The House of Kennedy Read online

  John Jr, seen wearing a “Shriver” lifejacket in Hyannis Port, is used to lifelong paparazzi attention. People magazine even names him 1988’s “Sexiest Man Alive.” (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

  Instead of politics or law, John Jr. ultimately chooses to go into journalism, founding the celebrity-tinged political magazine George in 1995. (Photo by Larry Busacca/Contour by Getty Images)

  In 1996, John Jr. and Carolyn Bessette manage to elude the paparazzi completely when they slip away to be married on a tiny island, though their daily lives are relentlessly documented. (Photo by Lawrence Levine/AP/Shutterstock)

  John Jr. and Carolyn taking off in John’s first plane, Cessna Skylane N529JK, in 1998. John later upgraded to a Piper Saratoga shortly before his ill-fated voyage in 1999. (Photo by Boston Herald/Shutterstock)

  Notes

  PROLOGUE

  1 “Daddy. Oh, Daddy”: Dallas, The Kennedy Case, 19.

  2 “curse actually did hang”: Joe McGinniss, “The End of Camelot,” Vanity Fair, September 1993.

  PART ONE

  The Patriarch: Joseph Patrick Kennedy

  Chapter 1

  1 “When my great-grandfather”: Thomas Maier, The Kennedys: America’s Emerald Kings (New York: Basic Books, 2003), 7.

  2 “power came from money”: Richard J. Whalen, “Joseph P. Kennedy: A Portrait of the Founder,” Fortune, 1963 (Fortune Classics, April 10, 2011).

  3 Hostile takeover attempts: Whalen, “Joseph P. Kennedy.”

  4 “learned from Daddy”: Robert McCrum, “Eunice Kennedy and the Death of the Great American Dream,” Guardian (UK), August 15, 2009.

  5 “They were very conscious”: Jean Kennedy Smith, The Nine of Us: Growing Up Kennedy (New York: Harper, 2016), 10.

  6 83 Beals Street: Bruce Gellerman, “John F. Kennedy, a Son of Massachusetts,” WBUR News, November 1, 2011.

  7 “no place to bring up children”: Maier, The Kennedys, 91.

  8 1963 Fortune profile of Kennedy: Whalen, “Joseph P. Kennedy.”

  9 “why he hadn’t told her”: Ronald Kessler, The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded (New York: Warner Books, 1996), 38.

  10 “Very, very happy times”: “The Kennedy Family—Their Ties to Bronxville,” My Hometown Bronxville, September 2, 2009.

  11 “Home holds no fear for me”: Edward M. Kennedy, True Compass (New York: Twelve, 2009), 30–31.

  12 “Dinner at Uncle Joe’s”: Kessler, The Sins of the Father, 42.

  13 “fly into a rage”: Thomas Reeves, A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy (New York: Free Press, 1991), 34–35.

  14 “taught us to listen”: Adam Clymer, “Rose Kennedy Is Lauded for Her Faith,” New York Times, January 25, 1995.

  15 “burdens of business”: Maier, The Kennedys, 74.

  16 “Took care of children”: Barbara A. Perry, Rose Kennedy: The Life and Times of a Political Matriarch (New York: W. W. Norton, 2013), 69.

  17 “memory of mine”: Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Times to Remember (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974), 75.

  18 “symbol of ‘American efficiency’”: Fitzgerald Kennedy, Times to Remember, 73.

  19 “I see him on TV”: Seymour M. Hersh, The Dark Side of Camelot (New York: Little, Brown, 1997), 15–16.

  Chapter 2

  1 “couldn’t for the life of him understand”: Gloria Swanson, Swanson on Swanson (New York: Random House, 1980), 331.

  2 “just like Joe Stalin”: Cari Beauchamp, “The Mogul in Mr. Kennedy,” Vanity Fair, April 2002.

  3 “wild meat”: Robert Dallek, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963 (New York: Little, Brown, 2003), 24.

  4 Swanson’s extravagant expenditures: Peter Sheridan, “Gloria Swanson: A Star Ahead of Her Time,” Express (UK), August 17, 2013.

  5 Average American income: Treasury Department Bureau of Internal Revenue, Statistics of Income for 1927 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1929).

  6 Gloria Productions, Inc.: Swanson, Swanson on Swanson, 349.

  7 “a letter to the files”: Beauchamp, “The Mogul in Mr. Kennedy.”

