Jackie, Janet & Lee

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  After she sold her Park Avenue penthouse to raise cash, Lee moved into a rental town house on East Seventy-third Street. Though it was nicely appointed, she was tired of the flux. It felt to her as if she’d been working most of her life and was still always concerned about money. While she had enough to continue an entitled lifestyle—she still had her Southampton beach house, after all, and many people in her life would have been astonished to know she had any financial concerns—it was a strain. “Therefore, my mother decided that she wanted to give Lee the proceeds from the sale of the Volta house, about six hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” said Jamie. “I think she felt guilty that she’d been so hard on Lee in the past; she’d been expressing as much lately. She wanted to do something nice for her.”

  It sometimes happens in families that the child who does the least is reframed in the needy parent’s mind as the one most appreciated. That was the case here. Jackie was the daughter who was always present for Janet, yet Lee had now become the favored one. “Jackie was on the phone every single day,” Jonathan Tapper recalled, “or at the Castle, always involved every step along the way. But if that phone would ring and it would be Lee, maybe once a month if that, oh my, Madam would light up! She would say it outright, ‘Lee is my favorite.’ By this time, Jackie and Jamie both knew it and would have to live with it. Madam was always quite critical of Jackie, but never of Lee. She would glow when talking about Lee and all the things she had done—the acting and writing and designing. But when you would ask about Jackie, she would shrug and say, ‘She was a very good First Lady, I’ll give her that much. But then Jack died and she married Onassis and it was all over for her.”

  Jamie confirms, “Mummy had two eleven-by-fourteen photos of Jackie and Lee side by side in a scrapbook, each picture taking up a whole page. One had the simple caption written in my mother’s handwriting: ‘Jackie.’ The other: ‘My Lee.’”

  “This has been going on since we were kids,” Jackie told one relative. Of course, back then it was Jackie who was the favored daughter. “Yes, it’s hurtful when you can’t seem to do enough for your mother,” Jackie continued, “when she is always asking about the daughter who’s not present. It drives me up a wall, actually.”

  At the beginning of 1987, Janet asked Lee to come to the Castle for a Mother-Daughter Tea. Whereas these family moments used to always take place at one of the best hotels in New York—usually the Plaza—now it was just easier for Janet to host her daughters at her home. Jackie wasn’t present, it was just Janet and Lee. After they caught up with each other’s lives, Janet reportedly slid the check across the table. “This is for you, dear,” she said. According to a later recollection, Lee didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry,” Janet then told her. She said she had been thinking about it for some time and that she had regrets about the way she had raised Lee. “For any time I ever let you down, I’m very sorry,” she said. “Maybe this small gift will make your life a little easier. I love you, Lee.”

  We don’t know Lee’s reaction; she’s never discussed it and only she and Janet were in the room at the time the gift was presented.

  Sisterly Dispute Over Money

  “We didn’t know a thing about Mummy giving Lee money until my mother’s secretary told us about it,” Jamie Auchincloss recalled. “Suffice it to say, while I was a little surprised, Jackie was very surprised. Jackie didn’t think it at all appropriate for Mummy to give Lee the proceeds from the sale of the Washington real estate. Something about it seemed suspect to Jackie and, to be honest, me, too. We weren’t sure how it had happened that Lee ended up with the money.”

  At the very least, Jackie told Janet, the gift should have been split evenly between Lee and Jamie—$325,000 each. Janet disagreed, saying that it was her money and that she would do with it what she pleased. Moreover, if Jamie needed money, she said, he would ask her for it and she would then be more than happy to give it to him. At this time, Jamie was working as a photographer in Washington and doing well; he also had a trust fund from “Grampy Lee.” He’d led somewhat of a bohemian lifestyle for years, not spending much time at home. He is gay, which complicated things for him. “It would be difficult for me to imagine that my sisters didn’t know about my sexuality, though,” he said. “I was fine with whatever they thought, though we never once discussed it. I was living my life. It was good.” In fact, he’d recently returned from India, where he’d purchased a painting for Jackie, which she said she loved “more than anything.” In a letter to him, she wrote, “How lucky you were to have spent such a long time in India. I’m jealous! Thank you, dear Jamie.” She wished him “all my best wishes” and signed it “Love, Jackie.”

