The House of Kennedy Read online

  16 “really sticky fingers”: Clymer, Edward M. Kennedy, 17.

  17 “didn’t have to cheat”: Canellos, Last Lion, 38.

  18 “you’re not clever enough”: Canellos, 38.

  19 “look at what you’re signing?” Clymer, Edward M. Kennedy, 18.

  20 “all meat and muscles”: Canellos, Last Lion, 42.

  21 “learned a lesson”: Canellos, 42.

  22 Ted in jersey number 88: Loren Amor, “Football ’09: Kennedy: Fighter from the Start,” Harvard Crimson, September 18. 2009.

  23 “a possible Pro Prospect”: John Chandler, “Ted Kennedy a Success in More Than One Contact Sport,” NESN.com, August 26, 2009.

  24 “never been so frightened in his life”: Canellos, Last Lion, 42.

  25 “another contact sport”: Chandler, “Ted Kennedy a Success in More Than One Contact Sport.”

  Chapter 36

  1 Ted and John Tunney at UVA: Interview with John Tunney (2009), The Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, 2016.

  2 “life of the party”: Ted Strong, “Kennedy’s UVA law roots remembered,” Daily Progress, August 27, 2009.

  3 “what side of the court”: Adam Clymer, Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography (New York: William Morrow, 1999), 21.

  4 “tried to outrun me”: William Safire, “Prelude to the Bridge,” New York Times, October 29, 1979.

  5 “blink their lights”: Peter S. Canellos, ed., Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2010), 54.

  6 Ted earns pilot license: Interview with John Tunney (2009).

  7 “I was afraid to fly with him”: Interview with John Tunney (2009).

  8 “clearly wasn’t running it”: Interview with Lester Hyman, The Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, 2016.

  9 “The Kennedys go into politics and then they grow up”: John M. Broder, “Edward M. Kennedy, Senate Stalwart, Is Dead at 77,” New York Times, August 26, 2009.

  10 “the most natural politician in the family”: Interview with John Tunney (2007).

  11 “the perfect amalgam”: Interview with Lester Hyman.

  12 “Ted’s all heart”: Transcript of Interview with Robert Healy by Stephen F. Knott, “Robert Healy Oral History, Journalist, the Boston Globe,” Presidential Oral Histories—Edward M. Kennedy Histories, Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, August 10, 2005.

  13 “run for the Senate”: Interview with John Tunney (2007).

  14 “Here’s to 1960, Mr. President”: Canellos, Last Lion, 59.

  Chapter 37

  1 “He was tall and he was gorgeous”: Peter S. Canellos, ed., Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2010), 55.

  2 modeled for Revlon and Coca-Cola: Orla Healy, “The Tragic Life of a Kennedy Wife,” Independent (UK), April 24, 2005.

  3 “kind of girl anyone would want to date”: J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2012), 77.

  4 “What do you think about our getting married?”: Canellos, Last Lion, 57.

  5 Joe purchases the ring: Taraborrelli, Jackie, Ethel, Joan, 88.

  6 “From the beginning, she was in trouble”: Taraborrelli, 88.

  7 “Being married doesn’t really mean”: Clymer, Edward M. Kennedy, 24.

  8 “A couple of such attractiveness”: Healy, “The Tragic Life of a Kennedy Wife.”

  9 “No woman is ever enough”: Taraborrelli, Jackie, Ethel, Joan, 80–81.

  10 “He was thinking of going west”: Interview with John Tunney (2007), The Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, 2016.

  11 Ted steadily gains weight: Canellos, Last Lion, 63.

  12 “terrible with candy and ice cream”: Interview with Lester Hyman, The Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, 2016.

  13 “delivered Wyoming”: Transcript of Interview with Robert Healy by Stephen F. Knott, “Robert Healy Oral History, Journalist, the Boston Globe,” Presidential Oral Histories—Edward M. Kennedy Histories, Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, August 10, 2005.

  14 Jack makes Ted a dare: Clymer, Edward M. Kennedy, 28.

  15 “carry the Western States in 1964”: Canellos, Last Lion, 66.

  16 “his father wanted him to run”: Canellos, 67.

  17 A room in memory of Joe Jr.: Peter Collier and David Horowitz, The Kennedys: An American Drama (New York: Summit Books, 1984), 287.

  18 “he couldn’t talk but he still called them”: Transcript of Interview with Robert Healy by Stephen F. Knott.

  19 “milling around, stark naked”: Rita Dallas with Jeanira Ratcliffe, The Kennedy Case (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1973), 69.

  20 “Teddy got caught cheating”: Transcript of Interview with Robert Healy by Stephen F. Knott.

  21 “Harvard Examination Incident”: Clymer, Edward M. Kennedy, 36.

  22 “more fucking trouble with this than I did with the Bay of Pigs”: Transcript of Interview with Robert Healy by Stephen F. Knott.

  23 The “Teddy-Eddie” debate: Interview with Lester Hyman.

  24 “Brother of the President”: Interview with Lester Hyman.

  25 “Nobody’s laughing”: Clymer, Edward M. Kennedy, 40.

  24 “Kennedys can do no wrong”: Interview with Lester Hyman.

