Chapter Thirteen
1 The Rat Pack was originally founded by actor Humphrey Bogart in the mid-1950s. Its membership included fellow actors David Niven, the hard-living Errol Flynn, and Frank Sinatra. Bogart’s wife, actress Lauren Bacall, noted that their drunken escapades reminded her of a pack of rats, thus the name. When Bogart died in 1957, Sinatra transformed the group into a new collection focused around his personal friends.
2 Kennedy’s Convair 240 was the first private aircraft utilized by a presidential candidate, allowing him freedom to travel without concern for commercial airline schedules. Joseph Kennedy bought the plane from American Airlines in 1959 and had it refitted for his son’s personal use. Caroline revolutionized campaigning. Since 1960 it has become common for a candidate to travel by private aircraft rather than commercial.
3 The quote is by Gianni Russo, a Mafioso in the employ of Frank Costello who also played the role of Carlo Rizzi in The Godfather.
4 This is not the first time Campbell and Kennedy met, so it was known at the time that JFK had an eye for her. Their first encounter came months earlier at Puccini Restaurant in Beverly Hills. Senator Kennedy was dining with Sinatra when the two spied Campbell sitting with actress Angie Dickinson.
5 Judith Campbell Exner wrote a memoir in 1977 entitled My Story, about her affair with JFK. At first, it was disputed by the Kennedy family, and Campbell weakened the veracity of her claims by changing details of her story several times. But as more details about Kennedy’s womanizing came to light, Campbell’s story turned out to be mostly true—at least according to FBI wiretaps. However, to this day, some historians believe Campbell exaggerated to make money.
6 Nick Sevano, a member of Frank Sinatra’s inner circle, will go on record as stating that JFK also dined with Giancana while still a member of the Senate. “Jack was very respectful to Giancana,” Sevano will recall.