She knew of the affairs. Even her children knew what was happening. When Prohibition came into effect, rumors that Kennedy was a rum runner spread wildly. Allegations came from everywhere. And a piano tuner working for Al Capone claimed that he saw Kennedy sit down with whiskey baron to talk business.
None of these stories have ever been proven, but we do know some things for sure.
10 Terrible Things Done By JFK's Father - Listverse
In , Kennedy kept the liquor flowing at his Harvard 20th reunion. And, when Prohibition ended, Kennedy already had a whole stock of liquor ready to sell across the country. One way or another, though, Kennedy was a businessman. Whether he started selling liquor during Prohibition or after, he saw a business opportunity and capitalized on it. Look what they did to Hollywood. He spent a great deal of time talking to the German ambassador, Herbert Von Dirksen. He was just worried that too much violence would turn public opinion against Hitler.
Kennedy had his own plan.
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He tried to set up a program that would have shipped every Jew in Germany to Africa, or, at least, to a British or American colony. He agreed with Hitler all the way. Someone they could toss out to boost morale. He called for America to make a peace pact with Hitler. In England, he tried to keep Winston Churchill out of office, hoping Neville Chamberlain would make an alliance with Germany.
10 Terrible Things Done By JFK’s Father
He tried to get approval to meet with Hitler personally twice. He stopped Kennedy both times. England, he believed, was only fighting Germany so that they could stay alive. Kennedy was sure that America was being run by Jews. Kennedy was supposed to be serving the state. Instead, he was spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and publicly supporting Hitler. In , Kennedy was forced to resign as ambassador.
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His political career was over. With his own political ambitions smashed, Kennedy turned to his sons. One of them, he was determined, would become president. There was only one liability: Officially, Rosemary had been diagnosed as mentally handicapped, but modern psychiatrists think she was just depressed. Either way, she had to calm down.
The stock market in the s was as wild and untamed as the wild west. Reinfeld spent much of Prohibition in St. Pierre and Miquelon, the French islands in the North Atlantic which served as way stations of smuggled liquor. The continuing rumors of Joe Kennedy smuggling and bootlegging may be an instance of the American public wanting to fill in the historical gap by assuming historical continuity between the Pre-Prohibition family business in Boston and the Post-Prohibition Somerset Ltd. Kennedy manipulated stocks, in the days before regulation by the Security and Exchange Commission.
All this in the s. On the other hand, Gore Vidal was no fan of Joe Kennedy. Then the first of the Godfather series came out of Hollywood.
The central character was based on Costello. Conspiracy theorists began writing books. Some argued the Underworld helped Kennedy win the West Virginia primary in and thus helped elect him. That state was predominantly Protestant and Kennedy was Catholic. The nation had never elected a Catholic as president. And the election of Kennedy was supposed to help. And they felt further betrayed when Attorney General Robert Kennedy started to prosecute Underworld figures.
The assassination of JFK stopped this prosecution. When Robert Kennedy decided to run for President in , he too was assassinated, perhaps to stop his being elected and continuing to persecute the Underworld. These conspiracy theories rest on the assumption that it was Joe Kennedy who made the deals with the Underworld in , either over West Virginia or over Chicago. To argue this, the theorists resurrect the story that their connection to Joe Kennedy was personal and dated back to Prohibition.
Perhaps history will show that Joe Kennedy did nothing illegal during Prohibition. That he imported medicinal liquor in the last year of Prohibition.
OKLAHOMA TOUGH: My Father, King of the Tulsa Bootleggers
So far no serious, scholarly biography of Joseph Patrick Kennedy lends credence to him as a major bootlegger or smuggler during Prohibition. But gangster biographies and autobiographies see it differently and rumors are presented as fact. Perhaps Kennedy was more like brewer Jacob Ruppert? Just as Patrick Kennedy shut-down his 30 year old Boston liquor importing business in and his son Joseph resumed the family business of importing liquor in Eventually politicians caught up with the reality of a continued demand for liquor in America and repealed the 18th Amendment.
It is a scholarly work, less than pages, includes narrative, photos, footnotes, bibliography, index, and primary documents.
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Joe Kennedy, not mentioned in the narrative, is mentioned briefly in footnotes. Smugglers, Bootleggers, And Scofflaws: Free Downloadable Photos View Images.
Joe Kennedy : Smuggler or Bootlegger?
Ellen NicKenzie Lawson Ph. Any evidence that Joseph Kennedy was indeed a bootlegger or smuggler? More historical background on Joseph Kennedy and his father.