WI: President Kennedy has an Illegitimate Child

As a 60s nut, it's interested me for a while about a Kennedy scenario like "Monica's Baby". Though really most Presidents seem to have had affairs, Kennedy and Clinton are the two most well known for doing so. In Kennedy's day, though, the media either was left unaware or among those who did know, there was a special agreement not to say anything, and thus the general public did not know. Thus, Kennedy did not nor would he ever have a scandal like what Clinton and later American politicians would have.

So what if Kennedy, in all his womanizing, impregnated one of his many mistresses?
 
Who says it didn't happen?

The Kennedys are real good at keeping secrets, even if they're open secrets.

There's no way we wouldn't know about it by now. Now, almost 50 years since Kennedy was president, when all the dirty secrets have come out, and when dirty little secrets that aren't even true have hemorrhaged out. It's just been too long for it not to have come out.

There was a guy some years back who claimed that he was the illegitimate son of JFK, but that turned out to be wrong. He looked like Kennedy a bit, but he wasn't his son. At least that's how I believe it turned out. If not disproven definitively, then it didn't go much further than the claim.
 
Who says it didn't happen?

The Kennedys are real good at keeping secrets, even if they're open secrets.

Who says, indeed? Here's the link to a Wikipedia article about a man who claims, pretty reasonably, that he might be JFK's illegitimate son. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Worthington

I'm not saying that his claims are true, but assuming they are then I'd imagine that we can expect a similar reaction. No one is going to say anything about it before November 1963 because the man is the President of the United States and wields tremendous power and influence, and no one will saying anything about it after November 1963 because it would besmirch the reputation of the martyred young president.

Also, in the days before reliable paternity testing, I don't think a lone claim of illegitimacy is going to draw much of anything but scrutiny and scorn.
 
Who says, indeed? Here's the link to a Wikipedia article about a man who claims, pretty reasonably, that he might be JFK's illegitimate son. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Worthington

I'm not saying that his claims are true, but assuming they are then I'd imagine that we can expect a similar reaction. No one is going to say anything about it before November 1963 because the man is the President of the United States and wields tremendous power and influence, and no one will saying anything about it after November 1963 because it would besmirch the reputation of the martyred young president.

Also, in the days before reliable paternity testing, I don't think a lone claim of illegitimacy is going to draw much of anything but scrutiny and scorn.

I've dug back into this guy since you brought up the specific name. They did a test between Kennedy and his hair that says he is not Kennedy's son. He also says that LBJ was involved in killing Kennedy and that he has knowledge of it, and since LBJ did not kill Kennedy (regardless of your beliefs, that conspiracy idea is just downright not even possible) that is also a mark against him. Kennedy's schedule also says that he was in the White House that day that he was conceived, his family disputes his claim, and his mother says she never met JFK nor LBJ, who was supposedly the one that introduced her to Kennedy.

See here
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4366931&page=1#.UKfZf4b5XjI

So I don't believe him, the genetic evidence is against him which is a big part of why I don't believe him, and for the purposes of this thread there will be no assumption that he is Kennedy's son.
 
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In addition to the previous comment, there is an important thing that must be said:

There are always people who are pretenders to the throne of some famous person. There have been people who say they are the secret son of Elvis, or the secret child of Marilyn Monroe, or that they're the Lindbergh baby, and there have been people before who have claimed that they are the love child of JFK. Worthington is just one of others.

That also informs this, because if there is someone who comes along when they're 20, 30, 40, 50, and says they're the secret offspring of Kennedy, they can say all they want, but they do need credible evidence. If they really are, then there would be credible evidence, if only in the genetics. If not, they're just a blip on the tabloid rack.

***

By the way, could you guys please stop adding conspiratorial stuff to my threads. It stains the thread and diverts focus and I'm worried it's damaged this thread already. I think it did to the Alternate JFK Assassination scenario thread I made.
 
I was really not trying to add any conspiratorial aspect to the thread. I just remembered that I'd read about this guy and thought it would be appropriate.

I really don't think anything would happen to Kennedy unless his hand was forced and he had to confess. Like you said, though, there are always pretenders to the throne. No one is going to take seriously a claim by some young secretary or intern or debutante that she's carrying Kennedy's offspring because there won't be proof.

The only reason I thought of Worthington was because that is how I imagine the big reveal of an illegitimate Kennedy would occur. It would be 1) well after his death (meaning decades), 2) it will be treated as an interest piece by a magazine but will have no lingering impact upon his legacy, and 3) it will be treated with suspicion and conspiracy-theory until proven absolutely true. Number three, by the way, is not a complaint. That's how the news-media should treat such claims.

My point is that there is no way that he will be outed as having had an illegitimate child during his presidency unless there is slam-dunk evidence. The problem is that you can't possibly have slam-dunk evidence during his career. Therefore, nothing will happen if JFK does have an illegitimate child.

