The Rise and Fall of Jack and Bobby - The Kennedy Brothers

In my youth, I worked in John Kennedy's presidential campaign and Robert Kennedy's senatorial campaign. This book is written by someone who had real, inside connection to both brothers. His knowledge is also supported by professional study. He describes the real men, warts and all, not the icons. I recognize the men I knew. Nothing diminishes my respect for them.

A well researched book that exposes the corrupt system inherent in American politics. It made me wonder whether the Clinton Political Machine will follow the alleged path of the Lyndon Johnson Machine and have Donald Trump assassinated.

It's not about the relationship between the 2 brothers. Mostly how the mob was involved in our government through the CIA in the 1950s and 60s. Great research on the mob but I think the rise and fall of Jack and Bobby involved much more that was either glossed over or not covered.

Somewhat difficult to follow because of the involvement of the vast number of people mentioned within its pages. I enjoyed the indepth learning of the two personalities and the roles they played during the Kennedy years. The book also raised questions about the reality of the assassinations.

Not very well written it didnt really flow. Over indulgente use of language ... Some really obscure words. Nothing new in this book that has not already been covered by better authors. I was glad to get to the end. There are many other books out there covering this subject matter.

The book " KENNEDY BROTHERS" took place during the
formative years of my life and therefore I enjoyed reading
it more then most average books.
I was 32 years old when President John Kennedy was
assassinated and had been a police officer in Miami, FL
for a few years

This book is by far the best history of that tragic event.
Of the many theories over the years, I feel confident the
triggers were pulled by the mafia element as payback to
JFK for requesting and receiving their money and support
which gave him the small marginal victory in his Presidential election.

Following being installed in office JFK allowed his brother
Bobby full reign as Attorney General to pursue all organized
crime and thereby double-crossed the mob.
The mafia is not known to play touch football.

At the time of the famous " Bay of pigs " invasion of Cuba
A good friend of mine, Colonel Larry Brady was in Key West,FL with half of the Special Forces ( Green Beret ) awaiting approval to invade Cuba, however, JFK gave the order to " Stand down ".

I believe this to be a true and factual book, I recommend

The author appeared to have eaten a dictionary and is regurgitating everything. He used words my Kindle didn't know. This book is not for entertainment, but a series of facts like a research paper. Book also contains poor editing with missing commas making the sentences hard to understand.

I came across a used copy of this book (under its original title "Sons and Brothers") and, as someone interested in the Kennedys, I picked it up. I'm glad I did. This is definitely the best book I've read so far about the Kennedys. You might think author Richard D. Mahoney, son of JFK confidante William Mahoney, might be biased towards the Kennedys. Not true, as Richard Mahoney is very fair in his treatment of the Kennedys.

Mahoney mentions family patriarch Joe Sr.'s rise due to bootlegging and his cozy relationship with organized crime. This clashed with son Bobby's tireless pursuit of the Mafia during the Eisenhower administration. When Joe solicited donations from the mob during JFK's 1960 presidential run, the mob hoped this would buy them some relief from Bobby's pursuit. No such luck, as Bobby's relentless attack on the Mafia picked up even more steam while he was Attorney General. Numerous mobsters are featured throuout this book. Mahoney seems to lean toward the "The Mafia was behind the JFK assassination" theory.

Instead of discussing all of the dealings of Jack and Bobby, Mahoney grabs a few handfuls and goes into detail about them. You'll learn about Bobby and the anti-Castro movement's quest to oust/assassinate Fidel Castro, including the CIA's dangerous alliance with the Mafia. Not many pages are spent discussing the Kennedy's dealing with Russia. You will however get a blow-by-blow account of Jack and Bobby's battle with Mississippi governor Ross Barnett over James Meredith becoming the first African-American to enroll at Ole Miss.

I found the section titled "Bobby Alone", which discusses RFK's political career post-assassination, very interesting and informative. To say Bobby and Lyndon Johnson hated each other would actually be an understatement. The two went after each other with ferocity. Johnson called Jack's assassination "divine retribution" due to South Vietnam's president Ngo Dinh Diem's assassination on November 2, 1963. Jack also green-lighted a plan to assassinate Dominican Republic leader Rafael Trujillo in 1961. Jack even feigned horror upon hearing of his assassination. Interestingly, Jack called off the plan to kill Castro saying that if the U.S. continued down this road "we'll all be targets."

Bobby's ill-fated run for the Democratic nomination for president in 1968 gets a good amount of attention. Bobby was a rock star to his followers, who would swarm him at his various stops. Bobby seemed resigned to the fact that he would soon die. In fact, multiple people (including Jackie Kennedy) felt that Bobby would be shot as well. Still, Bobby kept fighting during his whirlwind campaign. Whether or not he would've won is debatable, as the Democrat establishment was firmly behind Hubert Humphrey.

Overall, this is a great book about two extraordinary men. A definite recommendation.

The book jumped from time to time, was somewhat confusing. Good, in telling the importance of Bobby's influence on Jack Kennedy, especially in the Cuban Crisis of l962; good telling of the disastrous Bay of Pigs, and the disdain JFK had for the military minds after their willingness and some, eagerness, to go to nuclear war.Good in describing the influence of the mob, through the CIA and FBI wanting them for potential assassination of Castro. Good in describing Bobby's transformation to a man with a cause and mission, to help disadvantaged people, after a life of luxury for himself. This was well done.

Good in telling the influence of J. Edgar Hoover, and his blackmailing of the Kennedys as well as his going after Martin Luther King. Makes me wonder how we can criticize other countries for corruption, when it seems so many politicians of the time, then, and probably now, are also corrupt. The info Hoover and the Kennedy's had on Senators' sexual escapades, which silenced them about JFK's, makes me a little more tolerant of today's media exposing personal hypocracy of today's leaders. Trashing the Warren Commission Report and suppposed lying by the Dulleses, and Hoover, make me wonder if we are any better than the countries we accuse of corruption. The author obviously loved Bobby and obviously thinks the mob killed JFK, and possibly Bobby.
A good read, but I'd prefer it NOT on Kindle so I could go back and review passages more easily. For history students, and those who still wonder if Oswald did it alone, they will be convinced that it was a conspiracy. Others, will defend the Commission, and debunk many of the conspiracy theories. We may never know for sure.

