Palm Beach Babylon: Sins, Scams, and Scandals

If there are any God-fearing, monogamous millionaires in Palm Beach, they are not the subjects of this regurgitation of seemingly every sex scandal to hit that paradise in the past 100 years. The authors, New York Post reporters, begin with the hijinks of the resort town's founding father, Harry Flagler, and its prime architects and developers, Addison and Wilson Mizner, and move to the escapades of the Kennedys, Pulitzers and Binghams, as well as those of John Lennon and Donald Trump (whose Palm Beach manse the authors call ``Mar-La-Lago''). Here are the details of these socialites' exploits, marriages, divorces and dalliances, as well as those of such occasional visitors as Isadora Duncan and Douglas MacArthur. Digging into a heap of tired gossip and tawdry scandal, Weiss and Hoffman do uncover some new items, and they touch on Florida's peculiar history and offer vivid peeks into Palm Beach's great estates and anti-Semitic clubs. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)