America's Reluctant Prince
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National Outdoor Leadership School course in Kenya: Jeanne O’Brien, correspondence with author, November 11, 2018.
“this grueling course”: Leigh, Prince Charming, 200.
“GREAT REEFER”: John to Sasha Chermayeff, August 12, 1979, Chermayeff Papers, private.
“pleasant and accommodating”: “Freshman Kennedy Gets Arrival ‘Quiz’ at Brown.”
“I’ll kick his ass”: Theodore White, America in Search of Itself (New York: Harper & Row, 1982), 270–75; Elizabeth Drew, Portrait of an Election: The 1980 Presidential Campaign (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1981), 49–87.
“But he was gorgeous”: Leigh, Prince Charming, 214.
apologize profusely to John’s mom: Noonan with Huber, Forever Young, 48–49.
“I’m glad to do anything for my uncle”: “Brown Freshman Kennedy Says He’ll Campaign a Bit for Uncle,” The Providence Journal, January 16, 1980.
the most embarrassing of his life: Debra Scott, “The Shy Kennedy,” The Boston Sunday Herald Magazine, August 9, 1987; Charlie King, interview by author, March 7, 2019.
Carter became the first Democrat: John to Sasha Chermayeff, November 4, 1980, Chermayeff Papers, private.
“no credit for the class”: Charles Neu, interview by author, September 20, 2018.
“he had little interest in writing a paper”: Ibid.
“he is off probation”: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to Dean Romer, July 2, 1980; Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to Dean MacIntosh, August 30, 1980.
field trip to Newport: Pat Manocchia, interview by author, August 17, 2017.
“we had lines outside the door”: Richard Wiese, interview by author, January 22, 2018.
“self-deprecating sense of humor”: Ibid.
drove the pig back to the farm: Robert T. Littell, The Men We Became: My Friendship with John F. Kennedy Jr. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004), 29–32.
dampen their friendship: John to Sasha Chermayeff, November 4, 1980, Chermayeff Papers, private.
the phone in his room: Wiese, interview.
genuine warmth and kindheartedness: Ibid.
took a stack of his albums: Manocchia, interview.
“Get your own money”: Ibid.
She never showed up again: Littell, Men We Became, 41–42.
“I don’t really go out a lot”: Andersen, Good Son, 226.
constantly losing his key: Littell, Men We Became, 62–63, 70–72.
“John was wonderful”: John Emigh, interview by author, May 12, 2018.
“That’s going to follow you for the rest of your life”: Emigh, interview.
“made his voice smaller”: “Western World Uninviting,” The Brown Daily Herald, May 12, 1982.
“Pacino-type movements”: “Boom-Boom Hits Hard,” The Brown Daily Herald, December 14, 1981.
“He wanted to be right for the role”: Gray, interview.
how fiercely protective John was of Jackie: Stephen Hill, interview by author, September 22, 2017.
“I’ll slap the hell out of you”: Gray, interview; Kenneth Robert Jones, interview by author, September 27, 2017.
“a line between us”: Jones, interview.
He pushed himself physically: Ibid.
“it definitely will not be politics”: Ibid.
“just another proud mother”: Gray, interview.
no escaping his past: Christopher Andersen, The Day John Died (New York: Morrow, 2000), 164; Alexandra (Sasha) Chermayeff, interview by author, January 12, 2018.
“glued himself unnaturally”: Littell, Men We Became, 74.
“business as usual”: Maer Roshan, “Prince of the City,” New York, August 2, 1999.
His efforts eventually earned Stretch’s respect: Barry Clifford, The Pirate Prince: Discovering the Priceless Treasures of the Sunken Ship Whydah (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 111–12; Roshan, “Prince of the City.”
the sharp metal had ripped: Clifford, Pirate Prince, 116; Roshan, “Prince of the City”; “Cape Cod Diver Retrieves Cannons Once ID’d by JFK Jr.,” Associated Press, August 19, 2009; “Pirates, the Reality: Loot from the Whydah,” The Washington Post, July 3, 2007; “Barry Clifford—Diver, Explorer, Adventurer,” Whydah Pirate Museum online, accessed July 10, 2018, www.discoverpirates.com/barry-clifford-diver-explorer-adventurer.
“the meaning of life”: Haag, Come to the Edge, 76.
Indian Institute of Technology: Kabir Taneja, “When John F. Kennedy Jr. Came to India,” The New York Times, March 29, 2013.
“in a Dixie cup”: John to Sasha Chermayeff, Fall 1983, Chermayeff Papers, private.
