On The Death Of Peter Yarrow And Why He Should Not Be Celebrated

Let me start by acknowledging that I've always been a fan of Peter, Paul and Mary. I once saw the trio in concert at the famous Musikfest in Bethlehem, PA. I own their four CD box set and a couple of their later albums. I recently played their live, Christmas CD during the holidays.

Peter Yarrow died of cancer on January 7, 2025 at age 86. I'm aware that I posted on several social media platforms that I wasn't going to write a tribute to him because of his past. That's still true, but his disgusting, criminal acts are bothering me too much to ignore them.

There was an extreme paradox between the public life Yarrow led - and what he and his singing group meant to a multitude of noble social causes - compared to what went on behind the scenes. These contradictions compel me to say something about him now because of the way many media outlets are reacting to his death.

Most older music fans - especially baby boomers - know how proudly PP&M marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for civil rights, for an end to nuclear disarmament, and for an end to the war in Viet Nam. They were willing to be - and sometimes were - arrested in the name of their causes. That is admirable, of course, but my anger rises because Yarrow's seemingly honorable public persona is completely undone by his private life. How could this man have the nerve to take a public, moral stance on anything?

It was only a few years ago when I discovered on a news site that Yarrow was arrested for taking "immoral and improper liberties" with a fourteen year old girl. Insidehook wrote the following in 2021.

"On Aug. 31, 1969, a 14-year-old girl named Barbara Winter and her sister went to meet Yarrow at his hotel. When they arrived at his door, he was nude. According to the Post, “Within minutes, she told police, Yarrow made her masturbate him until he ejaculated.” Yarrow was convicted and sentenced to one to three years in prison, but he wound up only serving three months. On the day of his sentencing, he admitted to molesting Winter, saying, “I am deeply sorry. I have hurt myself deeply. I hurt my wife and the people who love me. It was the worst mistake I have ever made.”

"But Winter isn’t the only person who claims to have been molested by Yarrow as a child. On Feb. 24, 2021, a new lawsuit was filed in New York by a woman alleging that the “Puff the Magic Dragon” singer raped her when she was still a minor."

"The lawsuit claims that the girl ran away from her home in St. Paul, Minn., in 1969 and traveled to New York, where Yarrow told her to meet him at a hotel, then raped her and bought her a plane ticket back to St. Paul the next morning."

I wasn't able to determine why, on his last day in office, the recently deceased Jimmy Carter granted Yarrow a full presidential pardon. It sounds very out of character for the late President. 

What bothers me most is how many TV outlets, newspapers, websites and blogs have paid tribute to Yarrow and mention the good works he, Mary Travers, and Noel Paul Stookey performed over the years that either minimize or don't mention a single word about Yarrow's crimes. It's a huge part of his biography.

David Muir, the anchor of ABC's nightly news program ended one of his broadcasts with the story of Yarrow's death and film of Peter, Paul and Mary performing. Muir also gave a brief rundown of their political activities, but he never mentioned one word about the singer's abuse or conviction. It made Yarrow look like a saint. You'll never convince me that a news operation belonging to one of the major networks had no information about the singer's illicit behavior in their archives.

I sympathize with many of the causes PP&M always supported. Despite that, I hope the obituaries that don't mention Yarrow's sad indiscretions aren't doing so due to deliberate attempts to whitewash his image on the grounds that his group subscribed to a political agenda shared by those media outlets. If it's true, they're participating in some horribly irresponsible journalism.

This post was updated on March 9, 2025.