Written by someone intimately connected to the Kennedy clan and familiar with the Kennedy myth, as he states in his opening. Well, he is most assuredly unbiased in reporting his findings from documents and interviews. Just tells the truth about the Kennedy brothers and some other members of the clan, especially Joe Sr. because, their father's actions and politics played such a dramatic roll in the lives of both Jack and Bobby.

Read another book by a cousin of Jackie Kennedy and that was good, but because he was directly related to Mrs. Kennedy did not go some places. Where as this author has. It was refreshing to read about the true state of affairs between all of the participants of that era. Including MLK, Kennedy the senior, J. Edgar and others, plus some underworld figures.

Interesting and enlightening, a really good read. Highly recommended.

Richard Mahoney's book on the Kennedy brothers is a well-researched and well written history of John and Robert Kennedy's years between 1952 and 1968. It provides interesting answers and pointers to the many 'puzzles' surrounding the murder of both the brothers and also the extent of the roles of the Mafia, the anti-Castro exiles in Miami, the Teamsters Union, the CIA and the FBI in an advanced industrial democracy like the US in the 1950s and sixties.
The picture that emerges from the book about the two brothers and their father is somewhat as follows:
Jack Kennedy was basically one who had statesman-like qualities which he showed clearly in the Cuban missile-crisis, in his reluctance to authorize the assassination of Castro on moral grounds and in his ability to see the futility of the war in Vietnam. He was idealistic enough to pursue the civil rights legislation but also political enough not to alienate his white constituency in the south. Jack also was detached enough to privately admit that he would probably be assassinated but he dealt with it in his own light-hearted manner. On the other hand, Jack was a philanderer and had used the Mafia in rigging the election results in Illinois to win his presidency. He knew about his father's buying the party bosses in Virginia with money to make him win the democratic primaries in 1960. Though he was a devoted and affectionate father, he wasn't a faithful husband to Jackie, even though he knew that it affected his much younger wife.
On the other hand, Bobby Kennedy was more upright and also self-righteous. Except for a brief affair with Marilyn Monroe, he was faithful to his wife. He was a staunch Catholic, believed in right and wrong as black and white and went after the Mafia, the corrupt unions and also Fidel Castro with a vengeance, even though he knew that his own father was neck-deep in collusion with the crime bosses. He saw no contradiction in using the anti-Castro exiles to assassinate Fidel Castro. He believed in ends justifying the means. He believed strongly in civil rights. He took himself too seriously and pursued relentlessly his dangerous agendas thereby alienating the FBI boss Edgar Hoover, Lyndon Johnson, the Mafia, the union bosses and eventually the anti-Castro exiles.
The book also brings out the close relationship between the brothers. Bobby was totally devoted and loyal to Jack. Jack admired Bobby's zeal and passion and his abilities to get things done. They both had a deep affection towards each other.
In the end, one can surmise from the book that the brothers were killed because of Bobby's pursuit of the crime bosses even though Jack and his dad had used them to get to the Presidency. In the eyes of the crime bosses, the Kennedys did not keep their end of the bargain. They let down the Miami exiles badly in the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion. The FBI, under Hoover, also conspired by withholding information about the imminent danger to their lives. Both the brothers had a fatalistic view about their own lives as a result.
One disturbing image that arises from the book is the extent to which American politics at the highest level was corrupted and influenced by the Mob, the exile lobby and corrupt trade unions in the 1950s and 60s. Both Jack and LBJ had corruption to thank for to their rise to the highest offices. If this was the case in a rich, industrial democracy nearly 200 hundred years after independence, then it seems very self-righteous and unfair for the Administration of today to call the Afghan and Iraqi govts corrupt and beset by warlords. Applying this interpretation, one can say that J.Edgar Hoover behaved like a 'warlord' in the 1960s by using blackmail and snooping to advance his interests. The crime bosses and the CIA were their own centres of power in the 60s. The book is a humbling experience for anyone who is too critical of the struggle of democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan today.
Finally, the author suggests that even though Bobby did not believe in the conclusions of the Warren commission, he 'accepted' them because that was the only way to protect Jack's and his family's legacies as well as his own guilt that he may have contributed to the murder of his own beloved brother by his relentless pursuit of the mob.
This is an excellent and eminently readable book for all Kennedy admirers and non-admirers alike.

Forget the conspiracy theories in this book. Oswald acted alone, and on his own. Oswald was a person totally dissatisfied with his life and just went for it, and with a little luck achieved his infamous fame. The Kennedy's were a total disaster for our country. If they hadn't been assassinated I can't imagine the additional destruction Jack and Bobby would have created. We came within a hair of another dark age with the Cuban missile crisis via the disrespect the Russians had for Jack and his bungle of the Bay of Pigs. At least they feared Johnson and his Texas trigger finger. The liberal rot that is plaguing our country today was started in the 60s with the help of Jack, Bobby and carried on by murder man Ted Kennedy. Ted was actually the worse but somehow the assassins forgot to deal with him much to our detriment.

