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Remembering JFK, Jr.
Ten years after the prince of Camelot died in a tragic plane crash with his beautiful wife and sister-in-law, The Daily Beast looks back at his life in photographs. Plus, read little known details about his life.
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• On the 10th anniversary of the plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette and her sister, a look back provides a reminder of a man who went from reflecting a nation's sorrow to becoming an object of its fascination.
• While at Brown University, JFK Jr. was "just one of the guys" despite his special place in the annals of American history. While he may have exuded an effortless charm, the dark side of life as a Kennedy was just below the surface. When JFK Jr. went to parties, he would always duck out when the Rolling Stone's "Sympathy For The Devil" was played (The song famously asks the question, "who killed the Kennedys?").
• A lifelong family friend, Billy Noonan, said JFK Jr. never spoke of his father's assassination.
• Jackie O had sheltered her son from Washington, DC until he went college. In a New Yorker story, John Updike related an anecdote about a grown-up JFK Jr. at a White House reception. "JFK Jr. was asked: "'Do you remember this place?' The answer came: 'Only vaguely.' (He then) asked, 'Do you want to come back?' John Kennedy Jr., smiled, and repeated, 'Only vaguely.'"
• After college, JFK Jr. famously failed the NY bar exam twice (The Hunk Who Flunked!) before succeeding on the third try. According to Time magazine, while working for the D.A. in New York City, he admitted that he at times sympathized with the downtrodden defendants he was meant to be prosecuting.
• In 1988, JFK. Jr was named the Sexiest Man Alive at age 27. When Barbara Walters asked him what he thought about the label, he replied, "people can say a lot worse things about you than you are attractive and you look good in a bathing suit."
• JFK Jr. founded the short-lived magazine, "George." Eulogizing him in The New Yorker, John Updike noted that George's subject matter was a perfect fit. "Politics as celebrity: who knew more about it than he?"
• JFK Jr. had to learn his craft on the fly and occasionally his temper would flare. Some of his staff recalled him and the magazine's president having knock-down screaming fights that escalated to wrestling matches. Still, his charm kept his staff happy; Time reported that he was known to splurge on Yankee box seats for the whole staff, or demand that they all go play a game of touch football in Central Park in spite of a looming deadline.
• In the end, it was JFK Jr.'s personality that sold copies of George. He was a reckless adventurer. with a love of the outdoors. He paraglided, scuba dived, and even tried to rappel down Mt. Rushmore before he was rebuffed by park officials. It was his penchant for adventure that made his loved ones expect him to have survived the plane crash in 1999.
• After the crash, rumors of drug use resurfaced, as posthumous muckraking reported JFK Jr.'s supposed porn and drug habits, along with his wife's alleged cocaine use. In the book "The Kennedy Curse," JFK Jr. came home to his apartment to find his wife snorting coke with "a crowd of gay fashionistas." John, enraged, shouted at his wife, "You're a cokehead!"
• Numerous reports said JFK Jr. and Bessette's relationship was on the rocks in the weeks leading up to the crash. Supposedly, Bessette insisted on getting a two-hour manicure before takeoff; A delay that caused the plane to fly into rough weather.
• Jackie O had a recurring premonition that her son would die in a plane crash, and begged him to abandon the hobby. "The Kennedy Curse" revealed an even more chilling detail, JFK Jr. left a note to his instructors at the flight academy where he trained: "People will only care where I got my training if I crash. Best, John Kennedy."
Compiled by Stephen Rex Brown.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Junior had the true stuff of greatness: enormous wealth, looks and fame. Not all of us could overcome such hurdles to the fulfillment of our potential.
Wow. Interesting that JFK, Jr. never spoke of his father's assassination. One of the most evil acts in history that happened in broad daylight and was witnessed by millions, yet the mystery remains - or at least a satisfactory resolution to the mystery. Maybe he sensed a closeness of the evil perpetrated upon his father, but asking too many questions could be dangerous to his health, as well.
I met him once, at an event in NYC circa 1994. He was positively radiant. Photographs do not do him justice. There was this aura around him, a glow. The smile, the charisma, the charm... the playful confidence... WOW. He was god-like. To have been in his presence and experienced that magic is a gift I will never forget. Thank you for the kindness you showed us mere mortals. RIP, dear John.
