Regarding Mimi Alford's book

I have tremendously flip flopped on the merits and substance of the book, as one can tell from my deleted and changed blogs and Amazon reviews LOL :O) I guess I must put aside the skeptic in me and put the best spin on her "tale": it further debunks Blaine's book and corroborates the 4 agents interviewed for Seymour Hersh's book, adding further fuel to the fire for the agents to have disgust over JFK's private life: motive for inaction on 11/22/63

NOW we know why JFK visited NY twice in November 1963...and Blaine's book is further debunked

Once JFK's mistress, N.J. woman tells all in explosive new memoir
Published: Tuesday, February 07, 2012, 7:30 AM
By Amy Ellis Nutt/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger

Mimi Alford (aka Marion Beardsley), a former White House intern, is shown in this file photo. This week, the Rumson native details an affair she had with John F. Kennedy during his term in the early 1960s.
Four days after arriving at the White House as a college intern in the summer of 1962, 19-year-old Rumson native Mimi Beardsley lost her virginity to the President of the United States.

In an explosive and salacious new memoir, "Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and its Aftermath," to be published Wednesday by Random House, Mimi Beardsley Alford describes what she says was an 18-month-long tryst with the most powerful man in the world that ended with JFK’s assassination in November 1963.

Fifty years later, Alford’s book, which was obtained early by the New York Post at a Manhattan bookstore, recounts in detail how the president asked her to join him in a swim at the White House pool just days after arriving in Washington, D.C. He then asked her if she wanted a tour of the family quarters and a short time later seduced her in "Mrs. Kennedy’s room."

"After he finished, he hitched up his pants and smiled at me," she writes in the memoir, after which Kenndey asked her if she wanted anything to eat, then sent her home in a limousine.

Alford, 69, is a wife, mother and grandmother and lives now in Western Massachusetts. The retired Manhattan church administrator came from a well-to-do Monmouth County family, graduated from Rumson County Day School and had her coming out at the Rumson Debutante Ball in September 1961.

Wednesday evening, she appears on NBC’s "Rock Center" with Brian Williams and describes how she fell under the "aura" of JFK. Although he never kissed her on the lips, she says the fact that he chose her made her "feel very special."

"I’m not going to say he loved me," she tells Meredith Vieira in the interview, "but I think he liked me. I think he cared about me."

Alford, who at the time had just finished her freshman year at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, details sexual escapades that included performing oral sex on one of the president’s close aides while Kennedy watched, as well as taking baths with the president.

The relationship continued even after the teenager returned to Wheaton College for her sophomore year. Kennedy would call her using the pseudonym "Michael Carter" and provide car service and a plane ticket for her to visit D.C.

The story of Kennedy’s liaison with a teenager intern first came to light nine years ago when a reference to an affair with a 19-year-old intern was mentioned in the Kennedy biography, "An Unfinished Life," by Robert Dallek. After the New York Daily News identified the previously unknown woman, Alford, who at the time was married to Anthony Fahnestock, publicly admitted she was the intern.

"From June 1962 to November 1963, I was involved in a sexual relationship with President Kennedy," she said at the time in a written statement.

Not until this week, however, has she publicly discussed the affair. According to recently released audiotapes made by historian Arthur Schlesinger in March 1964, four months after Kennedy’s assassination, the First Lady apparently suspected her husband was having an affair but referred to his extramarital escapades as "Jack’s meaningless flings."

Kennedy and his young lover met for the last time at The Carlyle Hotel in New York City on Nov. 15, 1963, seven days before he was shot to death in Dallas.

Before parting, the president embraced her and said, "I wish you were coming with me to Texas," Alford writes. Then he added, "I’ll call you when I get back."

see also
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/jfk-had-intern-too
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Memoir: Mistress Spills Kinky JFK Sex Secrets
Mimi Alford writes of president pressuring her to do drugs during 18-month affair.
By Daniel Politi | Posted Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012, at 2:07 PM ET
Tweet 465MYSLATE Save this story. Follow all articles. Follow The Slatest. Follow stories by Daniel Politi.
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US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy leaves the Saint Stephen Martyr catholic church after attending mass, on October 29, 1962 in Washington DC Photo by STF/AFP/Getty Images
Mimi Alford has officially broken her silence and recounts details of her affair with John F. Kennedy in her memoir, Once Upon a Secret: My Affair With President John F. Kennedy and its Aftermath. The book is to be released Wednesday but the New York Post apparently got a copy at a Manhattan bookstore and reveals lots of salacious details.

