| Judith Exner | |
|---|---|
| Born | Judith Eileen Katherine Immoor January 11, 1934 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | September 24, 1999 (aged 65) Duarte, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Judith Campbell Judith Campbell Exner |
| Spouse | William Campbell (1952-1958, divorced) Dan Exner (1975-1988, separated) |
Judith Exner (January 11, 1934 – September 24, 1999) was an American woman who claimed to be the mistress of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and Mafia leaders Sam Giancana and John Roselli. She was also known as Judith Campbell Exner.
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She was born Judith Eileen Katherine Immoor to a family of a German architect in New York. Her older sister Jacqueline (b. 1931) later became an actress and took the professional name Susan Morrow. Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was a child. She married actor William Campbell in 1952, but divorced him in 1958 when she became involved with Frank Sinatra. An alternative account states that they divorced in 1959, but after having been separated for two years.[1]
On February 7, 1960, Sinatra introduced Exner to John F. Kennedy in Las Vegas when Kennedy was still a senator and a presidential candidate. She claimed to have become one of JFK's mistresses. Presumably, Jacqueline Kennedy was aware of the affair. Later, Sinatra introduced Exner to "Sam Flood", who was actually Sam Giancana. She later claimed that she had not known about his involvement with the Mafia before Kennedy asked her to contact Giancana on his behalf. She continued the affair after Kennedy was elected president.
The FBI had her followed and recorded her calls from Giancana's home to Kennedy. The alleged affair between Exner and Kennedy is said to have ended 1962 when the FBI supposedly informed Kennedy of their knowledge of the relationship. She later said that she began the affair with Giancana but when he proposed to her, she turned him down. In a 1996 Vanity Fair interview, Exner said that she ended the affair, because she got tired of being the other woman. She also claimed to have terminated a pregnancy resulting from her relationship with Kennedy. She also asserted to have carried payoffs from California defense contractors to the Kennedys, including Robert F. Kennedy.
Her involvement was revealed in 1975 during the investigations of the Church Committee and first published by William Safire in The New York Times.[2] The Committee sent her a subpoena to make her testify. She later stated that she did not tell everything she knew or suspected, possibly because she was afraid of Mafia retaliation. She denied that she had served as a go-between for Kennedy and Giancana. The Committee did not name her publicly, but someone leaked her identity to the press. At first reluctant, she eventually talked to Scripps-Howard News Service. The publicity was enough to ruin her reputation and earned her the enmity of Kennedy supporters.
She wrote a book, Judith Exner: My Story, which was published in 1977.[2] In it, she insisted that her relationship with Kennedy was entirely personal and she was not in any way an intermediary between Giancana and Kennedy. Exner's book brought to light many stories about JFK which have been widely related since: his alleged affair with a Danish woman who might have been a spy during World War II and his alleged affair with Marilyn Monroe.[2] Exner also said that Kennedy brought prostitutes to the White House swimming pool.[2]
But 11 years later, in an interview with People magazine, Exner told a completely different story about Giancana and Kennedy. She stated that during the 1960 presidential election she took messages from Giancana to Kennedy. Judith Campbell later claimed these messages concerned the plans to murder the Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Later, in 1997, she added more shocking allegations to her story, including the alleged abortion.[3]
She lived in Newport Beach, California and painted. She married golfer Dan Exner in April 1975 and they separated in 1988.
Judith Campbell Exner died on September 25, 1999 in Duarte, California. She had been terminally ill with breast cancer.[4]
Her story was told in the film Power and Beauty (2002) in which she was played by Natasha Henstridge.