This is an excellent biography of two of the most famous brothers in history. I found myself much more interested in Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General - Senator. Since he worked closely with his brother, it is impossible to write about him without including President Kennedy and his input.
Robert Kennedy was, in my opinion the more interesting of the two. In addition to having a more extensive legal background, he was plainly a man who set and met personal goals. He was dogged and determined and his hard work yielded success. From football to ferreting out teamsters and mafiosi, Robert Kennedy exemplified the meaning of persistence. He was certainly a very sympathetic figure in history and I have always believed that he sincerely cared about people. I remember when I was a very little girl I would see him on the evening news with a group of neighborhood kids who were drawn tho him like metal filings to a magnet. I remember thinking, "he really does care." My mother took me into the voting booth when he ran for office and I am proud to say that I am the youngest person who voted for him. She used to say that "Senator [Robert] Kennedy is a man who cares about people." I believed that. From elementary school to college, he was the historical figure I chose to research and write about when given the chance to decide. My college senior project was "Robert Kennedy: A Contemporary Figure" and it was the best paper I ever wrote. My then senior sponsor lauded it and I think today that it was my interest in the subject and my beliefs that made it a good work. In response to the paper I wrote then, I still say that Robert Kennedy is a prominent figure in history who is certainly relevant now. This book is a keeper.

It is interesting to go through those turbulent years of the 1960's and get a clearer understanding of what took place. The author shows how vulnerable a country can be when people in high places such as President Kennedy and F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover place themselves in compromising positions subject to possible blackmail from others. President Kennedy wouldn't get away with his extramarital relations now as he did in the '60's. I was especially impressed with Robert Kennedy in this book. This man was a doer who showed a genuine concern for the improvished in this country (the blacks, Indians, Mexicans, and poor whites) when he could have chosen not to get involved. His attacks on the mafia may have led to his brother's death, but he had the courage to face up to the problem rather than pretend it didn't exist. Leaders always have someone who don't like them, and the Kennedys, along with Dr. Martin Luther King, paid the ultimate price for this. It's too bad that there was such friction between the Kennedys, King, Johnson, and Hoover. Working together, they could have accomplished more for the country. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and it was interesting to revisit this turbulent period in history.

First of all, let's get it out of the way. I really love the Kennedys. I enjoy most of the books about them and always learn something of each (yes, even the crazy conspiracy books). This book was a little different. I learned a lot. I enjoyed how it was put together. It starts with the 1950's and then takes 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963 and then Bobby Alone as separate topics. It has stories from their growing years in each as if looking back to show why they were doing what they were doing at that time in their life. I really got in the Bobby Alone section from 1964 to 1968. It showed how Bobby totally changed his views and what he went through in order to come to the conclusion that he needed to run for President. Mr. Mahoney does drag out the New Orleans, Cuban, and Mafia stuff but it's ok. Most nowadays do. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a well rounded book on the Kennedy boys.

I have read many Kennedy bios over the years but greatly enjoyed this format which describes the synergy between these two men leading up to, and including the Presidency. I wonder if JFKs initial reluctance to have his kid brother hold such a key position as AG had anything to do with how much he would actually rely on his counsel. Love the comparisons and contrasts. I also learned a great deal about RFK post the JFK years and have grown to admire him even more. I will re-read and I highly recommended - 4.5 stars

This book provides a very detailed description of the many situations and characters involved in these poignant events.. This is highly readable and gives much clarification of the tumultuous politics of the 60's with its sad outcomes. The
reader will be left with more understanding of how and why these shocking assassinations occurred and how the undercover government and mafia were implicated. Still, after all these years, an enduring sadness remains and cannot be erased from the heart.

I have just finished this book and while I have read many books on the Kennedy Presidency this one certainly stands out as one of the few that accurately describes the socio political climate which prevailed during his three year term. While many will no doubt concentrate on the story in terms of its conclusions relating to the JFK assasination, I have to say that it was the author's description of the day to day handling of one crisis after another. Starting with the Bay of Pigs invasion which lead to increased soviet pressure in terms of West Berlin and on ultimately to the 1962 missile crisis, you really get a feel for the era in which the Kennedy's prevailed. Another interesting theme in the book was John Kennedy's total disdain for his military advisors and commanders who he described as brass hats. This attitude reached its climax at the height of the Missile crisis where he adopted a very tactical and de-escalated approach to the problem. Standing tough publicly in terms of his resolve but leaving just enough room for the soviets to get off their own hook, he faced an on going battle with his Generals who would have gone to war. I don't wish to give the impression that the book is all JFK, Bobby Kennedy is an important aspect to the book particularly his tough, constant and uncompromising defense of his brother. This book is definitely worth a read.

I thought I knew everything there is to know about the Kennedys but this book took me to a new place. Other versions tell one of two stories: the Kennedy brothers were great or they were terrible. This tells a different story, a clasic tragedy. Because they did terrible things to achieve wealth and power, the Kennedys had to pay the price just when they (particularly Bobby) were on the brink of doing good things for the country and the world. The anguish of Bobby is right out of literature. He (and old man Joe) were the Kennedys most guilty of making deals with the devil -- and JFK may have paid for his dad's and Bobby's sins with his life -- and he was also the one determined to do good after 11/22/63. Tortured by guilt, he reached out to heal those hurting, rather than inflict hurt as he had in the past. But the past caught up with him and killed him.Terribly sad.An incredibly good book: the best on the Kennedys.

I had no idea of the relationship between the two brothers. I had more insights into Jack's life than Bobby's. The author does a terrific job documenting the relationship with Cuba and the mafia. I enjoyed the book as it is very well written and documented.

I give this book four stars because it is very well written and I recommend it to anyone interested in the Kennedy administration. There is a lot of good information between the covers of this effort and I'm sure many people will be surprised at some of the warts and moles of the Kennedy family, particularly John. One may go away with the impression that many of the decisions of JFK's presidency were in fact made by RFK. I find that rather interesting. Decide for yourself. The biggest flaw (which cost one star) that I have with the book is that the author used conspiracy buffs (Summers and Marrs) as his primary references in the section about the assassination. He has, in effect, asked the reader to accept the notion that organized crime "probably" orchestrated the assassination with Oswald as the fall guy. Yes, I am a believer in the lone assassin conclusion. I think he should have just wrote about the assassination with known facts instead of theories. Organized crime and other factions that hated the Kennedy boys probably did want them dead and may very well have made plans to kill either John or Robert, but there is absolutely no physical evidence to prove that. Oswald beat them all to the punch. Anyway, this is an excellent book and should be read by students of American history and politics.