The cult of personality.
Cute as a button he was.
Who cares?
Seriously, who does? I want to slap you for frivolousness.
This cant be serious.
Why dont you run a look back on John Eric Hexum or some other long dead fluff head.
don't read the "fluff" stories, problem solved
Truly, StreetProse! The Daily Beast provides a variety of topics, and I am so sick of people who troll into the non-politics articles and decide to insult those who do care about them.
Lord(Rotten)Egg -- this was a child who grew up in the spotlight, and millions cared about him because tragedy befell him at the age of 3, and why be an a##, seriously?
Little known, excruciatingly boring details.
Jeez hatas, lighten up...it's not the umpteenth Lindsey Lohan story. Some celebrity/politics/history hybrid stories are of actual interest to most Americans...his image at the funeral is seared in our psyche. Back the eff off.
I might remind the Peanut Gallery here that the man has died. Your bitter reply at the deceased should go well on your own tombstone.
The power, behind the power, was certainly evident in the case of JFK, Jr. Jacki O was one of America's most cultured and charming national figures. Her imprint on JFK, Jr. was profound. His early death was tragic, but whenever I saw JFK, Jr. he reminded me more of Jackie than JFK.
This was one of the saddest events in history. I really couldn't believe it had happened - poor Caroline Kennedy, I don't know how she survived, losing both parents and her only brother. I used to love seeing the all the pictures that would surface of him biking around central park, riding the subway or running down the beach. It wasn't just that he was gorgeous to look at, he was also someone who looked like he was having a great time and enjoyed being alive.
I remember when he was still alive I couldn't believe it. I periodically pinched myself, and thought: "John John is still alive. This can't be right. Surely something evil is waiting in the wings for him." He was a Kennedy, and so beautiful he had to end tragically. When he died, it was like the other shoe dropped. It was almost as if I'd been waiting for it. I grieved, but I wasn't surprised. I was only relieved that his mother died first so she didn't have to experience that loss. Could you imagine her surviving it/?? But my heart ached for Caroline. That poor girl. I loved the two of them my whole life.
I do know that his wife or his sister-in-law futzed around and wasted time, and made them take off in that plane after dark when they otherwise wouldn't have had to. I've always been frustrated by that, and by John's own sense of invincibility and his foolhardiness. He had no idea how important it was to the rest of us, and how much we wished that he PLEASE take steps to prevent an untimely passing. And then he did not, so we all had to lose him.
I remember when they found that suitcase that washed up on shore. I remember Christiane Amanpour (a roommate of his in college) so desperately believing he was alive, and sharing a story about John Kennedy Jr. cleaning toilets in the house they shared with several others in college. He was so loved by his friends he had to have been a great guy.
God bless you John. You, like your dad, are preserved forever young.
Born to immense wealth and privilege. Had everything he ever wanted. Died fairly young. Who cares? Not me.
And the Sympathy For The Devil snippet: who makes up this stuff? I'm sure it just so happened to be playing at every party he attended during college, Give me a friggin break.
I liked the article. Maybe that's because I was a product of 1963 and can remember what it felt like to be a child then. Come on! Wasn't every Mom interested in emulating Jackie Kennedy or Audre Hepburn?
Who wouldn't go and check out the game... this isn't about celebrity... it's about being a part of history. Participating in a collective. It's a way of uniting us perhaps at a deeper level than just fashion or celebrity.
Each decade has their own:
JFK and Marilyn
Lennon, Lady Di, now Michael
Side note: In the late 80's all colleges in the NE had two prequiste songs to play during a party-Sympathy for the Devil and NY,NY. I went to Boston College and had high school friends who went to Harvard, BU, UCONN, Darmouth and Yale. And those songs were the raged back then. Everytime I hear one of those songs-a wistful smile occurs.
I had high hopes John John would make a great president one day
I remember when he was born. He was a darling little boy. Caroline was very sweet and lovable.
I always read the stories about him and Caroline whenever they popped up in the mainstream press (i.e., not the tabloids). I always wished them well.
For me, the greatest pain on John's death was that Caroline had to endure it.
I was always happy that JFK's children did well in the world.
Thank you.
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