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Apart from making money, one of Onassis' prime concerns in life is one-upping Stavros Niarchos. After Niarchos bought an island retreat off Greece, Onassis snapped up Skorpios in 1962 for $84,000. Since then he has pumped close to $10 million into developing the 500-acre Ionian outcropping. To keep curious neighbors away, he bought the nearby island of Sparti as well. Lighters daily haul water to springless Skorpios, whose slopes are now luxuriantly planted with cypresses, oleanders and fruit trees. To some, it is eerily reminiscent of Dr. No's island in the Bond book. Sullen-looking, black-uniformed employees swarm on its newly built roads and jetty, and keep constant guard against intruders. Golf carts hum in tune with the cicadas; on the crest of one ridge is a raw clearing on which Onassis plans to erect a 160-room "cottage" for his bride.
Off the Pedestal
Indeed, there is no doubt that on Skorpios, Jacqueline Kennedy will be queen of far more than she can survey: mistress of a private empire sustained by 200 servants and employees, wafted wherever she desires in her choice of two amphibians, a helicopter, the entire Olympic Airways system, or the Christina. Beyond this island and its pleasure domes there is the whole domain of international life and amusements, which she patently enjoys. Having stepped down from an uncomfortable American pedestal, she may find precisely the sort of life she has long sought. Romantics, after getting over their first shock of vicarious loss, will simply have to accept that fact.
"What does she see in him?" and "Is it love?" will remain major topics of conversation even among worldlier citizens for some time. For the present, the favorite theory seems to be that he will protect her from the world, providing the security and devotion that a powerful, older husband can best offer. She, in turn (or so goes the scenario), may well transform him from a "meaningless rich man"—in an old acquaintance's phrase—by interesting him in worthy philanthropies rather than self-gratifying expenditures. Even their ages are not too disparate if one goes by the old Oriental rule: the ideal wife should be half her husband's age plus seven years. (According to that reckoning, Jackie is a year too old for Onassis.) When she was asked once to decide where and in what era she would have preferred to live, Jacqueline Kennedy picked 18th century France. The unfettered universe of Aristotle Socrates Onassis comes closer to the kingdom of Louis XV—if not of Camelot —than any other around.
* An Argentine passport issued to him in 1927 listed his birthdate as Sept. 21, 1900. He claims to be 62.
* Short for the full Greek name of Aristotelis. He used to joke that "Ari" was an American corruption generated by well-meaning acquaintances who thought he was an Irishman named 'Arry O'Nassis.