Tuesday, February 7, 2012

More JKF and Mimi cause it's fun

There is a file from the sealed oral history that led to the revelation of Mimi's affair with JFK at The Smoking Gun. Go here and click on "view the document" and then settle in for a fascinating read. (my first post on this subject is here.)

There are a couple of really intriguing details of the chronology that the transcript doesn't fill out but it sure makes you more curious about the details. Mimi began as an intern after her freshman year at Wheaton. So she's 19 then, which means that she was, well, younger when she first met JFK while a student at Miss Porter's School. How much younger? Well, that's a good question and I hope someone from the press asks Ms. Alford and also asks her whether anything untoward happened in that earlier encounter.

And I wonder about "Priscilla". Who is Priscilla you ask? Well, I could venture a guess and you could too after a little Googling but I wouldn't want to commit in print without being absolutely sure. It's another one of those questions you can't help but think the press ought to be looking into a bit more closely. Why? Well, not just because she also appears to have had sex with the president but because she was doing other stuff that while I'm sure it wasn't, could, by someone less charitable than me, be taken to be really not nice.

Well follow the trail with me a bit.

The document at The Smoking Gun is a transcript of part of an interview by Diane Michaelis of  Barbara Gamarekian, an aide working for Kennedy. "Priscilla" makes her first appearance on page eight of the seventeen page excerpt. The first "she" here is Mimi on her visit while still a high school student and, presumably, still a minor.



Now you kind of have to wonder two things:
  1. Is this true?
  2. If it is true, what exactly is Priscilla's role in these things? 
Particularly as we soon learn that Mimi had absolutely no skills for the internship. She couldn't type. All she knew how to do was answer the phone and take messages, not a rare skill. So why would Priscilla "who was one of the younger girls" be "referring" her for the position.

And then we learn that there were a few girls doing ah, "special duties" for Kennedy. And, what is more, they seem to have gotten on rather well with one another. Back to the transcript (page 6 of 17).




I like the "marvelous example of sharing" and that the girls all had the same "world outlook". The complete lack of jealousy is fascinating. Remember that Ms. Alford's story is that she was "smitten" by the man who wouldn't even kiss her, like she was some sort of prostitute or something, and ask yourself if this account makes her claim seem more or less credible to you?

More importantly, though, is to note that that excerpt tells us that Kennedy had not just Mimi but a whole group of girls doing him favours and even that they were doing this sort of thing for several other men in the White House. Perhaps even the odd gentleman of the press was involved?

What's the right collective noun for a group of women who provide sex to men as part of some sort of clandestine professional relationship? I've heard the word "stable" used but shrink from such a thing myself.

Anyway, back to Priscilla Queen of the Night. There is another mention of her in the transcript. Let's go to page 16 of 17.



Well, well, well. And if we read on, we learn that Barbara Gamarekian is surprised that Jacqueline Kennedy would mention this to a journalist, but not all surprised at the suggestion that Priscilla is having sex with him.

So let's review the testimony. If Barbara Gamarekian is correct, Mimi stayed with Priscilla on Mimi's first visit to the White House as a teenager and, based on her assessment of Mimi, who had zero useful skills for an internship, Priscilla invited her to return. I think we can also assume that Priscilla also spoke to someone else (Mr. Powers? The President?) for it seems unlikely that she, as one of the "younger girls", had the ability to pull the strings necessary to get Mimi granted an internship that she hadn't even applied for. That sounds a lot like well ... it sounds like something the press should be killing themselves to fill out. Why the staggering lack of curiousity?

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