Just Jackie by Edward Klein (trending books to read TXT) 📕

On the beach in Skorpios. “Jackie is a little bird that needs its freedom as well as its security,” Onassis said, “and she gets both from I me. She can do exactly as she pleases.” (Settimio Garritano Gamma Liaison)

Caroline paints a design on John Jr.’s back. As John grew older, his impulsive behavior, which first became noticeable after the assassination, developed into a serious problem. (Courtesy of Niki Goulandris)

Shopping in the Greek Isles with Niki Goulandris. In many ways, Niki was a Greek replica of Jackie’s best American friend, Bunny Mellon. Both women embroidered life with flowers. (Courtesy of Niki Goulandris)

Jackie in Greece with Onassis’s sister Artemis. “Jackie, you are so young and beautiful,” Artemis told Jackie after the death of Onassis. “Now you need to find a man who will give you some happiness.” (Gamma Liaison)

Jackie and Onassis seated far apart in the back of his limousine. They did not understand each other’s world. She was Catholic, Anglo-Saxon. He was Eastern Orthodox, Mediterranean. (Gamma Liaison)

Jackie with her stepdaughter Christina on the way to Onassis’s funeral. “Christina was angry as hell,” said Onassis’s attorney. “She thought that Jackie was behaving badly by asking for a bigger share of the estate.” (Keystone/Sygma)

A windblown Jackie captured in an off guard moment in New York by paparazzo Ron Galella. She sought privacy by marrying Onassis, but was as exposed and vulnerable as she had been after Kennedy’s assassination. (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Ltd.)

Paparazzo Ron Galella snaps one of the 4,000 pictures he took of Jackie. She suffered an ordeal by the media such as no other woman in this century, with the possible exception of Britain’s Princess Diana, has had to undergo. (Ron Galella Ltd.)

Jackie O with (from left) Liza Minelli, Irving “Swifty” Lazaar, and Bianca)agger. Suddenly Jackie was the new “in” personality to invite and hope to be invited by. “More than anyone else in New York,” wrote Liz Smith, “Jacqueline [typifies] the new society of the metropolitan Eastern Seaboard.” (Sonia Moskowitz)

With Leonard Bernstein and Oliver Smith at Studio 54. Jackie’s friendship with gay men had a profound effect on her outlook. She came to believe that no good would ever come from trying to sanitize or standardize behavior. (Corbis/Bettmann)

With journalist Pete Hamill at a 1977 movie premiere. Hamill embodied many of the bad-boy qualities that attracted Jackie to Kennedy and Onassis. But Hamill also represented a break with the past. He was both masculine and sensitive. (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Ltd.)

With constant compainon Maurice Tempelsman on the way to a Kennedy Library fundraiser. They made no attempt to disguise their living arrangements, though visitors noticed that Tempelsman occupied the guest room, not Jackie’s bedroom. (Brian Quigley/Outline)

The Bouvier sisters enjoy a reunion in Montauk, Long Island. Lee blamed Jackie for meddling in her life. The breach between the sisters became so great that it never completely healed. (Peter Beard/The Time Is Always Now Inc.)

At a bookstore in Vineyard Haven in 1989, Carly Simon autographs her children’s book Amy the Dancing Bear, which was edited by Jackie. After Jackie fell ill, Carly wrote Touched by the Sun for her good friend. (Stephen Rose/Gamma Liaison)

With Ted Kennedy and Caroline at a 1990 JFK Memorial dedication. Considering the snares and pitfalls of growing up a Kennedy, Caroline was amazingly well adjusted. (J. Bourg/Gamma Liaison)

With John Jr., Jackie summed up the difference between her children this way: “Caroline is focused and dedicated. John is spread out.” (Ira Wyman/Sygma)

Jackie and Tempelsman return to her apartment after a stroll in April 1994, one month before her death. “He’s a special person,” a hospital aide said of Tempelsman. “Oh, yes,” said Jackie, “he is.” (Paul Adao/Sygma)

With granddaughter Rose. Jackie struggled to recapture her old life, with all the power and glory, only to discover that the key to her happiness lay where she least expected to find it—in the simple pleasures of family, friendship, work, and nature. (Keith Butler/Rex USA Ltd.)

Alexander was another matter entirely. Ari often lost his temper at his son, but his rage was tempered by pride and love. Alexander was the apple of his father’s eye. Like Christina, he had benefited from plastic surgery on his conspicuous Onassis nose. But unlike his overweight sister, Alexander was turning into a lean and attractive young adult.

For dessert there was galaktoboureko, a sort of crème caramel, after which Jackie excused herself and went upstairs to her room. Ari lit a long Cuban cigar. He told his children to follow him into the library. He closed the door.

Ari knew that Alexander did not like Jackie. His son had never liked any of his women, Maria Callas especially. Alexander and Christina wished that he would remarry their mother, even though that was impossible.

But Ari had made up his mind about Jackie, and he was not one to mince words.

“I plan to marry Jackie as soon as possible,” he said.

Alexander bolted from his chair. “I will never sleep in the same house as that American woman!” he shouted.

He stormed out of the room. A few moments later, the whole neighborhood was shaken by the deep roar of an engine as Alexander took off in his Ferrari.

Ari was aware that Christina disliked Jackie even more than her brother did.

“Christina was jealous of Jackie,” said Stelio Papadimitriou, Onassis’s second-in-command. “Jackie was all that Christina was not—thin, composed, loved.”

After Alexander had gone, Ari turned to his daughter.

“Well, what about you?” he said.

“It’s a perfect match,” she said, staring contemptuously at her father. “You like names, and Jackie likes money.”

Christina got up from her chair, picked up one of Artemis’s prized vases, and smashed it against the wall.

SKORPIOS

As its