George Taylor, John F. Kennedy’s valet and chauffeur, Boston; Cordenia Thaxton, White House maid; Janet G. Travell, physician to President Kennedy; Stanley Tretick, photographer, United Press International, Look; Dorothy Tubridy, Irish friend of the Kennedy family.
Jack Valenti, special assistant to Lyndon Baines Johnson; Sandy Vanocur, journalist, NBC News (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project); Sue Mortenson Vogelsinger, secretary to John F. Kennedy; William Walton, artist, friend of Robert Kennedy, coordinator of Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign in New York (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project).
Ernest Warren, reporter, Associated Press; Bernard West, chief usher, White House; Irwin M. Williams, White House gardener.
Personal Papers, Archives, and Manuscripts
As important as the Oral Histories were to this book, the personal papers, archives, and manuscripts housed at the Kennedy Library were just as vital. I must thank the many authors, historians, and researchers in the Boston and Washington area—too many to note here, but all have received personal letters of gratitude from me—who spent, literally, years going through all of the hundreds of archives and manuscripts, narrowing them down to what follows, and then making them available to me for Jackie, Ethel, Joan.
Archival materials and manuscripts relating to the following individuals were used as source material for this book:
Kirk LeMoyne (Lem) Billings (includes letters from JFK); McGeorge Bundy (includes fascinating and useful transcriptions of presidential recordings on the Cuban Missile Crisis); Clark Clifford (Kennedy family attorney, 1957–61; includes insightful memos); Barbara J. Coleman (journalist and White House press aide and aide in Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign; papers include miscellaneous correspondence between Jackie and Ethel); Dorothy H. Davies (staff assistant to JFK; includes correspondence and memorandums).
Katherine Evans (including condolence letters and correspondence to Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy, drafts and copies of acknowledgments); James J. Fahey (author; includes originals and copies of newspaper articles about the Kennedys); Paul Fay (personal friend of JFK’s and Under Secretary of the Navy; includes personal correspondence between Fay and JFK, as well as original manuscript and notes relating to his book, The Pleasure of His Company); Dun Gifford (including correspondence and campaign materials having to do with Joan Kennedy’s involvement in Ted Kennedy’s senatorial campaigns); Roswell Gilpatrick (deputy Secretary of Defense, friend of Jackie Kennedy’s; contains copious correspondence, memorandums, appointment files, and daily diaries, with correspondence to and from Jackie Kennedy Onassis); Doris Goodwin Kearns (historian and author; contains copious and fascinating notes, drafts, interview transcripts, edited and unedited material from her book The Kennedys and The Fitzgeralds).
Dave Hackett; Chester (Chet) Huntley (broadcast journalist; contains correspondence and notes relating to his coverage of the assassination and funeral of JFK); Edward (Ted) Moore Kennedy (Senate files); John Fitzgerald Kennedy Personal Papers; John Fitzgerald Kennedy President’s Office Files (the working files of JFK as maintained by his secretary, Evelyn Lincoln; includes correspondence, secretary’s files and special events files through the years of the administration); John Fitzgerald Kennedy White House Social Files (includes papers and records of Jackie Kennedy’s and the White House Social Office under the direction of Letitia Baldrige and Pamela Turnure); Robert Francis Kennedy (the author’s researcher utilized only the Attorney General Papers 1961–1964); Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (correspondence, family papers, research, background materials and drafts of her memoirs, Times to Remember).
Evelyn Lincoln (personal secretary to JFK; includes research materials, notes, and other papers pertaining to her book, My Twelve Years with John F. Kennedy); Frank Mankiewicz; Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (includes condolence letters, tribute, Mass cards relating to JFK’s death; not particularly enlightening); Kenneth O’Donnell (special assistant to JFK; includes correspondence, audiotapes, news clippings, pamphlets, and memorabilia, as well as notes and drafts of Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, written with Joe McCarthy); David Powers (includes copious correspondence, audiotapes, news clippings, and memorabilia).
