FBI File Reveals Ted Kennedy Received Death Threats
David Sessions
Washington Reporter
Posted:
06/14/10
The FBI has released a file containing about 2,000 pages of previously secret information about the late Sen. Ted Kennedy on its website. The file reveals that the senator received death threats in 1985, five years after his failed presidential bid. The threats came from a Michigan woman who sent letters of warning to the Secret Service, and whom the agency considered "armed and dangerous."
Other threats began in the years following the assassinations of his two older brothers. President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles on June 6, 1968.
According to the FBI website, the bureau's file on Sen. Kennedy contains no incriminating evidence about the late senator. "At no point do these files suggest that the FBI investigated Senator Kennedy for a criminal violation or as a security threat," the FBI said in its summary. "The bulk of this material concerns FBI investigation of threats of violence and other extortion claims against Senator Kennedy and other public officials."
The file also reveals that Kennedy's father, Joseph P. Kennedy, called then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to warn him of a false rumor that Ted Kennedy was connected to communists. Hoover replied that the bureau had no evidence to support the claim and no intention to investigate Kennedy.
The documents, highly anticipated by historians and scholars, were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Associated Press.
Ted Kennedy died on Aug. 26, 2009 after a long battle with brain cancer and just before the release of his memoir, "True Compass." He was 77.
(Go here to dig through the files with Politics Daily's Byron Tau.)
Other threats began in the years following the assassinations of his two older brothers. President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles on June 6, 1968.
According to the FBI website, the bureau's file on Sen. Kennedy contains no incriminating evidence about the late senator. "At no point do these files suggest that the FBI investigated Senator Kennedy for a criminal violation or as a security threat," the FBI said in its summary. "The bulk of this material concerns FBI investigation of threats of violence and other extortion claims against Senator Kennedy and other public officials."
The file also reveals that Kennedy's father, Joseph P. Kennedy, called then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to warn him of a false rumor that Ted Kennedy was connected to communists. Hoover replied that the bureau had no evidence to support the claim and no intention to investigate Kennedy.
The documents, highly anticipated by historians and scholars, were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Associated Press.
Ted Kennedy died on Aug. 26, 2009 after a long battle with brain cancer and just before the release of his memoir, "True Compass." He was 77.
(Go here to dig through the files with Politics Daily's Byron Tau.)