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A SUPPORTER OF JACK KENNEDY,SINCE HIS CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT AND THE DARK DAYS FOLLOWING HIS ASSASSINATION.THIS BOOK REVEALED A LOT OF THINGS THAT TO ME HAD BEEN UNKNOWN.HE HAD HIS FAULTS,BUT I STILL BELIEVE THAT HE COULD HAVE GONE ON TO ACHIEVE A LOT MORE GOOD FOR THIS COUNTRY. PRESIDENTS WHO DO NOT MAKE SOME ENEMIES ARE NOT BEING EFFECTIVE AS PRESIDENT. THIS BOOK REVEALS MANY ASSORTED ENEMIES AND ALSO SPOTLIGHTS THE DEEP TIES THESE BROTHERS HAD AND THE SEEMING CURSE THAT BROUGHT IT ALL TO RUIN.

At the outset, I liked reading the book and I think anyone who is interested in that period of time, or the political Kennedys, will find some merit in the pages of Mr. Mahoney. Some of Mr. Mahoney's writing is striking and thought provoking, but he takes liberty with the truth to fold events into his theory that Mob-backed elements killed JFK, and by inference, Bobby as well. There are many instances where Mr. Mahoney cites as Gospel truth the unconfirmed and unproven ramblings of curious characters who gained tiny fame for being in Dallas on November 22, 1963, or knowing a guy who knew someone who saw a combative Lee Oswald at a firing range three weeks before JFK's assassination. More specific, he cites the since-debunked conclusions of Robert Blakey, a committed conspiracy buff, to reinforce his narrative leading up to Nov. 23, 1963. Simply because people hold titles, academic or otherwise, does not mean they are the sole purveyors of insight or truth. Mr. Mahoney leans hard of the puffery of titles and banks those opinions as knowledge. At the end of the book, he cites an unnamed friend of RFK leaning down over his dying face to hear Bobby whisper, "Jack. Jack." The source, cited as Richard Goodwin, was the person he selected to quote to close his story, but according to Mr. Mahoney's own end notes, there were two other things others reported the dying Bobby as saying before he lost consciousness, but he plucked something out of Mr. Goodwin's book because it was a convenient closing for his own.

I suppose that is the writer's choice.

As an aside, the more I learn about J. Edgar Hoover the more I'm convinced the man was a moral criminal. We would have all been better off had Hoover disappeared from the FBI long before he did. And if JFK brought out the best in politics, his Presidential successor reflected the worst in American politics.

I'm glad I bought the book, and I enjoyed the read, but as your mother or best teacher should have told you long ago, "Don't believe everything you read."

For some time now, I have been interested in the Kennedy's and the mystical life styles they lead. Sons and Brothers by Richard D. Mahoney provided great insight into the relationship between Jack and Bobby Kennedy. Not only were they brothers, but they were also great political mates. I was totally amazed at the connection between the Kennedy family and the mafia. I was also shocked at what difficulties Jackie had to go through during she and Jacks marriage. Mahoney spent a little too much time discussing Johnny Roselli and Carlo Marcello. It would have been nice if Mahoney had mentioned a little bit more about Jackie and the children. Overall, I feel that Sons and Brothers is a great book, and I highly recomend it to anyone who is interested in the Kennedy's or the presidency.

I gave this book three stars simply because I listened to the entire book if I was smart enough to stop I would have given it one star. The biggest problem with book is the use of the words Quote and Unquote, they are used many thousands of times. I once counted these two words used 20 times in one minute. Well back to the book. The author is definitely a Bobby fan and the book leans far to that side. It mentions in the briefest was Bobby's affair with Monroe while at the same time speaking on Bobby's Catholic devotion. It is an incredibly detailed book that talks about Bobby's speeches relations with minorities etc. If ever someone needed to prove Bobby riding Jack's coattails that fact that this book bears both their names certainly proves it. I learned little that I had not already known.
This book would be great for a Bobby fan, otherwise I would not recommend it.
My feeling at the end of this book was embarrassment on having listened to the entire book.

This Book is amazing. It's the first work that truly captures what it must have been like to live in a time of constant crisis. If Bill Clinton thinks he has enemies...Tripp, Golberg, Lewinsky, Scaife etc., there all kindergartners compared to Roselli, Giancana, Marcello,Hoover, The Russians, Cubans Anti- and Pro-Castro, extreme millionaire right wingers, LBJ and god knows who else. Bobby was totally naive and stupid to think he could dump Mob Boss Carlos Marcello in the jungles of Guatemala without letting him even contact his wife or an Attorney. It was an illegal abduction that would not be forgotten. Iknew Johnny Roselli had mob and CIA contacts and was essntially a liason on the plots to kill Castro, but had no idea that he knew Joe Kennedy Sr. as well as Sinatra and Marilyn. When you understand Roselli.which the Author shows in great detail...you understand 11-22-63...it's that simple.There is not a boring page in this Book and it's so well-written. This isn't hagriography orone of the continual hatchet jobs on theKennedy family...the real tragedy is so immense from their deaths...that it can't be calculated. No LBJ, No Nixon?..What would have been? In my view, The only President with anything approaching JFK's inspirational qualities was Reagan...yet he had none of the Global perspective or capacity for change that is needed as the President of the US. Hopefully, we willget the full story of JFK's death as Junior has passed on and we're approaching the Millenium...

Interesting, but their fame and money seems to be their ruination, in that for Jack especially, rules were not made for him. Bobby tried his best to keep him on the right track, until the extra-marital temptations were too much, and sucked him to the abyss too.
A sad waste, but one that Joe taught them at an early age, by way of he people he dealt with.

This book was very well written. There were a few things that I had forgotten but when I read them It all came back to me. I lived through those horrible days and you don't forget the main things that you saw, There have been many books written with many ideas about who was involved in the assassination. this book will discuss some of the theories, and the people involved. Read the book to understand what I am talking abput.