  Chapter 38

  1 “stiff as a billy goat at ten in the morning”: Interview with Edward M. Kennedy (01/06/2007), The Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, 2016.

  2 “The pressure of all the others”: Adam Clymer, Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography (New York: William Morrow, 1999), 15.

  3 “an extraordinary family man”: Interview with John Tunney (2007), The Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, 2016.

  4 “the one who most came to see the father”: Interview with Lester Hyman, The Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, 2016.

  5 Ted breaks news of Jack’s death to Joe: Peter S. Canellos, ed., Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2010), 96.

  6 “segregation was morally wrong”: Ted Kennedy, “Standing Up for Equality and Staring Down Discrimination,” floor of the United States Senate, April 8, 1964.

  7 “What do you want me to do, crack up an airplane?”: Canellos, Last Lion, 100.

  8 “The fog is really rolling in”: Canellos, 100.

  9 “It was just like a toboggan ride”: Clymer, Edward M. Kennedy, 58.

  10 “as though a kitchen knife sliced through it”: Clymer, 58.

  11 “like a sack of corn under my arm”: J. Taylor Rushing, “Bayh Remembers 1964 Plane Crash,” The Hill, August 28, 2009.

  12 “You don’t think it’s Kennedy?” Interview with Edward Martin, The Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, 2016.

  13 “going to be fine”: J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2012), 284.

  14 “Nobody knows more about backs than you
do”: Interview with Ann Gargan, The Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, 2016.

  15 “Dad doesn’t think that’s a very good idea”: Interview with Ann Gargan.

  16 “educating himself as he was lying there”: Interview with John Tunney (2007).

  17 “the biggest, nicest strawberries”: “Senator Bayh on Ted Kennedy,” Newsweek, August 25, 2009.

  18 “Joan became the candidate herself”: Taraborrelli, Jackie, Ethel, Joan, 288.

  19 “his wife won the campaign for him”: Neil Swidey, “Turbulence and Tragedies Eclipse Early Triumphs,” Boston Globe, February 16, 2009.

  20 “Is it ever going to end for you people?” Swidey, “Turbulence and Tragedies Eclipse Early Triumphs.”

  21 “Can we just chalk it up to coincidence?”: Taraborrelli, Jackie, Ethel, Joan, 285.

  Chapter 39

  1 “I think that Bobby was Teddy’s best friend”: Interview with John Tunney (2007), The Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, 2016.

  2 “The fucking Kennedy machine rides again”: Interview with Lester Hyman, The Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, 2016.

  3 Ted and Joan move to McLean, VA: Adam Clymer, Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography (New York: William Morrow, 1999), 93.

  4 With Helga Wagner on night of the 1968 California Democratic presidential primary: Clymer, Edward M. Kennedy, 109.

  5 “Days of partying”: Maxine Cheshire, “The Mysterious Helga Wagner,” Washington Post, March 13, 1980.

  6 “get that plane, or your career is over”: Clymer, Edward M. Kennedy, 109.

  7 “his brain was not working”: Interview with John Tunney (2007).

  8 “one million dollars and a car”: Michael Cooper and John M. Broder, “FBI Opens Kennedy File,” New York Times, June 15, 2010.

  9 “multiply as you watched”: Lorna Luft, Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir (New York: Pocket Books, 1998), 104.

  10 “We need you so much”: Judy Garland 1964 Telegram to Ted Kennedy (Western Union), Lot #284, Nate D. Sanders Auctions, Autographs & Memorabilia.

  11 “symbolic of all my dreams and wishes”: “Judy Garland, 47, Found Dead,” New York Times, June 23, 1969.

  12 “sail all night long by himself”: James W. Graham, Victura: The Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea (Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2014), 192.

  13 “I pick up a fallen standard”: John M. Broder, “Edward M. Kennedy, Senate Stalwart, Is Dead at 77,” New York Times, August 26, 2009.

  14 “learn to fight your own battles”: Peter S. Canellos, ed., The Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), 25.

  15 Assistant leader of the Senate: Broder, “Edward M. Kennedy.”

  16 “maybe I’m just not attractive enough”: J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2012), 78.

  17 “how vulnerable I was”: Orla Healy, “The Tragic Life of a Kennedy Wife,” Independent (UK), April 24, 2005.

  18 “as if I weren’t hurt or angry”: Healy, “The Tragic Life of a Kennedy Wife.”

  19 “fill it with vodka”: Interview with Lester Hyman.

  20 “his dark side appeared”: Dominick Dunne, “Damage,” Vanity Fair, October 1991.

  21 “shoot my ass off the way they shot Bobby”: Michael Kelly, “Ted Kennedy on the Rocks,” GQ, April 15, 2016.

  22 “And by God, it did”: Interview with Lester Hyman.

  Chapter 40

  1 “never been so tired in my life”: Interview with John Tunney (2007), The Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, 2016.

  2 “take us sailing again”: “Ted Kennedy Car Accident in Chappaquiddick,” Newsweek, August 3, 1969.

  3 Twenty-eight-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne: William C. Kashatus, “Remembering Mary Jo,” Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre, PA), July 26, 2015.

