“Their favourite words were gas, gasser, clyde, bunter, cool, crazy, harvey, fink, mother, hacked, smashed, pissed, charley, and of course, ring-a-ding or ring-a-ding-ding, depending on the enthusiasm of the moment,” she recalled in her autobiography “My Story” (1977). In Hawaii she slept with Sinatra, drank and fended off the attentions of Peter Lawford, whom she considered “pathetic.” The Sinatra affair soured one night when she had gone to bed early, drunk as usual. Sinatra brought hired talent to their bed and received origenital gratification while the mortified Judy “just froze.” In the aftermath she rejected Sinatra’s attentions, but she remained within the Rat Pack’s ambit. It was during the presidential campaign of the following year that Sinatra introduced her to JFK. Exner said she didn’t even know who JFK was. It is uncontested that Ted Kennedy first tried to take her to bed but that Exner refused him but didn't refuse Joe, his father. But from the time that Exner met JFK in Las Vegas in 1960, virtually every assignation she was to claim for the following decade would be a matter of later historical dispute. Dispute is not the same as doubt, and there is no doubt that Exner was, in fact, JFK’s mistress for a couple of years.

According to “My Story”, JFK and Exner consummated their relationship in the Plaza Hotel in New York on the eve of the New Hampshire presidential primary. The candidate played a recording of the musical Camelot. Of the next day, she wrote, “What a delight to be awakened by a bellman with a dozen red roses. The card said, ‘Thinking of you – J.’ And then to hear that he had won in New Hampshire made it complete. He was on his way and I was so proud of him.”

Soon she was jetting around the country for clandestine meetings with the presidential candidate. During this time she was introduced to Sam Giancana, head of the Chicago mob. Giancana became a close friend and sponsor. Exner claimed utter ignorance about his means of support. Kennedy won by a hair; Chicago was critical; a recount there was prohibited by Mayor Daly. Exner writes in depth about secret messages and packages carried by her between Kennedy and Giancana at the time. It has been alleged that the messages also included plots to assassinate Fidel Castro.

MORE >