Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed

by Maureen Callahan

Kennedy men have been valorized and lionized for nearly a century, but the women they’ve broken, tormented, raped, murdered, or left for dead have never really been part of their legacy. They must be. None of this is history. As William Faulkner wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

She knew about his penchant for picking up girls while traveling and having three-ways, four-ways, five-ways, swapping hookers with his buddies. She knew about the fifteen-year-old babysitter Jack had gotten pregnant back when he was senator. The rumors were true—she had cut that deal with Joe then, the one million dollars not to leave the marriage, millions more if Jack ever gave her a sexually transmitted disease again.