Letter From John Nicholls Booth (Dec. 1953)
| Arash Norouzi The Mossadegh Project | July 23, 2026 |
Reporting from Iran in 1952, John Nicholls Booth interviewed Dr. Mossadegh for The Boston Daily Globe. A year later, Mossadegh was overthrown in the 28 Mordad coup. During Mossadegh’s sham trial, Booth dug up a photo
he had taken of the Premier, his doctor son and two grandsons, and sent it in as a letter to the editor.
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Pictured left to right: Mahmoud Mossadegh, his Dad, Dr. Gholam Hossein Mossadegh, Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh. The young boy is Mahmoud’s younger brother Hamid.
Mahmoud Mossadegh, who would have been about 18 at the time, studied medicine in Switzerland, became a physician like his Father, and had four children. He passed away in 2024.
Rev. Booth, an ordained Unitarian minister and former magician, author and journalist, died in 2009 at age 97.
What People Talk About
The Boston Daily Globe | December 23, 1953
Belmont Minister Takes Picture of Mossadegh, Males in Family
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To the Editor — The trial of Premier Mossadegh and his subsequent appeal may give the enclosed photograph I made of him and the male members of his family some news value. I was told it was the first picture that had been made in years
of the male members gathered together.
Behind the ex-Premier sits his noted physician son, while flanking him are two grandsons. Note the small fry wears an American “rocket airman” sweat shirt.
Mahmoud, the son on the left, attended Harvard last Winter. I made the picture in Mossadegh’s home in Tehran 15 months ago when he was sitting on top of the world, even though it was only an old iron bed.
JOHN NICHOLLS BOOTH.
Belmont
Related links:
The Case of the Mysterious Letter From Dr. Mossadegh (Oct. 1951)
Stella Margold Interviews Premier Mossadegh on Oil (August 1951)
In Defense Of Mossadegh | Letter to Editor, Detroit Free Press (Dec. 11, 1953)
MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”
