RFK Jr. Confesses to Leaving Dead Bear in Central Park 10 Years Ago: NPR

Ten years after the shocking discovery of a dead bear cub in Manhattan’s Central Park, the mystery of who abandoned it there has finally been solved.

And the man taking responsibility is none other than presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The conspiracy theorist turned third-party candidate’s campaign has had to overcome a series of increasingly unlikely scandals in recent months, from Kennedy’s admission that a worm had eaten part of his brain to his denial of reports that he once ate a grilled dog (he said it was a goat).

It was RFK himself who sparked this latest claim, in a three-minute video posted Sunday on X (formerly Twitter).

He is seen sitting at the kitchen table, telling an incredulous Roseanne Barr (yes, the cancelled comedian) how the dead bear ended up in his van upstate and, eventually, atop a bicycle under a bush in New York City’s largest urban park.

Kennedy, an animal lover and former environmental lawyer, said he was driving upstate early one morning to accompany a group of people falconing in the Hudson Valley when a driver in front of him fatally struck a bear cub.

“So I pulled over, grabbed the bear, and put it in the back of my truck because I had to skin it,” he explains matter-of-factly. “It was in great condition and I had to put the meat in my refrigerator.”

Kennedy added that in New York State, it is legal to obtain a tag to bring home a hit bear. The tag must be issued by a law enforcement officer.

However, the bear never returned to his Westchester home.

Kennedy says he got distracted from a busy day of falconry and had to rush back to New York City for a late dinner at Peter Luger Steak House.

“I had to go to the airport and the bear was in my car. I didn’t want to leave it there because it would have been bad,” Kennedy continued.

Then, as he put it, “the little redneck part of me” had an idea.

Kennedy happened to have an old bicycle in his car, which he said someone had asked him to get rid of. He recalled that the city had “just created bike lanes” after a series of serious accidents and had decided to stage the bear in Central Park as if he had been hit by a bicycle.

“I didn’t drink, obviously, but there were people who drank with me and thought it was a good idea,” Kennedy said. “So we went and did it and thought it would be funny for whoever found it, or something.”

The six-month-old, 44-pound pup made national headlines after a dog walker found him by chance that fateful October morning, in an open area of ​​the park, right near the trail where thousands of people run and bike every day.

Oddly enough, one of the New York Times reporter who covered the mystery was Kennedy’s niece, Tatiana Schlossberg. She told the paper this weekend that “like law enforcement, I had no idea who was responsible for this when I wrote the story.”

Law enforcement took the bear to Albany for analysis and determined that it had been hit by a car, likely outside the park. They also confiscated the bicycle to examine it for fingerprints.

“I was worried because my fingerprints were all over that bike,” Kennedy says in the video, prompting laughter from the room.

But the mystery remained unsolved and the story eventually fizzled out. Now, nearly 10 years later, Kennedy said he was pressured into confessing earlier than expected. New Yorker exposure: “I can’t wait to see how you interpret this thing,” she wrote in the video’s caption.

“They asked me, the fact checkers, and, you know, it’s going to be a bad story,” he says, laughing.

THE New Yorker The article, published online Monday morning, puts the bear anecdote into a broader context, focusing on Kennedy’s troubled past and his motivations for running for office.

It also includes a photo of Kennedy, who was 60 at the time, posing with his hands in the bear’s bloody mouth and an exaggerated grimace on his face.

“Maybe that’s where I got the brain worm from,” he told the magazine.

Kennedy also made headlines during the Republican National Convention in July, after a leaked phone call with former President Donald Trump captured the Republican nominee criticizing vaccines (a position Kennedy is known for) and appealing to Kennedy with a vague, “I’d like you to do something.”

Kennedy apologized to the president and, seeking to quell speculation, vowed to stay in the race. But he has seen his support slip into single digits in several national polls in the weeks since President Biden announced his withdrawal. His struggle to get on state ballots has reportedly been a financial drain, and he has canceled several campaign appearances in the past month.