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Woman Spurned? JFK's Teenage Mistress's Tale Falls on Deaf Ears

When the President Was a Sex Predator

by STEWART LAWRENCE

www.counterpunch.org

February 16, 2012

Mimi Alford, the grandmother of five who claims in her new memoir to have been President John F. Kennedy’s mistress as a 19-year old White House intern, made the rounds of some of America’s leading talk shows last week. But you’d hardly know it from the contemptuous response she received.

In Alford’s appearance on “The View,” co-host Barbara Walters, no stranger to adultery herself (her own highly-publicized affair with former Sen. Ed Brooke is the stuff of legends), bristled with condescension, demanding to know what took the 69-year-old retired church administrator so long to write her book, Once Upon a Secret – and whether she was just “in it for the money.”

Alford’s answer - that she was hoping to get a long-buried secret off her chest, and to heal – seemed eminently reasonable on its face. But no one, it seems – least of all Whoopi Goldberg, who’d threatened to boycott the interview, perhaps out of sympathy for the surviving Kennedy relatives – was in the mood to listen.

Chris Matthews, meanwhile, could barely get a rise out of his assembled panel of JFK experts, who quickly dismissed Alford’s salacious tale as “irrelevant.” One panelist even feigned an exaggerated yawn when asked to comment on the book and its implications for Kennedy’s “legacy.”

At one level, can you blame them? After all, JFK’s penchant for womanizing is already part of the official presidential record, and is deeply ingrained in our national psyche. How many more details about his sexual adventures do we really need? Moreover, Alford’s story has surfaced previously. JFK biographer Robert Dallek, in his 2003 book, JFK: An Unifinished Life, all but “outed” Alford without actually mentioning her by name. He describes a “tall, slender, beautiful nineteen-year-old college sophomore” who was JFK’s mistress, and his account matches Alford’s perfectly.

In fact, after Dallek’s book appeared, a number of journalists managed to track the former intern down. Asked to elaborate on Dallek’s account, and to confirm a separate one by journalist Sally Bedell Smith, she demurred. That was her right, of course. But the media – like selfish boys who one day grow up to be president – often punishes those who hold out.

There’s also the fact that we’re in an election year, with an embattled Democratic president in the midst of a fierce re-election campaign. Obama may be above reproach, but dredging up JFK and his peccadilloes could remind voters that a number of other Democratic figures, including former president Bill Clinton, have carried on in much the same fashion. “Social issues” seem to be gaining influence inside the GOP again, and could end up shaping broader voter preferences in November.

Of course, Democrats aren’t the only ones with cause to worry. GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is fending off the snide insinuations of his rivals that he’s a shameless adulterer unfit for the presidency – for which there is ample evidence. And members of both parties in Congress – most recently House Democrat Alcee Hastings, and before him Rep. Anthony Wiener – face constant scrutiny, and pressure to resign, as their sexual indiscretions become known.

It could just be that the country – and the media – are inured to reports of sexual transgression by politicians, even if, Alford’s 50-year old case – one of the most detailed accounts of presidential philandering anywhere – stands as something of a Rosetta stone for what has since come to pass. It might even have led to an interesting discussion about how our standards and attitudes toward politicians and sex have – or haven’t – changed, and why.

Alford’s story, viewed in-depth, is deeply troubling, in fact. It’s clear from listening to her that the affair, if it happened – and no one has any real reason to doubt that it did – profoundly affected her life, and though consensual in the strict sense, it represented an enormous abuse of power.

Alford hadn’t been in her job 4 days before JFK lured her to the presidential bedroom and bedded her down. She was a virgin at the time, and it’s clear, at least from her telling (there are no independent witnesses) that the president could have cared less what the impact of his actions might be on a young woman in his charge.

Kennedy, it seems, was in full predator mode, and though he seems to have developed some real affection for Alford over time, he ended up treating her like a call girl, summoning her at all hours, and leaving her to languish in hotel rooms or presidential limousines when it turned out that he couldn’t get away. (Incredibly, he did make time for her at the conclusion of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and during other key moments in his presidency).

