BACKGROUND INFORMATION

JFK and Inga Binga Historical Notes

The basic historical elements of this story are true. Ensign Jack Kennedy did have a passionate love affair with Inga Arvad, a former Miss Denmark.  Jack and Inga were introduced by Jack’s sister, who worked with Inga at the Washington Times-Herald. At the time, Jack was in Washington working for the Office of Naval Intelligence. Inga’s career as a journalist began in 1936 when she managed to wrangle an interview with Adolph Hitler.  Hitler was apparently quite smitten with her; he granted not one, but three interviews and invited her to visit his private box at the 1936 Olympics. Her articles ran in Danish papers and with this triumph, Inga moved to New York to study journalism at Columbia University. A year later in New York she ran into the editor of the Washington Times-Herald, who offered her a column in his Washington paper. Because she spoke fluent German and, because of her past association with Hitler and other leading Nazis, rumors spread that she may be a German agent and the FBI began surveillance of her apartment and tapped her phone.

This surveillance probably tipped off the Navy (an affair with a married woman was grounds for court martial at the time) who transferred Ensign Kennedy to Charleston, in an effort to break up the affair. As part of the transfer, Kennedy was not allowed to travel more than 30 miles from his base. But soon Inga was taking trains and planes to visit Jack in Charleston. From FBI bugs placed in their hotel rooms, we know they spent the first two weekends at the Fort Sumter House and a third weekend at the Francis Marion Hotel. Though they spent most of their time in their hotel room, the couple did find time to visit Middleton Gardens, dine at Henry’s Restaurant in the Market, golf at Yeaman’s Hall Country Club, and window-shop on King Street. One Sunday they even attended church together at the Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.

In March of 1942, Inga and Jack’s relationship came to an end.   

 

Some Key Players Drawn From Real Individuals

John F. Kennedy was the second of nine children born to Joe and Rose Kennedy. Kennedy’s father had made a fortune in banking and had served a controversial tenure as the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain. Ambassador Kennedy made no secret that he thought Britain was a lost cause. Having spent part of his youth with his father in London, Jack wrote of his exploits in a college thesis, often disagreeing with his father’s view of things. This was published in 1940 under the title Why England Slept. Though he disagreed with much in his son’s book, Joe Kennedy used his influence with Henry Luce, the editor of Time and Life Magazines, to get Jack’s book published. Luce wrote the introduction. Why England Slept became a bestseller and led Jack to believe he may want to pursue a career in journalism.

Jack’s father Ambassador Joseph Kennedy also used his influence to get Jack in the U.S. Navy after Jack had failed both the Navy and Army physicals. Jack had been a sickly child and still suffered from a bad back and undiagnosed intestinal problems—medical issues that often led to hospitalizations. Despite the health issues, Jack was determined to seek active duty. He began his naval career working for the Office of Naval Intelligence in Washington, but in early 1942 he was suddenly transferred to Charleston when the Navy learned of his affair with Inga. Following his affair, Jack was hospitalized for back problems and surgery was considered. Eventually Jack was able to return to active duty, leaving Charleston in the summer of 1942 (possibly thanks to strings his father pulled once more). After attending Naval Reserve Officers Training School in Chicago and PT (Patrol Torpedo) training in Rhode Island, Jack was sent to the Solomon Islands where he took command of PT Boat 109.

Inga Marie Arvad was 28 years old when she met Jack Kennedy. She was born Inga Marie Petersen in Copenhagen, where she studied ballet and won the title of Miss Denmark at age 16. She traveled to Paris to compete in the Miss Europe Pageant. Despite being named a finalist, she eloped at age 17 with Egyptian diplomat Kamak Abdel Nabi. This first marriage was short-lived and she soon remarried, this time to Paul Fejos, a Hungarian movie director who made two films that starred his gorgeous new wife. It was at this time that she took the name Inga Arvad as a stage name.  Inga’s films were financed by Axel Wenner-Gren, one of the richest men in the world who had made his fortune with the Electrolux vacuum cleaner.  Some believe Inga was his paramour as well. While dating Kennedy, Inga did receive a $5,000 check from Wenner-Gren. Wenner-Gren, who was on the U.S. watch list for alleged pro-German sympathies, was living on his yacht in Mexico during the time in which the play is set. His yacht, which he purchased from Howard Hughes, was the largest in the world. At the time of the play, it was suspected he was using it to ferry fuel to Nazi U-boats that were allegedly operating in the Caribbean. This was never proven.

After her first two movies, Inga became disinterested in both film and in her husband Paul. She turned to journalism, traveling to Berlin to cover the 1936 Olympics. There she interviewed a fellow movie actress who was engaged to Hermann Goering. Goering’s fiancée was so delighted with Inga that she invited Inga to her wedding. At the wedding, Inga met Adolph Hitler who was serving as Goering’s best man. Inga convinced him to sit for an interview and, charmed by her, he invited Inga to join him in his private box at the Berlin Olympics. Supposedly a photo of the two was taken in his box, though the fate of this photo is unknown. Still estranged from her husband Paul, Inga traveled to the United States after the Olympics to study journalism at Columbia, which helped her secure a position with the conservative and isolationist Washington Times-Herald. She was assigned a regular column called “Did You Happen to See?” which was a series of lighthearted interviews with the movers and shakers in pre-war Washington. One of her co-workers was Kathleen Kennedy, who introduced Inga to her brother Jack. Inga and Jack had a passionate affair until late March 1942 when they agreed to call it quits, perhaps as a result of the FBI surveillance and press coverage. The next month, Inga flew to Reno to divorce her husband Paul. In 1946, she married movie cowboy Tim McCoy and raised two sons. In a funny twist, McCoy’s full name was Timothy John Fitzgerald McCoy. Inga Arvad McCoy died of cancer in 1973 at the age of 60.

