Secrets Of Camelot

"Sons of Camelot: The Fate of an American Dynasty," Laurence Leamer's third book about the Kennedy family, focuses on the younger generation of Kennedy men. In this photo, the son, brothers and cousins of Michael Kennedy carry his casket after his funeral Jan. 3, 1998. He was killed a few days before in a skiing accident.

Among the Kennedys, the Shrivers are the only ones who managed to stay intact as a family: "They had a loving mother and father. The others didn't have it. Either they died tragically or divorced or died." Here, Sargent Shriver, right, stands with his family and their pets at their home in Maryland. From left to right, are: Bobby, 10; Timothy, 4; Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who holds 4-month-old Mark; Maria, 8, and Shriver.

It's an open secret that President John F. Kennedy had extramarital affairs during his time in office. The biography, "An Unfinished Life" by historian Robert Dallek, suggests one of those relationships was with a White House intern.

Marion (Mimi) Fahnestock, now a grandmother who lives and works in New York City, has admitted that she had a sexual relationship with Kennedy from June 1962 to November 1963, starting when she was 19. Here is a photo of JFK when he was about the same age.

Fahnestock, shown here in May 2003, caught JFK's eye during a trip to Washington to interview the first lady for her school newspaper. The affair lasted for 17 months, ending two months after Fahnestock became engaged to investment banker Anthony Fahnestock, and just weeks before Kennedy was assassinated. She and Fahnestock married in January 1964 and later divorced. He died in 1993.

In "An Unfinished Life," Dallek reports the recollections of Barbara Gamarekian, a former White House aide, concerning the president's affair with a college student who worked in the press office despite a lack of clerical skills. She says the beautiful unpaid employee was only used for Kennedy's sexual gratification.

Gamarekian told of hearing thirdhand that President Kennedy, while on a trip to Ireland, received a phone call from Mimi, during which she tearfully reported that an older woman in the White House office where she worked had refused to let her take a day off. The president was said to have been furious with the coworker. Here, Kennedy is shown watching a playback of a televised appearance, April 3, 1960.

Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy, arm-in-arm in Milwaukee, Wis., April 5, 1960. According to the oral history, a French reporter who was taken on a White House tour by Mrs. Kennedy in the early '60s was startled when the first lady indicated a young girl in one of offices and said, in French, "This is the girl who supposedly is sleeping with my husband."

Lt. Kennedy receives the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps medal for heroic conduct from Capt. Frederic L. Conklin June 12, 1944. JFK used his father's connections to get assigned to active duty. Says Dallek, "He was determined to get into combat. It was part of the culture at the time, patriotism. But he was heroic in doing that."

Historian Dallek received unprecedented access to Kennedy's medical records. "If it weren't for the medicines," he says, "I don't think he could have been president." He was given Last Rites three times before he turned 40. Here, Kennedy is shown leaning from an open convertible to shake hands with employees of the Borg Warner plant near Muncie, Ind., Oct. 5, 1960.

Kennedy sits in his favorite rocking chair during a meeting with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House March 16, 1961. Says Dallek, "I could not fathom how someone could get through the day with the kind of difficulty and pain that this man lived with."

In yet another book, "Mr. S.," Frank Sinatra's former valet writes that he saw President Kennedy and actor Peter Lawford snorting cocaine together at Lawford's home in California. He said JFK told him, "For my back, George." Here, JFK is shown with Sinatra at the Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 1961.

The limousine carrying mortally wounded President Kennedy races toward the hospital seconds after he was shot Nov. 22, 1963. Dallek says the back brace the president was wearing that day may have sealed his doom, because the first bullet "would have knocked him over if it weren't for the back brace. But it held him upright. And so the second bullet that found the back of his head killed him."