Laurence Leamer - Sons of Camelot: The Fate of an American Dynasty

S O N S OF

C A M E L O T

The Fate of an American Dynasty

L A U R E N C E L E A M E R

In memory of
Mirko Obradovic
19212001

T HE S ONS OF C AMELOT

J OHN F ITZGERALD K ENNEDY (b. 1917 d. 1963)

married 1953 J ACQUELINE L EE B OUVIER (B.1929 (d.1994)

J OHN F ITZGERALD K ENNEDY J R. (b. 1960 d.1929)

married 1996 C AROLYN B ESSETTE (b. 1966 d.1999)

E UNICE M ARY K ENNEDY (b. 1921)

married 1953 R. S ARGENT S HRIVER J R. (b. 1915)

R OBERT S ARGENT S HRIVER III (b. 1954)

T IMOTHY P ERRY S HRIVER (b.1959)

married 1986 L INDA S. P OTTER (b. 7956)

S OPHIA R OSE P OTTER S HRIVER (b. 1987)

T IMOTHY P OTTER S HRIVER J R. (b. 1988)

S AMUEL K ENNEDY P OTTER S HRIVER (b. 1992)

K ATHLEEN P OTTER S HRIVER (b. 1994,)

C AROLINE P OTTER S HRIVER (b. 1997)

M ARK K ENNEDY S HRIVER (b. 1964)

married 1992 J EANNIE RIPPS (b. 1965)
M ARY E LIZABETH S HRIVER (b. 1998)
T HOMAS K ENNEDY SHRIVER (b. 1999)

A NTHONY P AUL K ENNEDY S HRIVER (b. 1965)

married 1993 A LINA M OJICA (b. 7965)
J ORCE E DWARD N UEZ (B. 1988)
E UNICE J ULIA S HRIVER (b. 1994)
F RANCESCA M ARIA S HRIVER (b. 1994)

P ATRICIA K ENNEDY (b. 1924)

married 7954 P ETER L AWFORD (b. 192? dv. 1962 d. 1984)

C HRISTOPHER K ENNEDY L AVFORD (b. 1955)

married 1984. J EANNIE O LLSON (b-1955)

D AVID C HRISTOPHER K ENNEDY L AWFORD (b. 1987)

S AVANNAH R OSE L AWFORD (b. 1990)

M ATTHEW P ETER V ALENTINE L AWFORD (b. 1995)

J EAN A NN K ENNEDY (b. 1928)

married 1956 STEPHEN EDWARD SMITH (b. 1927)

S TEPHEN E DWARD S MITH J R. (b. 1957)

W ILLIAM K ENNEDY S MITH (b. 1960)

R OBERT F RANCIS K ENNEDY (b. 1925 d. 1968)

married 1950 E THEL S KAKEL (b.1928)

J OSEPH P ATRICK K ENNEDY II (b. 1952)

married 1979 dv. 1991 S HEILA B REWSTER R AUCH (b. 1949)

married (2nd) 1993 B ETH K ELLY (b. 1957)
M ATTHEW R AUCH K ENNEDY (b. 1980)
J OSEPH P ATRICK III (b. 1980)

R OBERT F RANCIS K ENNEDY J R. (b. 1954)

married 1982 dv. 1994 E MILY R UTH B LACK (b. 1957)

married (2nd) 1994 M ARY R ICHARDSON (b. 1959)

RO BERT F RANCIS K ENNEDY III (b. 1984)

K ATHLEEN A LEXANDRA K ENNEDY (b. 1988)

J OHN C ONOR K ENNEDY (b. 1994)

K YRA L E M OYNE K ENNEDY (b. 1995)

W ILLIAM F INBAR K ENNEDY (b. 1997)

A IDAN V IEQUES K ENNEDY (b. 2001)

D AVID A NTHONY K ENNEDY (b. 1955 d. 1984)

M ICHAEL L E M OYNE K ENNEDY (b. 1958)

married 1981 V ICTORIA G IFFORD (b. 1957)

