Bobby Kennedy

WASHINGTON -- There she is, Billboard Jackie. The towering photograph is the first thing visitors see when entering the new exhibit on Jacqueline Kennedy's style, the former first lady looming so large in her shimmering gown that she leaves spectators at her feet, quite literally. It's telling that the show at the Corcoran Gallery of Art begins this way, genuflecting before the Kennedy era as much as reflecting on it. The exhibit, which opened yesterday after blockbuster runs in New York and Boston, is ample proof that the Kennedy mystique did not end with the 20th century that gave rise to it but continues today.

I WAS DRIVING to the funeral of my cousin George Floyd Jr. when I heard the news on a radio broadcast that John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane was missing and that he hadn't been heard from for hours.My heart sank. I feared the worst, and it was confirmed later this week. John F. Kennedy Jr. is dead at the age of 38, killed in a plane crash along with his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette. Kennedy Jr.'s father -- President John F. Kennedy -- was only 46 when he was assassinated in 1963.

"Robert Kennedy: Brother Protector," by James Hilty.Temple University Press. 576 pages. $34.95Before there was Janet Reno, before Richard Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre and before the special prosecutor law itself, there was Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who saw not just his job but his mission in life as protecting his brother, who happened to be president of the United States.A thousand and one Kennedy books are out there, one for every day of John F. Kennedy's mythical reign. But this one, written by a historian, actually provides a useful service.

It is certainly true that "the Kennedys have brightened the American landscape with their triumphs and darkened it with their tragedies," as a scroll contends at the beginning of an interesting historical documentary on cable tonight.But far from obvious in "Bobby Kennedy: In His Own Words" (premiering at 8 on the HBO premium channel, with repeats Nov. 24, 26 and 28, and Dec. 2 and 6) is any understanding of those tragedies, the assassinations of President Kennedy (27 years ago Thursday) and his younger brother Bobby (in June 1968)

DISTRICT HEIGHTS -- On a languid evening last week, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend brought her campaign for governor to southeast Baltimore. She wanted to tout an anti-crime initiative she launched as lieutenant governor to create community policing programs in 62 "hot spots" in Maryland. But reporters hammered Ms. Townsend instead with questions about the latest bad news in her faltering campaign: Her Republican rival, Rep. Robert Ehrlich Jr., had pulled nearly even in polls, and what once looked like an easy victory would now require tough political combat by the eldest daughter of Robert F. Kennedy.

Crime fiction doesn't get much darker or more raw than it does in James Ellroy's novels. There's no notion of a brave man or woman walking down those mean streets, fortified only by a personal moral code. That's because moral codes can get you killed.In his L.A. Quartet, an ambitious set of novels that concluded with 1993's "White Jazz," Mr. Ellroy explored the underside of his native Los Angeles in the 1940s and 1950s. The city as he described it was a cesspool, filled with the corrupt, the ruthless and the venal.

This article is based on Montana and North Carolina court records, hearing transcripts, interviews, newspaper archives, and Charles Kuralt's books "A Life on the Road," "On the Road With Charles Kuralt" and "Charles Kuralt's America."On his sickbed in New York in the summer of 1997, Charles Kuralt thought of Montana, a place he had loved for a great many years for its natural wonders, far away from his life in the city.Down by a riverside, he built a log cabin. It reminded him of his native North Carolina, but most of all it gave him a place to disappear.

Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years By David Talbot Free Press / 479 pages / $15 Published in paperback to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, the book focuses on the relationship between Bobby and John F. Kennedy. The book is based on interviews with more than 150 people as well as government documents, and tells, among other things, of JFK's efforts to prevent war with the Soviet Union and Bobby Kennedy's secret quest to solve his brother's murder.

Baseball INDIANS: Agreed to terms with former Orioles P Jose Mercedes on a minor-league contract. Basketball NBA: Fined Philadelphia 76ers G Allen Iverson $10,000 for skipping Friday's media session for the All-Star Game. College MOUNT ST. MARY'S: Fired men's assistant basketball coach Don Anderson. PRAIRIE VIEW A&M: Signed football coach Larry Dorsey to two-year extension. WASHINGTON: Named Bobby Kennedy assistant football coach. Football BILLS: Named Kevin Gilbride offensive coordinator.

A government conspiracy slowly unfolds on a new "X-Files," while a cable documentary looks back more than 35 years at the conspiracy confrontation between Bobby Kennedy and labor leader Jimmy Hoffa. Oh, and Colin Powell's back -- again -- on yet another interview show.* "Family Matters" (8 p.m.-8:30 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- The old I-see-you-in-the-shower ploy, subject of recent plots in both "Friends" and "Beverly Hills, 90210," gets another outing as Urkel (Jalell) inadvertently spies a bathing Laura (Kellie Shanygne Williams)