  Lee was bewildered as to why Jackie would even care about the money gift. After all, Jackie had millions in the bank. Why begrudge her sister this small amount? Lee was upset about it, and she didn’t care who knew it. “What is wrong with her?” she asked one of her relatives, speaking of Jackie. “Does she not have enough money?” This was also one of those rare moments when Lee’s life-altering decision about Aristotle Onassis from so many years earlier came back to haunt her. After all, had she chosen to be with him in ’63 instead of renewing her vows to Stas, she most certainly wouldn’t have needed Janet’s $650,000. “She didn’t live in regret” is how one of her friends put it, “but if you think what she did in order to keep Jackie free of scandal back when she was First Lady didn’t sometimes vex Lee, you’d be wrong.”

  Typically, the sisters didn’t have a discussion about Janet’s gift to Lee, at least no one that anyone remembers.

  An Alarming Accusation

  By the spring of 1987, Janet Auchincloss was slipping terribly. As the family made plans for her to be moved from Washington to Newport for the spring/summer season, they suspected that it might be her last time at Hammersmith.

  The season got off to a rocky start when, shortly after moving back into the Castle, on May 18, Janet was found wandering around in the middle of the night, somehow locked outside. Her knee was bleeding; apparently, she’d taken a fall. Jackie couldn’t help but blame Bingham, who was sound asleep in the Castle at the time. She wanted answers. How did her mother end up locked outside? Had there been an argument? And why was she bleeding? Mannie Faria, who’d found her, said Janet told him Bingham had kicked her out of the house after a fight. However, when Jackie later asked Janet about it, she denied it, saying she had locked herself out. It was just impossible to get a straight answer! The next day, Jackie was dismayed to learn that Bingham had melted down the prized sterling cups Janet had won in hunting competitions during her youth. He wanted to sell them as silver. “But who gave you permission to do that?’ Jackie demanded. He hemmed, hawed, and stammered but, in the end, didn’t really have an answer.

  “We were all pretty much at the end of our ropes with this man by this time,” is how Jamie put it.

  On May 20, an agitated Janet came down to the kitchen, where Yusha was having breakfast. Something had happened between her and Bingham in their bedroom, she said. She wouldn’t explain what it was, only that she wanted him out of the house, and immediately. Of course, Yusha went up to talk to Bingham. All he did, Bingham explained, was slip into bed with Janet and be there when she awakened, “and she just went completely ape-shit when she turned over and saw me,” he said. Maybe it made sense. Janet and Hugh had always slept in twin beds, never in the same one. (Yusha was actually the one Auchincloss with a double bed in his room, back in the Big House.) Janet was probably frightened when she awoke to find Booch next to her. Still, Yusha couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to the story. In the end, he didn’t care; if Janet wanted Bingham out, he had to leave. Fine, Bingham told Yusha, “I’ll leave, then. Don’t get all bent out of shape over it.” He left.

  When Yusha called Jackie to tell her about the incident, she was frantic. She actually blamed Yusha. Why couldn’t he keep a better eye on things? The two had angry words; Jackie even threatened to send her son, John, to live at the Ca
stle to keep an eye on things. He was studying to take the bar exam, so, she reasoned, perhaps the time alone would be worthwhile. Yusha said no, he could handle things on his own. Jackie would later say she deeply regretted ever being cross with Yusha about the matter; it was as if Bingham’s actions were somehow turning them against each other.

  In a missive to Bingham at this time, Yusha wrote: “As you surely must realize, your constant complaining, abusive language, and derogatory accusations about her [Janet’s] children, grandchildren, staff, and dogs deeply disturbs as well as disrupts her staff … and disgusts me.”

  Jackie canceled her entire day of meetings at Doubleday and got to Hammersmith as quickly as possible. She then spoke to Janet, who said that she didn’t know what in the world Yusha was talking about, claiming that he had imagined the whole thing. Not only that, she wanted to know where her husband was and she demanded that he be returned to the Castle at once. Now, as was becoming par for the course, Jackie didn’t know what to think. “I actually feel like I’m losing my mind,” she later told one of her colleagues at Doubleday. “I just can’t seem to get a handle on what’s going on!”