In fact, listening to Alford talk about the affair, one can see, or sense, that she never really got over it, and retains deeply conflicted feelings. When she talks about JFK, she doesn’t sound like a grown woman reflecting wistfully on her early loss of innocence, but a still-fragile girl remembering the powerful male figure who overwhelmed her. In interviews, she seems frozen in time, still blushing at the thought that “such a handsome man picked me,” which JFK did, of course, just as he picked so many others.

Alford says she’s alright today, and we have no real reason to doubt her, except that her recounting of her experience, both in her book, and in person, seems to betray a longing, and an unresolved grief. No one was available to listen to her story at the time, and it’s unclear whether she ever got or needed counseling or therapy to move on with her life. She eventually stopped seeing Kennedy to get married, but he insisted on seeing her even after she got engaged, and her marriage didn’t last. You don’t have to be a psychiatrist to figure out why.

Of course, there’s another reason Alford might have gotten such a cold reception last week. She reminds so many women, including national journalists, about how things used to be, in the pre-feminist era, for women. Her story, if probed, might lead to uncomfortable questions about what others would have done, then or now, at such a tender age. Perhaps they’d rather not know the answer to that — or worse, they’ve had similar experiences they’re not prepared to divulge.

Alford never resisted Kennedy’s charms, and she says that she couldn’t imagine having escaped their first sexual encounter – which, by today’s standards, constituted workplace sexual harassment, and coercion, if not rape – unless she’d been brave enough to scream. She also submitted to at least one incredibly humiliating episode, when JFK on a whim induced her to perform oral sex on one of his top aides, which she did — far too willingly, it seems. But she also remembers fondly her bathtub romps with the president and describes him with a smile as a “playful” lover – as if it all happened yesterday, rather than a half century ago.

Alford, who coincidentally attended the same Rhode Island finishing school that Jackie Kennedy once did, looked coiffed, poised and elegant, and seemed eager to tell her story. But despite the big-time bookings she received, it was clear that no one really had time for her. They listened, not always politely, asked a few perfunctory questions, and then dismissed her with a hint of condescension – and confusion.

Maybe she should have skipped the media tour altogether. At least with JFK, she occasionally had more fun.

Stewart J. Lawrence can be reached at stewartlawrence81147@gmail.com

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Guest Robert Morrow

Jim DiEugenio:

"As any student of wealth and power in America knows, this is a rather amazing statement. In 1960, according to John Blair’s definitive study The Control of Oil, the Rockefeller family had controlling interest in three of the top seven oil companies in America, and four of the top eight in the world. They were also in control of Chase Manhattan Bank, one of the biggest in the nation then and the largest today. They also owned the single most expensive piece of real estate in the country, Rockefeller Center in New York City. The list of private corporations controlled by them could go on for a page, but to name just two, how about IBM and Eastern Airlines. I won’t enumerate the overseas holdings of the family but, suffice it to say, the Kennedys weren’t in the same league in that category. JFK knew this. As Mort Sahl relates, before the 1960 election, he liked to kid Kennedy about being the scion of a multimillionaire. Kennedy cornered him once on this topic and asked him point blank how much he thought his family was worth. Sahl replied, “Probably about three or four hundred million.” Kennedy then asked him how much he thought the Rockefellers were worth. Sahl said he had no idea. Kennedy replied sharply, “Try about four billion.” JFK let the number sink in and then added, “Now that’s money, Mort.”

That is an excellent point DiEugenio makes. Because of their close ties to both US intelligence and Lyndon Johnson person and the Texas oil men, specifically Clint Murchison, Sr. it is why I think, or strongly suspect that the Rockefellers, particularly Nelson, were invovled in the JFK assassination.

The bankers Rockefellers were also OIL MEN. They and their minions John J. McCloy, Allen Dulles, probably others, had close ties to the Texas oil men who, along with the CIA, arranged the JFK assassination. Clint Murchison, Sr. was something of a banker.

If Gen Ed Lansdale (photographed) at TSBD was involved, then Allen Dulles very likely was (look at Dulles outrageous behavior on the Warren Commission farce), and if Allen Dulles was then Nelson Rockefeller very likely was.

And if Nelson Rockefeller was involved in the JFK assassination, then I think it is very likely that Henry Kissinger knew exactly what was happening, although Kissinger at that time did not have the authority to order it. Kissinger was also at Harvard with McGeorge Bundy, Kennedy's NSC advisor who acted extremely suspiciously in promoting the "lone nutter" fantasy within hours of JFK's murder, not a reasonable thing to do base on the overwhelming real time evidence of shots (plural from the front) and shooters (plural).

