“Everyone is voting for Jack,‘Cause he’s got what all the rest lack,Everyone wants to back Jack,Jack is on the right track,‘Cause he’s got high hopes.”
The late 1950s were a simple time, or at least that is what we like to believe. Reruns of Leave It To Beaver and Happy Days influence our views. It was a time of high hopes, which John F. Kennedy had as he prepared for the election in 1960 and his bid for the United States presidency. The above lyrics, re-written by Sammy Cahn and sung by Frank Sinatra as the campaign’s theme song, said it all, and when Kennedy, at 43, the youngest elected President, won, the nation had high hopes.
John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy clan had become American royalty and the dashing new President and his beautiful and classy wife, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, and their family represented all that was good and decent in the country. JFK represented the ideal man, husband and father.
JFK was lucky in one sense. When it came to the media, times were simpler. Unlike today’s ‘free-for-all’ where sensationalism rules the day, in the 1950s and 1960s they weren’t as aggressive and a little more respectful. The truth of the matter was Kennedy was less than the ideal husband, but instead a diehard womanizer who took every opportunity to cheat on his wife, even in the White House itself. While many in the press knew or suspected this, it wasn’t openly reported. Nor was Kennedy’s background, namely Joseph Kennedy’s (JFK’s father) road to riches. As respectful as he presented his clan, Joseph had mingled extensively with mobsters in the building of his empire. He was just lucky enough not to have been caught with them.
In JFK’s lust for women, there was one affair, which clearly demonstrated his irresponsible ways. For in conducting an ongoing relationship and bedding down this raven-haired Irish beauty, the President of the United States was sharing a woman with Sam “Momo” Giancana (1908-1975), a psychotic killer and head of the Mafia’s powerful Chicago family.
The Lady Makes a Mistake
“The only mistake I made is that I fell in love with a married man,” said Judith Campbell Exner in a 1997 interview regarding her affair with JFK.
Born in 1934, Judith Immoor was raised as one of five children in a strict affluent Catholic family in Los Angeles. Her family readily socialized with celebrities, such as Bob Hope, and her sister Jacqueline even took the stage name Susan Morrow and attempted a career as an actress. In 1952, young Judith, who quit school at 16, went against her parent’s wishes and married an actor, William Campbell. They divorced in 1958, giving Judith newfound freedom, which she used to the fullest. Up until then it could be argued she was merely a young woman making up for lost time and enjoying an active social scene. That was soon to change, for in the fall of 1959, Judith began dating singer/actor Frank Sinatra—a brief affair that would change her life.
The Senator and the Crooner
“Frank was Jack’s pimp. It sounds terrible now, but then it was really a lot of fun,” said Peter Lawford on the relationship between Frank Sinatra and Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy.
Having returned to the heights of fame with his Academy Award-winning performance in From Here To Eternity, after an almost career-ending slump during the 1950s and ‘60s. Sinatra was at the apex of his power. Having conquered the worlds of music, nightclubs and movies, he was looking to expand his influence and respectability, which over the years had been questioned many times, and move into the world of politics. Senator John F. Kennedy had caught his eye and he became intrigued with the notion of helping the Democrat in his bid for the presidency in the 1960 election.
Sinatra received his introduction to JFK through actor Peter Lawford. In 1954, Lawford married JFK’s sister, Patricia Kennedy. And, while Lawford feared Sinatra, who had not given him the time of day for years after a studio sent Lawford out on an assigned date for publicity reasons with Sinatra’s one true love, actress Ava Gardner, Sinatra forgave him this innocent indiscretion and renewed the friendship. He even added Lawford to his close group of friends, known as the Rat Pack, which also included singer/actors Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and comedian Joey Bishop.
According to Sinatra’s valet from 1953 to 1968, George Jacobs, Sinatra and Kennedy quickly made a mutual connection. “They had everything in common; charisma, talent, power. They were about the same age, but JFK seemed much younger. After all, like his dad, he was a Harvard man. And a war hero. And a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. And a senator,” explained Jacobs. “Mr. S., dropout 4-F Hoboken man that he was, stood in awe of JFK and his Ivy slickness, his heroics, his acclaim. Yet JFK was far more in awe of Mr. S. than Mr. S. was of him. Because Frank Sinatra controlled the one thing JFK wanted more than anything else: pussy. Mr. S. was the pope of pussy, and JFK was honoured to kiss his ring. The pontiff could bestow a Judy Campbell or, if he was feeling magnanimous, a Marilyn Monroe, such was his beneficence.”
Women, and how they could sue one another to their ends, were what they had in common. “None of these Kennedy and Sinatra accounts over the years has ever gotten it right about Jack and Frank and this supposedly close relationship they shared,” commented a former Kennedy aide. “The fact is that while Kennedy liked Sinatra, he was always extremely concerned about him. It wasn’t just Bobby [Kennedy] who was apprehensive about Frank’s image. Jack thought Sinatra was crude and vulgar and had no scruples whatsoever.”