EDIT: You'll also forgive me for doubting that JFK would do the right thing. I really believe that he did not have the integrity or moral fortitude of Grover Cleveland who, even not knowing that he was the father of his alleged illegitimate child, paid support to the mother. But that's just a personal opinion based on, rather limited, study of both men.
 
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I was really not trying to add any conspiratorial aspect to the thread. I just remembered that I'd read about this guy and thought it would be appropriate.

I really don't think anything would happen to Kennedy unless his hand was forced and he had to confess. Like you said, though, there are always pretenders to the throne. No one is going to take seriously a claim by some young secretary or intern or debutante that she's carrying Kennedy's offspring because there won't be proof.

The only reason I thought of Worthington was because that is how I imagine the big reveal of an illegitimate Kennedy would occur. It would be 1) well after his death (meaning decades), 2) it will be treated as an interest piece by a magazine but will have no lingering impact upon his legacy, and 3) it will be treated with suspicion and conspiracy-theory until proven absolutely true. Number three, by the way, is not a complaint. That's how the news-media should treat such claims.

My point is that there is no way that he will be outed as having had an illegitimate child during his presidency unless there is slam-dunk evidence. The problem is that you can't possibly have slam-dunk evidence during his career. Therefore, nothing will happen if JFK does have an illegitimate child.

The thing with an actual son or daughter, and this is the difference between that and Worthington's case, is that there will be evidence to back it up because there always is. JFK's schedule will say he's in a place where he could have had an romp with the mother. Or let's it's covered up in the schedule. Let's say he had it say he was traveling to Florida to meet with Senator Smathers; then that woman would have been in Florida at that time which would show what was really going on. And you'd have people collaborating stories, and hotel sign in sheets with people's handwriting, and the mistress accompanying Kennedy under the guise of just acting as a secretary. All those details, however tiny. You'd have evidence that that woman was in Kennedy's life; you'd have people who knew they knew each other, people who saw them together, her as an intern or a secretary recorded in payroll logs, details in a story about places and people being corroborated elsewhere, and a billion other things.

With all that, the newspapers and TV and other media will latch onto it, and dig deeper and deeper, and if it's true then they will uncover more and more evidence that show's its true.

Now, there are certain levels. Certainly an intern who really did have an affair with JFK could lie about details besides that, such as their baby actually having been Kennedy's, but if it's something like that, it'll be tabloid fodder for a while, but disappear if not be debunked since you really need solid evidence. A walking, 50-some year old son or daughter is not like a story from 1962; you can test and you need to test that. So if it is true, then it'll be uncovered.

EDIT: I'm talking about the modern media and this coming out in modern times. Not about the 60s media and it coming out then.
 
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EDIT: I'm talking about the modern media and this coming out in modern times. Not about the 60s media and it coming out then.

AH-HA! Now we're on the same wave-length. So assuming a media that is more, to borrow a term, "gotcha" than chummy, what is the result? Honestly, I'm not sure. Even with a media out to find the truth, I doubt Kennedy is going to resign from office or be impeached by congress. His party holds majorities in both chambers and his popularity can afford to take the hit. It might be the case that he can't run for reelection, but the result, even with the noise about the child, won't be his removal from office.
 
due to the uninterested media and the lack of ability to get total proof in the period such a thing couldn't really get anywhere till the late 1980's which would be more about tarnishing JFK's legacy then anything else... some 30ish year old guy or gal being proven to be JFK's illegitimate child in 1988 is just not going to impress anyone, his womanizing had already been revealed to the public by that point and it wouldn't be considered surprising

jackie might go on 20/20 and talk about it or they Kennedy's could stonewall, either way the story flames out in a week


actually Teddy is a ripe target for this in the early 90's as he was still engaging in a number of affairs
 
He has a child with a Hispanic maid at a hotel, she ends up naming the child Jesus Francisco Kennedy, and he eventually gets involved in politics.

I still some times like to believe this happened in real life and we haven't figured it out yet. :p
 
Who says the illegitimate child has to have been born while he was president or while he was married? What if he had fathered a child before he met Jackie? It would take some of the scandal out of it but still a possibility.

He spent some time in Europe with his brother Joe and his father during his early 20s. No telling what (or who) he was doing then. He more than likely got around when he was at Harvard like many young people do while at college. It wouldn't surprise me if he like many other servicemen during World War II visited a few brothels during his time in Panama and later in Asia.

Considering all the health problems he had as he grew older I'm surprised the man able to get around as much as he did.
 
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What if JFK ended up having a child with Marilyn Monroe?
THAT's the one that would be focused on, especially if it was in connection with Marilyn's death.
Another twist: if someone in the Kennedy family knew and was willing to hide such a child, maybe Bobby and/or Jackie out of a misplaced sentiment? By the time RFK had second thoughts, that's when the second assassination was meant to occur?
:eek:
 
What if JFK ended up having a child with Marilyn Monroe?

You mean something like...

1041597_dd42_625x1000.jpg
 
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