Future CIA McGeorge Bundy was the secretary of the CFR at the same time future CIA head Allen Dulles was the president of the CFR. The CFR was heavily influenced, almost controlled by the Rockefellers.

My bottom line is this: I think both the Texas oil men of LBJ and the Rockefellers were involved in the JFK assassination. I think they used the CIA/military to kill JFK. With LBJ and Hoover to cover it up. Then Allen Dulles, Ford and McCloy on the Warren Commission farce.

Then the baton was handed to CIA media assets, who were often Council on Foreign Relations members.

Edited by Robert Morrow
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Jim DiEugenio:

"As any student of wealth and power in America knows, this is a rather amazing statement. In 1960, according to John Blair's definitive study The Control of Oil, the Rockefeller family had controlling interest in three of the top seven oil companies in America, and four of the top eight in the world. They were also in control of Chase Manhattan Bank, one of the biggest in the nation then and the largest today. They also owned the single most expensive piece of real estate in the country, Rockefeller Center in New York City. The list of private corporations controlled by them could go on for a page, but to name just two, how about IBM and Eastern Airlines. I won't enumerate the overseas holdings of the family but, suffice it to say, the Kennedys weren't in the same league in that category. JFK knew this. As Mort Sahl relates, before the 1960 election, he liked to kid Kennedy about being the scion of a multimillionaire. Kennedy cornered him once on this topic and asked him point blank how much he thought his family was worth. Sahl replied, "Probably about three or four hundred million." Kennedy then asked him how much he thought the Rockefellers were worth. Sahl said he had no idea. Kennedy replied sharply, "Try about four billion." JFK let the number sink in and then added, "Now that's money, Mort."

That is an excellent point DiEugenio makes. Because of their close ties to both US intelligence and Lyndon Johnson person and the Texas oil men, specifically Clint Murchison, Sr. it is why I think, or strongly suspect that the Rockefellers, particularly Nelson, were invovled in the JFK assassination.

The bankers Rockefellers were also OIL MEN. They and their minions John J. McCloy, Allen Dulles, probably others, had close ties to the Texas oil men who, along with the CIA, arranged the JFK assassination. Clint Murchison, Sr. was something of a banker.

If Gen Ed Lansdale (photographed) at TSBD was involved, then Allen Dulles very likely was (look at Dulles outrageous behavior on the Warren Commission farce), and if Allen Dulles was then Nelson Rockefeller very likely was.

And if Nelson Rockefeller was involved in the JFK assassination, then I think it is very likely that Henry Kissinger knew exactly what was happening, although Kissinger at that time did not have the authority to order it. Kissinger was also at Harvard with McGeorge Bundy, Kennedy's NSC advisor who acted extremely suspiciously in promoting the "lone nutter" fantasy within hours of JFK's murder, not a reasonable thing to do base on the overwhelming real time evidence of shots (plural from the front) and shooters (plural).

Future CIA McGeorge Bundy was the secretary of the CFR at the same time future CIA head Allen Dulles was the president of the CFR. The CFR was heavily influenced, almost controlled by the Rockefellers.

My bottom line is this: I think both the Texas oil men of LBJ and the Rockefellers were involved in the JFK assassination. I think they used the CIA/military to kill JFK. With LBJ and Hoover to cover it up. Then Allen Dulles, Ford and McCloy on the Warren Commission farce.

Then the baton was handed to CIA media assets, who were often Council on Foreign Relations members.

Bob, I think you mean Clint Murchison Jr, who was quite old at the time. His son is now Clint Murchison III and active in Dallas.

Kathy C

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Whoever has read the C. David Heyman book, does he include a picture of Bobby Kennedy, wife and kids, going to church on Aug.5, 1962 in Gilroy, CA, which is pretty far away from Santa Monica. I've been trying to find this picture for a long time.

Kathy C

Ok, Kathy. Can you explain to me what you are getting at, please?