For those interested in history, especially during the civil rights era and all things Kennedy, this is a fascinating read complete with footnotes to support the authors findings. From the murder of JFK, glimpses of Marilyn Monroe, the Mafia, Hoover and the very complex Robert Kennedy.. all comes together for a fascinating read!

As someone who lived through the assasination of President Kennedy, I never gave any credibility to the "answers" provided by the Warren Commission. However, I was always puzzled by the acceptance of the commission's findings by Robert Kennedy. He was after all, the Attorney General, with access to all kinds of secret FBI and other files. Why didn't he ever say that the Warren Commission was just a fairy tale? The insights provided by this excellent book provide an all too plausible explanation: RFK knew the real answer and just couldn't bear to tell the world that his actions contributed so greatly to the death of his beloved brother. Sons and Brothers is a remarkable work.

In much the same way that Warren Beatty's movie "Bulworth," for a political movie from Hollywood, was a breath of fresh air, Patrick D. Mahoney's "Sons and Brothers, the Life and Times of Jack and Bobby Kennedy" is a breath of fresh air from an American academic historian. What strikes you in either case is the realism. It is a realism born of the clash of the clearly strong idealism of the writer and the reality of naked, corrupt power in what has become of America's once great republic.
In "Bulworth," it hits you early in the little-noted dead-on portrayal of the big-time gangster with whom Senator Bulworth arranges for his own murder. When he ushers the man into his Senate office, Bulworth greets him like a long-lost brother. The visitor looks nothing like the stereotypical Hollywood mobster, nor like the few who have been subjects of the occasional show trial like John Gotti. From the universal respect he appears to command and from the man's confident, prosperous appearance one thinks he might be something like the head lobbyist for the American Association of Retired People or a senior lawyer at Covington and Burling.
Beatty obviously knows his topic. In the late 1970s the Washington Post reported that the organized crime unit of a suburban Washington police force was there writing down license plate numbers (a la The Godfather) outside a mansion where a large dinner party was going on. The host was a major political contributor and king maker who, the Post reported, had been involved in casino ventures with members of the Gambino family and the Meyer Lansky organization. The guest of honor that night was Beatty's sister, the actress Shirley McLain.
A history of the modern American presidency that ignores organized crime is a fairy tale. Mahoney's treatment of the lives and the deaths of Jack and Bobby Kennedy is, in that respect, like a book for grown-ups compared to other historians' children's books. Others may have paid some lip service to the various connections of the Kennedy family to the mob, but Mahoney, the first John F. Kennedy Scholar at the University of Massachusetts and the Kennedy Library, fleshes the story out and sees the larger importance of it.
Joe Kennedy, Sr., of necessity, worked hand and glove with known mobsters in amassing his bootlegging fortune during Prohibition. Working outside the law in a major business enterprise, he was himself, by definition, a member of organized crime. The connection continued at least up to his arrangement with the Chicago mob to deliver the deciding votes in the 1960 presidential election.
Jack and Bobby's connection was not only as beneficiaries of the 1960 accommodation, something of which they had to have been aware, but also through the ongoing Mafia-CIA plot to assassinate Fidel Castro, a plot that they inherited from the Eisenhower administration but poured extra effort into after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Further entangling Jack with the mob was his sharing of the mistress, Judith Campbell Exner, with Chicago kingpin, Sam Giancana.
These are the connections we know about, and yet Mahoney is obviously a deep admirer of both Jack and Bobby, and the reader comes away from his book sharing the admiration. Both of them had leadership qualities that distinguish them from those we have had imposed upon us since their deaths. They grew in office. They learned from their mistakes. They were both extraordinarily courageous.
Jack, who had much greater expertise and interest in foreign than in domestic policy, probably never intended to go as far as he did on civil rights, but circumstances, and his ability to empathize, pulled him along. On the foreign front, on the other hand, his instincts all along were diametrically opposite from that of the Cold Warriors who held the real power in the country. He was determined over the long run not to stand in the way of the nationalist aspirations of the Vietnamese, as the French had done with our encouragement and assistance, and his pursuit of detente with the Soviets in the last few months of his life was genuine.
This was more than enough to get him killed, but Mahoney focuses upon Bobby's anti-Mafia crusade as the straw that broke the camel's back. Looking at the role played by mobster Jack Ruby in the episode is enough to convince one of the mob's involvement in the Kennedy assassination, but there is a lot more evidence as well, which Mahoney brings out. Though they had the motive and the means to pull it off, and a lot of evidence points to them, the question remains as to how they thought they could get by with it and why they were right. Was the mob able to order up a phony investigation and to whip the press into line? Maybe Mahoney simply knew how far he could go and still get his book published. As it is, the book has received far less publicity than it deserves.
Mahoney's big revelation to this reviewer jaded in Kennedy lore was the eerie resemblance of Bobby Kennedy's brief bid for the presidency to the fictional last campaign of Senator J. Billington Bulworth. The more he saw of the world and the more personal tragedy he endured the more he seem determined simply to do and to say what was right, regardless of the consequences. And like Bulworth he was wildly popular with the poor and with minorities, but also like Bulworth he got quite bad press, even from the "liberal" establishment. Could there be a better indicator of his genuineness? These are the same people who covered up in his brother's assassination, after all.
But there was also the same foreboding, as "...some around Bobby began to talk openly about the inevitable.'"()
And, indeed, he, or they were, just as they were waiting for Bulworth.

I thought a lot of information presented that I was totally unaware of relating to the Kennedys. It was
really good in providing the very important role that Bobby played in backing up Jack at vital times
and then getting his feet wet in the Cuba mess and the mafia.

This is an exciting and informative journey through the lives of Jack and Bobby Kennedy. Last December I was doing a twenty page report on Robert Kennedy and I used Sons and Brothers as one of my sources. But i finished reading the book last week. I enjoyed this book because although it presented some of the Kennedys' dark side it showed them both as good men. It also presents the case for conspiracy. This book was by no means boring and anyone interested in the Kennedys should read this. This also got me to thinking how different America would be today if Robert Kennedy had become president instead of Richard Nixon.

