during the hijacking of an Italian cruise ship, and met privately with her and her family for about 20 minutes.
Klinghoffer, her daughters Ilsa and Lisa, Lisa’s husband, Jerry Arbittier, and Klinghoffer’s mother, Rose Windwehr, met with the President and First Lady at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel at midday. Reagan then left to return to Washington.
Reagan hugged Klinghoffer and Nancy Reagan kissed her. The group met in a room that Reagan had been using to greet foreign leaders during his visit for the 40th anniversary of the United Nations.
Klinghoffer’s 69-year-old husband, Leon, was killed earlier this month on the Achille Lauro cruise liner.
Family spokeswoman Letty Simon, speaking to reporters outside the hotel, described the meeting as “an opportunity for President and Mrs. Reagan to extend condolences.” Klinghoffer told the President she hoped her husband’s killers would be brought to justice and “he said he was of like mind,” Simon said.
Meanwhile, the American Arab Relations Committee issued a statement today calling on Reagan to hold a similar meeting with the widow of Alex Odeh, an Arab-American who was killed in a bomb blast Oct. 11 in Santa Ana, Calif.
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