William Mellon ("Billy") Hitchcock is a member of the Mellon family who was involved in the psychedelic drug scene of the 1960s and 1970s.
Hitchcock is the son of Tommy Hitchcock Jr.,Greenberg, Charlie. Inside the Hitchcock estate after one year on the market. The Millerton News. August 6, 2025. grandson of William Larimer Mellon Sr., and nephew of Andrew Mellon.Lee 96 His father died in a plane crash when he was a young child. He attended the University of Vienna and University of Texas without graduating.Warth, Mary Jo. The Acid Profiteers: Drop-Out, Turn-On, Cash-In. The Village Voice. August 22, 1974. In his twenties he was working as a stockbroker when he met Timothy Leary (through his sister Peggy Mellon Hitchcock) and began using LSD. In 1963, with his twin brother Tommy, he made the Hitchcock Estate in Millbrook, New York available to Leary and his associates, charging a token rent of $500 per month.Lee 97 In 1967, with the scene around Millbrook under increasing pressure from local police, he evicted Leary and moved to the Bay Area.Lee 238 Martin A. Lee writes that he financed Tim Scully and Nick Sand's psychedelic-manufacturing activities (both had earlier passed through Millbrook) and later served as money manager for The Brotherhood of Eternal Love.240-241, 244 In 1969 Hitchcock's wife, Aurora, filed for divorce, stating in an affidavit that he had hid profits from drug sales in a Swiss bank.Lee 247 In 1973 he was indicted for tax evasion.Mellon Relative Is Indicted For $543,800 Tax Evasion. The New York Times. February 22, 1973. He cooperated with the government and testified against Sand and Scully, who were convicted the following year on charges of manufacturing LSD and evading taxes.Fosburgh, Lacy. 2 of 3 Defendants in LSD Case Found Guilty by Jury on Coast. The New York Times. February 1, 1974. In 1975 he married the screenwriter and mystery novelist Jane Stanton; they divorced in 1991.
References
Sources Lee, Martin A., and Bruce Shlain. 1992. Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Grove Press.