  8 “taken the business load off”: Swanson, Swanson on Swanson, 366.

  9 “the largest private telephone bill”: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, 24.

  10 “No longer, no longer”: Swanson, Swanson on Swanson, 356–57.

  11 “no Kennedy baby”: Swanson, 366.

  12 “If he was in Europe”: Kessler, The Sins of the Father, 274.

  13 “your beloved husband is no different”: Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987), 396.

  14 “poor little Gloria”: Ronald Kessler, The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded (New York: Warner Books, 1996), 79.

  15 “Was she a fool”: Barbara A. Perry, Rose Kennedy: The Life and Times of a Political Matriarch (New York: W. W. Norton, 2013), 76.

  16 “only outsider to fleece Hollywood”: Beauchamp, “The Mogul in Mr. Kennedy.”

  17 “I’ve never had a failure”: Swanson, Swanson on Swanson, 373.

  18 Queen Kelly: Stephen Harvey, “Queen Kelly Opens—More Than Fifty Years Late,” New York Times, September 22, 1985.

  19 Alexander Pantages: Kessler, The Sins of the Father, 57–59.

  20 “He’s a charmer”: Beauchamp, “The Mogul in Mr. Kennedy.”

  21 Frances Marion’s salary: Erin Blakemore, “This Forgotten Female Screenwriter Helped Give Hollywood Its Voice,” Time, January 21, 2016.

  22 “Frances rarely said”: Beauchamp, “The Mogul in Mr. Kennedy.”

  Chapter 3

  1 “shoeshine boy”: Ronald Kessler, The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded (New York: Warner Books, 1996), 82.

  2 “It takes a thief”: Seymour M. Hersh, The Dark Side of Camelot (New York: Little, Brown, 1997), 45.

  3 “simple and honest”: Address of Honorable Joseph P. Kennedy, chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission, National Press Club, July 25, 1934.

  4 “sweep them into the sea”: Richard J. Whalen, “Joseph P. Kennedy: A Portrait of the Founder,” Fortune, 1963 (Fortune Classics, April 10, 2011).

  5 Marwood: Daniela Deane, “Where the Kennedys and Gores Played,” Washington Post, February 14, 2004.

  6 “not expecting too much”: Thomas Maier, The Kennedys: America’s Emerald Kings (New York: Basic Books, 2003), 83.

  7 Arthur Krock: Hersh, The Dark Side of Camelot, 62.

  8 “foster-father”: Hersh, The Dark Side of Camelot, 62.

  9 “Secretaryship of Commerce”: Arthur Krock, recorded interview by Charles Bartlett, May 10, 1964, John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program, 4.

  10 “the power of the presidency”: James Roosevelt, My Parents: A Differing View (Chicago: Playboy Press, 1976), 208–10.

  Chapter 4

  1 “Nine Children and Nine Million Dollars”: Barbara A. Perry, Rose Kennedy: The Life and Times of a Political Matriarch (New York: W. W. Norton, 2013), 95.

  2 “Jolly Joe”: Richard J. Whalen, “Joseph P. Kennedy: A Portrait of the Founder,” Fortune, 1963 (Fortune Classics, April 10, 2011).

  3 “royal family that England wanted”: Peter S. Canellos, ed., Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2010), 19.

  4 “I would not be surprised”: Barbara Leaming, Kick Kennedy: The Charmed Life and Tragic Death of the Favorite Kennedy Daughter (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2016), 31.

  5 “an absolute liberation”: Paula Byrne, “‘Kick’ Kennedy: JFK’s Forgotten Sister,” Telegraph (UK), May 20, 2016.

  6 “not just a Kennedy girl”: Leaming, Kick Kennedy, 63.

  7 “worth shedding blood for”: Edward J. Renehan Jr., The Kennedys at War, 1937–1945 (New York: Doubleday, 2002), 63.

  8 “brought it on themselves”: Phillip Whitehead, “The Bootleg Politician: He Could Have Anything He Wanted, Except the Thing H
e Wanted Most,” Independent (UK), October 11, 1992.

  9 Joe’s call to FDR: E. Fuller Torrey, MD, American Psychosis: How the Federal Government Destroyed the Mental Illness Treatment System (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 1.

  10 Rosemary stays in UK: Torrey, American Psychosis, 2.

  11 “bring about a better understanding”: Seymour M. Hersh, The Dark Side of Camelot (New York: Little, Brown, 1997), 63.

