FIRST MARRIAGE OF JOHN F. KENNEDY

[Mervyn Hagger]

Was John F. Kennedy married before he wed Jackie, and if he was, was he engaging in bigamy? The reason I am interested is because of events in 1965 that impact Caroline Kennedy, who, if the story is true, would have been born in Catholic eyes, "out of wedlock". I have seen Photostats of the genealogy book and I have read how Joe Kennedy is alleged to have destroyed all evidence of the alleged earlier marriage. I would like to know what hard facts currently exist about his earlier marriage.

[Pamela Brown]

On 1/18/2018 at 5:54 AM, Mervyn Hagger said:

Was John F. Kennedy married before he wed Jackie, and if he was, was he engaging in bigamy? The reason I am interested is because of events in 1965 that impact Caroline Kennedy, who, if the story is true, would have been born in Catholic eyes, "out of wedlock". I have seen Photostats of the genealogy book and I have read how Joe Kennedy is alleged to have destroyed all evidence of the alleged earlier marriage. I would like to know what hard facts currently exist about his earlier marriage.

Here you go.  One version: http://www.reformation.org/kennedys-first-marriage.html

Edited January 21, 2018 by Pamela Brown

[Mervyn Hagger]

Thanks. That is a strange web site. I have Clifford's book plus a lot of contemporaneous newspaper stories, because it not only became an issue early on, but it came back to life again later. Now I am tracing a strange story involving the National Enquirer who invented the myth that Radio Caroline has been named after the niece of Bobby Kennedy in order to entrap him in a budding international scandal beginning in March 1965, and again in November 1965. The idea was to get Bobby Kennedy to make a recorded broadcast on behalf of Irish freedom during St Patrick's Day 1965, which would be directed personally at Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Bobby Kennedy fell for it and made the recording (I have a copy of it), and it was introduced by National Enquirer freelancer Robin Leach (later of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" TV fame). A daily scooped the National Enquirer and exposed Radio Caroline as a "pirate" sender that Wilson was trying to shut down. Bobby Kennedy's people went into overtime with rage and killed the story. I am currently writing a book about this called 'Caroline, Bobby and Jack'. The feedback was that it was a shame to drag a 6 years old girl into Jack's sex life because it would mean that Caroline was born out of wedlock since Jack's marriage to Jackie would be bigamy. The claim being that Jack never divorced is first wife.

[David Andrews]

It's interesting that a site devoted to the conspiracy to conceal the true name of God, with side pages about the alchemy of nuclear warfare encompassing Sir William Crookes, Marie Curie and Allen Dulles, reprints the Clark Clifford debunking of the Durie Malcolm marriage verbatim and without comment.  But the site is nominally arch-Catholic propaganda pitched at the level of Broshears and Ferrie, so...   (No offense meant  to Catholics by  me.)

http://www.reformation.org/churchill-and-hitlers-nuclear-arsenal.html

Thanks for turning me on to this pleasant weirdness.

Edited January 21, 2018 by David Andrews

[Mervyn Hagger]

27 minutes ago, David Andrews said:

It's interesting that a site devoted to the conspiracy to conceal the true name of God, with side pages about the alchemy of nuclear warfare encompassing Sir William Crookes, Marie Curie and Allen Dulles, reprints the Clark Clifford debunking of the Durie Malcolm marriage verbatim and without comment.  But the site is nominally arch-Catholic propaganda pitched at the level of Broshears and Ferrie, so...   (No offense meant  to Catholics by  me.)

http://www.reformation.org/churchill-and-hitlers-nuclear-arsenal.html

Thanks for turning me on to this pleasant weirdness.

Well, I was not trying to draw attention to that site, because the story has been around in the media from 1962 onwards based upon a family genealogy published in 1958, and that is the problem - it was before JFK became president. The news archives are full of information about this alleged marriage and now several books make reference to it.

[David Andrews]

It's difficult to figure out what this site is up to.  Seems to preach the Protestant Reformation in a way aligned with supra-Catholic organizations, similar to those true-faith priesthoods hovering around the assassination saga, staffed by guys who couldn't make it as actual Catholic priests.  So I suspect that's why the unqualified support for debunking the Durie Malcolm thing.  Whatever.  There's some fun Sunday reading in these pages.

Myself, whatever my respect for JFK as a politician and humanitarian, I wouldn't doubt his regard for his personal life was lax enough (or rebellious enough) that he allowed himself to elope with multiply-married Durie Malcolm...the Wallis Simpson of our saga.  

Edited January 21, 2018 by David Andrews