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She was 19, working as a White House intern when she first met President Kennedy. It was the beginning of an 18-month affair that the now grandmother kept under wraps for more than 40 years.

The New York Post this weekend reports on the tell-all book “Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath” that will be published by Random House on Wednesday.

The Post says it bought a copy of the book, by Mimi Alford, at a Manhattan bookstore.

Alford, who was a 19-year-old debutante working at the White House for the summer, was known at the time as Mimi Beardsley.

She did not divulge the secret, even to her family, until her name was revealed eight years ago when a biography of Kennedy was published with portions from a 1964 oral history that mentioned the affair.

Alford’s agent, Mark Reiter, told the New York Times in 2009 that Alford was stunned when the affair came to light in the tabloids and decided to write her account to “take control” of the story.

Alford will be interviewed on NBC’s “Rock 30″ on Wednesday night.

According to the account published by the Post, the affair began after she was invited by an aide to go for a midday swim in the White House pool and the president was there. He invited her to evening drinks.

Among some of the points in the book:

• Mimi says she was a virgin when she began the affair at the White House in the bedroom of the first lady, who was away at the time. She says Kennedy was very matter-of-fact about their first sexual encounter. Afterward, he arranged for a White House car to take her home. On the ride home, according to the Post account, Alford writes that it “kept echoing in my head: I’m not a virgin anymore.”

• She always called him “Mr. President” and he always maintained a bit of reserve, never kissing her on the lips.

• She was with JFK during the Cuban missile crisis. According to the book, the Post says, he confided to her during his standoff with the Soviet Union that “I’d rather my children red than dead.”

• Mimi consoled him after the death of his infant child, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy. She says a crying JFK sat with her on the White House balcony while he read letters of condolence.

Their last meeting came seven days before his assassination in 1963. She told him that she was getting married.

Here, according to the Post, is how Alford describes the scene in her book:

“He took me in his arms for a long embrace and said, ‘I wish you were coming with me to Texas.’ And then he added, ‘I’ll call you when I get back.’ I was overcome with sudden sadness. ‘Remember, Mr. President, I’m getting married.’

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(CBS News) 

The case of missing Utah mother Susan Powell took a horrific turn Sunday in Washington State.

Officials say her husband, who was a person of interest in that case, killed their two children and himself.

Home video shot minutes after firefighters arrived on the scene shows Josh Powell’s home engulfed in flames.

Blast kills spouse, kids of missing Utah woman

“I just heard a huge explosion,” neighbor Ryan Mickle says. “It shook my house and then I ran outside and the whole house was on fire almost immediately.”

Josh Powell, whose wife Susan vanished from their family home in December 2009.

(Credit:
KIRO)

Inside, officials found the bodies of Powell and his two young sons, seven-year-old Charles and five-year-old Braden.

“This wasn’t an accident,” Ed Troyer, of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, declared. “This was Josh Powell, who we believe killed his kids and himself … dead in the fire.”

About ten minutes before the fire started, Powell reportedly sent his attorney an email that read, “I’m sorry. Goodbye.” Then, just minutes after his children were dropped off by a social worker for a supervised visit, the explosion occurred.

“He grabbed the kids,” said Troyer, “locked her out of the house, and immediately, the house went up in flames. … We believe that the house fire went up so fast that accelerants were used.”

Powell was involved in a bitter custody battle with his children’s’ grandparents. Last week, a Washington judge denied Powell custody of his two sons and ordered him to undergo a psycho-sexual evaluation after child pornography was found on his father’s computer.

Powell’s fitness as a father has been under scrutiny since the mysterious disappearance of his wife, Susan Cox Powell, from their Utah home in December, 2009. Powell told investigators that, on the night his wife went missing, he had taken his sons camping in a blizzard to a remote part of the state.

In an interview with CBS News, Powell denied having any involvement in her disappearance. Asked directly whether he killed Susan Powell, Josh Powell replied, “I’ve never even hurt her. People who know me know that I could never hurt Susan.”

But an attorney for the Cox family says the kids had recently started to open up about what happened on the night of their mother’s disappearance. Steve Downing said, “They had gone camping. Their mother had been in the trunk and later, their mom and dad walked out into the desert and mommy got lost.”

At Charlie and Braden’s school, students and parents gathered for a candlelight vigil.

And while investigators piece together what happened in Washington, police in Utah will be taking a fresh look at Susan Cox Powell’s disappearance and Josh Powell’s involvement.

