The DARK Side of RFK Jr., Ep. 14: Boys Behaving Badly

Our exploration President #Trump's new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s tumultuous life continues in Episode 14.

In the latest episode of this History Book Club series, "The Dark Side of RFK Jr." we will go back to the 1990s -- a decade in which the Kennedy family scandals and tragedies kept coming, one after another, after another.

Two of Bobby's brothers -- Joe and Michael -- destroyed their marriages with infidelity. Then-Congressman Joseph Kennedy divorced his wife Sheila to marry his secretary/mistress Beth Kelly, and later used his influence within the Catholic church to have his first marriage annulled. (His first wife fought for years to have the annulment overturned, and eventually won.)

Meanwhile, Bobby's youngest brother Michael had been carrying on a secret five-year affair with the family babysitter, who was an underage teenager at the time. When cousin Michael Skakel got involved -- in an attempt to help the teenage girl -- the powerful Kennedys vowed to destroy him. (And indeed, within a short time Skakel was arrested as a suspect in the murder of his former Greenwich neighbor, 15 year-old Martha Moxley, who had been killed more than two decades earlier.)

The family feud grew more intense as #JFK's son #JFKJr chimed in, opining in a 1997 George Magazine editorial that his #RFK cousins were "poster boys for bad behavior."

The story soon took another tragic turn on New Year's 1997, when Michael Kennedy died a violent death -- skiing headfirst into a tree on the slopes of Aspen in front of his entire family, who witnessed the horror.

But the biggest Kennedy scandal of the decade was the rape trial of Bobby's cousin William Kennedy Smith in 1991. We will dive into how the Kennedys covered up the truth; circled their wagons of high-priced lawyers, media operatives, and publicists to influence both the jury pool and the court of public opinion to successfully render a verdict in Willie's favor (even though Bobby and his cousin, John F. Kennedy, Jr., both privately believed that Willie was guilty).

Over the weeks ahead, we will be reading and discussing excerpted chapters from "Robert F. #Kennedy Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream," an unauthorized #biography of RFK Jr. written by Jerry Oppenheimer.

The author also penned a scathing biography of RFK's late mother, Ethel Kennedy, who passed away in October 2024 at age 96.

Join me for "The Dark Side of RFK Jr." -- a continuing book club series -- and let me hear your thoughts on the book in the comments.

Listen to all episodes in this playlist.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE0M1qzXbdpvFmjPRuxkPr8tn0L1Ck4O1&si=QsNpxw8coWS4bMe4