Kennedy-Mafia link alleged by woman

Press, 24 February 1988, Page 10

Kennedy-Mafia link alleged by woman

NZPA-Reuter New York A woman who claims she was a mistress of both President John F. Kennedy and a leading mobster said Kennedy used her to pass messages to the Mafia and she believes the mob may have helped fund his 1960 Presidential campaign.

Judith Campbell Exner, who is now 54 and dying of cancer, said in an interview with "People” magazine published yesterday that she regularly carried messages from Kennedy to a Chicago mob boss, Sam Giancana, and his henchman, Johnny Roselli.

Ms Exner said she never read the messages but believes Kennedy used mob money to help finance his Presidential campaign. She said she also believes Kennedy worked with the Mafia in planning an assassination attempt on the Cuban

leader, Fidel Castro. “For the past 25 years I have been terrified to tell the truth about my relationship with Jack Kennedy. In fact, I’ve gone to great lengths to keep the truth from ever coming out, which is probably the only reason I am alive today,” Ms Exner said. ■ She was speaking now because she was dying of cancer. The magazine is believed to have paid her for the interview. Ms Exner revealed her relationship with Giancana and Kennedy 12 years ago after being indentified as a “close friend” of Kennedy in a Senate report. But when she testified before Congress and wrote her autobiography, she denied Kennedy knew of her links to the Mafia. She now says she maintained a relationship with Giancana at Kennedy’s request, meeting the mobster through another former lover, Frank Sinatra.