"Joe Kennedy is one of the biggest crooks who ever lived."

- Sam Giancana

 

"I helped Joe Kennedy get rich."

- Frank Costello

 

"Joe always found great favor in Hitler. He would have loved to see him succeed."

             - Morton Downey, Jr.

 

John Fitzgerald Kennedy is generally considered one of the greatest Presidents in American history. He consistently ranks with Ronald Reagan and Franklin D. Roosevelt in polling. His international standing is extremely high, too, especially in France and Germany. He is nothing less than an icon of the Democrat party. While it is understandable that average Americans are not familiar enough with Theodore Roosevelt, or consider Abraham Lincoln and George Washington to be "ancient history," it is nevertheless impressive that Kennedy ranks as highly as he does. Depending on the poll or who you ask, he is likely to compare with Truman and Eisenhower, who are relatively recent Presidents and heroes to many.

However, it is difficult if not impossible to judge Kennedy without judging his family. This applies to every member of the most famous clan in American history. All of them are inextricably linked to each other. Being a Kennedy has special responsibilities that come with enormous privileges. To be a member of this family and even the extended family of in-laws, inside friends and advisors, is to be privy to wealth, prestige, political influence and notoriety on a scale that no other family approaches. Some have used this privilege wisely. Others have abused it brutally. Many people have benefited from the Kennedy family. Many of have had their lives ruined. They are nothing if not scandal-ridden fodder for the tabloids, yet they have done much noble work.

There other dynasties in American history. There were the Adams's, the Roosevelts, and now the Bush family shows the potential to supplant the Kennedys in the 21st Century. But none ever has nor ever will capture the imagination - for good or ill - of the glamorous Kennedy family.

The Kennedy family does not start with Joseph P. Kennedy, but everything before flowed to him. Everything since emanates from him. The further a Kennedy can distance him or herself from Joe Kennedy, the better off they are. Joe Kennedy is very possibly the single worst American of the 20th Century. Bill Clinton gets some votes, but he was duly elected and has the imprimatur of the Presidency. The question of "worst American" is a subjective one, counting only people of prominence who were in a position of power, influence and were supposed to make use of their position in a legal manner beneficial to society.

Therefore, mob figures and serial killers are not eligible. But corporate tycoons, military men, religious figures, entertainers and politicians are eligible. Kennedy was a corporate tycoon, a politician, an entertainment executive who had de facto religious influence, and was also intricately involved in military affairs. He advocated keeping America military out of World War II. Two of his sons were military heroes. He orchestrated a public relations campaign that blew John's Naval experience so far out of proportion that it propelled him to the White House. Finally, unbelievably, a Navy destroyer was named after him. In addition, Kennedy was for all practical purposes a mob figure for decades, although his participation in Mafia activities was more carefully chosen than the Sicilian families who chose to do their business less publicly than Kennedy. When American boys were dying in World War I, Joe was enriching himself through deceptive business practices. He never served a day in the military. Americans lost everything in the Great Depression, while Joe enriched himself further through deceptive business practices that directly "benefited" from the losses of others. 

The Kennedy's have experienced tremendous tragedy, some intensely personal, some part of the national experience. Many have labeled this the "Kennedy curse." If there is such a thing as a "curse," or "bad Karma," it can be attributed first to Joe Kennedy. In the end he was rendered helpless by stroke and forced to watch two of his sons felled by assassin's bullets. It is not my place to judge a human being, but I will consider that God may have rendered Earthly judgment for public consumption upon evil men. Joe Kennedy was an evil man. While many historians might be accused of rendering judgement on Joe Kennedy, I submit that the simple truthful description of his life is to describe evil acts, which is different from judgment. What is speculative is the considered possibility that the 20th Century "success" of the Kennedy's resulted from Joe Kennedy calling forth Satan and making a deal with the devil. This is entirely unproven, and in my opinion within all possibility. The following are excerpts from "The Sins of the Father" by Ronald Kessler and "The Kennedy Men: Three Generations of Sex, Scandal, and Secrets" by Nellie Bly:

 

"Joe's father, P.J. Kennedy, was a saloon owner who used his bar as a launching pad for his political career.

"In 1885, P.J. was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, due in large part to the strong backing he received from the liquor lobby which was worried about the temperance movement.

"P.J. would serve five terms as a state representative before being elected to the Massachusetts Senate. P.J. skillfully used his political power to enrich himself and advance the career of his son Joseph P. Kennedy.

"When Joe Kennedy was fresh out of college in 1912, his father got him a job as a state bank examiner. Here, Joe had access to useful information about the confidential affairs of companies and individuals who had credit lines with major Boston banks. He found out which companies were in trouble and which had extra cash, who was planning new products or acquisitions and who was about to be liquidated.

"A former Harvard classmate, Ralph Lowell, said, `That bank examiner's job took him all over the state and laid bare the condition of every bank he visited. He acquired information of value to himself and others.'

"Joe's strategy was to obtain inside information about troubled companies from banks, then drive their stock down so he could buy them more cheaply. While still on the state payroll as a bank examiner, Joe made an acquisition that was aided by inside information. He bought a Boston investment company called Old Colony Realty Associates, Inc. Joe turned the company from an old-line investment firm into one that made money on the misery of others.

"Under Joe's direction, the company specialized in taking over defaulted home mortgages. He would then paint the houses, and resell them at far higher prices. By the time the company was dissolved, Joe's $1,000 investment had grown to $75,000. <This sounds like Hillary Clinton's `cattle futures' deal.>

"Joe began cultivating strong alliances with members of the press, including William Randolph Hearst, who would print glowing stories about Kennedy's successes. In January 1914, when Joe was elected president of Columbia Trust, Hearst ran a series praising Joe as the youngest bank president in the country. The stories neglected to mention that Columbia Trust was owned by Joe's father and his friends.

"Joe eventually assumed control of Columbia Trust by borrowing money from other family members who were never repaid. Kerry McCarthy, Joe's grandniece who interviewed some of those people for a research paper, said, "I found money was loaned to him by family members and not repaid. Since it was family, he didn't feel there was a need to.

"In June of 1914, Joe married Rose Fitzgerald, daughter of Boston mayor John Fitzgerald. Joe would use this new connection for all it was worth. In 1917, with World War I already in progress, the United States government announced that young men would be drafted into military service, and that draft resisters would be executed. Although most of Joe's friends from Harvard had already volunteered to serve, Joe had no intention of fighting.

"Joe had already been placed in Class 1 and was subject to immediate call-up, when his father-in-law, Mayor Fitzgerald, acquired a job for him at the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation in Quincy, Massachusetts. Although Joe knew nothing about shipbuilding, he was made general manager, a job which effectively kept him out of the war. Daniel Strohmeier, vice president of Bethlehem Steel, said, `Joe was accommodated to skip the draft during World War I because of a lot of pressure from his father-in-law.'

Seven months after the armistice was signed to end World War I, Joe left the shipyard. Having avoided the draft, he had no more need to work there.

"Joe was given a job with the venerable Boston stock brokerage firm Hayden, Stone and Company, after Mayor Fitzgerald promised to swing business to the firm if they hired his son-in-law.

"Galen Stone, a friend of Joe's father-in-law, taught his protégé how to make huge sums of money off unsuspecting investors by trading on inside information. While the practice of using inside information was not then illegal, it was unethical. Stone breached his fiduciary duty to his stockholders, while Joe made money because of his privileged position at Hayden, Stone. Joe told one Harvard friend, `It's so easy to make money in the market we'd better get in before they pass a law against it.' It was easy, as long as one was willing to breach trust.

"Besides using inside information improperly, Joe made fabulous sums through what were known as stock pools. This was a way of manipulating the market by forming a syndicate and arranging for the members to trade stock back and forth. By bidding the price of the stock higher, the pool members created the appearance that the public was bidding up the price. In fact, the syndicate members retained the profits, and when the trading public bit by joining the action, the syndicate members sold out, leaving the public with losses. Joe called the practice `advertising' the stock.

"On January 29, 1919, the 18th Amendment was ratified. It prohibited the manufacture, sale, transportation, or importation of `intoxicating liquors' for `beverage purposes.' For Joe, the law represented an opportunity to make huge profits.

"He formed alliances with crime bosses in major markets, among them Boston, New York, Chicago, and New Orleans. These would come in handy years later when his son was running for national office. Among his mob associates was Frank Costello, former boss of the Luciano crime family, who bragged, `I helped Joe Kennedy get rich.' Sam Giancana, who would later figure prominently in Jack's presidency, called Joe `one of the biggest crooks who ever lived.'

"Joe bought liquor from overseas distillers and supplied it to organized crime syndicates that picked up the liquor on the shore. Frank Costello would later confirm that Joe had approached him for help in smuggling liquor. Joe would have the liquor dumped at a so-called Rum Row - a trans-shipment point where police were paid to look the other way - and Costello and other mobsters would then take over. They distributed the liquor, fixed the prices, established quotas, and paid off law enforcement and politicians. They enforced their own law with machine guns, usually calling on experts who did bloody hits on contract.

"Columnist John Miller wrote, `The way Costello talked about Joe, you had the sense that they were very close during Prohibition.'

