Unveiled At Last: The Secret Jackie!

Love. Money. Style. Fame. Intrigue. Murder. Scandal. Mystery. Privilege. Tragedy. 

They're all there, and more, in the story of one of history's most famous figures -- so famous that her name alone said it all: Jackie.

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis dominated the public's imagination through five decades to the point where her every move seemed to be exhaustively catalogued down to the minutest details. And yet the woman herself appeared to be shrouded in mystery. She grew up in a cosseted world of wealth characterized by penthouses, society soirees, country mansions, private schools, equestrian endeavors, sun, sailboats and European escapes. 

What's not to love, right? But there was also a troubled, reckless alcoholic father; a domineering, social-climbing mother; an envious, cunning sister; a step brother who never got over his infatuation with her and a patrician step father who had his own dark secrets. And we haven't even gotten to her marriages and her time with the Kennedy clan and later, the Onassis family.

Jackie once confessed that her amazingly eventful life actually had three components: public, private and secret. Public was what you saw. Private was what she shared only with close family members and devoted friends. But secret? Secret . . . ? Shelves of books have failed to unlock the secret Jackie. Until now.

Now comes J. Randy Taraborrelli's Jackie: Public, Private, Secret, a richly detailed chronicle of Jackie's life. Taraborrelli, a veteran biographer has written about Jackie, her family, the Kennedys and other celebrities before.

But this book has been decades in the making, is exhaustively researched and eminently fair. At the same time it's intimate, highly readable and unpretentious. Taraborrelli is a wonderful story teller and as this book unfolds in quick, snapshot chapters it's as if you're right there beside Jackie -- right in the moment through all the high points and horrors of her life. 

The author manages to strike that illusive balance: he's sensitive to Jackie's struggles and traumas but clear-minded and objective as well. You get the feeling that if he actually knew Jackie and had been taken into her circle he would have been a wonderful friend and confidante -- the kind who would tell you the truth even when it hurts.

Here are some of the things you'll learn in this book:

• JFK and Jackie made love in their hotel suite on Dallas the night before the president was assassinated. She feel asleep in his arms.
• Jackie and her sister, Lee Radziwill competed for the favor of the same men throughout their lives, but they were very competitive and never shared very well. Their mother, Janet told them to seek out money and power. The sisters became hopelessly estranged.
• Yes, Jackie loved patriarch Joe Kennedy but she became very close to the indomitable Rose Kennedy, greatly admiring her faith and welcoming the blessing that Rose gave to her later union with Ari Onassis.
• It was Onassis' sister, Artemis who befriended Jackie and matched her with her brother feeling that the two would make a good couple. Jackie became devoted to Artemis and trusted her judgement.
• Jackie had numerous suitors after the deaths of JFK and later, Onassis. She was playful and flirtatious. Among her dalliances: David Ormsby Gore (Lord Harlech), Warren Beatty, architect Jack Warnecke, diplomat Roswell Gilpatric, journalist Pete Hamill, photographer Peter Beard and Frank Sinatra.
• From that dreadful day in Dallas onward, Jackie kept up a treasured friendship and written correspondence with her successor, Lady Bird Johnson. The two women were very close and Lady Bird visited Jackie at her estate on Martha's Vineyard. 
• Jackie blamed the non-Hodgkins lymphoma which took her life on a lifelong addiction to tobacco. She was a heavy smoker.

There's much more in the book but by now you're probably wondering about the secret Jackie. It's not a pretty picture, folks. Jackie never got over that day in Dallas when her husband's skull was ripped apart and parts of his brain were splattered on her. She was stalked by the bloody horror of that historic day (magnified by international fame) for the rest of her life. She could never escape it. She had PTSD long before we knew what it was. 

Taraborrelli has done a masterful job. This book is a must read!