Welcome to JFK in The Enduring Secret.

I'm your host, Jeff Crudell.

Hello everyone and welcome back to the podcast.

Today's episode is episode 46.

It's a story about a group of men who are aptly named the Irish Mafia, Confidants of President Kennedy's. And today's story is about two of

those men, Kenneth O'Donnell and Dave Powers, both of which were riding in the car that was directly

behind the president's limousine that day in Dealey Plaza. You know, in a sense, we're saying goodbye to Deely Plaza.

These last few episodes are, in some ways, the last few things that you pick up and put in the

car before you continue the journey westward, westward to the Golden Gate.

We would be remiss if we left the plaza without talking about Kenneth O'Donnell and Dave Powers.

So without further ado, let's listen to episode 46.

Music It was September 12th, 1977, and a funeral mass was being held in the Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church in Jamaica Plain.

If you were a passerby, you would have known there was something more to today's ceremony.

President Kennedy's widow, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, was in attendance that day.

They were there to lay Kenneth O'Donnell to rest and to pay their last respects. In some ways, it was a quiet ceremony, but the

sadness around it was multiplied. Former Speaker of the House John William McCormick was there

as well and other men and women

from high places. Kenneth O'Donnell was only 53 years old. Later, there would be a time to talk about

the reasons why he had died and gone to the Lord so soon, but not on that day. Later, his daughter, Helen, would quietly tell the story,

the story that everyone close to Kenny O'Donnell knew already, that he had died of complications

born of alcoholism. He was part of the Irish Mafia, actually an endearing term to this

group of men that surrounded President Kennedy during his

...