  12 “what young Joe is going to do”: Cari Beauchamp, “Two Sons, One Destiny,” Vanity Fair, December 2004.

  13 “a little family dinner”: Klein, The Kennedy Curse, 121.

  14 “Nine hostages to fortune”: Klein, 123.

  PART TWO

  The Two Roses: Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy and

  Rose Marie “Rosemary” Kennedy

  Chapter 5

  1 “crazy about traveling”: Barbara A. Perry, Rose Kennedy: The Life and Times of a Political Matriarch (New York: W. W. Norton, 2013), 23.

  2 “Gee, you’re a great mother”: Barbara A. Perry, “Like Mother, Like Son? Ten Traits JFK Inherited from Rose Kennedy,” UVAToday, May 25, 2019.

  3 “on her knees”: Donald Spoto, Jacqueline Kennedy Bouvier Onassis: A Life (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), 97.

  4 “I wish I was sixteen”: Godfrey Hodgson, “Obituary: Rose Kennedy,” Independent (UK), January 24, 1995.

  5 “My father didn’t think”: Rose Kennedy Remembers: Transcript of interview with Rose Kennedy for the British Broadcasting Corporation Television Service (New York: Time-Life Multimedia, 1975).

  6 “screaming and yelling”: Kate Clifford Larson, Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015), 14–15.

  7 “no romance outside of procreation”: Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987), 392.

  8 Spanish influenza: “1918 Pandemic (H1N1 Virus),” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  9 Dr. Frederick Good: Larson, Rosemary, 3–4.

  10 “a beautiful child”: Eunice Kennedy Shriver, “Hope for Retarded Children,” Saturday Evening Post, September 22, 1962.

  11 “good idea to be around quite often”: Perry, Rose Kennedy, 57.

  12 “I had never heard of a retarded child”: Larson, Rosemary, 43.

  13 “What can they do for her”: Shriver, “Hope for Retarded Children.”

  14 “mother of a great son or daughter”: Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Times to Remember Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974), 415.

  Chapter 6

  1 “I had heard that chorus girls were gay, but evil”: Kate Clifford Larson, Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015), 32.

  2 “During the darkest days”: Cari Beauchamp, “Two Sons, One Destiny,” Vanity Fair, December 2004.

  3 “bigger and better”: Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Times to Remember (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974), 65.

  4 “Goethe or Voltaire”: Kevin Cullen, “Finding Her Way in the Clan: Diaries Reveal a More Complex Kennedy Matriarch,” Boston Globe, May 13, 2007.

  5 Spankings: Fitzgerald Kennedy, Times to Remember, 116.

  6 Children roughhousing: Larson, Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, 39.

  7 “Joe banging Jack’s head”: Evan Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 39.

  8 Rosemary’s love of music: Eunice Kennedy Shriver, “Hope for Retarded Children,” Saturday Evening Post, September 22, 1962.

  9 “child rearing as a profession”: Cullen, “Finding Her Way in the Clan.”

  10 “something quite special”: Fitzgerald Kennedy, Times to Remember, 78.

  11 “saddle shoes”: Kennedy, 103.

  12 “Mother is a perfectionist”: Barbara A. Perry, Rose Kennedy: The Life and Times of a Political Matriarch (New York: W. W. Norton, 2013), 1.

  13 “charm a bird off a tree”: Perry, Rose Kennedy, 75.

  14 “the young Kennedys”: Laurence Leamer, The Kennedy Women (New York: Villard Books, 1994), 209–10.

  15 “I get lonesome everyday”: Perry, Rose Kennedy, 85.

  16 “I would do anything”: Perry, Rose Kennedy, 85

  17 “She loved compliments”: Shriver, “Hope for Retarded Children.”

  18 “terribly serious”: Perry, Rose Kennedy, 161.

  19 “the summer of 1941”: Fitzgerald Kennedy, Times to Remember, 242.

  20 “I was always worried”: Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987), 640.

  21 “My great ambition”: Perry, Rose Kennedy, 50.

  22 American Medical Association on lobotomies: “Frontal Lobotomy,” JAMA, August 16, 1941.

  23 “restore the person”: Perry, Rose Kennedy, 164.

  24 Kick investigates: Leamer, The Kennedy Women, 319.

  25 “Oh, Mother, no”: Larson, Rosemary, 161

  26 “through the top of the head”: Ronald Kessler, The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded (New York: Warner Books, 1996), 243–44.