"By the mid-1920s, Fortune estimated Joe's wealth at $2 million. Yet since Joe had left Hayden, Stone in 1922, he had had no visible job. While he made hundreds of thousands of dollars manipulating the market, only bootlegging on a sizable scale would account for such sudden and fabulous wealth.

"Joe used the profits from his bootlegging operations to fuel his continued stock market speculating, and finance his efforts in the film industry.

"By 1930 Joe had plenty to smile about. He had seen the Depression coming, and as Black Tuesday approached, Joe liquidated his longer-term investments while continuing to make money on the declining market by selling short.

"Selling Short - Usually an investor purchases stock and later sells it, earning a profit if the stock has gone up. Selling short reverses the process. The investor who believes the price of a stock will go down borrows stock - say at $10 a share - from a broker for a fee. If the price falls to $8, he buys new shares at the lower price of $8 and gives them back to the broker to replace the shares he borrowed at $10. He then gets to keep the $2 difference as his profit.

"By selling short, Joe made sums estimated at more than $1 million and contributed to the eventual market crash by forcing prices down.

"The fact that the market was unregulated was largely responsible for the crash. Salesmen had made wild claims to a gullible public. Stock pools such as those perfected by Joe Kennedy had defrauded legitimate investors. Reporters and columnists had acted as shills for companies peddling stocks in return for payoffs.

"The crash set off a worldwide financial panic and Depression that would last for years. By 1932, 12 million Americans were jobless. Governments responded with strict tariff restrictions that dried up world trade. In Germany, where 5.6 million people were out of work, the depression contributed to the rise of Adolf Hitler.

"Considerably richer because of his short selling, Joe Kennedy gleefully told friends that he had sold off his Wall Street holdings before the bottom dropped out of the stock market. He said he was now waiting to pick up the pieces left by `dumb people.'

"Joe Kennedy's wealth was now estimated at over $100 million. By 1933, Joe was again manipulating the stock market to his advantage, even as Federal investigators were swarming over Wall Street trying to expose the conditions that had led to the crash.

"The stock market crash and resulting panic would eventually lead to the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to which Joe was named head <by the Democrat Franklin Roosevelt, which would have been like putting John Gotti in charge of a task force on organized crime>.

"By 1933 the states had also begun repealing Prohibition, and with his usual foresight, Joe could see it was only a matter of time before the 18th Amendment was repealed and liquor flowed freely again.

"Kennedy used his connections in Washington to obtain permits to import ridiculously large quantities of Haig & Haig and Dewar's as 'medicine.' He stockpiled the liquor in warehouses so that when Prohibition ended, he would have more high-quality liquor in stock than anybody else.

"Joe also took steps to make sure he had cornered the market in Scotch. In September, Joe invited the President's son, James Roosevelt, to join him on a trip to England. Joe used young Roosevelt to get access to those who controlled Scotland's distilleries. Returning with distribution rights to brands such as Haig & Haig, Dewar's scotch, and Gordon's gin, Joe proceeded to build Somerset Importers into a force in the liquor business. On December 5, prohibition was repealed and Kennedy was ready.

"Joe took steps to protect his fortune and the future of his children. He moved to establish a series of trust funds that would eventually make all his children financially independent. These trust funds would eventually guarantee each of his children, and their mother, over twenty million dollars apiece."

 

The following are excerpts from "The Sins of the Father" by Ronald Kessler:

 

"After making his fortune on and off Wall Street, Joe was one of the first Eastern businessmen to grasp the potential of the movie business. By the mid-1920s, the American film industry was turning out 800 films a year and employed as many people as the auto industry. This was `a gold mine,' Joe told several friends. After buying a chain of 31 small movie houses, Joe realized that the way to make real money was on the production side. Moreover, he was attracted to the glamour of Hollywood. Not only could he influence the way films were made, he could meet dazzling young women."

"Gloria Swanson

            "While his wife Rose was in Boston, pregnant with their eighth child, Joe was in Hollywood engaged in his notorious liaison with the superstar Gloria Swanson.

"Swanson was by no means Joe's first extramarital adventure, but she was his first real affair. She was the perfect trophy to symbolize the great worldly success he had achieved.

"In 1926, Joe convinced a patron of his brokerage firm, named Guy Currier, to finance his plans to enter the movie business. Using insider information he received as a broker at Hayden, Stone, Joe bought the Film Booking Offices of America (FBO), sight unseen, from its British owners; and then received a commission of $75,000 from the trading company for the deal. Joe quickly changed the studio's focus to making cheap Westerns and dog pictures that could be turned out in a week for $30,000 to $50,000 each. Although they lacked artistic merit, the pictures sold, and FBO profits ballooned.

"The following year, Joe Kennedy used the profits from FBO to purchase the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) who had a new system for making motion pictures with sound. Now that Joe headed a studio, he wanted to buy a theater chain to distribute his pictures. This desire would eventually lead to the infamous 'Pantages Scandal.'

Kennedy purchased KAO (Keith-Albee-Orpheum Theaters Corp), a chain with 700 movie theaters in the U.S. and Canada, and more than 2 million patrons daily. Edward Albee, the founder of KAO, had initially refused to sell out, but when Joe promised that he would remain in control of the chain, Albee agreed to Kennedy's offer. But once the papers were signed and Joe was chairman, Joe said bluntly, `Didn't you know, Ed? You're washed up. Through.'

"In 1928, Joe was asked to serve as a special advisor on the board of Pathe Exchange Inc., a production company who produced a weekly newsreel. Joe soon became chairman of Pathe and began implementing his own ideas, beginning by slashing the salaries of the employees. The cost cutting applied to others, however, and not to himself - he was drawing a salary of $100,000 from Pathe.

"Later that year, Joe merged FBO with his chain of theaters (KAO) to form the famous RKO. Joe then had RCA trade its FBO stock for stock in the new company, a deal which brought him $2 million.

"Joe Kennedy had become so entranced by Gloria Swanson and Hollywood that when his father P.J. Kennedy died in May of 1929, Joe would not leave California to attend the funeral. Joe's cousin Joseph Kane later confronted him saying, `You son of a bitch, you didn't even go to your father's funeral. You were too busy on the West Coast chasing Gloria Swanson around."

"Joe replied, `I couldn't leave. If I left for two days, the Jews would rob me blind.'

"A friend, Kane Simonian, observed, 'Joe Kennedy didn't attend his father's funeral....When someone doesn't go to his father's funeral, you can believe he would do anything.'

"Indeed, nothing so much illuminates Joe's character as his decision to remain in California while the rest of the family and many of Boston's most notable citizens paid their last respects to the man who had been responsible for so many of Joe's early successes. From Joe's entry into Harvard, to his job as bank examiner and designation as president of Columbia Trust, P.J. had always been there to help his son. Now that his father could do nothing more to help him, Joe was too busy in Hollywood to say good-bye.

"In 1931, Joe Kennedy plundered Pathe Exchange. He arranged for RKO to pay Pathe insiders like himself $80 a share. The rest of the stockholders would receive just $1.50 a share. Favoring insiders to such a degree was nothing more than robbery. Since Joe had acquired the stock for $30 a share, he more than doubled his investment in fewer than two years. Stockholders filed suit, but nothing came of it.

"Since Joe was in a position to dictate the terms of the deal, he was able to craft the transaction to enrich himself. Moreover, he took advantage of privileged information from the files of major stockholders in the movie companies who were clients of Guy Currier, his partner at RKO. While Currier was on vacation in Italy, Kennedy pillaged his files for inside information such as the size of holdings of other stockholders and their financial condition. He then used the information to further his own interests. When Currier returned, he discovered that RKO's value had plummeted, and he and his fellow investors had been betrayed. Joe Kennedy `did not behave in an honorable way,' said Anne Anable, Currier's granddaughter. `Unfortunately, my grandfather didn't realize how corrupt Kennedy was,' she said.

"Years later, Wisconsin Congressman John Schafer took to the floor of the House to denounce Joe Kennedy as the `chief racketeer in the RKO swindle.' Another Congressman, William Sirovich of New York, said the `inside group at RKO had committed fraud by unloading their stock, making millions.' He called for an investigation of the movie industry, but by then Joe had become close to key Congressional leaders as well as to President Roosevelt, and the probe was mysteriously halted.

"In Joe's papers, Doris Kearns Goodwin found letters from anguished stockholders of Pathe. Anne Lawler of Jamaica Plain in Boston said she lost her life savings. `This seems hardly Christian-like, fair or just for a man of your character,' she wrote. `I wish you would think of the poor working woman who had so much faith in you as to give all their money to your Pathe.'

"Joe Kennedy had been chairman of FBO for two years and nine months, chairman of Keith-Albee-Orpheum for five months, special adviser to First National Pictures for six weeks, special adviser to RCA for two and a half months, and adviser to Paramount Pictures for 74 days. In all, Joe had made an estimated $5 million in the movie business."

 

The following are excerpts from "The Kennedy Men: Three Generations of Sex, Scandal, and Secrets" by Nellie Bly:

 

             "Joe's oldest daughter, Rosemary, was considered shy and mentally limited - symptoms of what many suspect was dyslexia. For years the family had dealt with the problem by sending her away to various special schools and convents. By age 21 she had deteriorated greatly, giving way to tantrums, rages and violent behavior. Rosemary was beginning to understand that she would never measure up to her closest siblings, and the resulting frustration led to physical fights and, worse, long absences at night when she would be wandering the streets.

