18 “pilot was not ready”: National Transportation Safety Board Aviation Accident Final Report, July 6, 2000.
19 “emotional ups and downs”: Elizabeth Wolff, “Inside JFK Jr.’s Daze of Doom,” New York Post, June 17, 2007.
20 Graves’ disease: “John Kennedy’s Medical Secrets Linger,” CBC News, November 21, 2013.
21 “last I ever heard from her”: Megan French, “Carole Radziwill Recalls the Night John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Died,” US Weekly, March 7, 2017.
22 “ran into a thick haze”: Rinker Buck, “Experts: JFK Flight May Have Been Illegal,” Hartford Courant, July 21, 1999.
23 “No chance”: Wolff, “Inside JFK’s Jr.’s Daze of Doom.”
24 “to do it alone”: Matthew W. Wald, “Safety Board Blames Pilot Error in Crash of Kennedy Plane,” New York Times, July 7, 2000.
25 “Flying at night”: Wald, “Safety Board Blames.”
26 “North of Teterboro”: Wolff, “Inside JFK’s Jr.’s Daze of Doom.”
27 American Airlines Flight 128: Wolff.
28 “not in contact”: National Transportation Safety Board Aviation Accident Final Report, July 6, 2000.
29 “hard to see the horizon”: David Barstow, “Kennedy’s Plane Lost: The Overview; John Kennedy’s Plane Vanishes Off Cape Cod,” New York Times, July 18, 1999.
30 “they’re not here”: French, “Carole Radziwill Recalls the Night John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Died.”
31 “My cousin’s missing”: French.
32 “If Jackie was alive”: J. Randy Taraborrelli, After Camelot: A Personal History of the Kennedy Family 1968 to the Present (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2012), 3.
33 “Johnny as one of my own”: Taraborrelli, After Camelot.
34 “family that has distinguished”: Mike Allen, “The Kennedy Burial: The Overview; A Private Ceremony at Sea for the Three on Kennedy Plane,” New York Times, July 23, 1999.
35 “very grim, very quiet”: Steve Dunleavy, “Another Grim Trip to ID a Dead Loved One,” New York Post, July 22, 1999.
36 “crashes down on Ted”: Interview with Lester Hyman, The Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, 2016.
37 “Catholic priests conducted”: “Remains of JFK Jr., Wife, and Sister-In-Law Buried at Sea,” CNN.com, July 22, 1999.
38 “protocol allows sea burials”: “Remains of JFK Jr., Wife, and Sister-In-Law Buried at Sea.”
39 “asked me to marry him”: Sara Stewart, “Carolyn’s Secret Torment,” New York Post, January 19, 2012.
40 “flowers onto the ghosts”: Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein, “Kennedy Family Feuded Before Bodies Were Recovered in JFK Jr. Crash,” New York Post, November 3, 2013,
41 “the American family”: N. R. Kleinfield, “The Kennedy Memorial: The Service; Doors Closed, Kennedys Offer Their Farewells,” New York Times, July 24, 1999.
336 “John’s last hours”: Michael Shelden, “The Deaths Brought Me to My Knees,” Telegraph (UK), October 25, 2005.
42 “John ever fathomed”: Lisa DePaulo, “John F. Kennedy Jr. and George Magazine: A Story of Politics, Love and Loss, Twenty Years Later,” Hollywood Reporter, April 9, 2019.
43 “If there’s a curse”: J. Randy Taraborrelli, The Kennedy Heirs: John, Caroline, and the New Generation—A Legacy of Tragedy and Triumph (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2019), 51.
44 “film’s worth”: David Johnson, “Zapruder Heirs Get $16 Million for Dallas Film,” New York Times, August 4, 1999.
45 John’s Piper Saratoga II: “NTSB: JFK Jr.’s Plane Shows No In-Flight Break-Up or Fire,” CNN.com, July 30, 2019.
46 “spatial disorientation”: Wald, “Safety Board Blames Pilot Error.”
47 “a stupid mistake”: Ed Vulliamy, “Why John Crashed,” Guardian, July 25, 1999.
CODA
1 “My poor Joe”: Rita Dallas with Jeanira Ratcliffe, The Kennedy Case (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1973), 344.
2 “sense the tears”: Dallas, The Kennedy Case, 345.
3 “sound of Teddy’s footsteps”: Dallas, 344.
4 “best I can”: Thomas Maier, The Kennedys: America’s Emerald Kings (New York: Basic, 2003), 533.
5 “Please answer me”: Dallas, The Kennedy Case, 346.
6 “pain of the burden”: Barbara Perry, Rose Kennedy: The Life and Times of a Political Matriarch (New York: Norton, 2013), 308.
7 “woman in black”: Ronald Kessler, The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded (New York: Warner Books, 1996), 422.
8 “true story of Joe Kennedy”: Seymour M. Hersh, The Dark Side of Camelot (New York: Little, Brown, 1997), 81.
9 “needed to ask Kennedy”: StoryCorps, “Busboy Who Cradled a Dying RFK Recalls Those Final Moments,” Morning Edition, National Public Radio, June 1, 2018.
10 “men it remembers”: John F. Kennedy, “Remarks at Amherst College upon Receiving an Honorary Degree (439),” Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1963, October 26, 1963.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JAMES PATTERSON is the world’s bestselling author and most trusted storyteller. He has created many enduring fictional characters and series, including Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Michael Bennett, Maximum Ride, Middle School, and I Funny. Among his notable literary collaborations are The President Is Missing, with President Bill Clinton, and the Max Einstein series, produced in partnership with the Albert Einstein Estate. Patterson’s writing career is characterized by a single mission: to prove that there is no such thing as a person who “doesn’t like to read,” only people who haven’t found the right book. He’s given over three million books to schoolkids and the military, donated more than seventy million dollars to support education, and endowed over five thousand college scholarships for teachers. For his prodigious imagination and championship of literacy in America, Patterson was awarded the 2019 National Humanities Medal. The National Book Foundation presented Patterson with the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community, and he is also the recipient of an Edgar Award and nine Emmy Awards. He lives in Florida with his family.
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