Pierre Salinger (press secretary to JFK; includes correspondence, press briefings, and, most important to my research, press releases and telephone memoranda); Arthur Schlesinger (special assistant to the President; includes correspondence, drafts, and copious research materials, book drafts, and manuscripts for his wonderful books A Thousand Days and Robert Kennedy and His Times; a treasure trove for any Kennedy historian); Theodore Sorenson (special counsel to the President; includes manuscripts and personal papers, as well as magazine and newspaper articles); Jean Stein (author of American Journey: The Times of Robert Kennedy; another treasure trove that includes tapes and transcripts or Oral History interviews, unedited drafts of her excellent book, as well as notes and other background material).
Janet Travell (physician to JFK; includes correspondence relating to his health); William Walton (journalist, painter, and Kennedy family friend; includes copious correspondence); Theodore White (journalist and author of The Making of the President and other works; the mother lode for any Kennedy biographer, including all of White’s outlines, notes, drafts, proofs with annotations, correspondence, notes and transcripts from his interview with Jacqueline Kennedy after JFK’s assassination); United States Secret Service Papers and Files (includes all records of JFK’s and Jackie’s activities from 1960 to 1963; also lists visitors to the White House).
Also utilized:
Clay Blair Jr. Papers (American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming); Charles Higham Collection of Papers (Occidental College, Eagle Rock, California); Joseph Kennedy Correspondence (House of Lords Library, London); Peter Lawford Files (Special Collection Division, Hayden Library, Arizona State University, Tempe); Jacqueline Onassis Oral Histories (Lyndon B. Johnson Library); Secret Service Gate Logs (JFK Library, visits filed chronologically); Sidney Skolsky Papers (Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences); Special Collections of the Mugar Memorial Library (Boston University, including the papers of Laura Bergquist, Fletcher Knebel, and David Halberstam); Donald Spoto Papers (Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences); Gloria Swanson Papers (Hoblitzelle Theatre Arts Library, University of Texas, Austin); Harold Tinker Papers (Brown University); White House Central Subject Files (JFK Library); White House Files of Chester Clifton, Jr. (JFK Library); White House Press Releases (JFK Library); White House Telephone Logs (JFK Library, calls filed chronologically); Zolotow Collection (Humanities Research Center, University of Texas).
In January 1999, the Secret Service released Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis File 1968: Protection of President Kennedy’s Children. Material from this voluminous file was utilized throughout this book.
Arts & Entertainment
The Arts & Entertainment Network Biography series was invaluable to my research. My thanks to the staff of A&E who assisted me in my research, providing me with tapes, transcripts, and other materials. The following documentaries were reviewed as part of my research, and can all be obtained at biography.com, or by calling 1-800-344-6336: “Assassination and Aftermath: The Death of JFK and the Warren Report”; “Bay of Pigs/Cuban Missile Crisis”; “Chappaquiddick”; “Conspiracies”; “Kennedy and Nixon”; “Joseph Kennedy, Sr.: Father of an American Dynasty”; “John F. Kennedy: A Personal Story”; “Ted Kennedy: Tragedy, Scandal and Redemption”; “Magic Moments, Tragic Times: Camelot and Chappaquiddick”; “The Men Who Killed Kennedy”; “Jackie O: In a Class of Her Own” (from which some quotes by John Davis, Letitia Baldrige, and Pierre Salinger were culled); “Christina Onassis”; “Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis”; “RFK Assassination/’68 Democratic Convention”; “Helen Thomas: The First Lady of the Press”; “Lady Bird Johnson: The Texas Wildflower”; “Lyndon Johnson: Triumph and Tragedy”; “Presidents in Crisis: Johnson Quits and Nixon Resigns”; “Secret Service.”
Institutions and Org
anizations
Numerous organizations and institutions provided me with articles, documents, audio interviews, video interviews, transcripts, and other material that was either utilized directly in Jackie, Ethel, Joan or for purposes of background. Unfortunately, it is not possible to thank all of the individuals associated with each organization who were so helpful and gave of their time; however, I would at least like to express my gratitude to the following institutions:
American Film Institute Library; Amherst College Library; the Archdiocese of Boston; Assassinations Archives and Research Center (Washington, D.C.); Associated Press Office (Athens, Greece); the Bancroft Library (University of California, Berkeley); Baylor University Institute for Oral History; Boston Herald Archives; the Beverly Hills Library; Boston Public Library; British Broadcasting Corporation; Brooklyn College Library; University of California, Los Angeles (Department of Special Collections); California State Archives (Sacramento); Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Collection; Cornell University Libraries; Duke University Library; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Gerald R. Ford Library; the Glendale Library; Hayden Library; Arizona State University; the Hollywood Library; the Houghton Library (Harvard University); Lyndon Baines Johnson Library; John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library; the Margaret Herrick Library (Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences); Manhattanville College Library; the Andrew Mellon Library (Choate Rosemary Hall); National Archives; National Security Agency (Central Security Service); New York City Municipal Archives; New York Public Library; New York University Library; Occidental College (Eagle Rock, California); Palm Beach Historical Society; Princeton University Library; Franklin D. Roosevelt Library; the Stanford University Libraries; Franklin D. Roosevelt Library; the Stanford University Libraries; Department of the Treasury; United States Secret Service; Westport Public Library; Harry S Truman Library; Yale University Library.