  Less than a week later, Jackie went back to Hammersmith to check on things. She found Janet walking hand in hand with Bingham on the beach as Jonathan Tapper followed them while holding an umbrella over their heads. Jackie took a seat on a wicker chair on the porch and watched the pleasant scene. One can only imagine what was going through her mind as she studied her mother enjoying the day with her troublesome husband while a dutiful functionary shielded them from the sun with a large parasol. Certainly, Janet seemed content with Bingham, at least in this moment.

  After about an hour, the threesome ambled back up to the Castle. Janet was delighted to find her daughter on her way down to the beach to greet her. “What in the world are you doing here?” she asked as she made her way toward Jackie with uneasy footing. She embraced her tightly, so very pleased. “Will you be staying for dinner?” she asked. Jackie said that she would be happy to do so. “Is Lee coming, too?” Janet asked, hopefully. “No,” Jackie said. “Goody-goody,” Janet exclaimed as she put her arm around her eldest. “It’ll just be you, me, and Booch, then. Just family.” She turned to Jonathan Tapper and said, “Set another place at the table, will you? Right next to me, for Jacqueline.” She said she wanted to “change for dinner.” Every night, Janet wore an evening gown for dinner; it had been that way for years and would not change until she was unable to do so.

  Jackie took her mother’s arm and the two of them walked slowly up to the Castle, Jackie steadying Janet every step along the way. As they made their way, they began chatting in French to each other, just the way they used to so many years earlier when they didn’t want others to know what they were saying. Much to Jackie’s delight, despite her failing mind and health, Janet’s French was still absolutely flawless. As Bingham and Jonathan made their way more quickly up the hill to the Castle, Janet turned to Jackie and, now in plain English, said the words that would change everything for everyone at Hammersmith. “That man wants to do bad things to me I don’t like,” she said.

  “Who?” Jackie asked, alarmed.

  “Booch.”

  Jackie at War

  Now Jackie was really on the warpath. What exactly did her mother mean when she said that Bingham Morris wanted to do “bad things” to her? The next day, while Janet was down at the Windmill napping, Jackie had it out with Bingham. He claimed to have no idea what Janet was talking about, insisting that there was no issue between them. Upset, Jackie didn’t want to hear another word about it. “I want you to, once and for all, stay away from my mother! Do you hear me? Stay away from my mother!” she screamed at him, this according to stunned witnesses in the household.

  Bingham raised his voice as well, becoming completely incensed. “Why don’t you stop being such a little bitch, Jackie,” he hollered at her.

  Jackie looked as if she couldn’t believe her ears; no one may have ever spoken to her like that before, not in her entire lifetime! “How dare you?” she demanded to know. “How dare you?” Bingham again reminded Jackie that he was still Janet’s husband and thus had “certain rights.” Jackie said she didn’t want to hear it. In full attack mode, she insisted he leave the Castle at once, and said she wasn’t going anywhere until he was gone. If he refused, she would call the police. She added that there were any number of household staff members who would eagerly testify against him, “and you’re going right to jail, Mr. Morris. In fact, by the time I finish with you,” she threatened, “you’ll be sorry you were ever born. Now, get the hell out!” She then stood at the front door with her arms folded and waited for him to go upstairs and pack his bags. A half hour later, Bingham finally came downstairs with a suitcase. “Mannie, please escort this … person … off the property,” Jackie said. “And don’t you dare come back,” she told Bingham.

  After she was sure Bingham Morris was gone, an upset Jacqueline Onassis left Hammersmith and took a flight back to New York.

  It had been a terrible scene; Jackie later said she couldn’t believe how completely unhinged Bingham had become during their altercation. Of course, she had not been a model of decorum, either. Things were definitely getting out of control. “He is an angry and disturbed man,” Jackie wrote to Yusha about the incident. She was afraid that whatever they did to fix the situation could make things worse. “He will be momentarily checked but his anger will be boiling inside,” she wrote, “and after a while I believe it will erupt again.”

