Independent presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy Jr. caused a stir last May after revelations that a worm had eaten away part of his brain. Now he’s back with a new, unusual story: abandoning a dead bear cub in Central Park.
The anti-vaccine activist — nephew of assassinated President John Fitzgerald Kennedy — shared the anecdote in a video posted to social media Sunday, apparently trying to preempt a magazine article. New Yorker which mentions the strange story from about ten years ago.
In the video, shot during what appears to be an after-dinner chat, “RFK Jr.” recounts that while on a falconry trip with friends in upstate New York in 2014, a pickup truck in front of him struck and killed a six-month-old black bear.
Eager to recover the animal’s carcass for its meat, the scion of the most illustrious political family in the United States put it in the back of his own vehicle.
But the excursion was delayed, and he was unable to bring the remains home to Westchester County.
A dinner he was attending that evening in New York also prevented him from doing so, and Mr Kennedy found he had to go straight to the airport to catch a flight.
“The bear was in my car, and I didn’t want to [l’y laisser]”because it would have been serious,” the 70-year-old explains in a gravelly voice.
After careful consideration, Mr. Kennedy and his companions took the carcass to Central Park, in the heart of Manhattan, and left it under an old bicycle he kept in his vehicle.
When the animal’s body was found, the case caused a stir.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?'” Kennedy said, adding: “I was worried because my fingerprints were all over the bike.”
According to him, the story lay dormant for a decade until a fact-checker from New Yorker calls her to check it out for an article about her. The article has not yet been published.
“It’s going to be a nasty story,” Mr. Kennedy prophesied with a laugh.