It could be said JFK had no scruples either. While he indulged in the women Sinatra could provide him, his father Joseph Kennedy, who built and controlled the family fortune, also had use of Sinatra’s assistance. The former U.S. ambassador to England during WWII, asked Sinatra to arrange a secret meeting between himself and Teamsters vice president Harold J. Gibbons to discuss hard feelings between the Teamsters and the Kennedy’s due to Bobby Kennedy’s aggressive involvement in Senate hearings in the 1950s. These hearings were to uncover the involvement of gangsters in labor unions. While the Teamsters never backed the Kennedy ticket, Giancana did contribute money from their pension fund to the campaign.
Joseph Kennedy also had another concern, the West Virginia primary, which JFK needed to win in order to secure the Democratic nomination. Joseph Kennedy wanted Giancana’s help in swinging the vote. While Sinatra was reluctant to become a go-between between the two men, he couldn’t turn down the opportunity to do the Kennedy’s a favour. With the help of Paul “Skinny” D’Amato, owner of the 500 Club in Atlantic City, who went to West Virginia, Giancana was able to swing the vote in JFK’s favour. It should be noted that Joseph Kennedy also enlisted the help of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. in West Virginia in his son’s favour. His father, president during WWII, was popular with the coal miners, having given them the right to organize and carve out a better life for themselves. Despite this, Giancana took credit for winning Kennedy the primary and the eventual Presidency.
The President and the Lady
Sinatra’s brief affair with Judith came to an end when he proposed she join him and another woman in a ménage a trios, which was just too kinky for the young lady. Nevertheless, they remained friends.
On February 7, 1960 after a Rat Pack performance at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, Sinatra introduced Judith to JFK. According to her, she had no idea he was a Senator or a Presidential hopeful. While the two undoubtedly became intimate, it was while staying in her Plaza Hotel room in New York on March 7, 1960, on the even of Kennedy’s New Hampshire primary that the two became lovers. By that time, Judith knew who he was and had found out he was married. She chose to ignore it.
“He was very interested in the fact that I was from a large family and that I was Catholic,” recalled Judith. “We talked about everything—the same things that you’d talk about to anyone that you find attractive. He was an amazing man. When you talked to him, you felt you were the only person on the planet, much less just in the room. He never forgot anything you said—good or bad. He didn’t just pretend to be listening to you—he listened to you. He absorbed everything.
At this point, it should be noted that aside from another introduction and his own further dealings with the Kennedy’s, Sinatra had no idea of the full scope of Judith’s relationship with JFK.
The second introduction Sinatra made was at a concert of his at the Fountainbleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, three weeks after introducing Judith to JFK. This time he introduced her to Sam Flood, a.k.a. Sam Giancana. Once again, she claimed not to know who he was, but did state that when she told JFK of the introduction over the phone he knew exactly who Sam Flood really was.
Although Judith has admitted being intimate with both men, she denied carrying on an affair with the two of them at the same time, claiming she was faithful to JFK. At the age of 26, however, she did find herself acting as a courier between the two men.
It was while visiting JFK at his Georgetown home on April 6, 1960 (obviously Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was away) that Judith claims Kennedy first asked her to set up a meeting between himself and Giancana, to help him with his campaign. She agreed and was given a large satchel full of money (reportedly $250,000) to take to Giancana in Chicago. Later, when all this came out, she made it clear that JFK made it clear she was free to say ‘no,’ but she didn’t, as she was more than willing to do it for her lover. Judith traveled from Washington to Chicago by train and handed the satchel personally to Giancana. In his book, The Dark Side of Camelot, author Seymour M. Hersh was able to verify this trip through Martin E. Underwood, a political operative for Chicago’s mayor, Richard Daley, who had been lent to the Kennedy campaign. Kenny O’Donnell (portrayed by Kevin Costner in the film Thirteen Days) had Underwood follow Judith on the overnight train to ensure her safety. Her personally witnessed her handing it to Giancana.
In early August 1960, after the Democratic convention in Los Angeles, JFK had her deliver a second satchel. At the time, she also claims the two men met personally in her New York apartment.
JFK and the Presidency
In 1960, at the age of 43, John Fitzgerald Kennedy became the youngest President in the history of the U.S., and the nation’s first Catholic President. His victory wasn’t impressive. JFK won the election by only 118,550 votes out of 68,832,818 cast. Based on his and the Chicago outfits help, through both Sinatra’s influence and Judith’s courier work, Giancana would often brag to her, “Listen, honey, if it wasn’t for me, your boyfriend wouldn’t even be in the White House.”
Even with the Presidency secured, the Kennedy’s, or at least JFK still had need for contact with Giancana. Just before his inauguration, Judith stopped taking satchels of money to the mobster, but instead information. Surprisingly, JFK was open about the information, telling her it dealt with ‘getting rid’ of or to ‘eliminate’ Cuba’s Fidel Castro. Decades later she claimed she didn’t put ‘eliminate’ together with ‘assassinate.’ She did say that JFK mentioned Giancana and mobster Johnny Roselli were working with the CIA towards this end, and he wanted the mob involved because he didn’t entirely trust the CIA to get the job done.
