Washington - Ted Kennedy FBI File Reveals Death Threats


After the violent deaths of his brothers, the youngest Kennedy, Teddy, lived under constant threat that he too would meet an assassin's bullet. As he put it bluntly, “They're going to shoot my ass off the way they shot off Bobby's.”

We are learning more about these files, as the FBI has released 2,352 pages from its file on the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. The FBI has posted the file on its hot topics page.

The new file is dominated by investigations of threats against Ted Kennedy, who died Aug. 25 at age 77. "These threats originated from multiple sources, including individuals, anonymous persons, and members of radical groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, 'Minutemen' organizations, and the National Socialist White People’s Party," the FBI said. "The file also contains threats from individuals angered by Kennedy’s stance on politics in Northern Ireland and allegations of an alleged Mafia plot to kill President Kennedy and Senators Robert and Edward Kennedy."

The file was requested by msnbc.com and other news organizations under the Freedom of Information Act. After a kerfuffle over the FBI's decision to let the Kennedy family review the file before release, the FBI said today that no information was withheld from the file.

A smaller file will be released later, mostly relating to investigations of Kennedy, with information from various field offices, an FBI employee said. The bureau long ago released its main file on Sen. Kennedy's traffic accident at Chappaquiddick, Mass., which killed Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign aide to his brother, Robert. A small amount of material on Chappaquiddick is in Monday's release, but at first glance it appears to contain no new information, mostly newspaper articles.

'He just couldn't live his life that way'

Goodwin, the historian whose husband worked for the Kennedy family for years, told msnbc.com that she recalls the subject of assassination being discussed openly as Ted Kennedy began to seek the presidency in 1980.

“I remember in 1980, when he was running in the presidential primaries, we were at his house on Cape Cod and the questions came up,” Goodwin said. “As friends, the question came up, and it may well have been that some of his kids were worried about it. He said he just couldn't live his life that way. I think Lincoln said, 'I can't live my life looking around corners.'

“At a certain point you just make that decision that you will not allow yourself to be afraid, that life would be diminished if they allowed themselves to live that way.”

'You will die'

Previously released FBI files document a spate of threats against Ted Kennedy in the weeks after Robert Kennedy's assassination in June 1968, and five years after their older brother, President John F. Kennedy, was killed. Several of the letters appeared to be written in the same hand. They were postmarked in Boston.

One letter was sent to Ethel Kennedy, Robert's widow, at her home, known as Hickory Hill, in McLean, Va. It said only this: “If Ted runs for Pres. or VP he will be killed. We hate Kennedys. Stop him.”

Two letters received by the senator's office, said, “Don't run for President or Vice President or you will be shot dead too.” And, “You will die if you run for Pres or VP. We hate Kennedys.”

‘Your suffering has hardly begun’

The letter-writers also targeted the senator's invalid father, former Ambassador Joseph Kennedy Sr. One said simply, “Do you propose 'Tedd' [sic] to be the next victim?"

A longer letter to the elder Kennedy, who had suffered a stroke and the assassination of two sons, began, “Your suffering has hardly begun. Teddy is next on the Kennedy 'hit parade.'  And we won't rest until he gets his. We are sick of the Kennedy's [sic] and all the damn Kennedy crap.”

After attacks on the elder Kennedy as a “crook,” the letter continues, “You thought you could buy the presidency — and did once.  America doesn't like or want dynasties. Jack had to die. Bobby had to die. Teddy has to die. We hope you live long enough to see total destruction of the Kennedy's [sic] and to suffer again and again before you die and go to Hell for all eternity.”

An FBI memo says an assistant U.S. attorney gave the opinion that the letters to the father were not illegal, because they were vague, not making a specific threat.

Another letter was sent in June 1968 to Adlai Stevenson III, the Illinois state treasurer, who was involved in preparations for the Democratic convention in Chicago. “You will have blood on your hands. If he accepts the VP nomination he will die. A few of us Americans love our country enough to protect it from all threats and the Kennedy family is a terrible menace to America.”

Previously released FBI files revealed that the FBI investigated threats to kidnap the former president's son, John F. Kennedy Jr., in 1985 and 1995. He died in an airplane crash in 1999.

Extortion attempt

That summer a different sort of letter was sent to Joseph Kennedy, demanding $1 million. The letter, from a Merrilli Syndicate in Boston, claimed that the group conducted assassinations for hire and had received a bid for $500,000 to kill Ted Kennedy. “The only method of saving your son is by outbidding the proposed deal.”

It gave specific instructions: “The money should be placed in a modern breifcase [sic] and placed behind a telephone pole accross [sic] the road from the newly-built home on Pleasant Hill Road in Orange, Connecticut. Our corporation will expect the currency by noon of Thursday, June 20. A guard will be posted to assure of no foul play. The money will most preferably be accepted in fifty dollar bills. Certainly a man with one son left cannot risk or foolishly gamble his life.”

The FBI reported that this extortion letter wasn't noticed until September, long after the scheduled payoff, because of the great volume of mail received by the family after Robert's murder. The FBI investigated in Boston, New York and Orange, but turned up nothing. The FBI said it had no information on a Merrilli Syndicate.

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