Exner Sources
A time line has been created using a wide variety of sources. With
many sources being used, one would expect that there would be many
disagreements as to who did what and where and when. There are
surprisingly few of these.
The main reason for this seems to be that Exner herself was a "Pack
Rat". She tended to keep everything. Columnist Liz Smith reports that
Exner showed her canceled checks for hotel bills, plane tickets, and
train tickets as well as newspaper items, date books, photographs and
even cleaning bills.
The investigations by the Church Committee on CIA Assassination Plots
is how she was found out. The FBI had been tracking her for years and
this was brought to the attention of the Church Committee. The Church
Committee, after finding out that Judith had been sleeping with JFK,
voted unanimously to leave that out of its report, feeling that the
President痴 personal sex life was irrelevant to its investigations.
Somehow, the Washington Post found out about it and published in on
page 6A of the Post. This attracted little attention until the
following month when William Safire wrote a column in The New York
Times accusing the Church Committee of a cover-up.
It is important to note that this came shortly after the Watergate
Cover-ups that led President Nixon to resign in 1974 and sent more
than 30 high administration officials to prison. The public was
interested in learning about other cover-ups. At any other time, the
Campbell-Kennedy-Mafia Connection might never have become publicly
known. FBI Records, White House logs and other documents and records
establish that there was a relationship between Campbell and Kennedy,
although the president痴 secretary Evelyn Lincoln stated that she was
merely a "volunteer campaign worker".
The most complete record comes from Exner痴 book, "My Story" as told to
Ovid Demaris. Ovid Demaris was the ideal choice to write this
biography because he had already written several books on the Mafia,
so he knew who those people were. For example, when Judith briefly met
Mafia characters "Joe Fish" and Sidney Korshak, Judith would not have
known who those people were, but Ovid Demaris knew because he was an
authority on this subject.
Among the books by Ovid Demaris were "The Last Mafioso", a biography
of Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno, "The Green Felt Jungle", his expose
on Mafia operations in Las Vegas, "The Director", a biography of J.
Edgar Hoover, "Jack Ruby", a biography of Jack Ruby, "Brothers in
Blood: The International Terrorist Network" about international
organized crime, and "Captive City", the story of Chicago and the
Mafia which has a photo of Sam Giancana on the cover. The knowledge
that writing these books gave Ovid Demaris about Mafia operations was
invaluable. Judith Campbell Exner herself never graduated from high
school, so it is not likely that she could have written this book or
even have pieced together the parts of this complex story without the
help of Ovid Demaris.
As an aside, I personally met Barney Rosset, the owner of Grove Press
and publisher of "My Story", in 1971 on a business matter. In the
1950s, Grove Press had become famous for publishing "Lady Chatterley's
Lover" and "Tropic of Cancer". Both books resulted in court cases
after they were banned under the censorship laws. Grove Press won the
court cases in the United States Supreme Court and the works became
accepted as great literature. In 1968, I met an editor for Grove Press
at his booth at the American Orthopsychiatric Association Convention
in Chicago, to which my mother, a child psychiatrist, had taken me. I
tried to get the Grove Press representative interested in publishing
my book about the History of the Sexual Freedom League. He took part
of my manuscript home for the night, returned it the next day and said
that he was not interested.
By 1971, the situation had reversed. By then, I was the principal of a
registered securities Broker-Dealer, Samuel H. Sloan & Co. I had lots
of money. Barney Rosset was broke, busted. Grove Press was essentially
bankrupt, its office had been closed and all employees had been laid
off.
So, my plan was to buy or take over Grove Press, which was a public
company, which would then publish my book. I made an appointment to
meet Barney Rosset in the office of my attorney, Roy L. Weiss. We met
with Barney Rosset for about two hours, but nothing came of the
conversation, as he had big plans. I felt that Rosset was finished.
Thus, I was surprised to read that in 1977, six years later, Grove
Press had put up big money to buy the rights to the Judith Campbell
Exner story. I still suspect that this was not what really happened.
Probably the $100,000 offer was just a publicity stunt. Ovid Demaris
likely wrote it on the fly. Grove Press was certainly the right choice
for a publisher. Being bankrupt, it could not be sued or, if it was
sued, no money would be forthcoming.
In her interview by Liz Smith, Judith said that she never got the
$100,000 that had been promised her because the IRS had taken it for a
tax lien on the golf winnings of her husband, Dan Exner, a
professional golfer. However, this does not seem right either.
