Comment

The Patriarch

the Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy
Nov 07, 2013StarGladiator rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
I read this book some time back, but thought it unworthy of comment. Before attacking this author, I should state that President Kennedy was the last real democrat in the White House (completely unlike the neocon administrations of Clinton and Obama) and anyone who studies his legislation and programs (before they were incredibly compromised after his murder) will understand what I mean when I state the JFK picked up FDR's torch! Must completely disagree with the author and his flimsy research, Joe Kennedy was a criminal mastermind of the first order, not simply a bootlegger, but in all probability the architect behind Prohibition, first either purchasing or strongarming his way (with the help of the Irish and Sicilian mobs) into a monpoly of distilleries and hooches, and bringing together other bankers (Joe was the youngest bank president in US history at that time) to finance the temperance parties and unions for passage of the Prohibition legislation in 1920. Joseph Kennedy flunked out of prep school and then, being the ultimate scammer, scammed his way into an academic scholarship at Harvard (one of his courses there covered how the vote was given to the women of Seattle in 1883, whereupon the Seattle ladies formed an anti-alcohol/saloon/brothel platform, successfully won, and almost brought Seattle to certain economic disaster. (Seattle's chief businesses then were its saloons and brothels, for gold miners enroute to Alaskan fields. Add to that later John Brainerd's marketing genius of adding Seattle as THE supply point to the miners! (Re: REI) The vote was later withdrawn from the women of Seattle, by the men petitioning the territorial governor. Perhaps that course at Harvard was the impetus for Kennedy's diabolical idea in using Prohibition to dramatically increase his fortunes? The author is exceedingly correct in his descriptions of Joe as being dedicated to his family, and so forth. [When the author falsely states there was nothing to link him, Joe Kennedy, to the Mafia, not only is he clearly incorrect, but anyone familiar with the hearings into organized crime in the unions (back in the late 1950s, believe they were called the Kefauver hearings?) recalls the number of organized crime types who asked Bobby Kennedy, who was part of those hearings and investigations, after his father, Joe, whom they all knew and knew well.]