  The next day, Jackie was at work at Doubleday juggling a full day of appointments and responsibilities. She was in a conference room with a team of editors when a call came for her. She excused herself and took the call in her office. When she didn’t return, one of the editors went to get her. She found her sitting at her desk, crying. Rarely did anyone ever see Jacqueline Onassis cry, and likely if the editor had given her ample time, Jackie would have composed herself and this colleague wouldn’t have seen it, either. She recalled, “I was stunned. It was upsetting. She was shaking, seeming very … traumatized I guess would be the word. I asked her what was wrong and she said, ‘It’s my mother. I have to leave and go back to Hammersmith. Something’s going on there with her husband.’ I asked if I could help and she said no. Maybe I should go with her? No. She said she was going to make the four-hour drive herself so that she would have time to think. She then sort of pulled herself together and stood up, and I saw this transformation come over her. ‘That fucking man,’ she exclaimed as she gathered her things, angrily. She got her coat and purse and stormed out of the office.”

  Booch was back.

  Sadist?

  What happened between Jacqueline Onassis and Bingham Morris when she got back to Hammersmith after the phone call at Doubleday is unknown. For the rest of 1987, Jackie would continue to wage war against Bingham Morris, enlisting in it Dr. Dennis Selkoe, Janet’s doctor from Harvard Medical School Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston. Referring to the possibility of sexual abuse, Jackie wrote at this time that she recognized it as “a delicate matter,” but that she was sure Dr. Selkoe would know how to handle it. Jackie noted, “We don’t know what goes on in the bedroom, but Mummy has said, ‘That man wants to do bad things to me.’” She further noted that her mother had re-located to the guest room when Booch was in residence at Hammersmith. “Booch is torturing Mummy and he cannot hide behind the rights of a husband!” Jackie further noted, adding that she felt they had no choice but to try to protect Janet from him.

  Jackie added that she felt Dr. Selkoe should let Booch know that her family, her staff, and her lawyer were all well aware of how much Booch antagonized Janet, and that they were all cognizant of “the details of his psychological [and perhaps physical] torture of Mummy.” She concluded that, given all that was going on in the household, she was more certain than ever that Booch posed “a greater danger” to Janet than even her Alzheimer’s!

&nb
sp; At Jackie’s request, Dr. Selkoe went out to Hammersmith to investigate. He specifically asked Janet whether or not Bingham Morris was being abusive to her and she said no, absolutely not. She didn’t show any outward signs of physical abuse, either. He asked about sexual abuse, and she said, again, no. Selkoe then called a meeting for the staff, which was conducted in the living room at the Castle, without Janet’s and Bingham’s presence. Jackie was there, as were Yusha, Jamie, Mannie and Louise Faria, Michael Dupree, and a number of others. Some people felt Janet was being abused—others did not. Michael Dupree, for instance, sided with Morris, as he does today: “I saw no signs of physical or verbal abuse,” he would say in 2017. “I had a high esteem of Booch. The problem as I saw it was that he didn’t understand Alzheimer’s and, as a result, was impatient with Janet. He wanted her to be what she had been before, and she wasn’t. So, he would lose his patience. But abusive? No.”

  At the general meeting, the physician reiterated what was already known, which was—just to be on the safe side—that Janet should not leave Hammersmith, “except in extraordinary circumstances.” Jackie had already said that she didn’t want Janet going to Southampton with Bingham, so at least the doctor was now ratifying that wish.

  The biggest problem Jackie now faced, though, was that, based on his interviews with the staff and his personal observations, Dr. Selkoe wasn’t so sure that Janet was being abused. “I didn’t see any sign of it,” he would say in 2017. “I continued to see Janet after my visit to Hammersmith. She would come to my office at Brigham Hospital. I would also visit her at the Castle. She was usually gay, bright, and still intelligent, though clearly forgetful. Mrs. Onassis would call me at home to discuss her mother’s care. She had clearly done her research and read up on all of the information available at that time. I know she had serious concerns about Mr. Morris. But he accompanied his wife to my office every time and he always seemed pleasant and genuinely concerned. In my presence, there was nothing but warmth and affection between the two of them. I saw no evidence, no signs of trouble.”