Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot (80 page)

Also utilized:

Clay Blair Jr. Papers (American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming); Charles Higham Collection of Pa- pers (Occidental College, Eagle Rock, California); Joseph Kennedy Correspondence (House of Lords Library, Lon- don); Peter Lawford Files (Special Collection Division, Hayden Library, Arizona State University, Tempe); Jacque- line Onassis Oral Histories (Lyndon B. Johnson Library); Secret Service Gate Logs (JFK Library, visits filed chrono- logically); Sidney Skolsky Papers (Academy of Motion Pic- tures Arts and Sciences); Special Collections of the Mugar Memorial Library (Boston University, including the papers of Laura Bergquist, Fletcher Knebel, and David Halber- stam); 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 Re- search 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 Cri- sis”; “Chappaquiddick”; “Conspiracies”; “Kennedy and Nixon”; “Joseph Kennedy, Sr.: Father of an American Dy- nasty”; “John F. Kennedy: A Personal Story”; “Ted Kennedy: Tragedy, Scandal and Redemption”; “Magic Mo- ments, 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 Onas- sis”; “Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis”; “RFK Assassina- tion/’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 Organizations

Numerous organizations and institutions provided me with articles, documents, audio interviews, video inter- views, transcripts, and other material that was either utilized directly in
Jackie, Ethel, Joan
or for purposes of back- ground. 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 Li- brary; 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 Li- braries; Duke University Library; Federal Bureau of Investi- gation; Gerald R. Ford Library; the Glendale Library; Hayden Library; Arizona State University; the Hollywood Library; the Houghton Library (Harvard University); Lyn- don Baines Johnson Library; John Fitzgerald Kennedy Li- brary; the Margaret Herrick Library (Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences); Manhattanville College Li-

brary; the Andrew Mellon Library (Choate Rosemary Hall); National Archives; National Security Agency (Central Secu- rity 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. Roo- sevelt Library; the Stanford University Libraries; Depart- ment of the Treasury; United States Secret Service; Westport Public Library; Harry S Truman Library; Yale University Li- brary.

Sources

It is impossible to write accurately about anyone’s life without many reliable witnesses to provide a range of differ- ent 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 spokes- woman, 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 for- mally 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, politi- cians, 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 con- tacted 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 in- vited 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 re- specting 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 rela- tionships 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 al- lowed 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 com- prehensive—for instance, they do not repeat the earlier-cited names whose important Oral Histories, papers, and manu- scripts I utilized—but are intended to give the reader a gen- eral overview of my research. Also included here are occasional comments of an extraneous but, hopefully, infor- mative nature.

Since chapter notes are usually not of interest to the gen- eral reader, I have chosen a more general—and practical, for space limitations—mode of source identification, as op- posed 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 in- cluded 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 In- ternet by simply referring to the title of the book and/or the author. The author recommends amazon.com or barnesand- noble.com.

Also, I would like to especially cite the work of biogra- phers C. David Heymann
(A Woman Named Jackie
and
RFK),
Jerry Oppenheimer
(The Other Mrs. Kennedy),
Lau- rence 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 His- tories, personal interviews were conducted with Secret Ser- vice 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 Dia- monds 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 Gib- son 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 Destruc- tion,
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 con- sulted: various news accounts about and photographs of the Kennedys on inaugural day; Secret Service files from the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library; Secret Service documen- tary, 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 Li-

brary; “Jackie: An Exclusive First Look at Her Private Let- ters,” 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 Colling- wood (video):
The Secret Lives of Jackie Onassis
(BBC doc- umentary, 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.

Anyone seriously interested in the personal life of John F. Kennedy before he knew Jackie should consult the JFK per- sonal papers and correspondence, 1933–1950, Box 4A in the JFK Library.

The Skakels; Not One to Feel Sorry for Herself; White House Infidelities; The Bouviers

As well as having utilized the previously cited Oral His- tories, personal interviews were conducted with Joan Braden, Sancy Newman, Luella Hennessey, Leah Mason, Gore Vidal, Anthony Sherman, George Smathers, Betty Beale, Lem Billings, Bess Abel, James Bacon, Letitia Baldrige, Ben Bradlee, George Christian, Leo Damore, John Davis, Joseph Gargan (questionnaire), Jeanne Martin, Joseph Paolella, Pierre Salinger, and George Smathers.