"Increasingly, Rosemary was seen as a liability to the family's political ambitions, and in 1942, Joe moved to deal with the problem. Without telling anyone, not ever her mother, he arranged for his oldest daughter to have a prefrontal lobotomy at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C. The experimental operation was believed to work wonders with people who had emotional problems. In Rosemary's case it was a disaster and left her permanently disabled, paralyzed on one side, incontinent and unable to speak coherently. She was never allowed to return home, but instead was spirited away to St. Coletta's School in Wisconsin.

"Rosemary's fate and how it was handled was the ultimate Kennedy deception. As late as 1958 the family was maintaining the fiction that Rosemary had become a quasi nun in Wisconsin, content to renounce the glamorous world of her siblings to teach less fortunate children. Today the official family version is that she was born retarded, and that only her mother's Herculean efforts had made it possible for her to appear normal."

 

The following are excerpts from "The Sins of the Father" by Ronald Kessler and

"The Kennedy Men: Three Generations of Sex, Scandal, and Secrets" by Nellie Bly:

           

"How Joe Kennedy framed an innocent man

"In February 1929, Joe Kennedy made an offer to buy the Pantages theater chain, the second biggest in California, from its owner Alexander Pantages, a Greek immigrant who had built the chain from scratch into a multi-million dollar business.

"Joe's innate arrogance was now rampant, and when Pantages rebuffed his offers, Kennedy threatened him by boasting of his influence in the banking and movie businesses. Soon, Pantages found his theaters were being denied first-run blockbuster features from major studios, but that was only the beginning.

"On August 9, 1929 in Pantages's flagship theater, the Beaux Arts in downtown Los Angeles, an hysterical lady in red emerged from the janitor's broom closet on the mezzanine screaming: `There he is, the Beast! Don't let him get at me!' She pointed to the silver-haired Alexander Pantages in the office next to the broom closet.

"The girl, Eunice Pringle of Garden Grove, California, told police that she had come to Pantages looking for work as a dancer. Instead of offering her a job, he had pushed her into the broom closet, wrenched her underwear loose and raped her. Pantages insisted that he was being framed, and that the young woman had torn and ripped her own clothing.

"Poor Pantages was convicted and sentenced to 50 years, but the verdict was overturned on appeal, on the basis that it was prejudicial to Pantages to exclude testimony about the morals of the plaintiff. The court found her testimony `so improbable as to challenge credulity.'

"At the new trial, Pantages' lawyers reenacted the alleged rape and showed that it could not have occurred in the small broom closet the way Pringle had described it. The jury was also shown how athletic Pringle was, casting doubt on her claim that she could not fight off advances by the slightly built Pantages.

"The second jury acquitted Pantages, but because of the notoriety, his business had plummeted. A few months after Kennedy's final offer of $8 million, Pantages was forced to sell out to Joe's RKO for $3.5 million.

"Eunice Pringle            

"Two years after the acquittal, Pringle told her lawyer she wanted to come clean. Stories began circulating that she was about to blow the lid off the rape case and name names. Suddenly, she died of unknown causes. The night she died, she was violently ill and red in color, a sign of cyanide poisoning.

"On her deathbed, Pringle confessed to her mother and a friend that Joe Kennedy had set up Pantages. In exchange for their perjured testimony, Kennedy had paid $10,000 to Pringle and her agent and lover Nicolas Dunaev. Joe had also promised he would make her a star. Pringle, however, never became a star, and Dunaev never gave her her share of the money.

The following are excerpts from "The Sins of the Father" by Ronald Kessler:

 

"One of Joe Kennedy's closest friends was Morton Downey, a night-club singer who later became a radio idol in the 1930s and 40s. As one friend put it, 'Mort did him favors in the department Joe liked best - girls, he knew chorus girls.' Furthermore, since most of the clubs where Downey sang were owned by the mob, Joe gained access to mobsters like Frank Costello who were critical to his bootlegging business.

"Besides their love of young women, Downey and Kennedy shared a hatred of Jews. As successful Irishmen, they needed another minority to ridicule. When Joe later went to Hollywood, he told friends he expected to wipe out the Jewish `pants pressers' who ruled Hollywood.

"`Joe Kennedy's feeling toward Jews was that the only way he could be a success was that every day when he got up, he would focus on one deal involving a Jew, and he would win the deal. That was his whole driving spirit,' said Morton Downey, Jr., quoting what his father had told him about Joe.

"Shortly after he became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Adolf Hitler began his campaign against the Jews. Hitler used Germany's severe economic problems to win support from extremists who had fomented violence. He claimed Germany had been `stabbed in the back' by the acquiescence of German leaders to the Treaty of Versailles. As scapegoats, he singled out Jews and Communists. They were responsible for Germany's economic plight.

"As the Nazi Party grew, Hitler destroyed the constitutional government. Squads of brown-shirted stormtroopers carted off critics and tortured or shot them. Over 4,000 people in public life were thrown in jail.

"On April 1, 1933, persecution of the Jews in Germany became official policy, beginning with a Nazi initiated boycott of Jewish businesses and shops. Nazi students and professors burned hundreds of thousands of books, including many written by Jews, as part of a `purification' of German culture.

"As Ambassador to England, Joe would later make clear that he thought the Jews had `brought on themselves' whatever Hitler did to them. During a 1938 meeting at the German Embassy in London, Kennedy assured the German ambassador that America only wanted friendly relations with Hitler. Joe said that Hitler's government had done `great things' for the country, and that the Germans were `satisfied' and enjoyed `good living conditions.' Joe told the ambassador that a recent report which said the limited food in Germany was being reserved for the army could not be true. After all, Joe said, the professor who had made the report `was a Jew.'

"Kennedy urged his friend William Randolph Hearst to help Hitler improve his image in the United States. Hearst agreed, and under his own byline he told his readers that Hitler had `restored character and courage. Hitler gave hope and confidence. He established order and unity of purpose.'

"Based on what his father had told him, Morton Downey, Jr. said, `I think if Joe had his way, Hitler would have succeeded in his annihilation of the Jews...He always found great favor in Hitler. He would have loved to see him succeed.'

"Joe Kennedy often professed admiration for the works of Brooks Adams, whose views on racial purity paralleled Hitler's. Joe accepted Adams as his intellectual guru, ratifying, as he did, the prejudices that Joe already had.

"An historian, Adams articulated a `survival of the fittest' theory much like Hitler's. Eventually, he wrote, the `energy' of a `race' is exhausted, and it must be replaced by the infusion of `barbarian blood.'

"In `The Theory of Social Revolutions' as well as other works, Adams maintained that American Democracy had inherent defects. Without near-dictatorial powers, Presidents cannot govern effectively. Ultimately, these defects would bring disaster to the country. Adams predicted England would fare even worse because the country was in a state of `decay' brought on by `high living, wasteful habits, and intellectual torpor.' In contrast, Germany had a strong military and a vigorous population that was better educated.

"Joe Kennedy, as a capitalist, liked Adams' theories because he saw himself as their beneficiary and they appealed to his prejudices. According to Adams, the `greedy' economic man or capitalist becomes dominant in society. Morality and ethics are of no value. Instead, `Men do not differ from the other animals, but survive, according to their aptitudes, by adapting themselves to exterior conditions which prevail at the moment of their birth.'

"Joe Kennedy's oldest son, Joe, Jr., absorbed his father's virulent anti-Semitism. During a break from school in 1934, Joe, Jr. traveled to Germany. By then, public eating facilities, theaters, and shops in Germany displayed signs saying `Jews Not Welcome.' Jewish mothers could not buy milk for their infants. Jews who were sick could not obtain prescriptions.

"Joe, Jr. wrote to his father that Hitler had taken advantage of a widespread dislike of the Jews, a dislike which was `well-founded.' He told his father that Hitler was `building a spirit in his men that could be envied in any country.' The brutality, bloodshed, and marching were necessary, he said, and the sterilization law was a `good thing.' `I don't know how the Church feels about it but it will do away with many of the disgusting specimens of men who inhabit this earth,' Joe, Jr. wrote."

 

(Author's note: Forgive me while I go throw up…this is America's "royal family?")

 

"To be sure, anti-Semitism in the United States at the time, particularly in Boston, was not uncommon. But while many were passively anti-Semitic, Joe Kennedy was rabidly so. Repeatedly and aggressively, he attacked the Jews, even suggesting to his son Jack that he incorporate a campaign against the Jews as part of his political platform.

"Joe Kennedy - Supporter of McCarthyism

"Like Kennedy, Joseph R. McCarthy was a bully, adept at creating suspicion and circulating rumors to smear people as Communists. Kennedy had contributed to the Wisconsin Republican's Senate campaigns, and invited him a number of times to Hyannis Port. McCarthy attended the wedding of Joe's daughter Eunice Kennedy, and was Joe's guest at numerous other affairs, where Kennedy introduced him as his `valued friend.'

"Although McCarthy was at first an undistinguished legislator, he captured national attention in February 1950 by arguing that the State Department was riddled with card-carrying members of the Communist Party. Shrewd at public relations and media manipulation, McCarthy intimidated his opponents and evaded demands for tangible proof as he developed a large and loyal following.

