When television news anchors first breathlessly reported that John F. Kennedy Jr.’s plane was missing off Martha’s Vineyard on July 16, 1999, I had no illusions about the outcome. In the process of writing The Day Diana Died and two previous books about the Kennedys (Jack and Jackie and Jackie After Jack), I had already immersed myself in the lives of public figures cut down at the height of their fame—people who, though admired and even adored during their brief lifetimes, achieved a mythic status in death. That Camelot’s cherished Crown Prince should die so senselessly and so young seemed unimaginable, and at the same time completely predictable.
From history’s most famous salute to the plane crash that took place within sight of his mother’s beachfront estate, John’s story was a bittersweet saga of family, fate, and promise unfulfilled. It is also the story of a remarkable young widow whose inherent sense of dignity held a nation together during one of its darkest hours, and the son she dreamed might someday take his place in history.
A daunting amount of research is essential for any exhaustive biography, and this was particularly true of The Good Son. In a sense, I have been working on this book for more than two decades, interviewing hundreds of family members, friends, lovers, classmates, teachers, staffers, servants, neighbors, and colleagues as well as the reporters and photographers who covered Jackie and John over the years. Given Jackie’s penchant for privacy, a few sources—but only a few—preferred to remain anonymous.
As with my last book on the Kennedys, the 2013 bestseller These Few Precious Days: The Final Year of Jack with Jackie, I went back to the tapes and notes of my interviews with many key figures from the Kennedy Era who had asked that I keep certain pieces of information confidential. I honored that wish during their lifetimes. However, many of these sources have now passed away, releasing me from that obligation. What remains is a trove of fresh details and insights that shed new light on the mother and son known to millions simply as Jackie and John.
Once again I’ve been given the opportunity to work with some of the most talented people in the publishing industry. I am particularly grateful to my editor, Mitchell Ivers—great friend, total pro. I’m also indebted to the rest of the Gallery/Simon & Schuster team, especially Carolyn Reidy, Louise Burke, Jen Bergstrom, Jennifer Robinson, Natasha Simons, Paul O’Halloran, Kelly Roberts, Lisa Rivlin, Eric Rayman, Felice Javit, Tom Pitoniak, Carly Sommerstein, Ruth Lee-Mui, and Janet Perr.
Ellen Levine, my literary agent and pal for over thirty years, has heard me thank her countless times for her wise counsel, her fearless advocacy, and—most important of all—her friendship. I can only say that I mean it now more than ever. Over these many years, it’s also been a pleasure to work with Ellen’s extraordinarily talented team at Trident Media Group—Claire Roberts, Alexa Stark, Meredith Miller, and Alexander Slater.
After forty-two years, I don’t have to tell my wife, Valerie, that she is witty, vibrant, headstrong, brilliant, totally outrageous—and utterly indispensable to the many people who love her. Our gorgeous and brainy daughters, Kate and Kelly, never cease to amaze. Kate, already a well-respected Washington journalist, has embarked on a book-writing career of her own. She and her husband, Brooke Brower, another highly regarded member of the Washington press corps, have also given us two absurdly attractive grandchildren: Graham Andersen Brower and Charlotte Beatrice Brower—the “Charlie” to whom this book is dedicated. Our youngest daughter, Kelly, meanwhile, boasts a wealth of knowledge covering a wide range of subjects and stands at the threshold of her own promising career in whatever field she chooses.
Additional thanks to Theodore Sorensen, David Halberstam, George Plimpton, Letitia Baldrige, John Perry Barlow, Pierre Salinger, Marta Sgubin, Kyle Bailey, Charles “Chuck” Spalding, Keith Stein, Peter Duchin, Cecil Stoughton, Arthur Marx, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Paul “Red” Fay, Michael Cherkasky, Evelyn Lincoln, John Kenneth Galbraith, Robert MacNeil, David Rockefeller, Angie Coqueran, Jack Anderson, Lloyd Howard, Roswell Gilpatric, Charles Addams, Sister Joanne Frey, Hugh “Yusha” Auchincloss, Julie Baker, Jamie Auchincloss, George Smathers, John Davis, Martha Bartlett, Clare Boothe Luce, Lois Cappelen, Jacques Lowe, David McGough, John Husted, Laurence Leamer, Larry Lorenzo, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Jack Valenti, Rick Guy, Ed Koch, Rick Lazio, Tom Freeman, Frank Ratcliff, Michael Berman, Oleg Cassini, John Marion, Larry Newman, Priscilla McMillan, Dorothy Oliger, Henry Grunwald, Wendy Leigh, Michael Gross, Anne Vanderhoop, Mesfin Gebreegziabher, James Hill, Charles Bartlett, Paul Adao, Helen Thomas, Bia Ayiotis, Roy Cohn, Jesse Birnbaum, Joseph Pullia, Judith Hope, Ralph Diaz, Paula Dranov, Dudley Freeman, Jerry Wiener, Angier Biddle Duke, Rosemary McClure, Anthony Comenale, Tobias Markowitz, Jeanette Peterson, James E. O’Neill, Godfrey McHugh, Jean Chapin, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Nancy Dickerson Whitehead, Lawrence R. Mulligan, Robert Drew, Alex Gotfryd, Sandy Richardson, Aileen Mehle, Doris Lilly, Perry Peltz, Dr. Janet Travell, Ray Robinson, Ricardo Richards, Betty Beale, Charles Collingwood, Theodore White, Shirley Clurman, Cora Isabelle Peterson, Charles Furneaux, Robert Pierce, Valerie Wimmer, Maryrose Grossman, Brad Darrach, Patricia Lawford Stewart, Vincent Russo, Betsy Loth, Earl Blackwell, Ham Brown, Molly Fosburgh, Dorothy Schoenbrun, Cranston Jones, Maura Porter, Joe Duran, Jean Chapin, Fred Friendly, Jeanette Walls, Gary Gunderson, Richard Schaffer, Farris L. Rookstool III, Janet Lizop, Michelle Lapautre, the Countess of Romanones, Wickham Boyle, Yvette Reyes, Michael Shulman, Fred Williams, Megan Desnoyers, Holly Owen, Drew Middleton, Betty Kelly, Mary Beth Whelan, Theresa Dellegrazie, Laura Watts, Kendra Kabasele, Matthew Lutts, Denis Reggie, Norman Currie, Bob Cosenza, Richard B. Stolley, William Johnson, Zoe Andersen, Barry Schenck, Debbie Goodsite, Ray Whelan Jr., and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Phillips Academy, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Rockefeller Library at Brown University, Columbia University Oral History Project, Sotheby’s, the Robin Hood Foundation, Reaching Up, the United States Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New York Public Library, the Butler Library at Columbia University and Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, the Redwood Library and Atheneum of Newport, the Barnstable Public Library, the Georgetown University Library, the Gunn Memorial Library, the Archdiocese of Boston, the Archdiocese of New York, St. Thomas More Church, the Hotel Carlyle, Essex County Airport, Martha’s Vineyard Airport, the Silas Bronson Library, the Southbury Library, the Brookfield Library, the Bancroft Library at the University of California–Berkeley, the New Milford Library, the New York University Law Library, Corbis, Rex USA, the Coqueran Group, Planned Television Arts, Barraclough Carey Productions, The Folding Kayak, the United States Coast Guard, St. David’s School, Collegiate, the Cape Cod Times, the Litchfield Business Center, the Edgartown Library, Reuters, Globe Photos, the Associated Press.