The Kennedy’s and the Mafia shared a mutual hatred for Castro. Before he came into power, the mob ran lucrative hotel-casinos in Cuba. Castro kicked them out, hurting their financial bottom line.
Judith delivered many envelopes to Giancana. Some he kept and others he simply read and sent back to JFK with her. She claims to have never read through the documents and delivered her final one in late 1961. She also stated that attorney general Bobby Kennedy became involved with this process, he and his brother constantly reassuring her that if she was uncomfortable delivering them, it was all right if she stopped. What’s ironic about Bobby’s involvement is that at the same time he was taking part in this process, he was actively cracking down on organized crime, determined to convict the very man the envelopes were going to, amongst others across the U.S. His drive to break organized crime no matter what the cost, despite his father and brother using them to help secure the election, is reportedly a motivation for the Mob’s involvement in Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963—if you chose to believe that theory.
During the course of this time, Judith said that JFK and Giancana met personally twice. Once on April 28, 1961 at a political dinner at McCormick Place in Chicago, less than two weeks after the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. They met in her hotel room at the Ambassador East Hotel. The last meeting was in Washington on August 8, 1961. She wasn’t present at this meeting, but said Giancana told her about it. It’s been confirmed that Giancana was in Washington on that day applying for a passport at the passport office.
Dangerous Liaisons
One of Kennedy’s goals upon reaching the White House was removing the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) director J. Edgar Hoover from his post. Hoover had formed a power base over the decades and the Kennedy’s were determined to bring it to an end.
Unbeknownst to Judith, the FBI had had her under surveillance for quite some time. She found this out on November 4, 1960, when two agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) visited her to ask about Giancana. In FBI reports, Judith was identified as “a high-class whore.” It should be noted, in her defense, despite not being wise in love or politics, she has never been linked to prostitution. According to Judith, Kennedy downplayed the fact the FBI knew about them.
On March 22, 1962, Hoover had lunch with JFK. Although what happened at the lunch is unknown, it is commonly believed that Hoover’s knowledge of JFK’s connection to Giancana prevented the President from replacing him.
JFK’s relationship with both Judith and Giancana also compromised his office in other ways. The FBI reported that in August of 1962, they witnessed the two sons of General Dynamics Corporation’s Chief of Security breaking into Judith’s apartment. Three months later, Dynamics, one of America’s largest defense contractors won a $6.5 billion contract for the experimental TFX jet fighter. The award surprised many, as Dynamics was the second choice for the contract. This eventually prompted an investigation, which was dropped after JFK’s assassination. Did the brothers find proof in Judith’s apartment of her affair with the President that Dynamics used as leverage?
“Jack didn’t play by our rules; Jack had his own rules,” said Judith of JFK. “I believe that all of the Kennedy’s play by their own rules. I don’t think they conduct themselves the way we do. I think that’s very sad.”
JFK’s relationship with Judith also opened him up to blackmail by the Mafia, who were being aggressively investigated and harassed by Kennedy’s brother and the FBI. This especially so after a December 1962 White House rendezvous left Judith pregnant with the President’s baby. According to her, JFK gave her the option of having the child, but when she decided on abortion he enthusiastically asked her if Giancana could help them. Apparently, when Giancana found out, he demonstrated his softer side by offering to marry her. She declined and the abortion took place at Grant Hospital in Chicago (now Columbia-Grant) on January 26, 1962. Tommy DiBella, a personal friend of Giancana’s, and related by marriage to a Philadelphia Mafia family, said Giancana didn’t use this information against JFK because he didn’t want to hurt or ruin Judith. In December 1966, famed movie gossip columnist Liz Smith broke the story, which led Judith to admit it on ABC-TV’s 20/20.
Judith’s Story
In 1975, Judith Campbell Exner (she’d married professional golfer Dan Exner) went public regarding her relationship with JFK in a December news conference in San Diego. The affair was going to come to light anyway based on The Church Community report dealing with CIA assassination attempts, for which she was interviewed.
Two years later, with the help of Ovid Demaris, she wrote My Story, a book she eventually disowned, saying at the time she couldn’t write the entire truth as she was frightened by threats and intimidation. Giancana had been murdered in his own home on June 19, 1975, the night before he was scheduled to meet with a lawyer for the Church Committee.
Judith’s relationship with JFK and Giancana plagued her to the end of her days, as people tried to define her role in both relationships: innocent pawn, willing thrill seeker, prostitute, or naïve young woman in love. When reviewing all the evidence, including more than 70 calls and 20 private lunches at the White House during their affair, one tends to believe the latter.
It all came to an end on September 25, 1999 when Judith Campbell Exner succumbed to cancer at the City of Hope Cancer Center in Durante, California at the age of 65. If she’s left any legacy, it is a reminder to young women everywhere that while love is blind, it can also bring about lifelong consequences.
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