This is Part 2 in a series of articles written by me, Mike Sylwester, based on a new book, Nemesis, written by Peter Evans. (Part 1)
In January 1954 Aristotle Onassis signed a secret agreement with Saudi Arabiaâs finance minister. The agreement basically said that Onassis would provide Saudi Arabia with its own fleet of oil tankers. Saudi Arabia expected that its ownership of such a fleet would help that country to become independent of Western petroleum companies, to earn a fuller share of profits, and eventually to nationalize the entire industry on its territory. Onassis expected to earn hundreds of millions of dollars for his role in the arrangement.
Despite the secrecy, however, the US Government soon learned of the deal and during the following months employed a variety of methods to undermine it. The US Justice Department found fault with Onassisâs past purchases of oil tankers and subsequently seized his tankers and also money he had earned from those tankers. In February 1954 the Justice Department arrested Onassis himself and charged him with criminal conspiracy to buy the tankers illegally. The State Department pressured the Saudi government to disassociate itself from Onassis. Arrangements were made for Peru to seize nine of Onassisâ whaling ships. One of Onassisâs business associates was pressured to sue Onassis for swindling him out of $200,000 and to accuse Onassis of paying a $350,000 bribe to the Saudi finance minister. Eventually in October 1954 King Saud decided not to assign the agreement, which therefore became void. All these developments almost bankrupted Onassis.
Most of Onassisâ anger about the collapse of the Saudi deal was misdirected toward Robert Kennedy, who in 1954 was a 29-year-old attorney working on the staff of a Senate subcommittee. One of Kennedyâs investigations for the subcommittee had raised accusations about shipping business that some Greek companies conducted with Red China, but this issue did not involve Onassis in particular. Kennedy did not play any apparent role in the seizure of Onassisâs assets or in his arrest. The business associate who sued Onassis hired as an expert witness an accountant who had worked for Robertâs father Joseph Kennedy for many years, but that accountant had no direct association with Robert Kennedy himself.
In fact Robert Kennedy had nothing at all to do with the US Governmentâs discovery of Onassisâs Saudi deal. The CIA station in Athens had been informed about it by another Greek shipper, Stavros Niarchos, who was Onassisâs brother-in-law (the two men were married to two sisters). Niarchos had heard about the deal from Onassisâ wife Tina, who was involved in a love affair with Niarchos.
In order to protect the real source of its information, the CIA cleverly encouraged Onassisâ initial reaction that the deal had been exposed during Kennedyâs investigation of the Greek shippers who did business with Red China. For example, the accountant of Robert Kennedyâs father was apparently moved into and out of the lawsuit in order to inflame Onassisâ suspicions about Kennedyâs role in the matter. Niarchos himself certainly collaborated in the continuing effort to divert Onassisâ anger away from himself and onto Kennedy. And in the following years Kennedy himself publicly criticized Onassis on many occasions, which further enraged Onassis.
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In the early 1960s Onassis became closely involved in several business enterprises with a fellow Greek ex-patriot, Spyros Skouras, who had immigrated to the United States in 1912. Skouras became a movie producer and during that career, he clashed angrily several times with Joseph Kennedy, who was also a movie producer. In May 1962 Skourasâ movie studio was losing millions of dollars in the filming of Cleopatra and Somethingâs Got to Give. The latter movie starred Marilyn Monroe, who was extraordinarily capricious and absent during the filming. In conversations with Onassis, Skouras blamed Monroeâs misbehavior on Robert Kennedy, her secret lover. Skouras knew about this affair (and about Monroeâs earlier affair with John Kennedy) and informed Onassis.
Exasperated by the problems and losses caused by these two films, Skouras decided to leave the movie business and to establish a shipping business. Onassis invested $10 million in Skourasâ shipping business, which intended to introduce new loading and unloading technology that would require far fewer longshoremen. Because of this manpower issue, Onassis became involved in negotiations with Jimmy Hoffa, the chief of the Teamsters labor union and also a hater of Robert Kennedy, who was then the US Attorney General.
During this same time, Onassis began a love affair with Lee Radziwill, the younger sister of Jacqueline Kennedy. Lee and her husband Prince Stanislas Radziwill were each divorced from previous spouses when they married each other, so they married in a civil wedding instead of a Roman Catholic wedding. Since John Kennedy was now President of the United States, Robert Kennedy used the familyâs prestige to try to convince the Catholic Church to annul the Radziwillsâ previous marriages. This effort (and the Kennedy familyâs reputation) was endangered by publicity about Leeâs affair with Onassis, and so Robert Kennedy phoned Onassis directly and asked him to stay away from Lee. Onassis responded with the words, "Bobby, you and Jack fuck your movie queen [Monroe] and Iâll fuck my princess [Radziwill]." Onassis thus revealed to Robert Kennedy that he knew about the Kennedy-Monroe affairs, which were still very secret.
Also during this same time, Hoffa learned (perhaps from Onassis) about the Kennedy brothersâ affairs with Monroe and so he bugged Monroeâs home and telephones to record related conversations. Through these recordings, Hoffa learned that Monroe and Robert Kennedy had met in Monroeâs home on August 4, 1962, a few hours before she died of an overdose and that some of Kennedyâs associates had subsequently entered her house during the period between her death and the notification of the police. Hoffa apparently hinted to Onassis about the existence of these tape recordings, since Onassis asked Monroeâs publicist whether he knew anything about them, offering to pay big money to buy them.
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During the following months Robert Kennedy communicated subtle threats in order to pressure Onassis to stay away from Lee Radziwill. The main thrust of these threats was that Kennedy would exploit his position as US Attorney General to cause legal problems for Onassis and his businesses. This pressure backfired, as Onassis arranged for Radziwill to live blatantly with him on his yacht. The feud escalated dramatically in September 1963, when Jackie herself also moved onto the yacht for a few weeks in order to convalesce from a miscarriage. Robert Kennedy responded by continuing his subtle threats against Onassis, and Onassis responded by seducing Jacqueline on the yacht.
Refreshed by her affair with Onassis, Jacqueline returned to the White House. A few weeks later, on November 22, 1963, John Kennedy was assassinated. At Jacquelineâs invitation, Onassis came and stayed in the White House during the funeral days. Robert Kennedy confronted Onassis in the White House, and they eventually engaged in a ridiculous argument that embarrassed Onassis in front of the other guests. Kennedy wrote up a written statement for Onassis to sign, promising to donate half of his wealth to the poor, and Onassis signed the paper with Greek words that nullified the promise.
In the months following the assassination, Jacqueline wanted to quickly marry Onassis, but this desire was discouraged by Robert Kennedy, who now headed the Kennedy family. Robert Kennedy managed to prevent the marriage as long as he lived. He was assassinated on June 5, 1968. Onassis then married Jacqueline on October 20. To be continued.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/08/2004 11:49:33 PM ||
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