Mimi Alford, then Mimi Beardsley, interned at the White House in the summer of 1962, quickly caught the president’s eye. The 19-year-old joined the 45-year-old president for a noon swim four days into her internship. Later that day, he took her virginity in “Mrs. Kennedy’s room.”

“After he finished, he hitched up his pants and smiled at me.” Alford says their sex life was “varied and fun” and describes an affair that was more than just sex. They apparently spent an “inordinate amount of time taking baths” and listened to music together. He confided in her during key personal and professional moments, such as when his infant son died and during the Cuban Missile Crisis. But he never kissed her on the lips.

At one point, during another noon swim, Kennedy allegedly asked Alford to “take care” of an aide. He watched as she performed oral sex on him. Kennedy ended up apologizing to both of them. At a later date, Kennedy asked her to “take care of my baby brother,” meaning Ted Kennedy, during a Democratic fund-raiser. She refused.

Alford also describes a party in Bing Crosby’s desert ranch when “yellow capsules” that were “most likely amyl nitrate” were passed around. The president asked her if she wanted to try it. She said no, but “he just went ahead and popped the capsule and held it under my nose.”

Alford’s identity was first revealed in 2003 when Robert Dallek published portions of a 1964 oral history that described the affair. A press aide had described the affair to a researcher but had asked that it be kept secret. Dallek convinced her to release the interview for his book. The New York Daily News then tracked down Marion Fahnestock, who, faced with a media frenzy, confirmed the affair.

At the time, the late Hugh Sidey, who covered Kennedy at the White House, wrote in Time, confirming that “there was a Mimi,” quickly adding: “there was also a Pam, a Priscilla, a Jill (actually, two of them), a Janet, a Kim, a Mary and a Diana I can think of offhand.”

In 2009, the New York Times wrote that Alford was working on a memoir. Random House’s executive editor said she bought the book after seeing 20 pages, noting it would have “an extraordinary heart and soul.” The editor also insisted that Alford’s “just not that type of person, where she’s going to spill her guts about intimate stuff for the whole country to see.”

ANOTHER great review for "Within Arm's Length"!

GET THIS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE-AMAZING!

Dan Emmett has hit a literary home run with "Within Arm's Length": simply put, this is the best book ever written on the Secret Service. What's more, Emmett knows about what he is writing about, having served in the agency from 1983-2004. Get this asap! Best book on the agency since 1865 and the book of the year!

Within Arm's Length: The Extraordinary Life and Career of a Special Agent in the United States Secret Service

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Work, February 3, 2012
By Brenda (Ohio) - See all my reviewsThis review is from: Within Arm's Length: The Extraordinary Life and Career of a Special Agent in the United States Secret Service (Paperback)
Dan Emmett documented an interesting and honest account of his important responsibilities and accomplishmets within the Secret Service. Mr. Emmett brought us through the "ups and downs" of what agents go through with their personal lives and family due to mandatory transfers, long working hours and the overall stress of constantly working both protection and investigaions. The author's writing method, while serious, also maintained a sense of humor throughout the book indicating that his flexibility and optimistic attitude brought him through many difficult times. I enjoyed this book and highly recommend reading it for anyone who desires insight into what is behind the curtain of the U.S. Secret Service.

A Message For Gerald Blaine

Your book failed miserably*---as usual, the people have spoken; NOTHING has changed:

YAHOO international POLL 2/1/12:
Do you believe JFK was killed by one shooter?

Poll Choice Options Yes, there was no conspiracy. No, the truth's been covered up.

See results »

Do you believe JFK was killed by one shooter?


Yes, there was no conspiracy.

27%


No, the truth's been covered up.

73%
Thank you for voting
.
200,000+ votes [and counting]

*and this doesn't even deal with the substantive issues that have been debunked IN your book

Have a nice day! :O)

Vince
P.S. I attempted to speak again (for the third time) to former JFK agent Larry Newman, whom you decided to avoid speaking to for your book. He told me that I am "crazier than a shithouse rat", so someone is on your side haha :)

Chilling tape from Air Force One on day JFK shot

It's been nearly a half-century since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.


