Jacqueline Kennedy, in telephone conversation with Marilyn Monroe, offered to divorce President Kennedy if the actress agreed to marry him and move into the White House, says a new biography of the former first lady.
The book also says the president once sneaked away for a sexual liaison without telling the Secret Service or taking the list of codes he needed in the event of a nuclear attack.The book by C. David Heymann, "A Woman Named Jackie," will be serialized beginning Monday in the weekly Star, a supermarket tabloid.
The Star reports in its April 18 edition that later excerpts will include disclosures about amphetamine use by the Kennedys in the White House.
Heymann, also author of "Poor Little Rich Girl: The Life and Legend of Barbara Hutton," said that he obtained Secret Service, FBI and CIA files through the Freedom of Information Act and that he and his researchers conducted 825 interviews. He also had access to Mrs. Kennedy's White House social files.
Monroe, who has been romantically linked with the president, told Kennedy's brother-in-law Peter Lawford that she had called Mrs. Kennedy at the White House, according to the first part of the series.
"According to Marilyn, Jackie wasn't shaken by the call. Not outwardly. She agreed to step aside. She would divorce Jack, and Marilyn could marry him, but she would have to move into the White House. If Marilyn wasn't prepared to live openly in the White House, she might as well forget about it," Law-ford was quoted as saying.
"Actually, Jackie was infuriated by the call and for some reason blamed Frank Sinatra for it. She couldn't easily blame me because I was family, so she took it out on him. Sinatra was no longer welcome at the White House, or in any of the other Kennedy bastions," said Lawford, who since has died.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' spokeswoman, Nancy Tuckerman, said Friday that Onassis had no comment.
The charges about Kennedy sneaking away from the Secret Service were made by Langdon Marvin Jr., a former defense consultant to Kennedy.
The book said Marvin and Kennedy sneaked out of the Hotel Carlyle in New York to attend a party at a townhouse across the street, the book says.
"Within minutes, Jack had made his choice of partners and gone off with her to her apartment. Moments later, the Secret Service arrived. Where was the president? Nobody knew. " The agent paled.
"On the street in front of the townhouse stood an Army lieutenant with an attache case handcuffed to his wrist. Jack was off making love, and the bagman with the black satchel had been left behind." Marvin was quoted as saying.