Photograph: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis through Getty Photographs
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in all probability gained’t win the 2024 presidential race, however on the subject of making bizarre admissions about previous run-ins with animals, the impartial candidate continues to set a historic tempo. First, there was his mind worm. Then there was the useless canine he posed for a photograph with however denied consuming. Now there’s the caper of Central Park’s useless black-bear cub.
In case you don’t keep in mind, again in October 2014, New Yorkers have been shocked to study {that a} lady strolling her canine in Central Park had stumble upon the physique of a fatally traumatized six-month-old bear. Per the New York Occasions on the time:
The furry black mass lay hidden below a bush close to Central Park’s predominant loop, unnoticed, unmoving and partially hid by an deserted bicycle. A canine rustling within the brush drew the primary eyes to the bush and a sight not often, if ever, present in fashionable Manhattan: a child black bear, useless. A name to 911 adopted and shortly yellow police tape cordoned off the realm close to West 69th Avenue as detectives discovered themselves dealing with a mysterious crime scene on a sunny Monday morning. How the animal, a three-foot-long feminine, acquired to that spot remained a thriller at day’s finish: a cub, in all probability born this 12 months, someway separated from her mom and from something resembling a pure habitat. …
The police described the bear as having had trauma to her physique, but it surely was not instantly clear how she had died. … Close by, New Yorkers more and more aware of wildlife sightings — a coyote within the park, a dolphin off Throgs Neck within the Bronx — supplied theories of their very own. Some suspected foul play. Others guessed an accident with a automobile. One man confidently pronounced the bear sufficiently old to have wandered over from Morris County, N.J.
A necropsy later decided that the bear had died from “blunt pressure accidents in line with a motorized vehicle collision,” however nobody may have probably guessed the weird sequence of occasions that had led to the bear mendacity there.
RFK Jr. has now admitted he staged the entire thing — through a video recounting the story to Roseanne Barr — in what seems to be an try to preempt a bombshell report from The New Yorker.
Right here’s what he mentioned occurred: Whereas driving off to do some upstate falconing in Goshen, New York, Kennedy noticed a girl run over the bear cub. Kennedy stopped his van and picked up the recent roadkill with the intention of skinning and consuming it, as a result of “it was in excellent situation,” and he needed to place the meat in his fridge. However, alas, he didn’t get again residence instantly, as he went falconing and later had some dinner plans at Peter Luger Steak Home down in Brooklyn. Then he had a flight to catch, however he nonetheless had a useless bear in his van.
So what’s a 60-year-old Kennedy scion to do? He hatched up a “redneck” scheme together with his apparently drunk pals to drive to Manhattan and plant the useless bear in Central Park, together with an previous bicycle Kennedy additionally occurred to have in his van, in what was alleged to appear like the aftermath of a deadly bike-on-bear accident. He thought this may be “amusing.”
He additionally acquired apprehensive, he informed Barr, when the useless bear was massive native information and, amid the following animal-cruelty investigation, it appeared as if the bike can be taken to a lab so it may very well be fingerprinted. “My prints have been throughout that bike,” he mentioned.
However Kennedy’s secret remained protected, no less than for a time. He would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for the meddling New Yorker.
“Fortunately, the story died after some time, and it stayed useless for a decade, and The New Yorker someway came upon about it,” Kennedy informed Barr, explaining that the journal’s fact-checkers had contacted him to verify the small print of his roadkill excessive jinks. “It’s going to be a nasty story,” he mentioned.
One other enjoyable truth: One of many follow-up tales on the dead-bear thriller on the time was written by John F. Kennedy’s granddaughter, then–Occasions local weather reporter Tatiana Schlossberg. One bear professional Schlossberg spoke with for that report appropriately guessed what had occurred, no less than partly:
Dr. Lana Ciarniello, a bear professional in Canada, mentioned that almost all bear consultants in the US have been attending a convention in Greece and can be arduous to achieve for remark. She couldn’t make the journey, so she was capable of provide her ideas on the thriller. She guessed that somebody killed the bear and took it to Central Park. It was extremely unlikely {that a} bear cub would journey throughout the concrete jungle.
In a remark to the Occasions after RFK Jr. acknowledged his duty, Schlossberg mentioned, “Like legislation enforcement, I had no concept who was liable for this after I wrote the story.”
There additionally could also be extra to the story than what Kennedy says. Watch his weird admission and choose for your self:
This submit has been up to date.