I believe Bobby Kennedy was at her house that day. Somehow she died and he flew back to Gilroy, CA. I think she was in grief because the President wouldn't speak to her. In the local newspaper was a photo taken of Robert Kennedy and family going to church Sunday morning, Aug.5, 1962, at 9:30 am, just hours after it was announced that Marilyn Monroe was dead.

I saw this picture a decade or more ago. Robert Kennedy wore his emotions on his face. I never saw such pain and grief on anybody's face like the one worn on Bobby Kennedy's face when his brother died. How easy was it for him to hide his emotions? The woman his brother was trying to avoid is dead and he was there in a white convertible. I think he'd feel sick to his stomach. That's what makes photographs important, even if they're misleading.

Kathy C

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Guest Tom Scully

In 1963, Mimi Beardsley was promptly taken under the wing of AE Fahnestock, a Morgan Guaranty "hire." As often happens in my narrow area of research, a coincidence emerged. It so happened in 1963 that Morgan Guaranty was under the control of the Bush, Lindsay, Plimpton, McCloy, Macomber, Byfield, Fitzgerald, Stone, Devine, clique of interest.

Morgan and Guaranty Banks Plan to Merge

Chicago Tribune - Dec 18, 1958

Guaranty Trust Company of New York and JP Morgan & Co., Inc., two of New York City's few remaining old line "wholesale" banks, announced plans Wednesday to .

https://www.google.com/search?q=mimi+white+house+intern&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:unofficial&client=firefox-nightly#q=marion+beardsley+white+house&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-nightly&hs=Skb&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:unofficial&tbm=nws&source=lnt&tbs=ar:1&sa=X&psj=1&ei=lN89T533F-Pl0QHy3t2qBw&ved=0CBIQpwUoCQ&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=dd138f7db7633fd2&biw=1440&bih=695

Miss Beardsley Engaged to Wed AE Fahnestock; White House...

New York Times - Sep 8, 1963

... Miss Marion Fay Beardsley, to Anthony Emmet Fahnestock of the Army. and Mrs. R. Bertron Fahnestockof ... She is with the press office at the White House.

https://www.google.com/search?q=george+n.+lindsay+dickey&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:unofficial&client=firefox-nightly#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-nightly&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aunofficial&tbs=ar:1&tbm=nws&source=hp&q=john+lindsay+%22960+park%22&psj=1&oq=john+lindsay+%22960+park%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=12&gs_upl=66934l83559l6l85412l15l15l0l0l0l0l183l1218l11.4l15l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=dd138f7db7633fd2&biw=1440&bih=695

ELIZABETH AUSTIN IS WED IN ILLINOIS; Glencoe Union Church...

New York Times - Jun 30, 1946

... son of Mr. and Mrs. George N. Lindsay of 960 Park Avenue, New York, ... John V. Lindsay was best man for his twin. Ushers were George N. Lindsay Jr. and .

https://www.google.com/search?q=george+n.+lindsay+dickey&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:unofficial&client=firefox-nightly#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-nightly&hs=cZw&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aunofficial&tbs=ar:1&tbm=nws&source=hp&q=charles+d.+dickey+morgan+guaranty&psj=1&oq=charles+d.+dickey+morgan+guaranty&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=12&gs_upl=50631l63547l4l65346l24l24l3l0l0l0l70l1088l21l21l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=dd138f7db7633fd2&biw=1440&bih=695

MARY SLOAN DICKEY ENGAGED TO MARRY; St. Timothy's ...

New York Times - Nov 24, 1945

Mr. and Mrs. Charles D. Dickey of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, and 115 East ... George N. Lindsay Jr., USNR, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lindsay of 960 Park Avenue

CHARLES D. DICKEY, BANKER, 82, DEAD; With 3 Leading ...

New York Times - Apr 29, 1976

Charles D. Dickey, who was prominent in banking in New York City and ... merged with Guaranty Trust Company of New York in 1959, to form Morgan Guaranty ...

New York Times - Dec 10, 1963

... members of the executive committee of the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of ... bank s committee on trust , succeeding Charles D. Dickey, who has retired..

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/10/obituaries/george-n-lindsay-75-lawyer-active-in-human-rights-groups.html

George N. Lindsay, 75, Lawyer Active in Human Rights Groups...

New York Times - Aug 10, 1995

He served in the Navy in World War II as a communications officer on a ... Mr. Lindsay joined Debevoise & Plimpton in 1947 and became a partner in 1955, ...

