Moving to the stern, everyone stood while Father Charles O’Byrne, the priest who married John and Carolyn, and two Navy chaplains brought out three Tiffany blue cardboard boxes and set them down on a small table. Father O’Byrne then said a brief Mass, but no one seemed to hear what he was saying—the mourners simply stared, uncomprehending, at the boxes in front of them.
A brass quintet from the Newport Navy Band played “Abide with Me” as Caroline, Uncle Teddy, and other family members climbed down a ladder to a platform just above the waterline. Then, as the quintet played the Navy hymn “Eternal Father,” Caroline took the Tiffany blue box marked JOHN F. KENNEDY JR. and scattered her brother’s ashes over the waves.
* * *
IF JFK’S BRUTAL murder at age forty-six was tragic, than John’s senseless death at thirty-eight seemed incomprehensibly so. Caroline, understandably, was “crushed—shattered,” Marta Sgubin said of the weeks and months that followed John’s funeral. “She was weeping constantly.” Now, John’s big sister was the keeper of the flame—sole heir to a legacy of power, wealth, dreams both realized and unfulfilled, and unfathomable anguish.
As close as they were in so many ways, John and Caroline, who would go on to make her own mark in public service as United States ambassador to Japan, were also worlds apart temperamentally. She was grounded, guarded, cautious. He was free-spirited, charismatic, and fearless—often to the point of recklessness. Jackie and Caroline were pillars of support for John, and in their mother’s final months they were both there for her. It was John, however, who stepped before the cameras to graciously, almost poetically, announce Jackie’s death to the world. It was John who helped guide his sister through the crush of reporters gathered outside 1040 Fifth, it was John who supported his sister at Jackie’s funeral, and it was John who knelt down to plant a final kiss on their mother’s coffin at Arlington National Cemetery.
For all of his thirty-eight years, John had struggled to reconcile his own dreams and desires with what the rest of the world—not least of all his powerfully persuasive mother—expected of him. Charismatic, witty, poised, even better-looking than his famously handsome father, John was more than equipped to handle the task. Forced to confront and overcome soul-crushing personal losses from an early age, he also exhibited a streak of compassion uncommon among his peers—an ability to connect with others in a way that set him apart from the backslapping bravado of his fellow Kennedys.
There seemed little doubt in the minds of those who knew him that John was on the brink of a bright political future. “He was probably a more natural politician than any of the other Kennedys,” David Halberstam said, “and that includes his father. John had all the makings of a political superstar—once he decided that’s what he wanted.”
From those days peeking out from beneath his father’s Oval Office desk to that final flight into the void, John strove to be one thing above all else: utterly, even defiantly, normal.
It was in the abiding belief that he was much like a member of our own family—a son or brother, or perhaps a nephew, a grandson—that we felt we knew him, and watched with no small degree of fascination and pride as he grew into manhood.
Torn between living out the mythic dreams of Camelot and living life on his own terms, John—like good sons everywhere—did the only thing he could do: his best.
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(2) John’s fascination with aviation could be traced to moments like this, when he and his mother watched as Daddy’s helicopter took off from the South Lawn in 1962.
(3) Later that year in Palm Beach, John and Caroline, dressed up as angels for the local Christmas pageant, cozied up to Mom in front of the fireplace.
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(5) White House Pals: “Is there a rabbit in there?” JFK asked when John hid beneath his desk.
(6) As JFK’s friend Paul “Red” Fay looked on the president reacted in mock surprise to one of John’s many shared secrets.
(7) John tagged along when the president headed out for a round of golf at Hyannis Port in August 1963.
(8) Daddy offered John candy as they strolled along the West Wing Colonnade in early October 1963.
(9) John was clearly amused by something when he and his mother arrived at church near their weekend home in Middleburg, Virginia, on October 23, 1963—less than a month before Dallas.
(10) As JFK’s casket passed by, Jackie bent down and told John to say goodbye to Daddy—with history’s most famous salute.
(11) In June 1964, John and his mom walked hand in hand up the front steps of their new home in Georgetown.