M ICHAEL L EMOYNE K ENNEDY J R. (b. 1983)

K YLE F RANCIS K ENNEDY (b. 1984)

R ORY G IFFORD K ENNEDY (b. 1987)

M ATTHEW M AXWELL T AYLOR K ENNEDY (b. 1965)

married 1991 V ICTORIA S TRAUSS (b. 1964)

M ATTHEW M AXWELL T AYLOR K ENNEDY J R. (b. 1993)

C AROLINE S UMMER R OSE K ENNEDY (b. 1994)

C HRISTOPHER G EORGE K ENNEDY (b. 1963)

married 1987 S HEILA B ERNER (b.1962)

K ATHERINE K ENNEDY (b. 1990)

C HRISTOPHER K ENNEDY J R (B. 1992)

D OUGLAS H ARRIMAN K ENNEDY (b. 1967)

married 1998 MOLLY STARK (b. na)

R ILEY E LIZABETH (b. 1999)

E DWARD M OORE K ENNEDY (b. 1932)

married 1958 dv. 1983 V IRGINIA J OAN B ENNETT (b. 1936)

married (2nd) 1992 V ICTORIA R EGGIE (b.1954)

E DWARD M OORE K ENNEDY J R. (b. 1961)

married 1993 K ATHERINE G ERSHMAN (b. 1959)

K ILEY E LIZABETH K ENNEDY (b. 1994)

E DWARD M OORE K ENNEDY III (b. 1998)

P ATRICK K ENNEDY (b. 1967)

V ICTORIA R EGGIES C HILDREN F ROM IST M ARRIAGE

C URRAN R ACHLIN (B. 1983)

C AROLINE R ACHLIN (B. 1985)

O n his third birthday, John F. Kennedy Jr. stood holding his mothers hand as the caisson pulled by six gray horses rolled by, bearing the body of his father. It was a cold day, and John was wearing shorts and a cloth coat. His mother, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, whispered to her son, and John saluted his father. This was not a little boy making a stab at a military greeting, but a young actor performing a soldiers salute. Practically everyone in America who viewed the funeral of President John F. Kennedy on television or saw the picture in the newspapers felt a poignant identity with the fatherless child. It was an indelible image, forever frozen in that moment.

After they buried the president on November 25, 1963, the Kennedys returned to the White House to celebrate Johns birthday. The party was a masquerade of joyousness within the somber patterns of this day. It was both a retreat into the safe harbor of family and an assertion that they would go on as they always had. Seated at the table with John were many of the same energetic children who the summer before had clambered onto the presidents electric cart at the Kennedy summer estate on Cape Cod. Robert Francis Kennedy and his wife, Ethel Skakel Kennedy, were there with their seven children. Alongside them were Patricia Kennedy Lawford and Peter Lawfords daughter, Sydney Maleia.

Several of these children were old enough to know that a terrible event had occurred. Bobbys eight-year-old son David was a boy of immense sensitivity. When he had been picked up by one of his fathers aides from parochial school only minutes after his uncles death, he presumably had no way to know what had transpired in Dallas, but somehow he had figured it out. Jacks hurt, he said, after dialing numbers on his toy phone. Why did somebody shoot him?

Senator Edward Moore Kennedy had been presiding over the Senate when he learned that his brother had been shot in Dallas. His first reaction was to worry about the safety of his wife, Joan Bennett Kennedy. He had driven back to his home in Georgetown, running traffic lights and honking other vehicles out of his way. He then flew up to Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, to tell his father, Joseph Patrick Kennedy, that the president had been assassinated, but he broke into sobs before entering the room and his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, gave Joe the news.

Ted returned immediately to Washington, where this evening he stood at the birthday party next to his brother Bobby. Ted managed to keep up a facade of good cheer in front of the children, but his surviving brother wore a gray mask of mourning. Bobby had been the presidents alter ego and protector. He could finish his brothers sentences and complete a task that Jack signaled with no more than a nod or a gesture. He had loved his brother so intensely and served him so well that within the administration it was hard to tell where one man ended and the other began.