Friday, January 16, 2009

JFK is Alive: A Modern Legend

Miss Smith states that she heard the story from F. Lee Bailey, the noted criminal attorney, when he spoke at the Lycea dinner at I.U. The legend has also been attributed to Truman Capote, who of course knew the Kennedy family and in fact lived in the same apartment complex as Senator Robert Kennedy. The "Capote" version received considerable notoreity in March, 1969 when it was picked up and broadcast by right-wing Chicago radio personality Howard Miller (see the Chicago Sun-Times, March 8, 1969, pp. 1,32). One of Miller's listeners had sent him a copy of a mimeographed letter apparently then being circulated and attributed to Capote's authorship which Miller subsequently read over the air, The broadcast caused much excitement and was soon denounced by Albert E. Jenner Jr., who had been senior counsel for the Warren Commission. Capote senior editor at Random House issued a disclaimer when questioned, At around the same time a similar story about Kennedy and Jackie-Onassis was being run by the National Informer, a garish tabloid published out of Chicago.
Citation: de Caro, F.A. 1969. "J.F.K. Is Alive: A Modern Legend." Folklore Forum 2(2):54-55.