Judith Exner - John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

On February 7, 1960, Sinatra and Campbell were in Las Vegas, where he introduced her to John F. Kennedy, then a senator and presidential candidate. In her 1977 memoir, she said that she became one of JFK's mistresses for a period of about two years, frequently visiting him in the White House after he was elected president. Her account was supported by phone records and other documentation, although Kennedy staff and supporters attacked her veracity when she published her memoir. A few months later, Sinatra introduced Campbell to "Sam Flood", who was Sam Giancana, the leading figure in the Chicago Mafia and believed responsible for 200 deaths by 1960. She also became involved with him and knew his associate John Roselli.

In 1975 the Senate Church Committee on Government Operations and Intelligence was investigating CIA assassination attempts, in part due to reporting by Seymour Hersh in 1974. Expected to be called to testify, Giancana was killed in a Mafia-style execution on June 1975. Roselli testified to the committee about Mafia involvement in the CIA attempt on Fidel Castro's life; a year later he was found murdered, with his body disposed of in an apparent execution.

When the Church Committee report was released in December 1975, it said that a "close friend" of President Kennedy had also been a close friend of mobsters John Roselli and Sam Giancana." Campbell's identity as the close friend was leaked to the Washington Post, which publicized it. William Safire in The New York Times also published it. The Committee had sent Exner a subpoena to make her testify. The public was shocked to think the president could have been involved with underworld figures. By then married to Dan Exner, Judith Exner called a press conference that month and denied any knowledge of Mafia involvement with Kennedy.