(12) Besieged by photographers and tourists, Jackie grabbed the kids and fled to New York. At the New York World’s Fair in 1965, John met Mickey Mouse.
(13) A month later, Uncles Bobby and Teddy looked on as John met two more icons—Queen Elizabeth and an English bobby—at the dedication of his father’s memorial at Runnymede.
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(15) Vacationing with Uncle Bobby in Sun Valley, Idaho, John rubbed noses with a Samoyed pup.
(16) A month later, he was sledding down the slopes with his mom and sister, Caroline, in Gstaad, the Swiss ski resort.
(17) “Behave yourself, young man.” During a King Kamehameha Day visit to Honolulu’s Iolani Palace, a stern Jackie warned John to calm down—or else.
(18) A stunned Jackie attended RFK’s June 7, 1968, funeral at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral with John and Caroline. That fall she shocked the world by marrying Aristotle Onassis.
(19) After lunch at one of her favorite restaurants, Trader Vic’s, Jackie, John, and Ari headed home to 1040 Fifth Avenue.
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(21) Whether it was stopping at the refreshment tent between riding events in New Jersey (previous), pausing to chat while vacationing in Capri (above), or fussing with John’s collar as they strode toward Ari’s yacht Christina in Greece (next), Jackie took John “everywhere,” George Plimpton said. “Unlike a lot of boys, he wasn’t embarrassed to be with her. John was always very proud of her.”
(22)
(23) After a tennis lesson like this one in 1974, John was mugged in Central Park. Jackie was “pleased” that it happened. “I want him to experience life,” she said.
(24) The next year, John supported his mother as the Onassis women forced her into the background at Ari’s funeral.
(25) “John’s a good boy,” Jackie said, “but he’s always getting himself in a jam.” He poked fun at himself in this photo that ran in the Andover yearbook in 1979, the year he graduated.
(26) That same year, he joined Caroline and a beaming Jackie at yet another black-tie affair in New York.
(27) John struggled throughout his academic career with undiagnosed ADD and dyslexia, so Jackie was justifiably overjoyed when he graduated from Brown University in 1983.
(28) John had just begun his six-year affair with actress Christina Haag when they attended a Metropolitan Museum gala in 1985.
(29) Not long after, Jackie and John met the Reagans at a reception to benefit the Kennedy Library, held at Ted Kennedy’s McLean, Virginia, home.
(30) A poised and confident speaker, John electrified the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta when he introduced his uncle Teddy.
(31) In 1991, John, having by then passed the New York State bar exam on his third try, showed up at his cousin Willie Smith’s rape trial to provide moral support—in direct defiance of Jackie.
(32) John and his then-love Daryl Hannah caused a near riot when they arrived for the wedding of Edward Kennedy Jr. in Rhode Island.
(33) Bill Clinton was sixteen when he famously shook hands with John’s father. In 1993 he joined Jackie and John on the dais during rededication ceremonies at the Kennedy Library.
(34) Although he was still very much involved with Daryl Hannah, John was photographed watching the New York City Marathon in November 1993 with “mystery woman” Carolyn Bessette.
(35) John helped his sister make her way through the mob of reporters and
onlookers who gathered outside Jackie’s apartment after her death.
(36) The next day at her funeral in New York, Jackie’s “two miracles” clung to each other, their faces etched with grief.
(37) “Ladies and Gentlemen, meet George.” Going ahead with his plans for the first “People magazine of politics,” despite the odds and his late mother’s skepticism, John unveiled George magazine on September 7, 1995.
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(41) Action Man. Like his athletic mother, John was, in one friend’s words, “congenitally incapable of standing still.” When he wasn’t Rollerblading, biking, or tossing a Frisbee in Central Park, he was kayaking, swimming, or running on the beach in Hyannis Port.
(42) Backed up by his dog Friday, John had a rare confrontation with the paparazzi in late 1996.
(43) Despite problems in their marriage, John and Carolyn “couldn’t take their hands off each other,” said friend James Rubin. They unabashedly proved Rubin’s point on the streets of Lower Manhattan (above) and at a charity event in Manhattan (next).