Gentlemen, as I've often posted about recently, the February, 1967 Ramparts article exposed the sources of funding of the student organizations. Mr. Houghton, chairman of the Met. Museum of Art, was the head of the only CIA backed student supporting foundation having an actual staff and a physical office. George Plimpton's father, Francis was on the board of both the foundation and the Met. He had to be a witting participant. Plimpton's brother was McCloy's choice in 1960 as president of Amherst College.

Paul Hellmuth, attorney and enabler of CIA operative, Dr. Tom Dooley, was partnered in a minor, as well as a top contributing foundation of CIA supplied funds to student groups, with David B. Stone. Hellmuth was known to have coordinated the creation of at least two CIA propietary corps., Anderson Security Consultants and Zenith Technical Enterprises, as well.

Bush connections are.:

Tom Devine through his CIA affiliation, his meeting(s) with DeMohrenschildt and his Paris Review links via Francis Plimpton's son, George, and Devine's long association with Plimpton's Paris Review partner, John Train who is connected to the IRC and the WWF. Prince Sandrudden was Paris Review "publisher," IRC principal, and close friend of GHW Bush. WWF was led by Train's cousin, Russell, and his appointed manager, Curtis EU "Chip" Bohlen, covert CIA man and an usher, along with Devine, in the 1955 wedding of CIA's Albert Bradley Carter, Jr.

Twins John and David Lindsay were usher's in Nancy Bush's wedding. Their brother, George was hired by Francis Plimpton at his Plimpton Debevoise law firm in 1947, and became managing partner. Partner Eli Whitney Debevoise, a bonesman, was counsel to HICOG McCloy, and then deputy HICOG under McCloy. Both Leon Panetta and Ed Hooker's daughter, Susan's second husband (after she was divorced from Rionda Braga's son) Michael Ainslie, were employed in John Lindsay's NYC mayor's office.

Houghton, Henry Crown, and Paul Nitze and his sister and her husband were the largest benefactors to the Aspen Institute.

David B. Stone's brother, Robert G. Stone, Jr., used his position of oversight of the Harvard U. endowment to provide unprecedented funding for Allen Quasha's obscure Harken Energy, which poured money into GW Bush's worthless oil exploration entities and resulted in Bush's ascendancy to the audit committee of Harken. Tom Devine is still listed as a director of the Stone, Jr. company, Stonetex, founded by Robert G. Stone, Jr. in 1950. Russ Baker wrote that Stone, Jr. claimed he had no personal relationship with GHW Bush, and was soon after the Harvard investment in Harken, appointed to the board of RS Reynolds executive search co. in Greenwich, where Jonathan Bush was and is a fellow director.

I found that Frank Vanderlip, Jr. was described in the NY Times in 1966 as the godfather of Allen Quasha's sister, Jill, and that Vanderlip, Jr. threw a large engagement party at the home of his parents in 1928 for RS Reynold's father and mother. Vanderlip's father was president of National City Bank and an attendee at the famous Jekyll Island meeting resulting in the creation of the Federal Reserve.

Both Quasha's father, William, and Stone, Jr. were reported to be on MacArthur's staff in the Phillipines during WWII.

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/C%20Disk/CIA%20Foundations/Item%20041.pdf

Foundations, Private Organizations Linked to the CIA

(Link to page of other relevant Weisberg Archive links.)

One the top left of page two of the Weisberg Archive document linked above, is a description of the Winfield Baird Foundation.

GM Evica wrote about this conflict, among others, of the WC's appointment of Crown's lawyer, Jenner, in his 1978 book.:

Toledo Blade - Oct 19, 1963

IRS Failure to Regulate Charged

The Blade .Toledo, Ohio. Foundations Called Tax-free Securities ...

Another on the list is Henry Crown, reputedly one of the nation's richest men. ... Mr. Baird's foundations are the David, Josephine and Winfield Baird Foundation, ...

I have listed what I consider some of the more compelling Foundations....when William Dalzell testified before the New

Orleans Grand Jury he was asked about the Cordell Hull Foundation, Alton Oschner was the President and is listed on the letterhead of the Information Council of the America's, which was instrumental in the orchestration of the infamous Oswald interview in New Orleans before the assassination.

