JFK secretly wed socialite: Hersh

LOS ANGELES, November 9: Former US President John F Kennedy secretly married a Palm Beach socialite in 1947 and had scores of affairs in hi...

LOS ANGELES, November 9: Former US President John F Kennedy secretly married a Palm Beach socialite in 1947 and had scores of affairs in his last days in the White House, according to a new book on his Presidency by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.

The book, The dark side of Camelot, which is scheduled to be released tomorrow also alleged that the late President, whose assassination became a national nightmare, had close ties with organised crime, paid up to $2 million in bribes to win a key 1960 primary and was heavily involved in plots to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro.

The book sparked controversy over the authenticity of a set of papers Hersh discovered but has since denounced that purported to show Marilyn Monroe, one of the late President’s many lovers, had tried to blackmail Kennedy. The papers were called forgeries by experts and Hersh said he had “fallen for one of the great scams of all time”.

Hersh said he found an old Kennedy friend to confirm that Kennedy had secretly married socialite Durie Malcolm in 1947, something that has long been denied. The author said in an interview, Charles Spaulding, one of Kennedy’s oldest friends, broke five decades of silence and said he and a friend went to a Palm Beach courthouse a few days after the ceremony and removed all records of it. Hersh claimed that Malcom, who is still living, had denied that the marriage took place.