RFK Jr. makes shocking confession that finally solves Central Park's dead bear cub mystery
New York, New York - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. grossed people out this year with a story about a parasitic worm eating part of his brain. Now he's back with another doozy: revealing his role in the decade-long mystery of a dead bear cub in New York's Central Park.
The independent presidential candidate, conspiracy theorist, and anti-vaccine activist made the disclosure in a three-minute video posted Sunday on social media. RFK Jr. was apparently trying to get out ahead of a New Yorker magazine story that mentions the weird tale of roadkill and stealth from a decade ago.
In a conversation with actor Roseanne Barr, he recounted the saga.
He and friends were on a falconing trip in New York state in 2014, Kennedy claimed, when a van ahead of him hit and killed a six-month-old black bear.
Eager to salvage the corpse for the meat, he put it in the back of his own vehicle.
"And you can do that in New York state. You can get a bear tag for roadkill bear," Kennedy explained.
But the falconing field trip ran late, so he could not get the remains back to his home in Westchester County.
So did a dinner he attended that evening in the Big Apple, and Kennedy realized he would have to go straight to the airport for a flight he was due to take.
"The bear was in my car, and I didn't want to leave the bear in the car because that would have been bad," he said.
That's when Kennedy and his friends hatched a plan that would leave New Yorkers stumped for years.
RFK Jr. tries to head off "bad story"
Kennedy and company ended up taking the carcass to Central Park, where they left it under an old bicycle Kennedy had in his car, making it look like a cyclist had killed the animal.
"I wasn't drinking, of course, but people were drinking with me who thought this was a good idea," Kennedy said.
"Then I thought, you know, at that time this was the little bit of the redneck in me," the son of the late Robert F. Kennedy added.
When the animal's body was eventually found, it became a huge news story.
"And I was like, 'Oh my God, what did I do?'" Kennedy said."I was worried because my prints were all over that bike."
He said the story remained dormant for a decade until a fact-checker from The New Yorker called to verify it for a feature on Kennedy. The piece has yet to be published.
"It's going to be a bad story," Kennedy predicted.
Cover photo: Collage: Jonas EKSTROMER / TT NEWS AGENCY / AFP & ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR via REUTERS