Judith Exner
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| Judith Exner | |
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| Born | Judith Eileen Katherine Immoor January 11, 1934 New York City, New York, United States |
| Died | September 24, 1999 (aged 65) Duarte, California, United States |
| Other name(s) | Judith Campbell Judith Campbell Exner |
| Spouse(s) | William Campbell (1952-1958) Dan Exner (1975-1988, separated) |
Judith Exner (January 11, 1934 – September 24, 1999) was an American woman who was reputed 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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[edit] Biography
Born Judith Eileen Katherine Immoor to a family of a German architect in New York. Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was a child. She married actor William Campbell in 1952, but divorced him 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][page # needed]
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 ended in 1962 when the FBI 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 Vanity Fair interview of 1996, she said that she ended the affair because she got tired of being the other woman. She also claimed to have had Kennedy's child aborted. She also asserted to have carried payoffs from California defense contractors to the Kennedys, including Robert Kennedy.
Exner did not talk about her relationship with Kennedy even after his assassination. Her involvement was revealed in 1975 during the investigations of the Church Committee. 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, presumably a Republican, 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 1977. 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. But 11 years later, in an interview with People magazine, she told a completely different story. 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 abortion. Although many believe aspects of her stories, some believe that her post-1977 stories are improbable.
[edit] Personal life
She married golfer Dan Exner in April 1975.
She lived in Newport Beach, California and painted. She separated from Dan Exner in 1988.
[edit] Death
Judith Campbell Exner died of breast cancer in Duarte, California on September 25, 1999.[2]
[edit] In popular culture
- Her story was told in the film Power and Beauty (2002) in which she was played by Natasha Henstridge.
- The character Modene Murphy in Norman Mailer's novel Harlot's Ghost was based on Judith Exner.