“this crazy Westerner”: Ibid., January 27, 1984.
devoutly Catholic paternal grandmother: Taneja, “When John F. Kennedy Jr. Came to India.”
“a good man”: Barlow, Mother American Night, 239–40.
“The question is, where is this all taking me?”: John to Sasha Chermayeff, April 1984, Chermayeff Papers, private.
CHAPTER 6: “I’M NOT MY FATHER”
switch rooms every six months: Littell, Men We Became, 78–80.
“If I stop to think about it all”: Noonan with Huber, Forever Young, 72.
scurrilous gossip: Sally MacMillan, “The Man Born to Be President,” The Mail on Sunday (UK), April 16, 1989; Joe Armstrong, interview by author, December 10, 2018.
both women forgave him: Littell, Men We Became, 153–54.
professed his love: Haag, Come to the Edge, 87, 171, 218; Littell, Men We Became, 150.
He always managed to survive: Haag, Come to the Edge, 207–8.
“reasonably well behaved”: Manocchia, interview. All the material in this section comes from these interviews.
“unity, patriotism, the office of the presidency”: Timmons to Noonan, June 17, 1985, Ronald Reagan Library, Speechwriting Office, box 225, FOIA S07-0069/01.
“speech of the workingman”: “Presidential Remarks: Fundraiser for J. F. K. Memorial Library, McLean, Virginia,” Monday, June 24, 1985, RRPL, Office of the President: Presidential Briefing Papers, March 11, 1985, Ronald Reagan Library, Speechwriting Office, box 225, FOIA S07-0069/01; Donnie Radcliffe, “In Tribute to JFK: A Moving Reagan Speech as Ted, Jackie, and Kennedy Clan Join for a Fundraiser,” The Washington Post, June 25, 1985; John Robinson, “A Party for JFK,” The Boston Globe, June 25, 1985.
“be a fuckup”: Lester David, “Caroline Kennedy at 30,” McCall’s, September 1987, 15, 19–20.
“the depth of John’s emotions”: Littell, Men We Became, 120–21.
That coldness proved too much: Haag, Come to the Edge, 182–83.
“William is my cousin”: “John F. Kennedy Jr. Visits Smith Trial,” Los Angeles Times, November 19, 1991.
Pfizer, Hallmark, and Johnson & Johnson: Michael Berman, interview. Much of the material in this section comes from interviews with Berman.
John trusted Michael: Nancy Haberman, interview by author, November 13, 2017.
Sheehan joked to the senator: Michael Sheehan, interview by author, June 20, 2018.
introduction of Uncle Ted: Charles Goldsmith, “John Kennedy Jr. Charms Convention,” UPI, July 19, 1988.
“I’m not sure anyone remembers one word of what he said”: Maureen Dowd, “A Tame Day, by the Party’s Standards, and Kennedy Memories,” The New York Times, July 20, 1988; Karen S. Schneider, “And Now, the Rest of His Life,” People, January 16, 1995.
“Whenever any of the cousins need help”: “JFK’s Son Makes His Party Debut,” Chicago Tribune, July 20, 1988; Joyce Wadler, “The Sexiest Kennedy,” People, September 12, 1988.
Christmas on Good Morning America: Michael Berman, interview.
“Most of the time, he would just let them talk”: Haag, Come to the Edge, 175–76.
“the morally right thing to do”: Leigh, Prince Charming, 267.
“was willing to learn”: Sheehan, interview.
“‘The Hunk Flunks’”: Ibid.
“the family business”: Gary Ginsberg, interview by author, May 3, 2017.
“terribly fractured environment”: Michael Berman, interview.
He retreated into his room: Littell, Men We Became, 84.
“the kind of offense that rated national coverage”: Leigh, Prince Charming, 248–49; Littell, Men We Became, 89.
“a bad grade”: Haag, Come to the Edge, 176; Gross, “Favorite Son”; MacMillan, “Man Born to Be President.”
appearing in the New York Post: King, interview.
“the way he acted in public”: Ibid.
Such criticisms were unfair: Leigh, Prince Charming, 252–53.
For John, that meant paying all his tickets: MacMillan, “Man Born to Be President.”
“cleanest office in the building”: Jim Dwyer, “He Had the Time of His Life in the DA’s Office,” New York Daily News, July 20, 1999.
read their Miranda rights: Brian Steel, interview by author, November 15, 2017.
Steel watched in horror: Ibid.