More......

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-08/robert-lindsay-mayor-s-brother-at-j-p-morgan-dies-at-86.html

Robert Lindsay, Mayor’s Brother at J.P. Morgan, Dies at 86

February 08, 2012,

By Laurence Arnold

(Updates with history of brother’s mayoralty in eighth paragraph.)

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Robert V. Lindsay, the brother of a two-term New York City mayor, whose 37-year career at J.P. Morgan & Co. culminated in seven years as House of Morgan president, has died. He was 86.

He died Jan. 20 in the hospice wing of Good Samaritan Hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida, ....

Robert Van Cleef Lindsay was born on Jan. 1, 1926, the last of five children of George Nelson Lindsay and the former Florence Eleanor Vliet. His brother John would serve as New York City’s mayor from 1966 through 1973, drawing national attention for his battle to clean up the city, for his good looks, for his shift from Republican to Democrat and for his brief run for president in 1972.

Their father was an investment banker and chairman of American Swiss Corp., a unit of Credit Suisse, according to the Times’s 1995 obituary of the former mayor.

U.S. Merchant Marine

Lindsay graduated from the Episcopal Church-affiliated St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1943, then served in the U.S. Merchant Marine and the U.S. Army Transportation Corps, according to the death notice. He majored in Spanish literature at Yale University, graduating in 1949.

He joined J.P. Morgan after college, rising to vice president in 1960 and senior vice president in 1969, halfway through his brother’s eight years as New York City mayor. He became general manager of Morgan Guaranty’s London office in 1973, returning to New York in 1976 as executive vice president.

He became chairman of the executive committee in 1978 and president in 1980.

Among his other affiliations, he was chairman of the Foreign Policy Association, served 20 years as director of the New York Philharmonic Society and was a member since 1959 of the Westminster Kennel Club....

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/23/obituaries/anthony-fahnestock-a-stock-manager-52.html

Anthony Fahnestock, A Stock Manager, 52

Published: June 23, 1993

Correction Appended

Anthony E. Fahnestock, an investment manager in Manhattan, died on Monday at home in Navesink, N.J. He was 52 and also lived in Brooklyn. The cause was cancer, his family said....

...Earlier he worked two years as a managing director of Donaldson Enterprises Inc., a private management company, and three years as a general partner of Coady, Fahnestock & Company, an investment banking firm.

From 1969 to 1980 he worked for Goldman, Sachs & Company, where he was a general partner and vice president of corporate finance. He began his career in 1964 at Morgan Guaranty Trust, where he became an assistant treasurer. He was also a director on the boards of 10 companies.

His marriage to the former Marion Beardsley ended in divorce.

He is survived by his mother, Valerie, of Jupiter, Fla.; his wife, the former Andrea Henderson; ....

http://www.smokershistory.com/MorganGT.html

William R. Cross Jr., Skull & Bones 1941

William R. Cross Jr. was a vice president of the New York Trust (Sally C. Smith, Vassar Alumna, Wed to Banker. New York Times Jun 15, 1958). He joined the Morgan Guaranty Trust in 1959, became executive vice president in 1973 and chairman of the credit policy committee in 1978. He retired in 1979. He was on the board of directors of The New York Times Company from 1973 to 1992, also on the boards of Amax Inc., National Sugar Refining Co., The Chapin School, Citizens Budget Commission, and The Children's Aid Society. (William R. Cross Jr., Retired Banker, 85. New York Times, Nov 26, 2002.) He was the son of W. Redmond Cross [William Redmond Cross, Skull & Bones 1896]. W. Redmond Cross and his father, Richard J. Cross, were partners of Morton, Rose & Co. of London, England, and of Morton, Bliss & Company at the time that it was reorganized into the Morton Trust Company, which subsequently merged with the Guaranty Trust.

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According to the leading American journalist Jeff Toobin, who contributes to the documentary, the Lewinsky affair did not ultimately harm Clinton's image as much as predicted.

"The legacy of this scandal favours Clinton more than his adversaries," he told the Observer. "More Americans think that it was a trivial waste of time than think that he got away with something unforgivable." Toobin puts this down in part to "a long-established pattern that the longer a president is out of office the more kindly the public starts to feel about them", but also to Clinton's resilience and to his "extraordinary political electricity".