"McCarthy's activities gave rise to the term `McCarthyism,' referring to the use of sensational and highly publicized personal attacks, usually based on unsubstantiated charges, as a means of discrediting people thought to be subversive.

"In November 1950, Joe Kennedy spoke at the Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration, where he said that not enough had been done to get Communists out of the United States government. He professed his respect for Joe McCarthy, who was just beginning his witch hunt for Communists, and Joe said he `knew McCarthy pretty well, and he may have something.'

"Late in 1952, Senator Joseph McCarthy became chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate Government Operations Committee. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. referred to McCarthy's anti-Communist activities as his 'jihad,' but Joe Kennedy admired his friend's stand. To Kennedy, Communism, not Nazism, posed the greatest threat. He was an old hand at spreading rumors himself.

"In December 1952, Joe Kennedy called McCarthy and asked him to give his son Bobby a job on the committee. In January 1953, McCarthy named Bobby Kennedy assistant counsel.

"Bobby appeared to be blind to McCarthy's demagoguery. `Joe McCarthy's methods may be a little rough,' he told reporters, `but, after all, his goal is to expose Communists in government, and that's a worthy goal. So why are you reporters so critical of his methods?'

"McCarthy's failure to substantiate his claims of Communist penetration of the Army in the nationally televised Army-McCarthy hearings finally discredited him. On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to condemn him, 67 to 22. Jack Kennedy, Senator from Massachusetts, was the only Democrat who did not vote against McCarthy. Jack's failure to condemn Joe McCarthy would cost him the Vice-Presidential nomination in 1956.

"The family allegiance to McCarthy was demonstrated again when Bobby Kennedy attended McCarthy's funeral in May 1957.

 

The following are excerpts from "The Sins of the Father" by Ronald Kessler:

 

"Having made his mark on Hollywood and Wall Street, Joe came to realize that Washington was where the real power was. Joe had never been interested in the arduous way his father had achieved political power - through meetings in smoke-filled rooms and holding constituents' hands. Rather, now that he was one of the richest men in the country, Joe would simply buy his way into power.

"Joe Kennedy's entry into politics began when a mutual friend arranged a meeting between Kennedy and then-Governor of New York Franklin Roosevelt. Having just won re-election as Governor, Roosevelt was already being described as a contender for President. A pragmatist willing to obtain support from almost any quarter, he saw Joe Kennedy as both a potential source of major campaign contributions and someone who could swing Wall Street and conservative Democrats his way.

"At their meeting, Kennedy and Roosevelt forged a political alliance. Joe would contribute to his campaign and open doors to him on Wall Street; Roosevelt would bring Joe into his inner circle of advisers, and include him in his Cabinet.

"Once the campaign got under way, Joe not only contributed large sums of money directly to Roosevelt, but he also became Roosevelt's `money collector' or bag man, collecting cash from those who wanted to hide their identities.

"Joe was of further value to Roosevelt because of his close relationships with many newspaper publishers who could be critically important to an election. Not only could they support candidates in their papers, they often used their political clout to choose candidates in the first place. Chief among these media power brokers was Kennedy's friend William Randolph Hearst.

"Hearst owned 33 newspapers with a circulation of 11 million. He also controlled 86 delegates to the Democratic nominating convention, nearly all from the critical states of California and Texas. In a last minute move, Kennedy persuaded Hearst to back Roosevelt. Hearst not only provided a large campaign contribution, but he also swung his delegates to Roosevelt. Joe would later claim, justifiably, that he had won the nomination for Roosevelt.

"More than a year after Roosevelt was elected President, Kennedy was still without his promised Cabinet post.

"In June 1934, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was created, and Roosevelt appointed Joe Kennedy chairman. The appointment drew strong criticism from those who felt that Joe Kennedy symbolized everything the SEC had been set up to eradicate. Roosevelt, however, stood firm, telling one advisor that it `took a thief to catch a thief.' Roosevelt also knew that Joe's financial backing had been critical to his election, and he hoped that giving Kennedy the SEC chairmanship would secure his financial support for the next election as well.

"The SEC, under Joe's direction, went on to outlaw most of the practices that had made Kennedy rich, including a ban on short selling, one of Joe's favorite ways of making money.

"For nearly two years, a parade of Wall Street titans would march to the witness stand and describe their roles in the seamy dealings. But while records of Joe's unethical transactions were presented during the hearings, Joe was never called to appear. Joe would later pretend that he was innocent of any wrongdoing.

"In his book `I'm for Roosevelt', Joe wrote, `For month after month the country was treated to a series of amazing revelations which involved practically all the important names in the financial community in practices which, to say the least, were highly unethical.'

"Kennedy's condemnation of his former business associates came as little surprise to anyone. Joe was known both for discarding friends when they had served their purpose and for knifing in the back those who had helped him. As one Wall Street colleague said, `I don't know why Joe Kennedy turned on me - I never did anything to help him.'

"If one of Joe's failings was his lack of loyalty to those who had helped him, he now turned that trait to his advantage. He did not care if his former cohorts hated him because of his enforcement efforts. Joe had ambitions for himself and his sons that transcended the SEC. This would be a way for him to make a name for himself and for his family.

"Joe would later describe his work at the SEC as `forcing their mouths open and going in with a pair of pincers and just taking all the gold out of their teeth.'

"Joe Kennedy resigned from the SEC in September 1935.

"In 1937, Kennedy began hinting to Roosevelt that he still `deserved a reward' for his role in the election. Roosevelt, who had become mistrustful of Kennedy, chose not to give him a Cabinet post and instead appointed him ambassador to England.

"Kennedy's Ambassadorship coincided with the beginning of World War II in Europe; and throughout his three-year tenure, Kennedy argued against American and British involvement in the war. Even as the Nazis rolled into France, Joe expressed his support for Hitler and maintained a position of appeasement toward Germany.

"In May 1940, Winston Churchill was elected British Prime Minister. The rise of Churchill brought an end to appeasement, and hastened Joe's decline. When Kennedy publicly proclaimed that `Democracy is finished in England,' Roosevelt called for his resignation.

"Harvey Klemmer, who had been Kennedy's speech writer in London, would later complain that Joe had often given him assignments that were completely unrelated to his job. Besides spending inordinate amounts of government time securing precious cargo space for Joe's whisky shipments, he had also been expected to provide Joe with young women. One was a former French model known as `Foxy'."

 

*            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *           

 

Joe Kennedy was a monster. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was not an angel, but she seems to have been a good woman. It is because of her that the family retains a decent name, which is no small feat. It is doubtful her sons could have ascended to political heights without her to offset the enmity her husband created. She was very disciplined, a devoutly Catholic woman who bore nine children; four boys and five girls. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was named in honor of Rose’s father, John Francis Fitzgerald, the popular Boston Mayor who everybody knew as "Honey Fitz". Jack was an unhealthy baby who suffered from whooping cough, measles, and chicken pox. When Jack was not yet three, he came down with scarlet fever. His father went to the hospital every day to be by his son’s side. If he made any deals with God to keep his son alive, his subsequent activities suggest he probably did not hold his end of the bargain. Maybe he evoked other powers. About a month later Jack took a turn for the better and recovered. Jack's health was always an issue. The family joke was that if a mosquito bit him, the mosquito would die.

The family settled in Brookline, just outside of Boston. Joe became obsessed with making money and achieving power. As a student at Harvard, his Irish Catholicism had kept him out of the best fraternities and social circles. He determined to overcome prejudice by buying his way into a world he otherwise would have been excluded from, and using his paid-for prestige to open the doors for his children. It was always Joe's intention for his children to enter national politics, which he saw as the ultimate way to break down any remaining barriers.

 His goal was to become a millionaire by age 35. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. In this regard he must be considered an American success story. His family had escaped the Irish potato famine on the 19th Century, settled in Boston and made a better life for each succeeding generation. But Joe's success was "amazing."

Aside from the Massachusetts abode, the family owned property in the exclusive enclave of West Palm Beach, Florida. The kids - Jack had an older brother, Joe; four sisters, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, and Patricia; and a younger brother, Robert (Jean and Teddy had not been born yet) - were a bundle of energy. Nannies and housekeepers helped Rose run the household.

Summers were spent in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod where they swam, sailed, and played touch football. They played hard, and competed for everything. Joseph, Sr.  encouraged this, almost pitting the kids against each other in Darwinian match-ups designed to toughen them up. It is true that while the children had everything, they were not spoiled by the easy life. The boys, especially, faced very high expectations in sports, school and all that they tried.

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going," Joe would tell them. The competition could be cutthroat. Joe, Jr. suggested that he and Jack race on their bicycles. They collided head-on. Joe emerged unscathed while Jack had to have 28 stitches. Joe, Jr. routinely beat up Jack, the only sibling who posed any threat to him. For whatever reason, the Kennedy men got all the looks. They were handsome beyond words, like matinee idol movie darlings. The girls all suffered from "map of Ireland" faces with thin lips and straight-up-and-down figures. The boys were the apple of every girl's eye in Boston and West Palm.

Jack attended Choate, a tony boarding school in Connecticut. He played tennis, basketball, football, and golf and read voraciously in those pre-TV days. He subscribed to the New York Times, unusual for a teenage kid. The head master recalled that he had a "clever, individualist mind." He was not the best student, but he took it seriously, especially in history and English, which were his favorites.