I began reading this book by invitation of a friend. I found that once I began I could scarcely put it down. This book analyzes the crucial relationship that existed between President Kennedy and his would-be President brother. As children the two never became close, few in the Kennedy clan saw much in the way of redeeming values in Robert Kennedy. Once he took the reins of the elder Kennedy�s campaign for congress everyone within, as well as outside, the family realized that Bobby would be a loyal soldier for the family. He valued loyalty above all else and Jack Kennedy soon realized that he could at times count on no one but his brother. Sons & Brothers explores the family�s ties to the mob. While Bobby kept himself busy going after everyone he claimed was corrupt his family was benefiting directly from their contacts in the mob, whether it was selling alcohol during prohibition or bringing out people to vote who otherwise would not be able to exercise their citizenry duty. An important message of the book is that what brought the family up is also what took it down. I consider this book a must read for anyone with an interest in history.

I'm a real Kennedy Fan and I read a lot information for the first time in this book. Some of the people I thought were good turn out to be
very bad and cut-throats! Recommend reading if your a fan or not!

"Sons and Brothers" is one of the few Kennedy biographies that is trying to explain the Kennedy assassination and the reasons why it happened. Other authors (for example Seymour Hersh and Thomas Reeves) describe November the 22nd as if what happened was an act of god. Mahoney shows us how Jack and Bobby (and their father), played a dangerous game with the mob, which ultimately led to President Kennedy's assassination. Although the writer devotes too much attention to Johnny Rosselli and organized crime's involvement, he makes a convincing case in presenting Rosselli to us as one of the key paticipants in Kennedy's murder. But was the mob capable of setting up Oswald, and creating a false link to a KGB agent, working in the Russian Embassy in Mexico? Or altering the Zapruder movie? I don't think so. Another flaw is the few pages that Mahoney reserved to discuss Vietnam. Overall, this book offers new insights into the lifes of the Kennedy brothers, and Mahoney has done a great job in portraying them as charismatic leaders, who had many faults, but who were growing in their capacity to move a nation and who were willing to change their attitude towards civil rights, Castro, and the Soviet Union. A must read for anyone interested in these "Coldest Years".

Still reading, however wanted to comment now. Learning that we have to kinds of criminals. Those on the supposed side o the law and those on the other side. Just confirms that you need to vote for the one that you believe is less of two evils.

This is a book covering the period of JFK campaign for president until the death of Robert Kennedy. They shared the political part of their lives but the brotherly love they shared was undeniably strong throughout.

The Kennedy's are pivotal players at a unique period in American history. I was a young girl when Jack and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr were assassinated. These were tumultuous and tragic times. I remember the deep sense of loss and the pervading pull of promise cut short. I enjoyed the fresh presentation, in the context of family and fate, of this important time in our history. An engaging and compelling read.

I was raised in a conservative household and consider myself conservative in many ways (though I'm a registered independent). That said, I am 29 years old and both these men were dead before I was even born. However I have had a fascination with JFK & RFK since I first started studying history and the impact that the changes in the 1960's would have on future America. The picture on the cover is very telling about how different these brothers were -- black and white. What this book is really about is how co-dependent these two men were, with Jack more so upon Bobby. Many disturbing facts have come out about the Kennedy brothers in the last twenty years. Much of it does bother me as a moral and religious person. But that doesn't erase the fact that Jack and Bobby were very intelligent and gifted men and when it is all said and done, their idealism and determination positively impacted our nation's history.

Great read. Educational. There was much that I did not know. Concise. So much potential from these brothers. Not perfect men. Took risks, the end results were our loss as a nation. Well done, Mr MAHONEY.

This book is a tragedy, in the Greek sense of the word. Richard Mahoney, through the most rigorous scholarly work, transcends the "facts", put you in a corner with overwhelming lucidity and leaves you there, in despair, as a witness of the inevitability of the Kennedy brothers' (Jack and Bobby) destiny. All the components of the human quest for power and its consequences are masterly described and explained. The primordial driving force in this saga is the political ambition of the "Ambassador" (Joe Kennedy Sr.). This ambition is materialized with the tribal subordination of his offspring, their soldierly attachment, and their father's unscrupulous disregard for the "means" to obtain his goals. The Presidency of the United States, the ultimate prize, turns into the sacrificial stone for Jack and Bobby Kennedy. The reading of this book gives an overall sense of the flow of history in general, the big picture. However, the details that make this story are precise and well documented. The author takes the reader in a rather exciting journey from the arid zones of the legal chasing of criminals, to the exploration of their most dark motives. From the grandiosity of historical moments such as John Kennedy's decision not to launch an air strike against Cuba, probably avoiding with this the annihilation of most of humanity, to the abyss of his self-defeating extramarital sexual encounters that crudely exposed him to the spears of his enemies. One by one the different components of the fatal trap fall into place and the unavoidable occurs: The faith of the hero(s) fatally concludes.
After the background is set, the drama unfolds. The John Kennedy's campaign for the Presidency can be viewed as the planting of the mortiferous seeds that will grow into the misfortune or Jack and Bobby. The role of the Mafia and corrupt union leaders at the solicitation of Joe Kennedy is undeniable. During the Presidency of John Kennedy, Robert is appointed Attorney General of The United States, the zealous catholic altar boy launch a campaign against evil forces that are threatening the very fiber of America: the mobsters, the Mafia, and the CIA and FBI officials hostages of criminals through blackmail. The international front offers a discouraging view; Communism appears to be at the offensive and winning, with Cuba as its latest conquest. The anti-Communist crusade creates its own demons, it's a dirty war and it requires dirty alliances against Castro. The inexperience and miscalculations of John Kennedy lead him to the fiasco of the Bay of Pigs and the almost armageddonic Cuban nuclear missiles crisis. This crisis puts John Kennedy at a higher plane of understanding; it is the survival of humanity what is at stake. He needs to re-think the approach to the opposing super-power, compromise is the only solution, and this compromise mandates the abandonment of the Cuban cause. This divorce from the reactionary forces reigning within and outside the government at this historical period sealed his martyrdom.
The description of "Bobby alone" is epic. The different pressures, psychological and social, that determined his faith are exposed. Psychologically, his apparent sense of guilt for the death of his brother, and socially, pressure from the forgotten Americans: the poor American families receiving body bags from Vietnam, the black population struggling to put an end to segregation, the migratory farm workers fighting against mediaeval working conditions, native Americans extinguishing in Indian reservations, the growing rebellion of the American youth. The masses are demanding change and they appear to have adopted a new champion. Robert is now free from his father and brother ghosts. He embarks in a quasi-mystical mission for change. The exercise of power that he proposes has been progressively and dangerously transformed into a tool of social change. Robert Kennedy's candidacy for the presidency of the United States was a frontal assault on the very same forces that murdered his brother, and he consciously accepted his destiny. The California primary win gave the green light to the wolf pack to go for the kill. At the end, little room is left for doubt or speculation. Rosselli, Giancana, Marcelo, Oswald, Sirham, Hoover, Ruby, Johnson, and the many others mentioned in the book, come together in a murderous constellation. The reader can draw the connecting lines between the "stars" as he or she wishes, the ultimate result will be the same: The Kennedy brothers' destiny was sealed: Saturn has devoured his own children.
The literary quotes and fragments of poetry depicted in the book were of great interest to me. It was like having a minuscule sample of the precious fuel that kept the Kennedy's intellectual flames alive, and how these flames where amplified and exposed to the masses of this country in the form of a collective dream. Probably the sudden destruction of this dream, of this promise, explains to certain extent the unresolved collective trauma of the Kennedy brothers' assassination.
I highly recommend this book for its historical and literary merits.

