Onassis mon amour

Description:

There is also an English edition of Onassis, mon amour. The story of her long and tempestuous love affair is ultimately tragic. After several years of beatings, infidelities and fraternization with Nazi agents at their home on Oyster Bay in Long Island, Onassis would jilt Dedichen for younger, richer and more pliable women. Dedichen was a Scandinavian aristocrat with friends and relatives situated in prominent positions in the business world. Onassis swiftly detected Dedichen's potential to help him leverage his shipping business, and he exploited her financial connections to the hilt. Onassis exploited Dedichen's connections to banking to finance the expansion of his fleet. On more than one occasion, the sadistic Onassis injured Dedichen. With her broken or disjointed arm in a sling, Dedichen was subjected to the humiliation of customs agents demanding to examine the contents of her bandages - so deeply suspicious were they of Onassis' reputed dealings with underworld contraband and the smuggling of gemstones and narcotics. Self-destructively, Dedichen responded to Onassis's charm, which she found appealing, but he manipulated her into a slavish existence that permitted him the freedom to have affairs with countless surrogates and the vulnerable Hollywood star, Veronica Lake, a simplistic working class woman whom he plied with nylons, prime cuts of beef and lashings of alcohol. Attracted to Onassis's daring and ruthless character, Dedichen submitted herself to his onslaught of degrading and humiliating sexual perversity. Even his closest friends described Onassis as, “a brutal drunk.” Dedichen was Onassis's companion when he moved his base of operations from Buenas Aires to New York, where he operated from headquarters on Manhattan and lived in a lavish apartment on 57th Street with a primary residence for Dedichen on Oyster Bay cloyingly named, “Mamacita Cottage.” On Oyster Bay, Onassis flagrantly pursued other women and fraternized with Nazis to such an extent that he would be investigated by the FBI under suspicion of being a Nazi agent himself. During the war, Onassis was virtually unique in being the sole major ship-owner who survived the war with his fleet completely intact - never suffering the loss of even one of his ships during the height of the Battle of the Atlantic. After the war, Onassis callously abandoned Dedichen to marry Athina Livanos, who was underage (17) at the time of their wedding in New York.

subjects: aristotle onassis,  ingeborg dedichen,  athina livanos,  veronica lake,  oyster bay,  nazi,  nazis,  FBI,  mamacita cottage

People: Aristotle Socrates Onassis (1906-1975),  aristotle onassis,  ingeborg dedichen,  athina livanos,  veronica lake

Places: oyster bay,  new york,  manhattan,  buenas aires

Times: twentieth century