But new information from that day in Dallas has just been released -- audiotape of conversations between Air Force One and Washington.


For the first time, the complete audio record of the flight back from Dallas to Washington is available to the public online, from the National Archives, for free.


It helps to fill in the record of that day of sorrow, confusion and fear.


"Gonna put Mrs. Rose Kennedy on the line now," one voice can be heard saying.


Lyndon Johnson, newly sworn-in as president of the United States, and his wife, Ladybird, attempted to console President Kennedy's mother.


"I wish to God," Lyndon Johnson said, "there was something that I could do. And I wanted to tell you that we are grieving with you."


"Thank you very much," Rose Kennedy responded. "Thank you very much. I know you loved Jack. And he loved you."


"Mrs. Kennedy," Ladybird said, "We just wanted to -- we feel like we've lost..."


"Thank you very much," Rose Kennedy repeated." Then, goodbyes all-around.



Secretary of State Dean Rusk and other cabinet members were over the Pacific in an aircraft code-named Wayside. They had just turned back from a trip to Asia when the White House confirmed their worst fears.


"This is the (White House) Situation Room. Relay following to Wayside. We have report quoting that the president is dead, that he died about 35 minutes ago."


The full audio of transmissions from White House Communications Agency (which captured the tapes) that day includes 42 minutes edited out of the original public version. It's likely to peak the interest of conspiracy theorists who are already asking why this material was cut out of the original.


Then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Curtis LeMay had been a frequent opponent of Kennedy's. His whereabouts on the day of the assassination has always been a mystery.


In the newly public audio, we learn that LeMay was airborne, even as JFK's body was being flown back to Washington. And an aide to LeMay tried urgently to reach his boss.


"General LeMay," the aide said, "is in a C 140. ... He's inbound. His code name is Grandson. And I wanna talk to him. ... If you can't work him now, it's gonna be too late, because he'll be on the ground in a half-hour."


Historian Robert Dallek suggests doubters will wonder if the aide's comments about not reaching LeMay within 30 minutes may be "too late" could have some sinister meaning. "I'd doubt these tapes will put the conspiracy theory to rest," he says. "They continue to believe it was a conspiracy and again, they just can't accept the proposition that a lone wolf, a single, and someone as dysfunctional as Lee Harvey Oswald, could have carried off this assassination of the president." [oh, shut up, Dallek---sure, lone nuts shoot at presidents (Hinckley), but there is an overwhelming amount of evidence of conspiracy in the death of JFK. See Doug Horne's 5-volume set]


At the end of that fateful day, the body of the fallen president arrived in Washington -- and the new president made a promise to the nation.


"I will do my best," Johnson said, "That is all I can do. I ask for your help and God's."


The complete audio record of the flight back to Washington was lost for years until the estate of JFK's top military aide, Army Gen. Chester "Ted" Clifton Jr., sold his copy of the tapes to The Raab Collection, historical document dealers, which gave a copy of the audio to the National Archives.

Jack Walsh, 79, Secret Service agent who guarded JFK’s family

Jack Walsh, 79, Secret Service agent who guarded JFK’s family


Jack Walsh was a relatively new Secret Service agent when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and he soon was assigned to protect Jacqueline Kennedy and her two young children, Caroline and John Jr.

“Those were difficult times,’’ said Jim Christian, a retired special agent in charge with the Secret Service. “The nation was in mourning, she was probably the most important person in the United States, and the country pretty much adopted the children.’’

The assignment brought Mr. Walsh more than the standard chores of missing his children’s birthdays so he could guard the children of America’s Camelot. As fascination with the Kennedys increased, writers sought him out to see if he would share secrets.


“We would get repeated calls from people writing the unauthorized Kennedy books. He wouldn’t take a call,’’ said Mr. Walsh’s son David, of Cincinnati. “Whatever happened behind the walls at the Kennedy compound, stayed behind those walls.’’[Hmmm--I first became aware of the name Jack Walsh from an interview he gave with the tabloid The Globe right after Jackie's death in May 1994-VMP]

Mr. Walsh, who became agent in charge of protecting the late president’s children and was so well loved by the family that he was a pallbearer at the funeral of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, died in his home of cancer Thursday. He was 79 and had lived in Milton for more than 40 years.

“Jack had one of the more difficult jobs in the Secret Service,’’ Christian said. “He had to keep Washington happy and that meant keeping the children safe, and it also meant keeping her happy. That was an enormous balancing act.’’

