Lost in the Shadow of Fame: The Neglected Story of Kermit Roosevelt; a Gallant and Tragic American

Kermit with his father President Roosevelt

Kermit Roosevelt was Theodore Roosevelt’s second son and Franklin Roosevelt’s cousin. He was a remarkable character; a war hero in both WWI and WWII while fighting for the British. He was an intellectual, author, explorer and big game hunter who developed some of the largest shipping companies in America following the Great War.

However, there was also a dark side to Kermit that greatly troubled Theodore and his wife Edith. Similar to his uncle Elliot (TR’s brother and Eleanore Roosevelt’s father), Kermit became a philanderer and alcoholic. His troubled lifestyle even forced FDR to enlist J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI to surveil Kermit and his mistress during World War Two, as Kermit’s mistress may have been a German spy.

Eventually, in desperation, FDR commissioned Kermit as a Major in the US Army and assigned him to the far reaches of Alaska to keep him out of sight and mischief. There, in 1943 he was found with a bullet through his head under very questionable circumstances. Although publicized in later years as a suicide, author William E. Lemanski discovered in Kermit’s classified army records, much circumstantial evidence that he may have met with foul play, concealed from the public for many decades and only released to Lemanski through the intercession of a US Congressman.

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