During Robert Kennedy's campaign for the American presidency in 1968 he would sometimes disappear from the wild crowds and sit alone for hours on end. When aides would ask what he was thinking about, he would reply, "Just thinking about Jack."
The relationship between the two brothers, and the dynamic political partnership it generated, was one of the most important in American politics.
This is the subject of Richard Mahoney's Sons and Brothers. But the book also documents their father Joe's relationship with the corrupt worlds of the mafia, the labour unions and J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.
Although the research is copious, there are no revelations. The author draws on the work and ideas of conspiracy kings Anthony Summers (The Arrogance of Power) and Seymour Hersh (The Dark Side of Camelot), while the controversial movie director Oliver Stone gets a thank you in the acknowledgments.
While they were growing up, John and Robert were not particularly close. After the death of their older brother, Joe jnr, during World War II (and sister Kathleen a few years later) the family's political prospects rested with John. The brothers' relationship became close: Robert managed John's 1952 Senate campaign, his ill-fated bid for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination in 1956 and his run for the presidency in 1960.
Following the Kennedy win, the new president - and his father - wanted Robert as attorney-general. Robert protested but in the end John's desire for someone he could trust won out. Anticipating criticism over the appointment, John explained to the press: "I can't see that it's wrong to give him a little legal experience before he goes out to practise law."
Robert was an activist attorney-general, tackling problems like the civil rights movement, the mafia underworld and the corruption endemic in many of the labour unions. He was also included in all the administration's important decisions; his access to and influence over his brother was unmatched.
After hearing for the first time that the Soviet Union was building nuclear missile sites in Cuba, it was his brother that the president immediately summoned to the White House. In the ensuing days of the crisis, Robert played an integral role in securing a peaceful outcome.
But the darker side of the brothers' lives is also examined. Mahoney uses FBI reports to describe John's and his father's numerous sexual escapades, and claims that Robert strayed only once with Marilyn Monroe.
The Kennedy connection to the mob is not a new allegation, but Mahoney emphasises its depth: in the 1960 presidential election, for example, he explains how the Kennedys used the Mob already a major financial contributor to falsify ballots and buy votes.
In addition, he claims that Democratic Party bosses in Chicago and New York "periodically received briefcases full of campaign money" from Joe in return for political favours. A portrait emerges of a father and his two sons negotiating their way through American politics to power, using their connections with Hollywood, the mafia, the unions and party bosses to achieve their ambition.
Conscious of Machiavelli's dictum that men "seldom or never advance themselves from a small beginning to any great height except by fraud or force", Joe Kennedy knew that the price for power was a moral one. John went along with the dictum while Robert resisted it.
Mahoney's overarching theme builds to a climax through the nexus he develops between the Kennedys, the mafia and the CIA. Essentially, his thesis is that the mafia grew resentful of Robert's pursuit of it; that anti-Castro Cubans were frustrated with the administration's apparent detente with Cuba in the wake of the missile crisis; and that the CIA had a contract with the mafia to assassinate Castro.
He suggests that the CIA hired mafia figure and Kennedy acquaintance Johnny Rosselli to assassinate the Cuban leader, and that both John and Robert approved of the arrangement.
Mahoney writes that it was the Kennedys' pursuit of Castro that led Cuba to seek protection from the Soviet Union, which eventually led to the crisis and the showdown between Kennedy and the Soviet leader Khrushchev.
Robert was deeply traumatised by John's death. Mahoney describes him as "like a widowed spouse" who was paralysed by grief. He was haunted by the idea that he himself had contributed to the murder of his brother, given his pursuit of Castro, the mafia and his bad relations with Hoover.
Robert's rising political star had been hitched to his brother's; but under Lyndon Johnson's presidency, he became an outsider.
Tortured by his brother's death and their unfulfilled legacy, Robert ran successfully for the Senate in 1964 and later for the presidency in 1968. He became a fierce critic of the Johnson administration's policies on Vietnam, civil rights and poverty.
Sons and Brothers is well written and documented but the author does not discuss in depth the nature of the brothers' personal relationship beyond the politics. John and Robert's iconic status was enhanced by their sudden and violent deaths. Their lives are now frozen in time remembered for the dream of what they might have been.
As Robert exited through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel after claiming victory in the 1968 California Democratic presidential primary, he was gunned down. Lying on the floor losing consciousness, his last words to an aide were, "Jack, Jack."
* This review was published in The Sydney Morning Herald

This superb work takes into account that the person reading it is already familiar with many of the people, theories and events of the JFK administration and assassination. Therefore, the author focuses on new and intersting insight and material. Even the most avid "Kennedy Scholar" will find something worthwhile in this book.