When the president’s widow lived in New York City, she “wanted to keep those children safe, but she also wanted them to have normal lives,’’ Christian said. “The desire was that the children and their friends would not see the agents, but the agents had the responsibility of not letting anything happen. With all the other protectees, you were right there. Here, you were trying to stay out of the way, sometimes on busy New York streets.’’

Mr. Walsh, he said, “did it all, and he did it well.’’

Despite efforts to fade into the scenery, Mr. Walsh occasionally showed up in books by and about the Kennedys, or on the Globe’s front page, as he did May 17, 1965. In a photo, John Kennedy Jr. runs joyously down a street in England as a smiling Mr. Walsh towers over him, keeping pace.

Sarah Bradford’s 2000 book, “America’s Queen,’’ quoted a letter Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis wrote in 1967 about a trip to Ireland. She thought she was swimming alone on the coast when a current threatened to sweep her away.

“I was becoming exhausted, swallowing water and slipping past the spit of land, when I felt a great porpoise at my side,’’ she wrote. “It was Mr. Walsh. He set his shoulder against mine and together we made the spit.’’

She recommended that the Secret Service award Mr. Walsh its highest commendation and requested that he lead the detail protecting the family.

“He was fiercely loyal and loved loyalty more than anything else,’’ said Geoffrey Kierstead, a friend and retired Secret Service agent. “And he was so loyal to the Kennedy family.’’

The feeling was mutual. Raymond L. Flynn, a former mayor of Boston, knew Mr. Walsh and his family since their childhoods in South Boston.

“I was in New York jogging one day through Central Park, and Jacqueline Kennedy was there,’’ he said. “She was sitting by herself trying not to be noticed, but I recognized her. I went over and introduced myself and said, ‘I’m a friend of Jackie Walsh.’ I ended up sitting with her for 45 minutes. All she wanted to do was talk about him.’’

John F. Walsh grew up in South Boston and, despite traveling the world with the Kennedys, never really left.

Photos of Southie hang in his Milton home. He attended Gate of Heaven Church in South Boston and its high school.

When he served in Korea with the Marines, he answered the obligatory “where you from’’ with: “Gate of Heaven.’’ Pressed to provide more, he would add: “I and 8th,’’ the street corner close by his family’s home.

Mr. Walsh was part of the Aces, a street gang from the days when pride was the weapon young guys wielded.

“He was known as Jack Walsh, I and 8th, one of the Aces,’’ David said. “He hadn’t lived in Southie for a long, long time, but you’d never know it.’’

Standing several inches above 6 feet, Mr. Walsh started going gray while still in high school.

“He had silver hair at 18 years old,’’ said his son John II, of Milton.

After returning home from Korea, Mr. Walsh graduated from Suffolk University and worked at City Hall until he became a Secret Service agent.

When the Kennedy children were too old for Secret Service protection, Mr. Walsh switched to the Boston office and coordinated protection when Pope John Paul II visited Boston in 1979. The Walsh family was up front during Mass, receiving Communion from the pope.

In 1963, Mr. Walsh married Ann Welch, whom he always called “my Ann.’’ Family was so important that while guarding the Kennedys in New York, he sometimes drove to Milton just to spend the night, and headed back the next day.

As if to make up for holidays and birthdays he missed while on duty, in retirement “he went to every one of his grandchildren’s games,’’ David said.

In addition to his wife and two sons, Mr. Walsh leaves a daughter, Maura Walsh-Hammer of Hingham; another son, Matthew of New York City; a brother, Joseph of Hyde Park; a sister, Ellen Concannon of South Boston; and nine grandchildren

A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. today in Gate of Heaven Church in South Boston. Burial will be in Milton Cemetery.

When his illness progressed, Mr. Walsh “had three requests: ‘I want to die in my bedroom, I want to be waked at O’Brien’s Funeral Home in South Boston, and I want my funeral at Gate of Heaven,’ ’’ David said.

Mr. Walsh may have spent years training his watchful gaze on those who made history, but in the end his own past was most important.

“The best praise is when the people you grew up with and lived with respect you,’’ Flynn said. “That’s the greatest tribute that Jackie got. He traveled with presidents, popes, and prime ministers, but the people who love him the most are the people he grew up with.’’