Killing Kennedy

Newsweek’s infamous January 19, 1998, issue were all valuable resources, as were Evan Thomas’s Robert Kennedy, Robert Caro’s Passage to Power, and Dianne Holloway’s The Mind of Oswald. Clint Hill’s Mrs. Kennedy and Me is a priceless peek into their relationship, and most helpful.

Chapter 13: Manchester, once again. And Hill. Klein’s All Too Human and Leamer’s The Kennedy Men provided insight as well.

Chapter 14: Dallek, Unfinished Life, and Thomas, Robert Kennedy. King’s entire speech can be heard online at www.americanrhetoric.com.

Chapter 15: This interview between Cronkite and JFK is another Web gem, and worth the watch to see Kennedy’s smooth knowledge about the many topics Cronkite throws at him and the way the two men relax so visibly when the formal filming is completed.

Chapter 16: Information from the JFK Library, Death of a President, Passage of Power, and the Warren Commission Report form the nucleus of this chapter. David Kaiser’s The Road to Dallas was thoughtful and informative, and the FBI files on Aristotle Onassis provide fascinating background information.

Chapter 17: There are a number of websites devoted to Camp David. These are all well worth a look for a glimpse into such a private and exclusive compound. The information about Oswald comes from the Warren Commission, while Heymann’s A Woman Named Jackie and the White House Museum website add great detail on the family residence dining room. Ben Bradlee’s Conversations with Kennedy documents this special dinner. Donald Spoto’s JBKO details the date of her last campaign appearance; Manchester provided details about her punctuation; and Heymann and Leamer document the letter from the yacht Christina.

Chapter 18: The bulk of this chapter comes from newspaper accounts and from Manchester. Bradlee’s Conversations provides the “No profiles” quote.

Chapter 19: Special Agent Hosty’s Warren Commission testimony provides the details about his visit to Ruth Paine. The Kennedy White House: Family Life and Pictures, 1961– 1963, by Carl Sferrazza Anthony, provides the quotes about Arlington. It’s interesting to note that Sergeant Clark also played taps at JFK’s funeral.

Chapter 20: Barry Paris’s Garbo and David Pitts’s Jack and Lem speak well of this forgotten night in White House history. Thank you to Camille Reisfield of Ross, California, for writing to ask if the episode would be in the book, making the authors aware of this last-ever dinner party in Camelot.

Chapter 21: The Warren Commission and Kaiser’s Road to Dallas provide unique insight into the days leading up to the assassination. There is still some question as to whether Oswald was actually the shooter whom Sterling Wood witnessed, as the owner of the shooting range swore he saw Oswald there on a completely different date. The fact that a lone man was seen firing a unique Italian rifle, however, is not in doubt.

Chapter 22: Hill, Manchester, Warren Commission testimony, and the White House Museum website.

Chapters 23 through 26: A wide range of websites and books were used to sift through the vast number of facts surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The timing, crowd descriptions, arrival scene, and all other aspects of the shooting and drive to Parkland Hospital are standard facts. However, the primary sources for specific conversations, private moments, and otherwise particular details are Death of a President, the Warren Commission, Clint Hill’s fascinating Mrs. Kennedy and Me, Vincent Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History, Dallek’s writings on JFK’s medical woes and on the assassination itself, and, of course, the Zapruder film. We watched it time after time after time to understand the sequence of events, and it never got less horrific—nor did the outcome ever change.

Chapter 27: Jackie’s filmed newsreel can be found online, and her grief is still startlingly painful to watch. Any number of her biographers have briefly mentioned this taping. But it was hardly inconsequential. As with the night with Garbo, or that with the Mona Lisa, this event was unique and remarkable, and all too easily overlooked.

Acknowledgments

Super-agent Eric Simonoff continues to be amazingly perspicacious in both creative and business endeavors.

Makeda Wubneh, my assistant for more than twenty years, keeps all my enterprises running smoothly, not an easy task.

Also, much gratitude to my publisher Stephen Rubin, the best in the business, and to my boss at Fox News, Roger Ailes, a brilliant, fearless warrior.

—BILL O’REILLY

I would like to extend a debt of gratitude to all who made this book possible, including Steve Rubin, the rock-steady Gillian Blake, and Eric Simonoff. And, of course, much heartfelt love and thanks to Calene Dugard— muse, soul mate, and closet historian.

—MARTIN DUGARD

Index

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

Abernathy, Ralph

Adams, John

African Americans. See also civil rights movement

Alabama, University of

Amagiri (Japanese destroyer)

American Rifleman

Anderson, Rudolf, Jr.

Andrews, Julie

Arlington National Cemetery

Azcue, Eusebio

Baker, Marrion L.

Bartlett, Charles

Bastien-Thiry, Jean

Batista, Fulgencio

Baughman, U. E.

Bay of Pigs invasion

aftermath of

launched

lead-up to