"Now Jack," his father wrote in a letter, "I don’t want to give the impression that I am a nagger, for goodness knows I think that is the worse thing any parent can be, and I also feel that you know if I didn’t really feel you had the goods I would be most charitable in my attitude toward your failings. After long experience in sizing up people I definitely know you have the goods and you can go a long way…It is very difficult to make up fundamentals that you have neglected when you were very young, and that is why I am urging you to do the best you can. I am not expecting too much, and I will not be disappointed if you don’t turn out to be a real genius, but I think you can be a really worthwhile citizen with good judgment and understanding."

Jack graduated from Choate and entered Harvard, where Joe was ahead of him. Like Joe, Jack played football. He was not a great athlete but he persevered until he ruptured a disk in his spine. His back bothered him the rest of his life.

Joe, Jr. announced as a young boy that he would be the first Catholic President. In the Kennedy world no one doubted him. Jack had the ambition of a second son, but was by no means a slouch. He was active in student groups and sports, excelled in history and government classes, but maintained only decent grades.

Late in 1937, Mr. Kennedy was appointed United States Ambassador to England. He moved there with his whole family, with the exception of Joe and Jack, who were at Harvard. Jack followed European politics and world affairs. He made a Summer visit to England and other countries in Europe, and reached some startling conclusions about Nazi Germany. At Harvard he tackled history, government and current events with renewed vigor.

The Ambassador sent letters with news regarding the possibility of full-scale war with Hitler's Germany, which was aligned with Mussolini and Italy. On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. Jack was a senior at Harvard and wrote his thesis on Great Britain's lack of preparedness. It was a good book called "Why England Slept", which was worthy of publication. His father made sure of it, arranging through contacts with a publisher. In June, 1940 Jack graduated from Harvard. His father sent him a cablegram from London:

"TWO THINGS I ALWAYS KNEW ABOUT YOU ONE THAT YOU ARE SMART TWO THAT YOU ARE A SWELL GUY LOVE DAD."

John Kennedy then headed to California, where he entered Stanford Business School. He drove a convertible, had reportedly been given $1 million by his father, and according to legend ran a swath through the female population of the West Coast from San Francisco to Hollywood. Handsome and adorably promiscuous, he tanned himself in the hot sun, partied heavily and lived it up. Then the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

It is to the great credit of Joe, Jr. and John Kennedy that they both joined the military after America entered the war. Neither had to do it. Joe had enough pull to keep his sons out. Jack, in particular, had enough physical ailments to get out of service, but he insisted on going in. They still could have been given non-hazardous duty, common for the sons of VIPs. Neither went that route.              

Joe was a flyer, sent to Europe. Jack was made lieutenant and assigned to the South Pacific as commander of a patrol torpedo boat, the PT-109. The crew of 12 was tasked with stopping Japanese ships from delivering supplies to the islands they held. On August 2, 1943, the PT-109 was patrolling the waters when they saw a Japanese destroyer traveling at full speed straight at them. Lieutenant Kennedy tried to swerve out of the way, but the warship rammed the PT-109, splitting it in half and killing men. Everybody jumped off the flaming boat. Kennedy injured his weak back. Others had terrible burns. Some were ready to give up. In the darkness, Kennedy managed to find Patrick McMahon, who otherwise would have died. He hauled him back to where the other survivors were clinging to a piece of the boat that was still afloat. At sunrise, Kennedy led his men toward a small island several miles away. Despite his own injuries, he towed McMahon ashore, a strap from McMahon’s life jacket clenched between his teeth. Six days later two native islanders found them and went for help, delivering a message Jack had written on a piece of coconut shell. The next day, the PT-109 crew was rescued.

In later years, some have analyzed the PT-109 and determined that it was not all that it seemed to be. Lieutenant Kennedy was very inexperienced and perhaps should not have been given command of a PT boat. He apparently failed to adhere to established Navy procedures and training in his failure to steer away from and be hit by the destroyer. Many felt that only negligence could explain being put in such a position. When he returned home, Jack was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his leadership and courage. Joe, Sr. assigned publicists to embellish the story and it was a huge part of the Kennedy mystique, prodding his career from the Congress to the Senate to the White House. In 1962, Kennedy's friends in Hollywood made a movie about it. JFK himself handpicked Cliff Robertson to play him. The film, while entertaining and co-starring a number of excellent young stars, was basically a campaign commercial. Kennedy himself never tried to make more of it than it was. He joked that he had won the Navy Cross for getting his boat run over. He readily admitted that he could have avoided the accident, and was lucky that it turned out the way that it did. Regardless of his inexperience, any mistakes he might have made, or how his father and Hollywood embellished the story, John Kennedy showed enormous bravery and courage under the most trying of circumstances. He saved the lives of his men, who all idolized him after initially thinking him a "rich kid." None of them ever disputed his bravery and clear thinking. All things considered, JFK earned his medals and any kudos he received.  

Jack’s brother Joe was not lucky. A year later, he volunteered for a dangerous mission involving transport of materials associated with the Manhattan Project, the super-secret operation to develop the atomic bomb. The mission went awry and his plane blew up in the skies over Europe.

Jack came home a war hero and considered teaching or writing. He actually covered the 1946 opening of the United Nations in San Francisco as a reporter. But Joe’s tragic death elevated Jack. He was now made the "hope" of the family for the White House. The path to the Presidency began in the 1946 campaign for Massachusetts' 11th Congressional district. Joe, Sr. spent enormous sums of money to assure victory for his youthful, inexperienced son. Jack, while not totally comfortable campaigning, demonstrated intelligence, an easy rapport. The women voters were crazy about him. He won easily.

 

*            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *           

 

"Politics is like war. It takes three things to win.....The first is money and the second is money and the third is money."

- Joe Kane (Kennedy's friend)

 

How Joe Made his Son President

The following is excerpted from "The Sins of the Father" by Ronald Kessler and

"The Kennedy Men: Three Generations of Sex, Scandal, and Secrets" by Nellie Bly:

 

"JFK's First Campaign

"Having tried and failed, Joe Kennedy knew he could never become President, but his sons could. He quenched his thirst for power through them.

"Joe had hoped that his eldest son, Joe, Jr. would fulfill his dream. That dream ended in August 1944 when Joe, Jr., a Navy pilot, was killed after volunteering for a dangerous secret bombing mission. Columnist and family friend Arthur Krock was convinced that the reason Joe, Jr. had volunteered for such a dangerous mission was to compensate for his father's reputation as a coward.

"In Palm Beach during Christmas of 1944, Joe gave his son Jack the orders: He was to take Joe, Jr.'s place and enter politics. In 1957, Jack described the event, telling a reporter: 'It was like being drafted. My father wanted his eldest son in politics. 'Wanted' isn't the right word. He demanded it.'

"Joe would later brag that 'I got Jack into politics. I told him that Joe, Jr .was deceased and that it was therefore his responsibility to run for Congress.'

"In 1946, Joe Kennedy decided that the 11th Congressional district of Massachusetts, with its high concentration of Catholic voters, would be the perfect launching pad for his son Jack's political career. There was only one problem: James Michael Curley, the former Mayor of Boston and Governor of Massachusetts, occupied the seat. Curley, however, was in danger of being indicted for mail fraud, and Joe decided that what the man needed most was some money.

"'Curley knew he was in trouble with the Feds over the mail fraud rap,' recalled Kennedy's friend Joe Kane. `The Ambassador paid him to get out of his Congressional seat…Curley figured that he might need the money.'

"Joe paid Curley $12,000 through his bag man Joe Timilty. He promised additional campaign help if Curley chose to run again for Mayor of Boston in the 1946 election, which Curley did. After being elected, Curley was sent to prison for mail fraud. He continued to serve from prison.

"To Joe, this was standard operating procedure, recalled Kane. `Everything he got, he bought and paid for. And politics is like war. It takes three things to win. The first is money and the second is money and the third is money.'

"On April 25, 1946, Jack Kennedy announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination to Congress. The next month, Joe founded the Joseph P Kennedy Jr. Foundation which began furiously pumping money into Catholic institutions in Jack's adopted district. The timing was not a coincidence, and led one Massachusetts Congressman to describe the gifts as `political currency.'

"Joe's main job now became running his son's campaign. In effect, he was the candidate, devising campaign strategy and making every financial and policy decision. To conceal his own role and the extent of Jack's financing, Joe paid for everything clandestinely and in cash.

"David Powers, who ran Jack's Charlestown headquarters described how Joe's aide would meet him `at the campaign's central headquarters, and then lead me into the men's room, where, putting a dime into the slot, he would take me into a closed toilet stall. Then, with no one able to watch us, he would hand me the cash, saying, 'You can never be too careful in politics about handing over money.'

"Joe also arranged for Jack to receive a salary from the Maine and New Hampshire Theaters Company, which he owned. Joe could then deduct it as a business expense. In addition, two of Joe's theater employees took care of all the campaign expenses. For example, if Jack needed a rental car, he simply charged it to Joe's theater company.

"Jack's opponent in the primary election was a legitimate politician named Joe Russo. To insure that Jack won the primary campaign, Joe Kennedy paid Joseph Russo, a janitor, to also enter the race. This effectively confused the voters, and split the votes for Joe Russo.