Sources
It is impossible to write accurately about anyone’s life without many reliable witnesses to provide a range of different viewpoints. A biography of this kind stands or falls on the cooperation and frankness of those involved in the story. Not surprisingly, Jackie Bouvier Kennedy (via her spokeswoman, Nancy Tuckerman), Ethel Skakel Kennedy (via a sharply worded letter from a Kennedy family attorney), and Joan Bennett Kennedy (via a friendly and forthcoming letter about her present life that—so typical of Joan—was one of the nicest declines I’ve ever received) all chose to not be formally interviewed for this work. However, a great number of other people went out of their way to assist me over the years. More than three hundred friends, relatives, politicians, journalists, socialites, lawyers, celebrities, Kennedy business executives and former executives, Kennedy family political associates, as well as foes, classmates, teachers, neighbors, friends, newspeople, and archivists were contacted in preparation for this book.
The Kennedys (just by virtue of their annoyance at the heavy scrutiny they have been under for years) have always been an extremely private and sometimes suspicious family, who have been known to oust those from their circle who speak of them to the press. As recently as July 1999, certain longtime friends of the family were ostracized and not invited to John Kennedy Jr.’s funeral simply because they had spoken kindly of John on television programs paying tribute to him. For what they view as good reason, many of my sources asked for anonymity. Some of these sources are not only close friends of the Kennedys but also family members anxious to set the record straight on certain issues but not eager to see their names in print. As I always do, I am respecting all requests for anonymity. I sincerely thank those sources for their assistance, and for putting their relationship with the Kennedy family on the line for the sake of this book’s accuracy.
Of course, those many people who spoke to me and my researchers on the record, allowing their names to be used, are truly courageous, for they are willing to risk their relationships with the family for truth’s sake. It’s never easy for a source close to the subject of an unauthorized biography to give his or her permission to be identified in the text of such a book. Who knows what the ramifications will be when the work is published? I am so grateful to all of the people named below who gave of their time and energy, and allowed the revelation of their identities.
Whenever practical, I have provided sources within the body of the text. The following notes indicate just some of the sources used for each part of this book, and the names of some of those who were interviewed from the beginning of official research for this book to the end, January 1990 through January 1999. These notes are by no means comprehensive—for instance, they do not repeat the earlier-cited names whose important Oral Histories, papers, and manuscripts I utilized—but are intended to give the reader a general overview of my research. Also included here are occasional comments of an extraneous but, hopefully, informative nature.
Since chapter notes are usually not of interest to the general reader, I have chosen a more general—and practical, for space limitations—mode of source identification, as opposed to specific page or line notations.
Also, because of their voluminous nature, I have made the choice of not including complete listings of the scores of magazines and newspaper articles that were referenced. It would simply be impractical to do so, considering space limitations. The few mentioned within these pages are included because I felt they were important to recognize.
As a note to the researcher: It is no longer necessary for scholars, historians, and other interested readers to know the date of publication and name of the company that published any particular book in order to obtain it. Virtually all of the volumes I utilized for this work can be obtained on the Internet by simply referring to the title of the book and/or the author. The author recommends amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com.
Also, I would like to especially cite the work of biographers C. David Heymann (A Woman Named Jackie and RFK), Jerry Oppenheimer (The Other Mrs. Kennedy), Laurence Leamer (The Kennedy Women), Peter Collier and David Horowitz (The Kennedys: An American Drama), John Davis (The Bouviers), Carl Sferazza Anthony (First Ladies [volumes 1 and 2] and Jackie Kennedy Onassis: As We Remember Her), and Doris Kearns Goodwin (The Fitzgeralds and The Kennedys: An American Saga), for their published words provided great insight and illumination.