“This is a terrible act of murder involving two young children,” says Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor. “Let’s call it like it is. Let’s call it a horrible murder, because that’s exactly what we have here.”

To see Ben Tracy’s report, click on the video in the player above. For insight from “CBS This Morning” senior correspondent John Miller, click on the video below:

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“All the walls in the house were on fire, almost immediately,” neighbor Ryan Mickle told CNN affiliate KIRO, adding that the blast “shook my whole house.” “I didn’t hear anybody inside. It was quite a scene.”

Authorities first heard of the explosion in Puyallup, Washington, around 12:15 p.m. (3:15 p.m. ET), according to Troyer.

The fire was still “burning hot” and smoke continued to rise from it some four hours later. By 7 p.m., and despite initial concerns that the house collapse, the bodies finally had been recovered, said Troyer.

While a medical examiner had yet to definitively identify the bodies, the sheriff’s spokesman said Sunday night that “we believe it is the three of them” — referring to Josh Powell and his two sons.

“This was something that was done deliberately and intentionally, and the plan was carried out very quickly,” he added of authorities’ initial take of what happened, noting that “obviously” an “accelerant” was used to fuel the blast.

There were no other injuries and no other houses in the neighborhood in Puyallup, which is about 10 miles southeast of Tacoma, appeared to be damaged, said Troyer. He added a chaplain was at the scene with the social worker, who he described as physically OK but emotionally devastated by the blast.

Troyer said the sheriff’s department has copies of a brief e-mail that had gone out to Powell’s family and friends, “stating that he couldn’t live with what was going on.”

Authorities haven’t confirmed the message came from Powell, but “we have no reason to believe it was not from him,” he said.

“It shows that there was intent, and this was what he intended to do — which is to kill his children and kill himself,” Troyer said of the e-mail.

In the affidavit seeking custody of his children from Powell-Cox’s parents that was filed last week, Powell claimed that his sons “sustained severe injuries in the care of their grandparents,” adding that, “for the sake of my sons, we can all do better.”

“If anyone wants to be honest with themselves and the situation, the real story is not that anyone is a bad person, including me,” he said. “The story is one of overcoming and rising above what many people think are insurmountable challenges.”

The Washington court denied the motion from Powell to gain custody, said Jeffrey Bassett, a Washington lawyer who was representing Powell. Troyer said a judge also ordered Powell to “go through different types of evaluations and counseling,” though supervised visits could continue.

Powell had said that he last saw his wife, Susan Powell-Cox, on a cold December night in 2009.

That night, he said that he and his two sons — then ages 2 and 4 — left after midnight to go camping in below-freezing weather in a desert area in Tooele County, Utah. Powell-Cox’s sister eventually reported the mother, who would now be 29 years old, as missing.

A month later, Powell and his children moved from Utah to the state of Washington.

While there have been no arrests or charges filed related to his wife’s appearance, Josh Powell was identified as the lone “person of interest,” according to Sgt. Mike Powell — no relation to Josh or Susan Powell-Cox — with the West Valley City, Utah, police.

The woman has not been found.

Through their attorney Anne Bremner, Powell-Cox’s family issued a statement Sunday asking “for time, privacy and prayers after today’s horrific events.”

Since September 2011, Josh Powell had been engaged in ongoing custody battle with his wife’s parents Judith and Charles Cox, according to Washington state court records.

As part of the investigation after Powell-Cox’s disappearance, authorities last year searched a house in Washington state where Powell, his two sons and his father, Steven Powell, were living. In the course of the search, detectives from West Valley City “discovered numerous images and recordings of adult and juvenile females,” according to a release from the Pierce County sheriff’s department.

Steven Powell subsequently was arrested, in September, and charged with 14 counts of voyeurism and one count of possessing images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to court documents.

He was still in custody on those charges in Pierce County as of Sunday, according to official records posted online.

The house that blew up was on a cul-de-sac, about four blocks from the one that had been searched in 2011, Troyer said.

Authorities involved with the case were struggling Sunday to come to grips with what had happened, from the violence of the explosion and the two boys being caught up in it.

Troyer said many law enforcement agents in Washington state have worked with their counterparts in Utah on the Susan Powell-Cox case, as well as spent time playing, coloring and getting to know her sons.

“Our guys have spent a lot of time and effort and blood, sweat and tears on this case,” said Troyer. “We have detectives who are close with the kids, … and know them. The whole thing is just sad.”

CNN’s Deanna Proeller, Greg Botelho and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.

2012 February 05 23:50:41 UTC

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