Lemoyne “Lem” Billings was, by everyone’s account, Jack Kennedy’s life-long best friend. Because Billings was not involved in politics or the Kennedy administration he is not well known. The two met at prep school at Choate and remained close friends until Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. Billings was a frequent guest at the Kennedy homes in Palm Beach and Hyannisport, so much so that many considered him almost a member of the family. Billings also joined Jack on a tour of Europe in the summer of 1937. Though not actually in Charleston at the same time as Inga, Billings did come down to Charleston twice. Though their paths didn’t cross in Charleston, Lem and Inga did know each other from Washington. Like Jack, health issues kept Lem out of the service (he had very bad eyes) but again, through Joe Kennedy’s connections, Lem was accepted into the Ambulance Corps and served with distinction in North Africa through 1943. He then enlisted in the Navy and also served in the Pacific. After the war he and Jack remained close friend. In fact much of what we know about the young Jack Kennedy comes from the many letters Jack sent to Lem and Lem saved. Billings worked for Coca-Cola and other beverage companies and created the 1950’s “Fizzies” sensation that became a national fad. Never having married, Billings was widely known to be what was euphemistically called in those days, “a confirmed bachelor.” Billings died in 1981.

 

Setting the Stage

WARTIME CHARLESTON

It’s difficult, now 70 years later, to imagine what must have been going through the minds of Charlestonians in February 1942. Just two months earlier, news of the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor had arrived. A few days after Pearl Harbor, Nazi Germany also declared war on the U.S. With the first U-boat attack off the North Carolina coast in January of 1942, the great oceans that once seemed to have kept world conflicts far away now became the means of imminent attack.

War preparations were well underway in Charleston. Air raid sirens were placed atop St. Michael’s steeple, the Francis Marion Hotel, and County Hall on King Street. Air raid shelters were set up all over town and plans for blackouts were being put into effect. 

Suspicion of spying (even sabotage) was rampant, especially by foreigners or anyone who appeared foreign. Inga Arvad certainly had reason to be concerned she would fall into this net. Even American citizens were not exempt from suspicion. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which set the stage for the internment of U.S. citizens of German, Italian, or Japanese ancestry. Though the order would mainly be used to inter Japanese citizens on the west coast, some citizens of Italian or German ancestry were affected as well. 

FEAR OF U-BOAT ATTACKS

Fears must have certainly been further aroused when German U-boats began attacking Allied shipping along the East Coast. This began with the sinking of the merchant ship Allen Jackson and the loss of 22 seamen on January 18, 1942 off the Outer Banks of North Carolina, just up the coast from Charleston. Before the war was over, at least 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships fell prey to German U-boats in the Atlantic. 

Though most attacks on East Coast shipping occurred farther north in the Cape Hatteras area, Charleston held blackouts and submarine watchtowers were erected on Sullivan’s and other islands up and down the coast. One of these can still be seen on Dewees Island today.

Air patrols also watched the waters off the coast and Charleston was on high alert—for good reason. On May 9, 1942, while Jack Kennedy was still in Charleston, American forces engaged the German U-Boat 352 between the Outer Banks and Bermuda. Severely damaged by depth charges, the U-boat was forced to surface but kept fighting. Though the German crew lost 17 sailors in a surface firefight and managed to scuttle their boat, the remaining German crew was captured and brought to Charleston Naval Base where Kennedy was stationed.

J. EDGAR HOOVER AND THE FBI SEARCH FOR NAZI AGENT SPIES

As World War II was breaking out in Europe, even before the war came to the shores of the U.S., J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI was already hard at work ferreting out foreign agents. As early as 1938, they captured their first German agent. Soon after the war broke out, FBI agents apprehended German spies that had come ashore via U-boats on the beaches of Florida and New Jersey. As part of this ongoing effort, Hoover himself approved the wiretaps and surveillance of Inga and Jack in February 1942. 

J. Edgar Hoover actually began his career searching for spies during the first World War. He moved up through the ranks of what was then known as the Bureau of Investigation (it became the FBI in 1935). In 1924, he was named the director and charged with cleaning up some of the illegal and warrantless surveillance the bureau had been undertaking. Rather than eliminating these shady practices, Hoover not only continued them under his tenure, but kept them secret by storing many of the most clandestine files in his personal office to keep them out of the regular FBI files where others might find them. It was in these personal files that the records of the FBI surveillance of Jack and Inga in Charleston were found. 

Some have speculated that Hoover used these embarrassing files to keep the Kennedy brothers (Jack’s brother Bobby was then Attorney General     and technically Hoover’s boss) from forcing Hoover to retire during the Kennedy Administration. Though already past retirement age, Hoover didn’t retire until 1972. Because of Hoover’s high-handed methods, his career remains under a cloud. He became very controversial in the last years of his reign at the FBI. Perhaps because Hoover was such a complex and secretive man, rumors about Hoover’s own private life made the rounds in Washington. Hoover never married and for many years he lived with his lifelong friend and assistant, Clyde Tolson. The two vacationed together and are buried side by side. Many have speculated that the two lifelong friends may have had a sexual relationship, though there is no evidence of this. Rumors that Hoover was seen dressed in drag at a party in New York also circulated widely in the 1970s, but there is no concrete evidence of this and the incident is strongly discounted by historians.