Investigation into claims Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cut off dead whale’s head dropped

Federal authorities have closed their investigation into Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regarding allegations that he severed and collected the head of a dead whale decades ago, according to Freedom of Information Act documents obtained by Bloomberg.

On October 15, Todd Smith, a special agent with the National Marine Fisheries Service, informed Kennedy that the inquiry was being terminated after he denied the allegation in a detailed five-page letter earlier that month.

The investigation originated from a 2012 interview in Town & Country magazine, where Kennedy’s daughter Kathleen recounted a childhood incident in 1994. She claimed her father cut off the head of a dead whale that had washed up on Squaw Island in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, then loaded it onto their family minivan and drove it back to their home in New York.

Though the story had largely been forgotten, it resurfaced during Kennedy's presidential campaign this summer, coinciding with another unusual revelation where he told The New Yorker about retrieving a bear killed by a motorist and leaving its body in Central Park as a prank.

The inquiry into the whale incident was prompted by a complaint in August from the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, which accused Kennedy of violating the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

In his October 8 letter to the Fisheries Service, Kennedy denied the allegations, stating he had never collected a whale specimen from Massachusetts or transported marine mammal remains across state lines. "I have no such specimen in my collection," he wrote.

Kennedy did not respond to Bloomberg's requests for comment via email and text message.