"Russo the janitor recalled how Joe's friend Joseph Timilty and another man had visited him one day and asked him to run. In return, Russo said, 'They offered me favors. Whatever I wanted.' In fact, he said later, he wound up getting very little - occasional payments of $50 in cash.

"'Even the aunt of the real candidate voted for the janitor,' recalled Joseph A Russo, the real candidate's son. 'They didn't leave anything unturned,' he said. His father claimed that Kennedy's people had also arranged for other bogus candidates to 'run in other areas to break up the Irish vote, or some other vote. They played for keeps.'

"After Jack won the Democratic primary, Joe sold Somerset Importers Inc., freeing $8 million to help Jack in his campaign and insuring that his liquor holdings would not become an issue.

"Just as he had done with the rent for Jack's campaign offices, Joe paid cash for Jack's advertising. John T. Galvin, who was in charge of the advertising, recalled that `It was handled so that very few people knew...There was a campaign law that limited campaign contributions. It didn't affect us very much.'

"Joe also received crucial support from his friends in the media. For example, William Randolph Hearst, who owned the Boston American newspaper, had one of his reporters check in at Jack's headquarters every day. No other candidate got such special attention. Joe also got Hearst to ignore Jack's opponent Michael Neville, the Mayor of Cambridge, and the paper would not accept his advertising.

"Joe spent $300,000 on Jack's first campaign, according to House Speaker `Tip' O'Neill, equivalent to $2.2 million today. O'Neill said that the sum was six times what he himself spent in the same district during a tough race six years later. In O'Neill's view, Joe was the `real force' behind the Kennedys.

`Joe Kennedy was an ongoing factor in Massachusetts politics,' O'Neill said. `Every time a Democrat ran for Governor, he would go down to see Joe, who would always send him home with a briefcase full of cash.'

"On November 5, 1946, Jack Kennedy was elected to Congress. Seven days later, he filed a report with the Massachusetts secretary of state certifying that no money had been collected for, or had been spent on his campaign.

"JFK's First Senate Campaign

"Having been elected to Congress three terms, Jack Kennedy began a race for the Senate in April 1952, seeking the seat held by Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.

"The race was still a toss-up when Joe Kennedy learned that John Fox, owner of the powerful Boston Post, was in desperate need of money. The Boston Post, which had a circulation of over 300,000, had been credited with helping defeat Michael Curley in his last campaign in 1949, and with being responsible for getting Maurice Tobin elected Governor of Massachusetts. Under Fox, the Boston Post favored Republicans. The newspaper had endorsed Eisenhower for President, and was expected to endorse Lodge. Indeed, those close to Fox confirmed that he `hated JFK.'

"Fox had bought the Boston Post in 1952 for about $4 million. As a down payment, Fox had paid $2 million for the newspaper, but the IRS immediately took it for back payment of his own taxes. The publisher soon found himself unable to pay his bills.

"It was generally assumed that the Boston Post would endorse Lodge, but Fox was desperate for funds, and Joe Kennedy was only too happy to help out. Two days before the election, following a private meeting with Joe Kennedy, Fox gave a front-page endorsement for JFK.

"Former Massachusetts state Senator Robert L Lee said the Post endorsement of JFK was the `turning point' in the campaign. Lee believed that if Lodge had received the paper's endorsement, it `would have been sufficient to put him back in the Senate.'

"During a House subcommittee hearing in 1958, Fox admitted that Joe Kennedy had given him a $500,000 loan late in 1952. He insisted that he `repaid it with interest,' and that it had nothing to do with his paper's endorsement of Jack. Joe issued a statement saying that the loan - the equivalent of $2.7 million today - was 1purely a commercial transaction for 60 days only with full collateral, at full interest, and was fully repaid on time...'

"Raymond Faxon, Fox's friend and vice-president of the publisher's investment business, revealed the truth about the transaction for the first time years later.

"Faxon revealed that two days before the election, John Griffin, the editor-in-chief of the Boston Post, informed Joe that the paper was about to endorse Lodge. He also told him that Fox was desperately in need of cash, having been turned down for a loan by local banks. Joe called Fox and asked him to meet at a local club which Fox owned. In return for an endorsement of Jack, Joe offered Fox a loan that, contrary to what both men later said, carried no interest and was not fully collateralized. `Fox needed the money, and he got it from Joe,' Faxon said. It was $500,000. The whole thing was a payoff.'

Based on Faxon's recollection that a bank would have charged interest of about five percent at the time, the interest waived amounted to about $10,000, the equivalent of $54,000 today. Aside from that, making any loan to such a shaky financial operation without full collateral represented a bribe. `No bank would have made the loan,' Faxon said. The word 'payoff' was exactly what it was.'

"Riding the Boston Post endorsement, Jack won the Senate race, beating Lodge by less than six percent of the vote.

"Jack reported expenses for the campaign of $349,646. That amount would not have covered even the cost of the billboard advertisements alone. It was widely assumed that the true cost of the campaign was several million dollars.

"Now that Joe had gotten Jack elected to the Senate, he told his son to find a wife. In May 1952, Jack Kennedy had been introduced to Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. When Jack brought Jackie to Hyannis Port in the Spring following the election, Joe decided she would be Jack's wife.

"Jackie had 'all the social ingredients that Joe Kennedy thought would help Jack achieve the Presidency,' wrote C. David Heymann in 'A Woman Named Jackie'. As usual, Jack did what his father told him to do, and on June 24, 1953 the couple announced their engagement.

"Jack's friend Lem Billings said, `Joe Kennedy not only condoned the marriage,

he ordained it.'"

"JFK's Presidential Campaign

"Jack, if you don't want the job, you don't have to take it. They're still counting votes up in Cook County."

 - Joe Kennedy

 

"If Joe Kennedy had one area of expertise, it was manipulating the media. Long before spin doctors and political gurus talked of `packaging' Presidential candidates, Joe shaped Jack's image more effectively than any Madison Avenue executive. 'We're going to sell Jack like soap flakes,' Joe said.

"In fact, Joe routinely paid off publishers as well as public officials to get what he wanted. Thomas Winship, the editor of the Boston Globe, recalled that Joe routinely `gave cases of Haig & Haig Pinch Bottle Scotch to press people - to people at the Globe, to political writers, and to a lot of people in Washington.'

"Joe sent expensive jewelry to female columnists, a confidant said, and gave cash to others. `He distributed a substantial amount to journalists,' the confidant said. In addition, `Reporters took consulting assignments. Some of these guys were pretty amenable to consulting fees and gifts.' Columnists, especially, were `for sale' - not to mention politicians. For such purposes, Joe always kept large stashes of cash.

"Joe's friend and confidant Frank Morrissey recalled that Joe had once called him to Hyannis Port to help him move $1 million in cash from the basement of his home. `A big northeast storm was coming up, and the old man was afraid a lot of the cash would get wet,' Morrissey said.

"Already, Joe had persuaded a top television executive in New England to give Jack lessons in going before a camera. `He was consumed by the fact that TV would make the difference in the Presidential election,' the executive said. As one aide put it, `The old politicians relied on their experience, but Joe and his boys left nothing to chance.' Joe, it seemed, had `learned a lot of tricks from the movies' during his Hollywood days.

"Henry Luce, a long time friend and ally of Joe Kennedy, was editor-in-chief and principal stockholder in Time Inc. The founder of Time and Life, Luce was arguably the most powerful publisher in America, and Joe had cultivated their relationship since his Roosevelt days. For years, Luce had given Joe frequent and complimentary press coverage in the magazines he controlled, and Luce's equally favorable coverage of Joe's son had been critical to JFK's early campaigns.

"In 1956, Luce was vacationing with Joe on the Riviera when he cabled his editors and suggested they devote more space to Jack Kennedy, who `was emerging as a national figure.'

"In November 1957, Fortune magazine listed Joe Kennedy as one of the 16 wealthiest people in the country, with a net worth of $200 to $400 million.

"On December 2, 1957, Jack's smiling face appeared for the first time on the cover of Time magazine. As ordained by Joe, he had just begun his bid for the Presidency.

"George Smathers, a family friend and Senator from Florida, claimed that 'Joe had a good deal to do with getting Luce to put Jack on the cover of Time. Jack had not made any great record as a Congressman or Senator. It was nothing outstanding in terms of what others were doing. Lots of Congressmen had more legislative accomplishments than Jack.' Giving such prominence to a fledgling candidate was unusual, and the cover story which called Jack the `Democratic Whiz of 1957' gave him a tremendous boost.

"Just weeks before Jack appeared on the cover of Time, Joe had bragged to his friend Cardinal Spellman, `I just bought a horse for $75,000, and for another $75,000, I put Jack on the cover of Time.'  Spellman recalled that Joe was `very proud of the fact that he had spent $75,000, and now he would not have to spend as much on advertising.' The sum was equivalent to $385,000 today. `He did not say whether he paid it directly to Luce,' Spellman added.

"Several months later when Jack learned that Life magazine was going to run a story saying that evangelist Billy Graham was coming out for Nixon, Jack called Luce to complain that the story would be unfair. When Joe called and put the pressure on, Luce ordered the story killed.

