Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently recounted a peculiar incident from a decade ago involving a bear killed by a motorist and subsequently placed in New York’s Central Park with a bicycle on top. This odd episode stirred a city-wide mystery when it occurred.
In a video posted to social media on Sunday, Kennedy detailed the incident, which he mentions will be included in an upcoming New Yorker article that he expects to be politically damaging. This latest revelation adds to the series of unusual events surrounding Kennedy’s unconventional campaign, which has caused rifts within his prominent family and sparked concerns among both Republicans and Democrats about his influence on the upcoming presidential race.
Kennedy, who has previously acknowledged having a parasite in his brain, recounted his actions to actress Roseanne Barr. He shared that he was en route to a falconry outing with friends when a woman driving ahead of him struck and killed a young bear. Kennedy decided to take the bear carcass with him, intending to skin it for meat, but the day’s activities distracted him from carrying out his plan.
Later, in Manhattan, the need to remove the bear from his vehicle led to a prank conceived by his friends, who were allegedly intoxicated at the time. Kennedy states that he himself was sober during the incident. Given the media frenzy surrounding bicycle accidents at the time, they thought it amusing to stage the bear as a victim of a bicycle collision.
The bear, with a bicycle placed atop it, was discovered by two women walking their dogs, who promptly notified authorities. This event ignited a brief but intense public curiosity, as bears are not native to the park. The bike was examined for fingerprints and the bear was sent to Albany for a necropsy, which concluded that the animal had been struck by a vehicle and was not subjected to animal cruelty. Nevertheless, the origins of the bear in Central Park remained an enigma.
Reflecting on the incident in the video, Kennedy expressed his concerns, noting, “I was worried because my prints were all over that bike.”
