Palm Beach Babylon

Palm Beach, Florida . . . the sultry island paradise where America's rich and famous flock to play, cheat, do drugs, make deals, break the law, and occasionally commit murder. Now award-winning journalists Weiss and Hoffman tell the real story of this American Babylon. 24 pages of photos.

Looks at Palm Beach's scandals, including the battle between Donald and Ivana, the insatiable sexual appetities of the Kennedy brothers, and the bizarre death of a suspect in the JFK assassination

Only 12 miles long, Palm Beach has become America's Riviera, with grand Arabian Nights mansions and lavish champagne and caviar parties. The island has turned into the playground of influential industrialists, politicians, aristocrats and diplomats.

From the first Gilded Age to the second, a “charming, zippy history . . . a rollicking, informative lesson in real estate, American history, and current events.” —Town & Country Looking at the island of Palm Beach today, with its unmatched mansions, tony shops, and pristine beaches, one is hard pressed to visualize the dense tangle of Palmetto brush and mangroves that it was when visionary entrepreneur and railroad tycoon Henry Flagler first arrived there in April 1893. Trusting his remarkable instincts, he built the Royal Poinciana Hotel within a year, and two years later, what was to become the legendary Breakers—instantly establishing the island as the preferred destination for those who could afford it. Over the next 125 years, Palm Beach has become synonymous with exclusivity—especially its most famous residence, Mar-a-Lago. As Les Standiford relates, the high walls of Mar-a-Lago and other manses like it were seemingly designed to contain scandal within as much as keep intruders out. This book tells the history of this fabled landscape intertwined with the colorful lives of its famous and infamous protagonists, from Flagler’s two wives to architect Addison Mizner, who created Palm Beach’s “Mediterranean look” to heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post and her husband E. F. Hutton, the original residents of Mar-a-Lago. With authoritative detail, Standiford recounts how Marjorie ruled Palm Beach society until her death in 1973, and how the fate of her mansion threatened to tear apart the very fabric of the town until Donald Trump acquired it in 1985. “Edifying, energetic, and captivating.” —Florida Weekly

An Illustrated History of Palm Beach is a nostalgic journey through the history of the town of Palm Beach as told through the photographic collection of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County. From an early pioneer community, Palm Beach evolved over the past 150 years into today's sophisticated resort, starting with the grand hotels of Henry Flagler, the Royal Poinciana and The Breakers, and elegant mansions of the Gilded Age. An Illustrated History of Palm Beach is a primary source look into the development of one of America's most prosperous and enchanting communities.

Originally published in 1962, this is the true story account of one of Florida’s most chilling crimes. Joseph Peel, a crooked municipal judge of Palm Beach, Florida, is accused of killing fellow judge, Curtis Chillingworth, of the superior court, who mysteriously disappeared along with his wife, Marjorie Chillingworth, from their home in 1955. Peel was publicly reprimanded by Chillingworth in 1953, when Peel represented both sides in a divorce. In June 1955, Peel was scheduled to appear in court to answer charges of unethical conduct in yet another divorce case, and so faced disbarment. Since Peel was also using his position as an elected municipal judge to protect bolita operators and moonshiners by giving them advance warnings of raids in return for financial consideration, Peel faced the loss of his superior position—and thus his lucrative illegal racket... A gripping read. “Bishop’s reconstruction is well-ordered and well-observed, a stunning form of journalistic jazz, cool, crisp and all on one note, like a headline. [...] A simple, speedy, thoroughly satisfying thriller...”—Kirkus Review

From the founders of the international health-care behemoth Johnson & Johnson in the late 1800s to the contemporary Johnsons of today, such as billionaire New York Jets owner Robert Wood "Woody" Johnson IV, all is revealed in this scrupulously researched, unauthorized biography by New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer. Often compared to the Kennedy clan because of the tragedies and scandals that had befallen both wealthy and powerful families, Crazy Rich, based on scores of exclusive, candid, on-the-record interviews, reveals how the dynasty's vast fortune was both intoxicating and toxic through the generations of a family that gave the world Band-Aids and Baby Oil. At the same time, they've been termed perhaps the most dysfunctional family in the fortune 500. Oppenheimer is the author of biographies of the Kennedys, the Clintons, the Hiltons and Martha Stewart, among other American icons.