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's 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 on November 16, 1975. 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's secretary Evelyn Lincoln stated that she was
merely a "volunteer campaign worker".

The most complete record comes from Exner's 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 the Grove Press 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 still had big plans and dreams. I felt that Barney
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
tournament 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's 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 that she never
slept with Roselli. 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 none other than 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 on page 260 that
Kennedy and Campbell actually first met earlier, on November 1 or 2,
1959, before Kennedy had declared for President. The meeting took
place in Puccini's restaurant in Beverly Hills. Sinatra and Kennedy
were dining together and noticed two beautiful broads at another
table. They sent Nick Sevano over to the 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 it 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, page 263, Kennedy stopped there to meet
Sinatra. They give as sources CBS Reporter Blaire Clark and Mary
McGrory of the Washington Star, who saw Judith sitting between Sinatra
and Kennedy at the Sands. Later, Judith "went upstairs" with Kennedy.
Another witness who saw them together was Milt Ebbins.

It also says on page 263 that Giancana knew that Kennedy had a
weakness for women. "Throw him a broad and he will do anything",
Giancana said in 1959, according to the book. However, there are
serious problems with this quote. Not only is no date, place or source
given but he seems to be talking about Joseph Kennedy, the father of
John F. Kennedy. The father was also known for philandering. He openly
conducted an affair with movie actress Gloria Swanson (1899-1983) and
even brought her to his home when his wife Rose was there. Summers and
Swan suggest that arrangements had been made for Judith Campbell to
sleep with Joseph Kennedy, the father, not with his son John, the
future president. The source given for this statement is a Las Vegas
card dealer, Count Guido Deiro.

Summers and Swan state that JFK has sex with "a hooker" on February 7,
1960. They imply that Judith Campbell was that hooker. However, as
everybody knows, Las Vegas is filled with fantastically beautiful
hookers. Also, Summers and Swan state that there was a sex party
involving Kennedy that night at El Rancho Vegas where there was "some
sort of indiscreet party" with "showgirls running in and out of
Kennedy's suite" where there occurred "certain sex activities by
Kennedy that he hopes are never publicized".

All this creates the impression that Judith Campbell was one of the
"showgirls" and that she was the "hooker" who had sex with Kennedy
that night. However, Campbell does not appear to have been at the El
Rancho Vegas that night. She was staying at the Sands. The El Rancho
Vegas is nowhere mentioned in her book. Also, Judith was not a
"showgirl". She often states that she refused to wear a bikini because
her body did not measure up to the other girls. Thus, it seems likely
that the showgirls and the hooker were other women of which there are
a multitude available in Las Vegas, and were not Judith Campbell.

Summers and Swan also quote Peter Lawford as saying that Campbell was
a "hooker" who had been paid $200 by Sinatra to sleep with Kennedy.
The source for this quote is Milt Ebbins. However, this quote is
suspicious because another source quotes Lawford as saying that he
never met Campbell at all. Also, just because Lawford thought that
Campbell was a hooker does not mean that she was. (Milt Ebbins was
also said to be one of the first persons to learn that Marilyn Monroe
had committed suicide. Not the best source.)

Summers and Swan claim that Sinatra 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.

Unfortunately, the book "Sinatra: The Life" is unacceptable as a
source for anything. It slurs events and sources together so that one
often cannot determine which is which. I have been going through the
book looking for independent verification of the events described in
the book, "My Story" and the interviews of Judith Campbell. Since "My
Story" is one of their sources, whenever they are simultaneously using
My Story and the recollection of somebody else as a source they need
to be specific about what part comes from "My Story" and what part
comes from something else. Summers and Swan do provide three sources
not found in "My Story" for the fact that JFK and Judith Campbell were
in the audience watching the Rat Pack performance at the Sands on
February 7, 1960, and that Kennedy and Campbell "went upstairs"
together. These are good sources, including two reputable and well
known newspaper reporters. This however fails to prove that Kennedy
and Campbell had sex with each other on that night. Just because they
went upstairs together does not necessarily mean that they had sex,
especially since lots of other people were with them. The other
sources in the book by Summers and Swan are unacceptably vague, such
as "hotel staff, such as those involved in cleaning the senator's
rooms" and "the phone operators who knew who was calling and who heard
things".

This problem does not arise in any of the writings by Ovid Demaris,
Kitty Kelly or Liz Smith. Reading them, you know exactly what their
source is. Another problem is that for example Summers and Swan say
that Sinatra was in Las Vegas on February 7, 1960, Kennedy flew there
to see him, Sinatra then picked up the phone and called a broad
(Judith Campbell) to come to sleep with him. However, Judith says that
she did not sleep with Kennedy that weekend. She did not sleep with
anybody. Sinatra wanted her for himself that night, not for John
Kennedy. She refused to sleep with Sinatra then or ever again because
of the incident in January 1960 when he had tried to include her in a
threesome with another girl. She slept in her own hotel room, by
herself. She first slept with Kennedy later on March 7, 1960 at the
Plaza Hotel in New York City, she says.

Anybody reading about Judith Campbell starts to wonder whether she
ever in her life slept in her own hotel room by herself without a man.
If Summers and Swan have any source for their statements that Judith
slept with Kennedy on the night of February 7, 1960, they should
include that in their book. Unfortunately, no exact source is
provided. Thus, much of their book must be dismissed as rumor and
speculation.

It is a good thing that "Sinatra: The Life" by Summers and Swan was
not published until after her death, because Judith Campbell would
have sued. Judith Campbell did in fact sue Laurence Leamer over his
1996 book "The Kennedy Women", because it suggested that she had been
a hooker. The suit was dismissed after she walked out of a deposition.
She was trying to get the suit reinstated when she died in 1999.

I personally believe that Judith Campbell was not a hooker and that
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
used only for one night stands. A man sleeps with a hooker, pays her
in the morning, and the next night sleeps with a different hooker. Why
would any man pay each night to sleep with the same woman two nights
in a row, when there are so many hundreds of other equally beautiful
women available? Judith Campbell maintained relationships with
Sinatra, Kennedy and finally Giancana for more than two 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 else 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.) 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 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 that 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