  4 “always the first to leave”: Kashatus, “Remembering Mary Jo.”

  5 “unconditional loyalty and discretion”: Kashatus.

  6 “invaluable asset to the senator”: Interview with Edward Martin, The Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, 2016.

  7 “Don’t ride around in new cars”: Transcript of Interview with Robert Healy by Stephen F. Knott, “Robert Healy Oral History, Journalist, the Boston Globe,” Presidential Oral Histories—Edward M. Kennedy Histories, Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, August 10, 2005.

  8 When Ted gets out of the water: Robert Sherill, “A Tragedy, an Enigma, a Political Achilles Heel,” New York Times, July 14, 1974.

  9 “he was very badly advised”: Interview with John Tunney (2009).

  10 “so sad that he didn’t have somebody”: Interview with John Tunney (2009).

  11 “The car has gone off the bridge”: Peter S. Canellos, ed., The Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), 154.

  12 “You take care of the girls; I’ll take care of the accident”: Canellos, The Last Lion, 155.

  13 Ted makes a number of phone calls: Canellos, 155.

  14 The innkeeper, Russell Peachey: George Lardner Jr., “Chappaquiddick 1989,” Washington Post, July 16, 1989.

  15 “veritable female 007”: Shaun Considine, “Helga Wagner Sells ‘She Shells’ and Shushes Talk That She’s Teddy’s or Prince Charles’ Blond Bombshell,” People, September 8, 1980.

  16 “all the Kennedys”: Maxine Cheshire, “The Mysterious Helga Wagner,” Washington Post, March 13, 1980.

  17 “someone arriving in a hurry, or someone leaving in a hurry”: Peter Collier and David Horowitz, The Kennedys: An American Drama (New York: Summit Books, 1984), 371.

  18 “Your best friend is in terrible trouble”: Interview with John Tunney (2009).

  19 “It was a terrible thing”: Interview with John Tunney (2009).

  20 “I thought she had gotten out”: Interview with John Tunney (2009).

  21 “never had any kind of sexual relationship”: Interview with John Tunney (2009).

  22 “I don’t feel guilty”: Interview with John Tunney (2009).

  Chapter 41

  1 “Something told me it was more than just a car in the water”: Peter S. Canellos, ed., The Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), 158.

  2 The same big black car: “Senator Kennedy Is Charged with Leaving Accident,” Vineyard Gazette, July 22, 1969.

  3 “They [the Kennedys] don’t drive anywhere”: Canellos, The Last Lion, 160.

  4 License plate L78207: George Lardner, Jr., “Chappaquiddick: A Tale Time Has Not Resolved,” Washington Post, November 12, 1979.

  5 Associate county medical examiner: Robert Sherill, “A Tragedy, an Enigma, a Political Achilles Heel,” New York Times, July 14, 1974.

  6 “difference between a big black car and a little white car”: Lardner, “Chappaquiddick: A Tale Time Has Not Resolved.”

  7 “Senator Kennedy was driver”: Michael Cooper and John M. Broder, “FBI Opens Kennedy File,” New York Times, June 15, 2010

  8 “working on what really happened”: Jere Hester, New York Daily News, “Haldeman Diaries Offer Another Look at Nixon,” Seattle Times, May 16, 1994.

  9 F. Knott, “Robert Healy Oral History, Journalist, the Boston Globe,” Presidential Oral Histories—Edward M. Kennedy Histories, Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virgin
ia, August 10, 2005.

  10 “Lead with the moonwalk or Chappaquiddick”: Transcript of interview with Robert Healy.

  11 “happening at the worst possible moment for Ted Kennedy”: Lorraine Boissoneault, “Why the True Story of Chappaquiddick Is Impossible to Tell,” Smithsonian.com, April 2, 2018.

  12 “I tried to interview people about it. Not only Kennedy”: Interview with Adam Clymer, reporter, the New York Times, The Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, 2016.

  13 “You knew you weren’t going to get anything from the Kennedys”: “Robert Healy Oral History, Journalist, the Boston Globe.”

  14 “I was the driver”: Canellos, The Last Lion, 161.

  15 “I’m in some trouble”: Rita Dallas with Jeanira Ratcliffe, The Kennedy Case (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1973), 338.

  16 “what he is, is just not enough”: J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2012), 390.

  17 “people think I’d be trying to get their sympathy”: Dallas, The Kennedy Case, 340–41.

  18 “before he or anyone else told me what was going on”: Jim Rattray, “Joan Kennedy said Thursday Her Former Secretary and Confidante,…” United Press International, October 18, 1985.

  19 “seemed to have trouble kneeling”: “Sen. Kennedy Attends Funeral of Secretary Killed in Wreck,” Desert Sun, July 22, 1969.

  20 “a degree of alcohol, but it was very well down”: “Sen. Kennedy Attends Funeral of Secretary Killed in Wreck.”

  21 “no business in giving a Breathalyzer”: “Ted Kennedy Car Accident in Chappaquiddick,” Newsweek, August 3, 1969.

  22 A misdemeanor charge: Canellos, The Last Lion, 168.

  23 “Has already been and will continue to be punished”: Canellos, 169.