“a good lawyer”: Scott, “The Shy Kennedy.”
“He wasn’t above embarrassment”: Manocchia, interview.
the seven who failed: “John Kennedy Jr. Fails Bar Exam 2nd Time; Says He’ll Take It Again,” Deseret News, May 1, 1990.
“I’m not my father”: Littell, Men We Became, 90.
off-site location: Michael Berman, interview by author, March 22, 2019.
“The verdict: guilty”: Charles Strum, “For the People, Kennedy; for Jurors, Kennedy!,” The New York Times, July 10, 1992.
“developmentally disabled and poor people”: Jeffrey Sachs, interview by author, October 12, 2018.
flip hamburgers at McDonald’s: Ibid.
“was ahead of his time”: Bill Ebenstein, interview by author, November 7, 2018.
Initially, CUNY: Ibid.
using his celebrity status: Ibid.
“brought the spotlight”: Dennis Rivera, interview by author, January 12, 2019.
“the hands-on people”: Albor Ruiz, “JFK Jr.’s Legacy Lives On: Scholars Recall His Humanity,” New York Daily News, July 26, 1999. Juan Gonzales, “He Quietly Laid Gifts on Needy Fellowships Helped Hundreds Travel Road to Success,” New York Daily News, July 23, 1999.
“secret ingredient”: Ebenstein, interview.
“I do not worry about things that I can’t do anything about”: Armstrong, interview.
a firm career choice: Manocchia, interview.
Jackie look-alike: Leigh, Prince Charming, 263.
Manhattan’s Upper West Side: Nadine Brozan, “Chronicle: A Kennedy-Hannah Idyll in Palau,” The New York Times, August 4, 1993.
“a little hamster track”: Littell, Men We Became, 152.
“thrown for a loop”: King, interview.
“afraid of his name”: Littell, Men We Became, 163.
A health care worker told The New York Times: Lawrence K. Altman, “Death of a First Lady: No More Could Be Done, Mrs. Onassis Was Told,” The New York Times, May 20, 1994.
“Mummy loves you two so much”: Armstrong, interview.
“series of steps in death”: Noonan with Huber, Forever Young, 126.
run around in the park: I Am JFK Jr., documentary, directed by Steve Burgess and Derik Murray (Newtown, PA: Virgil Films, 2016), Video Prime streaming online video, 92 mins.
“All for Mummy”: Noonan with Huber, Forever Young, 127.
A clueless Daryl: Ibid., 128.
“too young to be a widow in 1963”: John J. Goldman and Robert L. Jackson, “Kennedy’s Widow Recalled as a ‘Blessing’ to Family, Nation,” Los Angeles Times, May 24, 1994.
touch the simple bronze grave marker: Marylou Tousignant and Malcolm Gladwell, “A Day of Farewells to a First Lady,” The Washington Post, May, 24, 1994.
“You hold it inside”: Sasha Chermayeff, interview; Ginsberg, interview.
“And I hope it comes soon to you”: John to Charlie King, October 1994, King Papers, private.
“bearer of his parents’ legacies”: Littell, Men We Became, 166.
CHAPTER 7: “WHAT ABOUT A MAGAZINE ABOUT POLITICS?”
a mass-produced version: Michael Gross, “Citizen Kennedy,” Esquire, September 1995; Michael Berman, interview.
Berman nixed this idea: Michael Berman, interview.
“It just got a little better in my mind”: Michael Berman, interview; Haberman, interview.
all aspects of the race: Michael Berman, interview.
“a greater risk with George”: Nina Link, interview by author, March 22, 2018.
“launch a successful political magazine”: Ginsberg, interview; Michael Berman, interview.
spotlight shined on him: Ibid.; Rivera, interview.
“how much he loved flying”: Armstrong, interview.
a successful businessman: Michael Berman, interview.
“wholly vested in the political process”: “George: A Proposal,” n.d., Berman Papers, private.
“extravagantly starstruck”: David Samuels, “Hollywood or Bust,” The Weekly Standard, August 18, 1997; Maureen Dowd, “Washington Is Star-Struck As Hollywood Gets Serious,” The New York Times, May 9, 1993.
“We the people . . . define our times”: Samuels, “Hollywood or Bust.”
bowling alone: Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital,” Journal of Democracy 6, no. 1 (January 1995): 65–78.
