Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy said Sunday that he was the one who dumped a dead bear in New York City’s Central Park 10 years ago, and insisted he wanted to get to the bottom of the facts before The New Yorker magazine ran a “bad story” about him.
in Video posted to X on SundayKennedy said he was apparently in his kitchen with actress Roseanne Barr and was driving through the Hudson Valley to go falconry with the troupe when he witnessed the woman hit and kill a young bear.
“I pulled over, picked up the bear and put it in the back of my van because I was going to skin it. It was in great condition and I was going to put the meat in my fridge,” he said, noting that in New York, you can get a bear tag for roadkill.
The environmental lawyer said the bear was in the car while the group went hawking during the day, but the group stayed behind late, preventing Kennedy from getting home before heading to New York for dinner at Peter Ledger Steakhouse.
Dinner was also late, and he said he didn’t have time to drop off the bear at his Westchester home before heading to the airport.
“The bear was in my car. I didn’t want to leave him in the car because it would have been disastrous,” Kennedy said, adding: “At the time, and this is just my country-ness, but there were a lot of bike accidents in New York. Bike lanes had just been built and several, several people were killed. There were accidents every day, someone seriously injured every day. It was in the press.”
“Obviously I wasn’t drinking, but the people I was drinking with thought it was a good idea,” he continued.
Kennedy said he had an old bicycle in his car that someone had previously asked him to get rid of. “I said, ‘Let’s put a bear in Central Park and make it look like it’s been hit by a bicycle,'” he said.
The presidential candidate revealed that the group thought it would be “funny” but was surprised when it became national news the next day.
Kennedy said he was “worried” that authorities would trace his fingerprints from the bike, but that story died down some time after the incident — until a fact-checker from The New Yorker recently contacted him about allegations about a “big story” about Kennedy.
“This is going to be a bad story,” Kennedy wrote to X. “Can’t wait to see how @NewYorker interprets this…”
The Hill has reached out to The New Yorker for further comment.
Part of Kennedy’s story is The incident in October 2014, A woman walking her dog noticed a dead bear cub lying under some bushes next to her bicycle in Central Park.
The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation said an autopsy revealed the cause of death was “blunt force trauma due to a motor vehicle accident.” The New York Times at that time.