Joan… ; Jackie… ; Ethel… ; and the Secret Service; Jack Defeats Nixon; The Pre-Inaugural Gala; Jack; The Five Inaugural Balls; Bobby
As well as having utilized the previously cited Oral Histories, personal interviews were conducted with Secret Service agents Larry Newman, Joseph Paolella, and others requesting anonymity who assisted in reconstructing certain conversations; Jacques Lowe, Leo Damore, Liz Carpenter, Sancy Newman, Oleg Cassini, Helen Thomas and John Davis (both present at the inauguration), Hugh Sidey, Jim Whiting, Lem Billings, James Bacon, Nancy Bacon, Marvin Richardson, Morton Downey, Jr., Barbara Gibson, David Powers (questionnaire), George Smathers, Letitia Baldrige, Raymond Strait, Jack Valenti, Walter Cronkite, and Stanley Tretick.
Volumes consulted: John F. Kennedy, President, by Hugh Sidey; A Very Personal Presidency, by Hugh Sidey; With Kennedy, by Pierre Salinger; The Coming of the New Deal, by Arthur M. Schlesinger; A Tribute to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (privately printed, by Doubleday, 1995); In My Own Fashion, by Oleg Cassini; A Thousand Days of Magic, by Oleg Cassini; Kennedy and the Press, by Allen H. Lerman and Harold W. Chase; Counsel to the President, by Clifford Clark; A Hero for Our Times, by Kenneth O’Donnell and David Powers, with Joe McCarthy; Of Diamonds and Diplomats, by Letitia Baldrige; The Making of the President 1960, by Theodore White; Sargent Shriver: A Candid Portrait, by Robert A. Leston; Kennedy Justice, by Victor Navasky; Those Fabulous Kennedy Women, by H.A. William Carr; The Kennedy Family, by Joseph Dinneen; The Cape Cod Years of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, by Leo Damore; JFK: Reckless Youth, by Nigel Hamilton; The Founding Father, by Richard J. Whalen; The Power Lovers, by Myra MacPherson; A Hero for Our Time, by Ralph G. Martin; Kennedy, by Jacques Lowe; Ethel, by Lester David; Bobby, by Lester David;
The Consent of the Governed, by Arthur Krock; Six Presidents, Too Many Wars, by Bill Lawrence; Atget’s Gardens, by William Howard Adams; Life with Rose Kennedy, by Barbara Gibson and Caroline Latham; Rose, by Gail Cameron; My Twelve Years with John F. Kennedy, by Evelyn Lincoln; The Dark Side of Camelot, by Seymour Hersh; Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady, by Jacques Lowe; An Honorable Profession, edited by Pierre Salinger, Frank Mankiewicz, Edwin Guthman, and John Seigenthaler; Seeds of Destruction, by Ralph G. Martin; Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, by Kenny P. O’Donnell and David F. Powers; One Special Summer, by Lee Bouvier Radziwill and Jacqueline Bouvier Onassis; I Was Jacqueline Kennedy’s Dressmaker, by Mini Rhea.
Videos, articles, and other material reviewed and consulted: various news accounts about and photographs of the Kennedys on inaugural day; Secret Service files from the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library; Secret Service documentary, PBS (air: June 1999); biographical information on Jackie, Ethel, and Joan from published accounts; “What You Don’t Know about Jackie Kennedy,” by Laura Bergquist, Look, July 4, 1961; correspondence from Lady Bird Johnson to Ethel Kennedy, courtesy of Lyndon Baines Johnson Library; “Jackie: An Exclusive First Look at Her Private Letters,” by Oleg Cassini, In Style, October 1995; The New Jackie (entire magazine devoted to Jackie), Summer 1970; Jackie: A Photo Biography, by Beverly Maurice, August 1971; interview with Jackie Kennedy by Charles Collingwood (video): The Secret Lives of Jackie Onassis (BBC documentary, includes interviews with Evelyn Lincoln and Priscilla McMillan); “The Clint Who Really Could Have Saved JFK’s Life,” by Sharon Churcher, Mail on Sunday, September 26, 1993.
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