Federal authorities are reportedly investigating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for an incident involving a decapitated whale carcass dating back nearly two decades. During a campaign rally in Arizona on Saturday, where Kennedy endorsed Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, the former presidential candidate acknowledged the inquiry, linking it to what he described as political retribution.
“I received a letter from the National Marine Fisheries Institute saying that they were investigating me for collecting a whale specimen 20 years ago,” Kennedy told the crowd, framing the probe as part of a broader “weaponization” of government against political opponents.
The bizarre tale resurfaced after his daughter, Kick Kennedy, recalled the episode during a 2012 interview. According to her, the family was in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, when her father spotted a whale washed up on a nearby beach. Armed with a chainsaw, Kennedy allegedly decapitated the mammal and strapped its head to the roof of their family minivan for the journey back to New York. “Whale juice would pour into the windows of the car,” Kick recounted.
This incident caught the attention of the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, which has since urged federal authorities to investigate Kennedy for potentially violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act. In a letter addressed to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the environmental group demanded that Kennedy surrender the whale skull and face any appropriate civil or criminal penalties.
Kennedy has recently come under fire for another unsettling incident involving a dead animal. In August, he admitted to dumping a dead bear cub in New York’s Central Park over a decade ago, planning to stage the scene as if the animal had been hit by a cyclist. Kennedy’s casual recollection of the incident, framing it as a practical joke, has only added to the growing public unease surrounding his behavior.