"During an interview on ABC-TV in December 1958, Eleanor Roosevelt said that `Senator Kennedy's father has been spending oodles of money all over the country, and probably has a paid representative in every state by now.' She said she had been told that Joe would spend `any money' to make his son the first Catholic president. Many people told her of money spent by Joe on Jack's behalf. `Building an organization is permissible,' she said, `but giving too lavishly may seem to indicate a desire to influence through money." <author's note: Do ya think?>

"Joe solicited author William Bradford Huie to distribute cash to politicians who would help Jack, according to what Huie later told a Time reporter. Huie said he routinely made payoffs of $1,000 (equivalent to $4,800 today), and promised he would reveal more details, but died before he could.

"Meanwhile, Joe cranked up the media campaign. In October 1959, Look began running a series of articles about Jack. Prepared with the family's cooperation, they may as well have been written by Joe himself.

"One article declared that Jack was in excellent health, when in fact he had been diagnosed in 1947 as having Addison's disease, a failure of the adrenal glands. When a Boston reporter suggested that Jack should disclose his health history, a Kennedy aide replied, `No, old Joe doesn't want that to be done. We can't do it now.'

"Another article tried to downplay Joe's role in the campaign, fictitiously reporting that Joe had little influence over his son and had no interest in spending money on political campaigns. `In political circles,' the article claimed, `the Kennedy's are not regarded as big spenders.'

"On January 2, 1960, Jack Kennedy formally announced his Presidential candidacy, and declared that the White House must be `the center of moral leadership.'

"Two months later, Jack began his affair with a former actress named Judith Exner. While seeing Jack, Exner was also seeing Sam Giancana, who was the head of the Chicago Mafia and a former partner in Joe's bootlegging business. Giancana, who was credited with at least 200 killings, was considered one of the most powerful men in organized crime. He controlled betting, prostitution, loan sharking, and owned interests in three Las Vagas hotels.

"Jack and Bobby identified the West Virginia Primary as key to winning the nomination. The state's nomination was 95 percent Protestant and a win there would convince convention delegates that Jack's Catholicism would not be an issue in the Presidential election.

"Jack's opponent in the Democratic primary was Hubert Humphrey, the Senator from Minnesota, who was beloved by West Virginia coal miners for his longtime union support and folksy, old-fashioned campaign style. But Humphrey's small-town ways were no match for the Kennedy bandwagon's deep pockets and high technology. There is no doubt that Jack's huge TV budget also helped.

"The Kennedy men were not content to rely on statesmanship alone. At Jack's request, Exner arranged a meeting for him with Sam Giancana, who agreed to use his influence with West Virginia officials to ensure victory there.

"Giancana sent his lieutenant, Paul 'Skinny' D'Amato, into West Virginia to get out the vote. D'Amato met with sheriffs who controlled the state's political machine. He forgave debts many of them had run up at his 500 Club in Atlantic City and handed cash payments to others.

"FBI wiretaps reveal that Frank Sinatra also distributed large mob donations to pay off election officials.

"Years later, in a People magazine story, Exner described how she had introduced Sam Giancana to Jack, who asked for the mob's help in financing the campaign. While it is not documented, it is clear Giancana gave money to the campaign. After the election, an FBI wiretap picked up Giancana talking with Johnny Roselli, a mob associate. He said his donation had been `accepted,' yet complained that Bobby Kennedy, whom Jack had appointed Attorney General, was cracking down on organized crime. He said he expected that `one of these days, the guy will do me a favor...'

"Giancana apparently had believed that in helping Kennedy's campaign, he was gaining a friend in the White House and protection from future prosecution by the government.

"Meanwhile, Joe was funneling money to politicians to swing the West Virginia primary.

"Tip O'Neill recalled that Eddie Ford, a Boston real-estate man, `went out there with a pocket full of money.' O'Neill said Ford would `see the sheriff, and he'd say to the sheriff, 'Sheriff, I'm from Chicago. I'm on my way south. I love this young Kennedy boy. He can help this nation, by God. He'll do things for West Virginians. I'll tell you what. Here's $5,000. You carry your village for him or your county for him, and I'll give you a little reward when I'm on my way back.'

"O'Neill said, `They passed money around like it was never seen.'

"One of the most important contributions Joe Kennedy made to his son's campaign was to create the Ken-Air Corporation, purchase for it a $385,000 Corvair twin-engine turboprop airplane, and then lease it to the candidate for the ridiculous sum of $1.75 a mile. Joe got a large tax deduction, while the plane gave Jack a tremendous advantage over Hubert Humphrey in the Democratic primary.

"While Humphrey either wasted time waiting around airports for commercial flights or lumbered about in his campaign bus, Jack Kennedy sped here and there in his private plane, covering more territory in less time and at less expense.

"In providing the cash for Jack's campaign, Joe Kennedy used the Catholic Church and, in particular, Cardinal Cushing. One of the couriers told author Peter Maas how it worked:

"`For example, if Boston area churches had collected $950,000 on a particular Sunday from collections, Joe would write a check for $1 million to the diocese, deduct it as a charitable contribution, and receive the $950,000 in cash. Thus, in this example, the church got a contribution of $50,000, Joe could deduct the entire amount on his income tax, and he could use the money to pay off politicians without fear that it would be traced.'

"'The cash is untraceable,' Maas said. 'Part of the money goes to the diocese. He gets a contribution from Joe Kennedy for more than what the cash is. It's brilliant. Nobody can trace the money.'

"In 1966, Cushing admitted that he had played a role in making payoffs to ministers. He told Hubert Humphrey, 'I'll tell you who elected Jack Kennedy. It was his father, Joe, and me, right here in this room.' Cushing explained that he and Joe decided which Protestant ministers should receive `contributions' of $100 to $500. As Cushing described the tactic, 'It's good for the church, it's good for the preacher, and it's good for the candidate.'

"Maas also recalled that as a writer for the Saturday Evening Post he interviewed a political operative in one dirt-poor town in West Virginia who told him his county was for Humphrey. `A few weeks later, I interviewed him again, and he said the county was for Jack. I asked what had changed, and he said with a smile, 'My workers each got $20, and I got $150. We're for Kennedy.'

"When Jack Kennedy narrowly defeated Hubert Humphrey in the West Virginia Primary, Humphrey withdrew from the Presidential race. It was the most important victory of Jack's campaign.

"On July 11 the Democratic National Convention nominated John F. Kennedy for President. Some party leaders were leery of Jack, however. Truman opposed him, telling reporters, 'I'm not against the Pope, I'm against the Pop.' Eleanor Roosevelt regarded Jack as one of `the new managerial elite that has neither principles nor character.'

"Meanwhile, Jackie had learned about Jack's philandering and developed a visceral dislike of politics. `She was ready to divorce Jack, and Joe offered her $1 million to stay until Jack entered the White House,' said Igor Cassini. 'He paid $1 million for her to stay with Jack until he was elected. He didn't tell me, but my brother and I learned about it.'

"On November 8, 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected President, defeating Republican Richard Nixon. Jack received 34,226,731 votes to 34,108,157 for Nixon. The popular vote margin, 118,574, was the equivalent of a win by one vote in every precinct in America.

"Kennedy's Electoral College majority was 303 to 219. The winning margin was provided by the state of Illinois, where in the 11th hour, the votes that came in from Cook County's mob-dominated West Side put Jack over the top.

"`Actually, and this goes without saying, the Presidency was really stolen in Chicago, without a question, by the Democratic machine,' recalled mobster Mickey Cohen. 'I know that certain people in the Chicago organization knew that they had to get John Kennedy in.'

"In the weeks before his inauguration, Jack began interviewing candidates for more than 70 key posts in the new administration. At one point he complained to his father, 'Jesus Christ, this one wants that, that one wants this. Goddamn it, you can't satisfy any of these people. I don't know what I'm going to do about it all.' Joe Kennedy replied, 'Jack, if you don't want the job, you don't have to take it. They're still counting votes up in Cook County.'"

 

Excerpt from "The Dark Side of Camelot" by Seymour Hersh (description from The Reader's Catalog):

 

"Investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh shows us a John F. Kennedy we have never seen before, a man insulated from the normal consequences of behavior long before he entered the White House. His father, Joe, set the pattern with an arrogance and cunning that have never been fully appreciated: Kennedys could do exactly what they wanted, and could evade any charge brought against them. Kennedys wrote their own moral code. And Kennedys trusted only Kennedys. Jack appointed his brother Bobby keeper of the secrets - the family debt to organized crime, the real state of Jack's health, the sources of his election victories, the plots to murder foreign leaders, and the President's intentions in Vietnam. The brothers prided themselves on another trait inherited from their father - a voracious appetite for women - and indulged it with a daily abandon deeply disturbing to the Secret Service agents who witnessed it. These men speak for the first time about their amazement at what they saw and the powerlessness they felt to protect the leader of their country.

 

"Nixon said no to recount in '60" by Jack Torrey

Toledo Blade

November 10, 2000

 

"After the exceedingly close 1960 election, the New York Herald Tribune published the start of a series suggesting voter fraud in Texas and Illinois might have tipped the Presidency from Vice-President Richard M. Nixon to Democrat Senator John F. Kennedy.

"When the first four stories had been published, Nixon summoned reporter Earl Mazo to his office. `Earl, those are interesting articles you are writing,' Nixon said. `But no one steals the Presidency of the United States.'