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Acknowledgments
* * *
When television news anchors first breathlessly reported that John F. Kennedy Jr.’s plane was missing off Martha’s Vineyard on July 16, 1999, I had no illusions about the outcome. In the process of writing The Day Diana Died and two previous books about the Kennedys (Jack and Jackie and Jackie After Jack), I had already immersed myself in the lives of public figures cut down at the height of their fame—people who, though admired and even adored during their brief lifetimes, achieved a mythic status in death. That Camelot’s cherished Crown Prince should die so senselessly and so young seemed unimaginable, and at the same time completely predictable.
From history’s most famous salute to the plane crash that took place within sight of his mother’s beachfront estate, John’s story was a bittersweet saga of family, fate, and promise unfulfilled. It is also the story of a remarkable young widow whose inherent sense of dignity held a nation together during one of its darkest hours, and the son she dreamed might someday take his place in history.
A daunting amount of research is essential for any exhaustive biography, and this was particularly true of The Good Son. In a sense, I have been working on this book for more than two decades, interviewing hundreds of family members, friends, lovers, classmates, teachers, staffers, servants, neighbors, and colleagues as well as the reporters and photographers who covered Jackie and John over the years. Given Jackie’s penchant for privacy, a few sources—but only a few—preferred to remain anonymous.
As with my last book on the Kennedys, the 2013 bestseller These Few Precious Days: The Final Year of Jack with Jackie, I went back to the tapes and notes of my interviews with many key figures from the Kennedy Era who had asked that I keep certain pieces of information confidential. I honored that wish during their lifetimes. However, many of these sources have now passed away, releasing me from that obligation. What remains is a trove of fresh details and insights that shed new light on the mother and son known to millions simply as Jackie and John.
Once again I’ve been given the opportunity to work with some of the most talented people in the publishing industry. I am particularly grateful to my editor, Mitchell Ivers—great friend, total pro. I’m also indebted to the rest of the Gallery/Simon & Schuster team, especially Carolyn Reidy, Louise Burke, Jen Bergstrom, Jennifer Robinson, Natasha Simons, Paul O’Halloran, Kelly Roberts, Lisa Rivlin, Eric Rayman, Felice Javit, Tom Pitoniak, Carly Sommerstein, Ruth Lee-Mui, and Janet Perr.
Ellen Levine, my literary agent and pal for over thirty years, has heard me thank her countless times for her wise counsel, her fearless advocacy, and—most important of all—her friendship. I can only say that I mean it now more than ever. Over these many years, it’s also been a pleasure to work with Ellen’s extraordinarily talented team at Trident Media Group—Claire Roberts, Alexa Stark, Meredith Miller, and Alexander Slater.
After forty-two years, I don’t have to tell my wife, Valerie, that she is witty, vibrant, headstrong, brilliant, totally outrageous—and utterly indispensable to the many people who love her. Our gorgeous and brainy daughters, Kate and Kelly, never cease to amaze. Kate, already a well-respected Washington journalist, has embarked on a book-writing career of her own. She and her husband, Brooke Brower, another highly regarded member of the Washington press corps, have also given us two absurdly attractive grandchildren: Graham Andersen Brower and Charlotte Beatrice Brower—the “Charlie” to whom this book is dedicated. Our youngest daughter, Kelly, meanwhile, boasts a wealth of knowledge covering a wide range of subjects and stands at the threshold of her own promising career in whatever field she chooses.
