Fawn Hall

Early life

Born in Annandale, Virginia, in 1959, Hall graduated from Annandale High School in 1977. She began working part-time in a clerical position for the United States Navy, beginning in January 1976 while she was in high school. After graduating, she apparently began working full-time for the Navy at the Pentagon.

Involvement in Iran-Contra

Hall was detached from the Navy to work at the National Security Council on February 26, 1983, to work for Oliver North. She worked for North until she was fired on November 25, 1986, at the height of the scandal. Hall's mother, Wilma Hall, was secretary to Robert McFarlane, Reagan's national security advisor, North's superior and a major player in Iran-Contra.

In one mishap, Hall transposed the digits of a Swiss bank account number, resulting in a contribution from the Sultan of Brunei to the Contras being credited to a Swiss businessman's bank account instead of the intended account. During the scandal, it was reported that she dated Contras politician Arturo Cruz, Jr.. It was also alleged that Hall and Jonathan Scott Royster, Liaison to Oliver North, had an affair. Much about Royster is still classified today due to his involvement and will remain classified until 2050.

At one point during the investigation into Lt. Col. Oliver North's finances and personal spending habits, a receipt was discovered indicating a purchase made at a Washington, DC lingerie shop. Investigators on behalf of the Democrats hearing the case believed they had found incontrovertible evidence proving a suspected romantic relationship between Ms. Hall and the married Lieutenant Colonel. During live televised testimony, North, when presented with the evidence of the receipt, affirmed in theory the purchase from the lingerie shop. When pressed further upon the exact nature of the acquisition, however, North was unable to recall the article in question, nor the particulars of the purchase itself. Later that evening, North's wife admitted to her husband that she did, in fact, remember the incident, and the specificity of the nature of the item in question. What she told her husband that evening was later told, under oath, to the members of the Senate Subcommittee. Firstly, that the purchase made at the lingerie shop was, indeed, made by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and, by him alone; and, finally, that the nature of the purchase was made for a small pair of leotards on behalf of his young daughter who was soon to begin her classes in ballet.

In June 1987, Hall, herself, began two days of testimony in front of Congress. She confessed to altering, shredding a large number of documents (so much was destroyed, she said, that the office shredder jammed), and smuggling others, in her boots and inside her clothing and giving them to North on November 25, 1986, who was fired after his role in orchestrating potentially illegal aid to the Nicaraguan contras became public. Among her other testimony was a claim that, "Sometimes you have to go above the law." Journalist Bob Woodward recorded that her legal defense justification was summarized in her words: 'We shred everything'. In 1989, in exchange for her testimony against North for Iran-Contra Scandal, she was granted immunity from prosecution.

Life after Iran-Contra

After the Iran-Contra affair broke, Hall briefly went back to work for the Navy in 1987. She was invited to the 1987 White House Correspondents' Dinner by journalist Michael Kelly. After her congressional testimony in June 1987, she left government service and signed with the William Morris Agency and unsuccessfully pursued a media career in the Washington, D.C., area. She later moved to Los Angeles, California, and pursued a modeling career for several years. In April 1993, she married Danny Sugerman, former manager of The Doors.

The Sugermans lived in an affluent section of Los Angeles called the Hollywood Hills. It was reported that Sugerman introduced Hall to crack cocaine shortly after their marriage. She developed an addiction and suffered a non-lethal overdose in 1994. Afterward, she went into rehab. Sugerman died in 2005 of lung cancer, and in 2007 Hall listed the house for sale for almost $2.5 million.

Since 2012 Hall has lived a quiet life in West Hollywood, working at a bookstore and staying out of the public eye.