Although Dan Exner was a professional golfer, he never won a major
event and the best he ever did was being accepted on the Florida Mini-
tour. I doubt he owed the IRS $100,000 and would the IRS take the
proceeds of his wife痴 sale of her book even if he did? I do not know.
I do know something that few in the outside world knew, that Barney
Rosset was flat-on-his-ass broke and had no way to pay $100,000.
In an interview with gossip columnist Liz Smith, Judith Campbell said
that the best part of the book was the first page, because it was
blank. She said that although she was given the book prior to
publication and offered the chance to make any changes she deemed
necessary, she had just bothered to read the first section. She
complains about misrepresentations in the book. However, I suspect
that her complaints are invalid because things she seems to think are
in the book are not there. It seems likely that she never read the
book and just relied on what others told her it contained. For
example, she seems to think that the book implies that she was a
"party girl" and was promiscuous. In reality, the book contains no
such implication. It characterizes her behavior as rather prudish. The
book mentions sexual relationships with eight men: William Cambpell,
Tony Travis, Frank Sinatra, John F. Kennedy, Sam Giancana, Bo
Bolinsky, the unnamed father of her son who was born in 1965, and
Daniel Exner whom she married. This is over a period of 25 years from
1952 when she married for the first time until 1977 when the book was
published. Any unmarried woman who has slept with only eight men over
a period of 25 years is certainly not promiscuous and has led a dull
life. (Of course, one suspects that there may have been a few more
lovers whom she forgot to mention to her biographers.)
She has less kind words for Kitty Kelley, who interviewed her for an
article in the February 29, 1988 issue of People Magazine. She says
that Kitty Kelley tried to get her to agree to make the article more
sensational by changing some of the facts and adding some false facts.
Kitty Kelley does her best by starting with a quote from Exner stating
"I lied" in her 1977 book. However, the facts are hardly convincing
that really she lied. It is more like she evaded or that she told the
truth but not the whole truth. For example, one of the questions asked
of her by the Church Committee was whether Sam Giancana or John
Roselli had ever asked her to carry messages to President Kennedy. Her
answer was "no". That was the correct answer. However, the truth was
the other way, because the President had asked her to carry messages
to Giancana. The Church Committee had never asked her that question.
Another source must be the movie "Power and Beauty". I have just
played that movie through twice on video. The movie has so many
mistakes that it is virtually worthless as a historical document,
although it does have a few good points. Nevertheless, anybody writing
a book on any subject must read or view all of the literature on that
subject before picking up a pen. The most annoying misrepresentation
comes at the very beginning when it depicts Judith being close friends
with John Roselli at a party in 1952 where she meets William Campbell,
Frank Sinatra, and Peter and Patricia Lawford. Later there is a fight
between William Campbell and Peter Lawford. In reality, none of these
things happened. Judith says that she first met Roselli in May 1961,
after she had met Sinatra, Kennedy and Giancana, and she never slept
with him. No credible evidence has emerged disputing this fact.
Many people seem to believe that Judith made the whole thing up.
However, it can be readily observed from reading through her 304 page
book filled with checkable facts on every page that if it were not all
true there would be complaints from people whose names are mentioned
in the book that the facts are false. For example, the book provides
the private telephone numbers of President Kennedy and numerous other
government officials. Most of those telephone numbers were non-public.
A Washington Post reporter has checked all those numbers and every one
of them was proven to be correct.
There are other completely independent sources. Jimmy "The Weasel"
Fratianno, reported seeing Judith with Frank Sinatra and being told
that she was the girlfriend of the President of the United States.
Another is a book, "Sinatra: The Life" by Anthony Summers and Robbyn
Swan that has a 14-page chapter devoted to Judith Campbell entitled
"The Candidate and the Courtesan". This book tells an entirely
different story, quoting Peter Lawford as saying that Judith was a
"hooker". However, it hardly matters. It was extremely important to
Judith Campbell that she be portrayed as a non-hooker who never took
money for sex and who paid her own way. However, to the rest of the
world, it does not matter whether money changed hands or not. The
important question is whether she slept with the President. Everybody
agrees that she did. Whether she did so on a paid or a volunteer basis
is not that important.
