Documents reveal death threats to Edward Kennedy
Former US senator Edward M. Kennedy became a magnet for extremist rage in the decades after his brothers were gunned down, living under constant, chillingly specific assassination threats targeting him, according to newly released FBI documents.
Five years after President John F. Kennedy was killed and shortly after Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot, one letter warned that the third brother was next: "Ted Kennedy number three to be assassinated on October 25, 1968. The Kennedy residence must be well protected on that date."
Nearly two decades later, in 1985, the threats continued, this time including the conservative Republican president as well as the liberal Democratic senator: "Brass tacks, I'm gonna kill Kennedy and (President Ronald) Reagan, and I really mean it."
Releasing 2,352 pages from Mr Kennedy's FBI file, many of them concerning threats over the years, the agency said on its website: "These threats originated from multiple sources, including individuals, anonymous persons and members of radical groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, Minutemen organisations and the National Socialist White People's Party."
Some of the threats prompted investigations, some resulted in warnings to Mr Kennedy or local law enforcement authorities. There is no indication any attempts were carried out.
In 1977, the FBI even looked into allegations that Sirhan Sirhan, the man who assassinated Robert Kennedy, had tried to hire a fellow prisoner to kill Edward Kennedy.
The prisoner, who was housed next to Sirhan for 18 months, told the FBI he was offered $1m and a car but declined.
The documents were the first round released by the FBI since Mr Kennedy's death last year at 77 after a fight with brain cancer. Mr Kennedy's widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, declined comment through a spokesman on the document release.
Kennedy family members were given a chance to review and to raise objections to the documents before they were released Monday.
The FBI said it has additional documents on threats to Mr Kennedy, possibly thousands more pages, that it plans to make public once the agency finishes reviewing them.
President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Robert Kennedy died on June 6, 1968, a day after he was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
Their deaths cast a long shadow on the youngest brother's life, and prompted fears he, too, would be targeted by an assassin's bullet.