A great look into the inner-workings of the Kennedy family, especially between Jack and Bobby. The revelations of specific wiretaps and information garnered through previously classified documents. Riveting!

I enjoyed this immensely. It shows the good & the bad of the Kennedy brothers. They more I read the less I like them & I'm a Massachusetts gal. They were cutthroat w/people when they didn't feel they needed them any longer & I know this firsthand from someone who supported them for years in MA but when he wanted their support for the Senate, he was told by RFK "no, that's for Teddy". Nice. I have lost so much respect for them. The news talks about how RFK did so much for equal rights. That's not even true. He did the least of what he could possibly do to make everyone on both sides happy. The sins of the father's definitely were visited on their sons. Bob & Jacks's father on them & their own sins on their own children.

From beginning with a very rudimentary knowledge of JFK and close to zero of RFK this book was a real eye opener. An incredibly important time in American history and politics and two figures who were definitely larger than life.

The Publishers Weekly quote on the front cover says it all: this book aims to show how Jack and Bobby have been "setting in motion forces that would lead to their destruction." In other words, they died by their own fault, or, to be precise, Jack was killed because of Bobby's relentless prosecution of Mafia bosses, a fury characterized as "hubris of destructive proportions" (p. 160). Mahoney seems to agree with Lyndon Johnson that JFK's death was "divine retribution" (a full page for this quote, under LBJ's picture). There are a few new items in this well-written book. But so much key evidence missing from the big picture. Mahoney maintains that Bobby authorized the CIA's assassination attempts against Castro: "Despite the president's opposition, there is persuasive evidence that Bobby Kennedy was the moving force behind a renewal of the effort to kill Castro" (p. 127). But then Mahoney forgets to give us this "persuasive evidence". In fact, the only evidence he provides is to the opposite: for example, that CIA Richard Helms "authorized a meeting between his deputy Desmond Fitzgerald, masquerading as Robert Kennedy's 'personal representative', and (would be assassin) Cubela" (p. 286). The theory that Bobby's attempts on Castro's lives backfired on Jack actually originated from Helms himself, who was later convicted for perjury and had to confess that Bobby had actually been kept in the dark. The theory was later revived by misinformed journalist Seymour Hersh, but has been debunked in recent studies. However, Mahoney does not fully support this "backfire theory", although his first chapters give the impression that he intends to. Rather, he seems to opt for a mixture of this theory with the "Mafia did it" theory, suggesting that the mobsters, first hired by the CIA to kill Castro, finally turned the plan against Kennedy (p. 264). Elsewhere, he gives credit to mafioso Rosselli's claim "that President Kennedy was assassinated by an anti-Castro sniper team sent in to murder Castro, captured by the Cubans, tortured, and redeployed in Dallas" (p. 273). No kidding! Although I struggled to get a clear grasp of what Mahoney really believes, one thing seems clear: he holds the Mafia as the prime suspect. And he does so mainly on the basis of reported threats made by leading mafiosi ... mostly against Bobby, and also on the basis of a very questionable identification of one of the shooters as "Charles Harrelson, a shooter for the Marcello family" (p. 292). Mahoney even suggests that the Mafia got away with it because it could blackmail the CIA to cover it up: "By putting the Agency's fingerprints on operations, the mob could anticipate that the CIA would cooperate in the cover-up" (p. 269). The Mafia would have had to blackmail also Edgar Hoover, Lyndon Johnson, and the whole government as well as the media. Utter nonsense! While it is undeniable that many mobsters wished the Kennedys dead, and were more than willing to take care of the shooting (not for free, though), it is ridiculous to think they had the power to cover their crime for fifty years (or even for five, as Jim Garrison had long ago argued). And what about Oswald, who has CIA stamps all over him? Mahoney has very little to say about him. In conclusion, this is, in my opinion, an almost useless book for researchers or anyone trying to understand the legacy of the Dallas coup. It seems to be designed to overshadow the immensely better book by David Talbot's "Brothers: the Hidden History of the Kennedy Years". Read that one instead, or James Douglass's "JFK and the Unspeakable": JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters

This book is full of information that is truthfull and important. Although everyone has a different point of view, I think that anyone who is reading about ther Kennedys because they want to learn the cold, hard facts, would like this book, but don't take my word for it, read it yourself and give your own review,you'll most likely have entirely different ideas than me.

ive read other books on JFK and none of the other books can quite compair to the realism in this book. the things i didnt understand in the first few books where explained more in depth than before and i came to realize that half of the things that kennedy was blammed for after his death were not acctually his fault. for example, vietnam.

Sons and Brothers was a well written biography of the dynamic duo that occupied the White House in the sixties. Aside from brief, and not well provin conspiracy theories, it gave an excellent glimpse into the Kennedy brothers and their politics. I recommend this book to anyone who has even the slightest interest in the JFK and RFK.

I think the book is unfair.The comment about Joe Kennedy buying the presidency for his son, I think is very false. I think it is wrong to link them with the mob. I think it is strange that the Republicans can put them down & do whateverwrong that they want & it ia o.k. for them. I think President Kennedy was the most admired president we ever had. Thanks for letting me give my two cents worth.

this is not a biography,it's a fiction and it's stupid, boring.
the author was surely drunk when he wrote it.
this book is a shame to the legacy of the kennedys.
there are a few photos.
buy abetter book like: rfk and his times....