"In comparison, too, both with [George] Bush, with his foreign misadventures, and with [barack] Obama's economic problems, the boom years of Clinton's presidency start to look a lot better," added Toobin

I am selling A Vast Conspiracy by Jeffrey Toobin and other books about the Clinton years. If interested look at my inventory on amazon.com.

http://amazon.com/shops/paperandpen

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Guest Robert Morrow

I am reading Mimi's book and am almost done. I recommend it; it is well written and she comes off as very credible. She has obviously done a lot of soul searching and thinking about her affair with JFK.

In her book, Mimi says that she included in her engagement announcement the fact that she worked in the White House press office because she was very proud of that.

But in her WEDDING anouncement she intentionally left it out. The reason she did so was that on 11/22/63 when JFK was murdered, she told her fiance about her affair with JFK - an affair that she had been having behind Mr. Fahnestock's back while she was "engaged" to him. This caused a huge problem in their relationship. Her fiance told her never to talk about it again and the topic of John Kennedy was pretty much forbidden/verboten in their life.

So Mimi left out her White House internship in the press office from her wedding announcement and from that point on started keeping the JFK secret for decades only telling a handful of people.

Edited by Robert Morrow
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Guest Tom Scully

Robert, in September, she was working in the White House press office.:

Miss Beardsley Engaged to Wed AE Fahnestock; White House...

New York Times - Sep 8, 1963

... Miss Marion Fay Beardsley, to Anthony Emmet Fahnestock of the Army. and Mrs. R. Bertron Fahnestockof ... She is with the press office at the White House.

Do you really believe her association with the white house became a "secret" simply because there was no mention of it in the wedding announcement of 5 January, 1964, less than four months later? Was she still "with the press office at the White House," in January, 1964?

She wasn't divorced from Fahnestock until 1991. I've researched contact info of Anthony Fahnestock's brother. PM me if you don't have a fixation with this kind of garbage and do not post the most recent sensational accusations as if they were gospel, and I'll provide

the brother's address and tel. #. If Anthony Fahnestock knew in 1963 he was marrying JFK's playmate, his brother probably knew some of the details by 1993.

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Guest Robert Morrow

Robert, in September, she was working in the White House press office.:

Miss Beardsley Engaged to Wed AE Fahnestock; White House...

New York Times - Sep 8, 1963

... Miss Marion Fay Beardsley, to Anthony Emmet Fahnestock of the Army. and Mrs. R. Bertron Fahnestockof ... She is with the press office at the White House.

Do you really believe her association with the white house became a "secret" simply because there was no mention of it in the wedding announcement of 5 January, 1964, less than four months later? Was she still "with the press office at the White House," in January, 1964?

She wasn't divorced from Fahnestock until 1991. I've researched contact info of Anthony Fahnestock's brother. PM me if you don't have a fixation with this kind of garbage and do not post the most recent sensational accusations as if they were gospel, and I'll provide

the brother's address and tel. #. If Anthony Fahnestock knew in 1963 he was marrying JFK's playmate, his brother probably knew some of the details by 1993.

Tom, please do PM the phone and contact info for Tony Fahnestock's brother. I will call him.

I don't know if you actually read what I posted. Mimi says that she confessed to her fiance Tony that she had been having an affair with JFK (I think she did this on 11/22/63). At that point Tony told her never to bring this up again. Tony felt betrayed and no doubt felt extremely insecure about this matter.

Mimi probably would have put it in her wedding announcement because she was so proud of her association with the White House press office (really her attachment to JFK). After Tony's ultimatum, that was an impossibility. Tony, as a condition of marrying Mimi, made her swear to never bring up the topic again with him or anyone else. Basically, it reminded him of his humiliation - his beloved fiance was screwing the president.

Mimi's fabulous book is really about how she dealt with keeping this secret most of her adult life - "Once Upon a Secret." The book is about how this secret affected her and her family over time. It certainly did not help out her marriage.

Edited by Robert Morrow
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According to the leading American journalist Jeff Toobin, who contributes to the documentary, the Lewinsky affair did not ultimately harm Clinton's image as much as predicted.

