Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he left a dead bear in Central Park as a prank

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once retrieved a bear that was killed by a motorist and left it in New York’s Central Park with a bicycle on top, sparking a mystery that consumed the city a decade ago.

Kennedy described the incident in a video that was posted to social media Sunday, adding it would be included in a New Yorker article that he expected to be damaging.

The article was published Monday and included a photo of Kennedy with his fingers in the bear’s bloodied mouth, a mock grimace on his face. His left pant leg appears to have a bloodstain on it.

Looking forward to seeing how you spin this one, @NewYorker… pic.twitter.com/G13taEGzba

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 4, 2024

It’s the latest bizarre incident in Kennedy’s quixotic campaign that has divided his famous family and left Republicans and Democrats alike concerned about his potential impact on the presidential contest. Kennedy has acknowledged a parasite that lodged in his brain and died. He denied eating a dog after a friend shared a photo with Vanity Fair magazine showing Kennedy dramatically preparing to take a bite of a charred animal; Kennedy said it was a goat.

In the video, Kennedy recounts the story to actress Roseanne Barr. He says he was heading to a falconry excursion with friends when a woman driving ahead of him hit and killed the young bear with her vehicle. He says he put it in his own vehicle, intending to skin it and eat the meat, but the day got away from him.

Eventually, he says, he was in Manhattan and needed to get the bear carcass out of his vehicle. His friends, fueled by alcohol, concocted the Central Park plan as a prank, he said, adding he was not drunk himself. At the time, bicycle accidents were getting significant media attention, so Kennedy and his friends thought it would be funny to make it look like the bear was hit by a bicycle.

Two women walking their dogs found the dead bear and alerted authorities, touching off a mystery that captivated the city for a few days. Bears are not among the park’s known wildlife population.

The bike was dusted for prints and the animal sent to Albany for a necropsy, which determined the bear was likely hit by a vehicle and was not a victim of animal cruelty. But how the bear ended up in Central Park remained a mystery.

“I was worried because my prints were all over that bike,” Kennedy tells Barr in the video.

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