Doreen Bloch was reading through transcripts of telephone conversations between Jackie Kennedy, then first lady, and dermatologist Dr Erno Laszlo when she became confused. The conversation was almost unintelligible, with both Kennedy and Dr Laszlo using cryptic language, trailing off mid-sentence and making oblique references to unspecified “circumstances”.
Unsure of what she had stumbled upon, Bloch consulted with presidential scholar Professor Barbara Perry from the University of Virginia and, after cross-checking dates and timelines, the reason for her secrecy and coded language dawned on them: the first lady was pregnant, but couldn't say it outright in case the phone was tapped. Armed with this context, the underlying conversation revealed itself – pregnancy hormones were making Kennedy's skin break out; it was changing every day, she told her dermatologist. He advised against applying excessive oils and creams to keep blackheads at bay and prescribed his Active Phelityl Oil for the president, who was getting breakouts himself on his back from taking his daily four baths.
In August 1963, a few months after the conversations with Dr Laszlo, Kennedy delivered Patrick Kennedy preterm, and he lived just two days before passing away. In November, JFK was assassinated. For Bloch, this context gave