"The legacy of this scandal favours Clinton more than his adversaries," he told the Observer. "More Americans think that it was a trivial waste of time than think that he got away with something unforgivable." Toobin puts this down in part to "a long-established pattern that the longer a president is out of office the more kindly the public starts to feel about them", but also to Clinton's resilience and to his "extraordinary political electricity".

"In comparison, too, both with [George] Bush, with his foreign misadventures, and with [barack] Obama's economic problems, the boom years of Clinton's presidency start to look a lot better," added Toobin

I am selling A Vast Conspiracy by Jeffrey Toobin and other books about the Clinton years. If interested look at my inventory on amazon.com.

http://amazon.com/shops/paperandpen

I've always wondered if JFK survived if these affairs would have ever come to light. I doubt it, since the press would have still protected the President. We may have never known about it even years later.

When Clinton's scandal occurred, I wondered if JFK got caught, would it have ended up the same way, he would be tarnished but not ousted as President? But during those years, they probably would have made him resign. If the powers wanted JFK out so badly in 63, why didnt they just produce a sexual scandal with the ammo they had instead of killing the man. An affair scandal would have killed JFK just as much as the bullet did.

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Guest Robert Morrow

I've always wondered if JFK survived if these affairs would have ever come to light. I doubt it, since the press would have still protected the President. We may have never known about it even years later.

When Clinton's scandal occurred, I wondered if JFK got caught, would it have ended up the same way, he would be tarnished but not ousted as President? But during those years, they probably would have made him resign. If the powers wanted JFK out so badly in 63, why didnt they just produce a sexual scandal with the ammo they had instead of killing the man. An affair scandal would have killed JFK just as much as the bullet did.

Perhaps you need to read a bit more about that era.

Phil Graham of the Washington Post stood up at a conference

of newsmen and told them all about JFK's affairs. If that

plus Hoover's dirt couldn't get even a page-10 story about JFK

then your theory is untenable. The simple fact of the matter

is that practically everyone of that era had dirt on each other.

Hoover followed the CIA and the Mafia. The CIA and the Mafia

watched each other. The politicians weaved in between all of

these groups with their own peculiar information and so on.

The people who needed to silence Kennedy could not rely on

a simple scandal. JFK, already viewed as young and virile,

may have survived it on charisma alone. A bullet to the head

was infinitely more effective, combined with a 50-year

propaganda campaign designed to discredit or hide all of his

actual accomplishments. In all of my history classes, I think

the only positive item cited next to JFK was the Peace Corps.

Question: what happened to Phil Graham (an ardent LBJ supporter in 1960 as well as a key participant in Operation Mockingbird - the CIA media manipulation program) after Graham got up at that newspaper conference and starting talking about all of JFK's women, especially Mary Meyer? What happened to Phil Graham next?

Edited by Robert Morrow
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I've always wondered if JFK survived if these affairs would have ever come to light. I doubt it, since the press would have still protected the President. We may have never known about it even years later.

When Clinton's scandal occurred, I wondered if JFK got caught, would it have ended up the same way, he would be tarnished but not ousted as President? But during those years, they probably would have made him resign. If the powers wanted JFK out so badly in 63, why didnt they just produce a sexual scandal with the ammo they had instead of killing the man. An affair scandal would have killed JFK just as much as the bullet did.

Perhaps you need to read a bit more about that era.

Phil Graham of the Washington Post stood up at a conference

of newsmen and told them all about JFK's affairs. If that

plus Hoover's dirt couldn't get even a page-10 story about JFK

then your theory is untenable. The simple fact of the matter

is that practically everyone of that era had dirt on each other.

Hoover followed the CIA and the Mafia. The CIA and the Mafia

watched each other. The politicians weaved in between all of

these groups with their own peculiar information and so on.

The people who needed to silence Kennedy could not rely on

a simple scandal. JFK, already viewed as young and virile,

may have survived it on charisma alone. A bullet to the head

was infinitely more effective, combined with a 50-year

propaganda campaign designed to discredit or hide all of his

actual accomplishments. In all of my history classes, I think

the only positive item cited next to JFK was the Peace Corps.

I never heard of him. What did he say to out JFK? Is there a transcript? And what were his reasons? I googled his name and it says that he was a friend of JFK's and convinced him in taking LBJ as VP. His actions don't sound too friendly.

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