The Summers and Swan book adds a new story. It says that Kennedy and
Campbell actually first met earlier, in November 1959, before Kennedy
had declared for President. The meeting took place in Puccini痴
restaurant in Beverly Hills. Sinatra and Kennedy were dining together
and noticed two beautiful broads at another table. They sent Nick
Sevano over to their table with a note asking them to join them. The
two broads came over and turned out to be Angie Dickinson and Judith
Campbell. The four of them went out to see movies together. However,
the girls did not sleep with the boys. They just went home after the
movies.
There is no mention of this incident in "My Story". However, it is
possible that Judith had forgotten about it. After all, "My Story" was
written 18 years after the event in question. Also, nothing
significant had happened.
As to the first meeting with JFK as described by Judith in "My Story",
there are lots of witnesses to that, because that took place in the
middle of the election campaign and an entire press corps was
following around Kennedy, making every stop he made. Kennedy had his
own airplane, purchased for him by his father a few months earlier.
When he stopped in Las Vegas on February 7, 1960, the press corps was
wondering why he was stopping there as he had nothing to do there.
According to Summers and Swan, Kennedy stopped there to meet Giancana.
Giancana knew that Kennedy had a weakness for women. "Throw him a
broad and he will do anything", said Giancana. Although, as everybody
knows, Las Vegas is filled with fantastically beautiful hookers,
Giancana did not want to use any of the local talent, so he placed a
phone call to Los Angeles and had the most beautiful hooker anybody
had ever seen flown in to sleep with Kennedy. Her name was, you
guessed it, Judith Campbell. This is the story as told by Summers and
Swan.
Good thing that "Sinatra: The Life" by Summers and Swan was not
published until after her death because she would have sued. Judith
Campbell did in fact once sue a newspaper for libel for calling her a
hooker.
I personally believe that Judith Campbell was not a hooker and she was
telling the truth when she said that she never took money for sex.
There are several reasons for my belief. One is that hookers are only
used for one night stands. A man sleeps with a hooker, pays her in the
morning, and the next night sleeps with a different hooker. Judith
Campbell maintained relationships with Sinatra, Kennedy and finally
Giancana for years. Hookers never do that.
As to why several witnesses have referred to her as a hooker, that is
not difficult to explain. Here was this stunningly beautiful woman
constantly hanging around Sinatra and other famous movie stars.
However, she was not an actress, an extra or the wife or girlfriend of
anybody. Yet, she was always there. What could she be? Ergo, she must
be a hooker.
As to why they always enjoyed her company, this too has a simple
explanation. Every man likes to be accompanied by a beautiful woman.
Movie stars especially need beautiful women around to get publicity
for themselves and get their names in the gossip columns. Nowadays it
is common knowledge that publicists even today assign movie stars to
sleep with each other for just one night so the movie magazines will
have a new scandal to write about next month. It is their bread and
butter. The great thing about Judith Campbell is she never demanded
money. She never asked to be paid. Thus, she was always in high
demand.
One question Judith never answers satisfactorily in her book and her
interviews is where did she get the money to do all the things she
did. She says that her father lived beyond his means. She lived in
beautiful homes while she was growing up, but her father was often
broke and real estate records show that her father never owned any of
the houses. She often writes that she got money from an inheritance
and from Grandmother Immoor. She received $500 per month in alimony
from William Campbell for two years after their divorce until she
accepted $6,000 in a lump sum final payment. She used that money to
buy a mink stole. (The movie "Power and Beauty" shows her constantly
wearing that mink coat and often being asked where she got it from.)
She briefly had a job earning $100 a week working for Jerry Lewis.
That was the only time she ever had a regular job. She never graduated
from high school, so her typing and secretarial skills were probably
limited.
Yet, look at her lifestyle. She lived for months in the Plaza Hotel in
New York City. When in Miami, she always stayed at the Fontainebleau
Hotel. In Washington DC, she always stayed at the Mayflower. When in
Los Angeles, she often had two apartments, although sometimes she
moved in with her sister or her parents.
She describes how she slept late and then spent hours every day
bathing, fixing her hair, putting on make up and dressing so that she
was absolutely stunningly perfect when she went out on her nightly
dates. Every woman would like to be able to enjoy that lifestyle. How
was she able to do it? Naturally, one suspects that she was hooking,
especially since she states that the telephone was constantly ringing
with men asking her out and she went out on dates every night for
months on end.
Needless to say, I have written a book about this:
The Judith Exner Story, The Life of the Mistress of John F. Kennedy by
Sam Sloan ISBN 0-923891-90-0
http://www.samsloan.com/exner.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...avesofthomasje
Sam Sloan