"The Herald Tribune killed the rest of the series. It was the final act in a Presidential election every bit as close as this year's race between Texas Governor George W. Bush and Vice-President Al Gore. And just like this year's allegations of voter irregularities in Florida, reports swirled in 1960 that fraud in key states could have cost Nixon a majority in the Electoral College.

"While legal challenges are expected in Florida this year, Nixon met Kennedy one week after the election and made clear that he would neither demand a recount nor contest the election in court. Although Nixon's admirers consider his decision as one of his finest moments, his detractors dismiss it as self-serving, claiming a recount could have exposed as much Republican fraud as Democratic irregularities.

"But no matter what his reason, a divisive Constitutional crisis was avoided during the height of the Cold War.

"`Whatever Nixon's inner feelings about his just due, whatever his motives for not challenging the election returns, his decision was both personally unselfish and profoundly in the interests of the country and of the President-elect,' wrote former New York Times columnist Tom Wicker in his biography of Nixon, `One of Us'.

"In his 1978 memoirs, Nixon claimed that a recount would have taken more than a year and one-half `during which time the legitimacy of Kennedy's election would be in question,' which he claimed would be `devastating to America's foreign relations.'

"`And what if I demanded a recount and it turned out that despite the vote fraud, Kennedy had still won? Charges of 'sore loser' would follow me through history and remove any possibility of a further political career.'

"The Kennedy-Nixon race featured two young, aggressive candidates in what was the first modern TV campaign. The election was so close that Kennedy used to keep a note in his pocket with the numerals 118,574 - the number of votes by which he won.

"Kennedy won 303 electoral votes to Nixon's 219. But Republicans charged that that there was voter fraud in Texas and Cook County, Illinois, where the political machine was controlled by Mayor Richard Daley - father of Gore's campaign manager, Bill Daley.

"A shift of 4,480 votes in Illinois and 25,000 in Texas would have given Nixon the Presidency. Although voter fraud in those states has never been proven and there is every reason to believe Republicans were stealing votes in southern Illinois, Republican <author's note: There is no evidence Republicans were stealing votes; this is a desperate attempt by the Left to deflect the worst political crime in U.S. history> Senator Everett Dirksen, R., Illinois, campaign manager Len Hall, Republican National Chairman Thurston Morton, and longtime adviser Bryce Harlow pleaded with Nixon to challenge the result.

"But Harlow later told Wicker that Nixon simply replied, `Bryce. It'd tear the country to pieces. You can't do that.'

"Others were eager to avoid a messy fight. Former Republican President Herbert Hoover telephoned Nixon in Florida after the election and suggested a meeting with Kennedy. `I think we're in enough trouble in the world today,' Nixon recalled Hoover telling him. Kennedy, who worried that Nixon would demand a recount, flew from Palm Beach to Key Biscayne. While Kennedy relaxed on the porch of one of the hotels, Nixon went inside and fetched Cokes for both.

"`How the hell did you carry Ohio?' Kennedy joked, referring to Nixon's narrow victory in a state Democrats expected to carry.

"According to Nixon's account, the two never even discussed a potential recount. Instead, the discussion centered on whether Kennedy should bring Republicans into his administration and whether to recognize Communist China. When they emerged to meet the waiting reporters, a Kennedy quip made it clear there would not be a challenge. `I asked him how he took Ohio, but he did not tell me,' Kennedy joked. `He's saving it for 1964.'"

 

*            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *           

 

"Sinatra and the Dark Side of Camelot" is a recent book by George Jacobs and William Stadiem. Jacobs was the personal valet of Frank Sinatra from 1953 to 1968. In the book, Jacobs writes that when Joe Kennedy visited Sinatra in Palm Springs, Sinatra "rolled out the red carpet for him," inviting fabulous and beautiful hookers. Sinatra called Joe "Mr. Ambassador." Kennedy "told nigger jokes throughout meals, he'd call Indians savages and blacks Sambos and curse the hell out of anyone who served him from the wrong side or put one ice cube too many in his Jack Daniels. 'Can't you get any white help?' he needled Mr. S. 'Aren't they paying you enough?'"

Jacobs, who is African-American, said Joe was "cruder about Jews than he was about blacks." He called them "sheeny rag traders." Louis B. Mayer was referred to as a "kike junkman."

"What's the difference between a Jew and a pizza?" Joe asked. "The pizza doesn't cry on its way to the oven."

These comments were made during the time his son was campaigning for the Presidency. Jacobs wrote that poor Sinatra, a fair man who fought for civil rights, cringed but held his tongue because he needed the Kennedy's for his own purposes. Jacobs was appalled at the man whose "craven appeasement of Adolf Hitler when he was Franklin Roosevelt's Ambassador to the Court of St. James."

Jacobs goes on to say that Kennedy's reputation as a "Boston Brahmin" patriarch was as far off the mark as saying "JFK was faithful to Jackie." "Joe was mobbed up to his collar pins," he writes, "with Sam Giancana at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago…with Meyer Lansky in Miami; with the one-armed bandit Wingy Grober in Tahoe. If anyone's fortune was tainted, it was Mr. Ambassador…His money was fuck-you money. Old Joe said fuck you to everyone."

Sinatra, who was connected to organized crime, too, wanted political power and thought the Kennedy's were his ticket. JFK dangled an ambassadorship to Italy, and spoke of his running for the Senate in Nevada. Sinatra was at first wary of the Kennedy's, who were associated with Joe McCarthy. Robert Kennedy had worked for him, and then gone after his friends in the Mafia with the McClellan Committee.

Sinatra's first connection to the Kennedy's was through his fellow "rat packer," Peter Lawford, who was married to one of Joe Kennedy's daughters. Peter was  "whips-and-chains kinky and not the slightest bit ashamed of it," preferring hookers to the slutty groupies who made themselves to Sinatra and Kennedy. According to Jacobs, Lawford's wife, Pat, had sex with Sinatra.

Lawford and John Kennedy shared a love for prostitutes and cocaine. Jacobs also claims that Judith Campbell Exner was a prostitute who met Joe Kennedy first, before becoming the concubine of President Kennedy and Giancana. She would be the go-between that connected the Kennedy Presidency with the Mafia. Jacobs wrote that he could not understand why Joe Kennedy would favor hookers after having movie stars like Gloria Swanson. His son liked them despite the fact that he had affairs with sex stars of his era, like Marilyn Monroe.

Jacobs liked JFK.

"I want to fuck every woman in Hollywood," the Democrats' leading man told Jacobs "with a big leering grin." Kennedy asked Jacobs if Shirley MacLaine had a "red pussy," and confessed that Joe had arranged for Marlene Dietrich to masturbate him when he was a kid. He arranged to have Sinatra set him up with numerous Las Vegas showgirls, and was enthralled with women who shaved their private areas. He called it "naked lunch." Kennedy claimed to Sinatra, who hated drugs, that he only snorted blow because his back hurt.

Giancana preferred a Nixon Presidency, because actual law-and-order from the Republicans was better than actual criminals like the Kennedy's. He hated Bobby Kennedy, but Sinatra talked him into backing JFK, and helping with the vote fraud scheme.

The song "High Hopes", sung by Sinatra and used as JFK's campaign anthem, was Joe's idea. When Sinatra tried to produce "The Execution of Private Slovik", screenwritten by a Blacklisted writer named Albert Maltz, Joe went crazy.

"What's this Commie Jew shit?" he screamed at Sinatra. "You stupid guinea." Sinatra dropped the project. When Kennedy was elected, Joe did not allow Sammy Davis, Jr. to perform at the inaugural, even though Davis had campaigned heavily to help deliver the black vote at a time when it was still split fairly evenly between the Republicans and Democrats. Joe hated Davis for being a black who had succeeded against all odds. He considered him a "pushy nigger." Sinatra begged Joe to let Davis be part of the party, but the old man said no. He allowed Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte, Mahalia Jackson and Nat King Cole perform because they were "nigger niggers" who knew their place, but Joe called Sammy "the nigger bastard with the German whore," a reference to his white wife.

With his man in the White House, Sinatra waited for his hard work to pay off. He planned to host the new President in Palm Springs. Kennedy rebuffed him and stayed at Bing Crosby's instead. He had used Sinatra, and now was finished with him. Sinatra learned his lesson, cleaned up his own act, and became a Republican the rest of his life.   

John F. Kennedy had served three terms (six years) in the House of Representatives. In 1952 he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He had been 36 when he married 24-year-old Jacqueline Bouvier, a journalist with the Washington Times-Herald. Early in their marriage, Senator Kennedy’s back started to hurt again and he had two operations. While recovering from surgery, he wrote a book about several U.S. Senators who had risked their careers to fight for the things in which they believed. The book was called "Profiles in Courage", and he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. Kennedy wrote a fair portion of the book while laid up in the hospital. All the research and most of the writing was done by a young speechwriter, Theodore Sorenson, who was paid by Joe Kennedy. Joe then bribed the Pulitzer people into awarding his son. That same year, the Kennedy’s first child, Caroline was born.

At the age of 43, Kennedy was now the youngest man elected President and the first Catholic. Before his inauguration, his second child, John Jr., was born. His father liked to call him John-John.

John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States.