“policy wonk”: “George: A Proposal.”
potential readers also responded warmly: RoseMarie Terenzio, interview by author, March 13, 2017; Michael Berman, interview.
reserved for sports: Matt Berman, JFK Jr., George, & Me: A Memoir (New York: Gallery, 2014), 131; Edward Klein, “Secrets and Lies,” Vanity Fair, August 2003.
substance of policy: Francis Fukuyama, “The End of History?,” The National Interest 16 (Summer 1989): 3–18.
take-no-prisoners: Gross, “Citizen Kennedy.”
outnumbered Democrats by 2 to 1: Gary C. Jacobson, “The 1994 House Elections in Perspective,” Political Science Quarterly 111, no. 2 (Summer 1996): 203–23; Peter Applebome, “The Rising G.O.P. Tide Overwhelms the Democratic Levees in the South,” The New York Times, November 11, 1994.
the bestseller list: Louis Bolce, Gerald DeMaio, and Douglas Muzzio, “Dial-In Democracy: Talk Radio and the 1994 Election,” Political Science Quarterly 111, no. 3 (Autumn 1996): 457–81.
“the sympathy in the Kennedy office”: Michael Berman, interview.
take whatever papers: RoseMarie Terenzio, Fairy Tale Interrupted: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Loss (New York: Gallery Books, 2012), 13–14; Terenzio, interview.
dislodged from her office: Terenzio, Fairy Tale Interrupted, 17–19.
dear, lifelong friend: Terenzio, interview.
“Premiere is to films”: Armstrong, interview; Michael Berman, interview, October 25, 2017; Gross, “Citizen Kennedy.”
an impressive 5.1 response: Michael Berman, interview, January 22, 2019.
In the summer of 1990: Michael Bergin, The Other Man: A Love Story—John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette & Me, (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), 19–21.
“stood him up”: Richard Wiese, interview, March 10, 2018; Carole Radziwill, interview, January 18, 2019.
“the campus man-eater”: Andersen, The Day John Died, 219.
“hanging out in nightclubs”: Nathan Cobb, “Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: From Shy Student to Accomplished Celebrity Wife,” The Boston Globe, September 24, 1996.
“aside from looking great”: Andersen, The Day John Died, 219.
“He always had one eye on her”: Carole Radziwill, interview.
not going to wait for John: Andersen, The D
ay John Died, 220.
$1 million to meet with John: Gross, “Citizen Kennedy”; Michael Berman, interview.
“kick them out”: Michael Berman, interview.
“he was so worked up”: Gross, “Citizen Kennedy”; Evan Thomas and Martha Brant, “Coming of Age,” Newsweek, August 14, 1995.
“betrayed by Jann”: Gross, “Citizen Kennedy”; Michael Berman, interview.
“$9.5 million”: Michael Berman, interview.
“a racehorse”: Ibid.
Metropolitan Home and Car and Driver: Robin Pogrebin, “Once a Renegade, Hachette Magazine Chief Gains Respect,” The New York Times, April 6, 1998; Jeffrey Toobin, “The National Enquirer’s Fervor for Trump,” The New Yorker, July 3, 2017.
“lunch with John Kennedy”: David Pecker, interview by author, June 27, 2017.
“ad sales machine”: Ibid.; Pogrebin, “Once a Renegade, Hachette Magazine Chief Gains Respect.”
This tension was never resolved: Pecker, interview.
“a little SWAT team”: Ibid.
publish twice in 1995: Mary Huhn, “The Politics of ‘George,’” Mediaweek, March 6, 1995.
venerable Vanity Fair: Ibid.
“screaming as if he was Mick Jagger”: Pecker, interview; Pogrebin, “Once a Renegade, Hachette Magazine Chief Gains Respect.”
Despite the uncomfortable start: Pecker, interview.
“This is the life”: Terenzio, Fairy Tale Interrupted, 51–52.
more appropriate space: Michael Berman, interview.
“unpleasant first day”: Ibid.
“That’s why I thought it was interesting”: Linda Thomas Brooks, interview by author, March 16, 2018.
their distinctive message: Ibid.
“I was extremely impressed by him”: Michael Browner, interview by author, March 20, 2018.
“John wanted to edit”: Ibid.
smuggling John out: Brooks, interview.
the premier advertiser: Ibid.
“Everyone wanted to see the guy. Everyone”: Nina J. Easton, “Is John Kennedy Jr.’s ‘George’ Making American Politics Sexy?,” Los Angeles Times, August 11, 1996; Oscar Suris, “This Audience Was in the Market for the Salesman, Not the Pitch,” The Wall Street Journal, April 24, 1995.
the magazine’s largest advertiser: Browner, interview.