Grief-Stricken Jackie 'Contemplated Suicide' As A Way Of Rejoining JFK After Assassination

Independent (UK) ^ | 11-14-2003 | Rupert Cornwell

[blam]

Grief-stricken Jackie 'contemplated suicide' as way of rejoining JFK after assassination

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
14 November 2003

The former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy was so consumed with grief at the loss of her husband that she contemplated suicide as a means of rejoining him, according to a Catholic priest in whom she confided after President John F Kennedy was assassinated.

This poignant new glimpse of Mrs Kennedy emerges from excerpts of the diaries of Richard McSorley, a Jesuit priest and professor of theology at Georgetown University, which have just been made public, shortly before the 40th anniversary of JFK's assassination on 22 November 1963.

Father McSorley had been asked to help Mrs Kennedy by JFK's brother Bobby, who was worried about his sister-in-law's state of mind after her loss. At Bobby's suggestion, the priest asked her to play tennis, and some of the conversations took place on the court.

"Do you think God would separate me from my husband if I tried to kill myself?," she asked Father McSorley, according to the entry for 28 April 1964. "I feel that I am going out of my mind at times. Wouldn't God understand that I just want to be with him?"

The diary suggests Mrs Kennedy was prone to wild mood swings during the months after JFK's death. On one occasion she assured him that she would never take her life. But a day earlier on 19 May 1964, according to Father McSorley, she said "she would be glad if her taking her life set off a wave of suicides because she was glad to see people get out of their misery. 'I was glad that Marilyn Monroe got out of her misery,' she said."

The crisis had clearly passed by the summer. In a letter dated 15 July 1964, Mrs Kennedy thanked the priest "for all you did for me this spring". Her religious convictions, she wrote, were now "to keep busy and keep healthy - so that you can do all that you should for your children. And go to bed very early at night so that you don't have time to think."

In one haunting moment, Mrs Kennedy told Father McSorley of her regret that she had not done more to make JFK happy before his death. "I was melancholy after the death of our baby," the diary quotes her as saying, a reference to their prematurely born son Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, who was two days old when he died on 9 August 1963.

"I stayed away ... longer than I needed to. I could have made his life so much happier especially for the last few weeks."

[blam]

Is there some period of time that passes when it is okay to violate confidences?

[Consort]

I thought that Marilyn Monroe did it by proxy?

[LibWhacker]

Holy moly, it's hard to believe it's been 40 years!

[MinuteGal]

I don't believe this "revelation", anyhow.

If this priest is low enough to breach a trust, he's low enough to lie about what she told him.

I was never a Jackie fan, but this is despicable.

There are Jesuits, and then there are Jesuits.

Leni

[whereasandsoforth]

This next May will mark 10 years since Jackie died. Time flies when you're drawing flies.

[Mercat]

I was a sophomore in high school when JFK was shot. It was a Friday. My best friend who was the top student at Bishop Miege HS in Johnson County Kansas and I had something which required us to to stay after school. I do remember that the announcement came during our English class with Mr. Rost. We were led in the rosary. I remember saying something evil about Dallas since I had lived there and the Dallas Morning News was a conservative paper and I and my father were very pro-Kennedy at the time.

I do remember explaining to my best friend that evening why I believed in God. Bear in mind that I was only 14 at the time. I said that there was a hole in my heart and that I needed God and that therefore he must exist. My best friend went on to go to Harvard and became, at least 24 years ago, ann agnostic.

It was an extremely sad event. I do get annoyed, however, now when I see the attempt to deify him wihtout paying attention to his relatively conservative views.

[buffyt]

No doubt. My husband ( married 30 years ) told me that if I die he is going with me. Been together since we were 19, married at 22. Do not wish to imagine life without each other. He knows what I am going to THINK before I think it. Scary!

[aristeides]

These revelations come from McSorley's diary -- I doubt if he is still alive.

[buffyt]

I was in science class in 7th grade when the call came in to my teacher from DC. He was also the school principal. I can close my eyes and remember the entire event in great detail. My family was conservative Democrat and NOT pro Kennedy at all.

[BushCountry]

What we know now of his heavy drug addiction and all of his many affairs, I doubt seriously if he was much of a husband. Sorry, about speaking ill of the dead, but honestly this is a bit far fetch. Jackie was merely a trophy wife.

[buffyt]

MM died by hands of RFK. So I hear. We found her crypt in LA last year. It is in a beautiful little cemetery and it was a very moving experience. She was the greatest.

[buffyt]

And JFK fooled around all the time.

[MinuteGal]

No offense, but MM was the greatest "what"?

Leni

[WinOne4TheGipper]

Is there some kind of twilight zone that news goes through? I swear, this was on 20/20 or Dateline weeks ago.

[sgtbono2002]

Are we talking about the same woman who prostituted herself to Aristotle Onasis for 12 million dollars?

[IronJack]

Sadly, she didn't, and we were stuck with her vapid whimpering for the next 30 years.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

Hmmm... Now I know what Sean Hannity was talking to jmstein7 about.

[prairiebreeze]

I was in second grade and home sick from school that day. My parents had stepped out for a couple of minutes and I heard the announcement on TV. I remember grabbing a pencil and wrote in second grade printing: The president was shot. I knew it was important and I was afraid I wouldn't remember it to tell my parents when they got home.

When they got home a bit later they'd heard it on radio. Interesting we remember precisely what we were doing and where we were...

Prairie

[Consort]

The Kennedy body count might be bigger than the Clinton body count.

[Ann Archy]

Isn't Father McSorley the priest who wrote in a book that he was with Clinton when Clinton was burning the US flag and protesting the Vietnam War.....actually Clinton was ORGANIZING the protests......in London???