  27 “They knew right away”: Kearns Goodwin, The Kennedys and the Fitzgeralds, 642.

  28 “eight children shine like a dollar”: John Seigenthaler, recorded interview by William A. Geoghegan, July 22, 1964, John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program, 87.

  29 “my daughter Rosemary”: Fitzgerald Kennedy, Times to Remember, dedication page.

  PART THREE

  The Favorites: Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr.

  and Kathleen “Kick” Agnes Kennedy

  Chapter 7

  1 “So long and good luck”: James W. Graham, Victura: The Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea (Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2015), 83.

  2 Unternehmen Loge: Ron Mitchell, “The London Blitz,” part 3 of WW2 People’s War: An Archive of World War II Memories—Written by the Public, Gathered by the BBC. BBC website, 2003–6.

  3 “star of our family”: “Joseph Kennedy Jr.’s Death Recalled,” New York Times, March 20, 1970.

  4 Harold Laski: John Seigenthaler, recorded interview by William A. Geoghegan, July 22, 1964, John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program, 88–89.

  5 “when you are president?”: Cari Beauchamp, “Two Sons, One Destiny,” Vanity Fair, December 2004.

  6 “building a spirit”: Beauchamp, “Two Sons, One Destiny.”

  7 Hitler’s “excellent psychology”: Beauchamp, “Two Sons, One Destiny.”

  8 “Roosevelt’s several million”: Alan Axelrod, Lost Destiny: Joe Kennedy Jr. and the Doomed Mission to Save London (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 68.

  9 “Kennedy was such a good pilot”: Mary Gail Hare, “Essex World War II Veteran Served with JFK’s Elder Brother in Navy,” Baltimore Sun, November 10, 2011.

  10 “most dangerous type of flying”: “Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.,” John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum website.

  11 “do something different”: Edward Klein, The Kennedy Curse: Why America’s First Family Has Been Haunted by Tragedy for 150 Years (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003), 147–48.

  Chapter 8

  1 “twice as much as I need”: Daniel F. Harrington, “The Last Flight of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., Heir Apparent,” Providence Journal, September 2, 2014.

  2 “never an occasion”: Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987), 687.

  3 Joe Jr.’s combat missions: “Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.,” John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum website.

  4 “served in the United States Navy”: “John F. Kennedy: World War II Naval Hero to President,” John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site, National Parks Service website, December 2, 2015.

  5 “My congrats”: Robert Dallek, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963 (New York: Little, Brown, 2003), 106.

  6 “They sank my boat”: “John F. Kennedy and PT 109,” John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum website.


  7 “European campaign medal”: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, 106.

  8 Code phrase “Spade Flush”: Alan Axelrod, Lost Destiny: Joe Kennedy Jr. and the Doomed Mission to Save London (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 248.

  9 “Nothing larger than a basketball”: Axelrod, Lost Destiny, 249.

  10 “exploded in mid-air”: Martin Cherrett, ed., “Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Dies in Secret Drone Mission,” World War II Today (website).

  11 “trails of smoke”: “Brother of JFK Died in Air Crash over Suffolk During WW2,” ITV Report, December 9, 2014.

  12 Subsequent investigations: Steven Russell, “The Kennedy Curse: Tragedy in the Skies over Suffolk,” East Anglian Daily Times, November 22, 2013.

  13 “Erector set and Lincoln Logs”: Axelrod, Lost Destiny, 235.

  14 Interrogation of Joe Kennedy Jr.: “Joe Kennedy Death Story Is Refuted,” Chicago Tribune, November 11, 1986.

  15 “program killed more American airmen”: Rick Long/Cape Cod Curmudgeon, “August 12, 1944, Operation Aphrodite,” Today in History (blog), August 12, 2017.

  16 General Carl “Tooey” Spaatz: Edward J. Renehan Jr., The Kennedys at War, 1937–1945 (New York: Doubleday, 2002), 304.

  17 Hitler’s missile men: “Joseph Kennedy Jr.’s Death Recalled,” New York Times, March 20, 1970.

  Chapter 9

  1 “missing in action”: Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Times to Remember (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974), 257.

  2 “let’s go sailing”: James W. Graham, Victura: The Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea (Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2015), 84.

  3 Final letter from Joe Jr.: Daniel F. Harrington, “The Last Flight of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., Heir Apparent,” Providence Journal, September 2, 2014.