Andrew Goldman

But his social bona fides were even loftier.

He had friends in high places.

Despite the Skakels being a rock-ribbed Republican family, Rush was close personal friends with Hugh Carey, the Democratic governor of New York.

And although Rush certainly wouldn't have mentioned it right away himself, everyone in Belhaven knew that back in 1950, Rush's older sister Ethel had married Robert F. Kennedy right there in town at St.

Mary's on Greenwich Avenue.

Rush had been an usher.

JFK, then a congressman from Boston, Bobby's best man.

Patriarch Joe Kennedy famously used his considerable riches to fund his family's political ambitions.

Some would even say he bought the White House for his son Jack.

But as rich as the Kennedys were, the Skakel fortune dwarfed that of the Kennedys.

The Skakels resided in a whole other financial universe, so much so that the scuttlebutt at the time was that Bobby had married the Skakel girl for her money.

Family's wealth and corporate affiliations might have been of interest to the parents of Belhaven, but this kind of social yardstick wasn't as relevant to their 15-year-old kids.

There was more immediate stuff to consider.

How's my hair look?

Does he like me?

Why is my complexion betraying me?

Who's got beer?

To both the boys and girls of Belhaven, Martha was different.

Less self-conscious than the other girls, a little more adventurous, like an emissary to frigid Connecticut from free and easy California.

That's Peter Kumarswamy.