Just Jackie by Edward Klein (web based ebook reader txt) 📗

of Camelot, so painstakingly constructed by Jackie in her famous interview with Teddy White, were beginning to fall into ruins.

Desperate, Jackie tried to fight the campaign of de-sanctification by inviting friends who had worked closely with Kennedy to come to her home and speak to her children about their father. Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Theodore Sorensen, and Robert McNamara were among those she invited to give Caroline and John informal private seminars on the authentic legacy of President Kennedy. But the damage had been done, and the lights seemed to go out on the one brief shining moment that was Camelot.

Artemis invited Jackie’s old friends to dinner in an effort to cheer her up. One evening, when all the guests had departed, Jackie turned to Artemis, and said:

“I am feeling so fragile. Sometimes I think that I am responsible for my misfortune. My first husband died in my arms. I was always telling him that he should be protected, but he would not listen to me. Before my second husband died, I was always telling him to take care of himself, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He wouldn’t visit the doctor. He could have [died] at any moment during our marriage. No matter what I did, I couldn’t save either one of the two men I loved.”

As Jackie wept, Artemis put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

“That was God’s will,” Artemis told Jackie. “Now you have to take care of your children, and make a new life for yourself. Jackie, you are so young and beautiful. Now you need to find a man who will give you some happiness.”

THIRTEEN

THE MYSTERIOUS

M.T.

Winter 1977–Fall 1978

“IN TRUST FOR JACQUELINE ONASSIS”

Maurice Tempelsman came out of his office and waved a long Dunhill cigar at the three men waiting in his all-beige anteroom.

“Gentlemen,” he said, “forgive me for having kept you like this. Please, come in.”

He led the way into his inner sanctum. It was filled with maps, heavy tomes on international relations and Oriental religions, a photograph or two, and some mementos. His desk was on one side, a long mahogany conference table on the other. The room looked more like the study of a university don than the office of a CEO who ran a multimillion-dollar diamond-trading corporation.

Tempelsman was as plain as his office; five feet eight inches tall, baldish, with a long, sharp nose, and a potbelly that bulged beneath his dark, double-breasted suit. When he smiled, his moon-shaped face became suffused with a radiant glow, giving him the look of a picturesque character in a Dickens novel.

His outward appearance gave no hint of the extraordinary man within. He was, to begin with, one of only one hundred and sixty “sightholders” throughout the world, which allowed him to make direct purchases of diamonds from the De Beers cartel. He was also a powerful behind-the-scenes figure in the Democratic Party, a mover in the world of Jewish philanthropy, an important collector of museum-quality Roman and Greek antiquities, an active New York clubman (Century, Council on Foreign Relations, African-American Institute), a legendary wheeler-dealer throughout black Africa, and, it had been long rumored, an elusive player at the fringes of the American intelligence community.

He took a seat at the head of the conference table and, using his cigar as a baton, orchestrated the seating arrangements of his guests. On his right he placed Alexander Forger, Jackie’s patrician private attorney.

Once seated, Forger introduced Ken Starr, a man who was as outgoing and hearty as Forger was stiff and formal. Starr was New York’s preeminent tax accountant. His roster of clients included famous show-business personalities, Morgan Guaranty banking executives, and Paul and Bunny Mellon.

Starr, in turn, said a few words about the man sitting next to him, Sheldon Streisand. The older brother of Bar-bra Streisand, Shelly (as he was known to all) was a successful real-estate entrepreneur who specialized in tax shelters for rich people.

“If I may begin,” Forger said.

“By all means,” Tempelsman said.

As everyone in the room agreed, said Forger, Jacqueline Onassis faced a new set of opportunities as well as new challenges now that she was in possession of her Onassis inheritance. The task of her advisers was to help her conserve her wealth, and at the same time, make her money grow.

Shelly Streisand had put together an interesting real-estate deal, which sounded like just the thing for Jackie. She would take the entire limited partnership in the deal, which included the net leases on three Safeway stores in western Utah and two in North Carolina. Her part of the investment would come to under $1 million—say somewhere between $700,000 and $800,000—which represented less than 5 percent of the money she had inherited from Aristotle Onassis. She would get a very big loss, which would function for years as a profitable tax shelter.

From time to time, Tempelsman interrupted to ask a question. He had exquisite European-style manners, and there was not a misplaced word in what he said. But it was clear from the way he cut to the heart of things that he was made of stern stuff, and was not someone to be trifled with.

Forger concluded his presentation by saying that he, Starr, and Streisand were confident that the tax shelter made eminent sense for Jackie. They had drawn up all the necessary papers, but of course they could not proceed without the approval of Tempelsman, who had known Jackie for some twenty years, and was closer to her than any of the other men in the room. Indeed, at Jackie’s request, the documents for the deal were titled “Maurice Tempelsman in Trust for Jacqueline Onassis.”

Tempelsman was not involved in the actual hands-on management of Jackie’s money. He left that task to others. But since Onassis’s death, Tempelsman had taken complete control of Jackie’s finances, and had become the chief strategist behind all her investments.

He had already made brilliant use of Jackie’s millions. When inflation was at a low ebb, and the