Additional thanks to Theodore Sorensen, David Halberstam, George Plimpton, Letitia Baldrige, John Perry Barlow, Pierre Salinger, Marta Sgubin, Kyle Bailey, Charles “Chuck” Spalding, Keith Stein, Peter Duchin, Cecil Stoughton, Arthur Marx, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Paul “Red” Fay, Michael Cherkasky, Evelyn Lincoln, John Kenneth Galbraith, Robert MacNeil, David Rockefeller, Angie Coqueran, Jack Anderson, Lloyd Howard, Roswell Gilpatric, Charles Addams, Sister Joanne Frey, Hugh “Yusha” Auchincloss, Julie Baker, Jamie Auchincloss, George Smathers, John Davis, Martha Bartlett, Clare Boothe Luce, Lois Cappelen, Jacques Lowe, David McGough, John Husted, Laurence Leamer, Larry Lorenzo, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Jack Valenti, Rick Guy, Ed Koch, Rick Lazio, Tom Freeman, Frank Ratcliff, Michael Berman, Oleg Cassini, John Marion, Larry Newman, Priscilla McMillan, Dorothy Oliger, Henry Grunwald, Wendy Leigh, Michael Gross, Anne Vanderhoop, Mesfin Gebreegziabher, James Hill, Charles Bartlett, Paul Adao, Helen Thomas, Bia Ayiotis, Roy Cohn, Jesse Birnbaum, Joseph Pullia, Judith Hope, Ralph Diaz, Paula Dranov, Dudley Freeman, Jerry Wiener, Angier Biddle Duke, Rosemary McClure, Anthony Comenale, Tobias Markowitz, Jeanette Peterson, James E. O’Neill, Godfrey McHugh, Jean Chapin, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Nancy Dickerson Whitehead, Lawrence R. Mulligan, Robert Drew, Alex Gotfryd, Sandy Richardson, Aileen Mehle, Doris Lilly, Perry Peltz, Dr. Janet Travell, Ray Robinson, Ricardo Richards, Betty Beale, Charles Collingwood, Theodore White, Shirley Clurman, Cora Isabelle Peterson, Charles Furneaux, Robert Pierce, Valerie Wimmer, Maryrose Grossman, Brad Darrach, Patricia Lawford Stewart, Vincent Russo, Betsy Loth, Earl Blackwell, Ham Brown, Molly Fosburgh, Dorothy Schoenbrun, Cranston Jones, Maura Porter, Joe Duran, Jean Chapin, Fred Friendly, Jeanette Walls, Gary Gunderson, Richard Schaffer, Farris L. Rookstool III, Janet Lizop, Michelle Lapautre, the Countess of Romanones, Wickham Boyle, Yvette Reyes, Michael Shulman, Fred Williams, Megan Desnoyers, Holly Owen, Drew Middleton, Betty Kelly, Mary Beth Whelan, Theresa Dellegrazie, Laura Watts, Kendra Kabasele, Matthew Lutts, Denis Reggie, Norman Currie, Bob Cosenza, Richard B. Stolley, William Johnson, Zoe Andersen, Barry Schenck, Debbie Goodsite, Ray Whelan Jr., and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Phillips Academy, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Rockefeller Library at Brown University, Columbia University Oral History Project, Sotheby’s, the Robin Hood Foundation, Reaching Up, the United States Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New York Public Library, the Butler Library at Columbia University and Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, the Redwood Library and Atheneum of Newport, the Barnstable Public Library, the Georgetown University Library, the Gunn Memorial Library, the Archdiocese of Boston, the Archdiocese of New York, St. Thomas More Church, the Hotel Carlyle, Essex County Airport, Martha’s Vineyard Airport, the Silas Bronson Library, the Southbury Library, the Brookfield Library, the Bancroft Library at the University of California–Berkeley, the New Milford Library, the New York University Law Library, Corbis, Rex USA, the Coqueran Group, Planned Television Arts, Barraclough Carey Productions, The Folding Kayak, the United States Coast Guard, St. David’s School, Collegiate, the Cape Cod Times, the Litchfield Business Center, the Edgartown Library, Reuters, Globe Photos, the Assoc
iated Press.
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSEN is the critically acclaimed author of sixteen New York Times bestsellers, including his most recent biography of Jack and Jackie Kennedy’s marriage, These Few Precious Days, and his book about JFK Jr., The Day John Died, which reached number one. His books have been translated into twenty-five languages worldwide. A former Time contributing editor and a longtime senior editor of People, he has written hundreds of articles for such publications as the The New York Times, Life, and Vanity Fair.
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