Friday, February 29, 2008

Mother Denies Victoria Man's Claim He's Son of JFK

by DENISE RYAN / Vancouver Sun

The family of Jack Worthington, the Victoria man who claims to be an illegitimate son of president John F. Kennedy, released a statement to Vanity Fair magazine today stating Worthington is not related to JFK.

"It is our understanding that Jack R. Worthington, Jr. has made the statement that he is the son of John F. Kennedy and that his mother, Mary Evelyn Worthington, was introduced to president Kennedy by Lyndon B. Johnson."

"It is the position of the family that the above statements are unequivocally false and have been fabricated by Jack R. Worthington Jr. for reasons unknown to his family."

The statement also says that his mother, Mary Evelyn Worthington, never met either John F. Kennedy or Lyndon B. Johnson.

"Jack R. Worthington Jr. is the natural-born son of Jack R. Worthington, Sr. and Mary Evelyn Worthington," said the statement.

Worthington, who until today was unaware his family had released the statement, spoke to The Vancouver Sun within minutes of getting the news that his family had spoken out against his claims.

Worthington, who stands by his story, said "my mother is not telling the truth. She has reservations. She just doesn't want to deal with it now, the publicity."

Within hours of receiving the statement from Worthington's family, Vanity Fair circulated it to media, and published an article by David Friend on its website entitled "A Claim to Camelot," with the overline "The Man Who Would be Jack."

Friend's article positions Worthington as a possible poser whose approach to the magazine through his lawyer Douglas Caddy immediately rang "alarm bells."

"How many time had would-be Kennedy heirs come out of the woodwork? And how many tall tales had originated...in the dark heart of conspiracy country - vast, incorrigible Texas, where JFK was murdered, LBJ connived and thrived, and two presidents Bush catapulted from the oil business to the Oval Office?" Friend writes.

News about the story of a possible JFK love child living in the wilds of British Columbia first surfaced when the New York Post ran an item in its well-read Page Six gossip column a few weeks ago. The report suggested Vanity Fair had spiked a politically hot-button item on the alleged JFK son, caving under pressure from Ted Kennedy.

The item proved a source of fascination and Worthington immediately became the target of an international media hunt. He was reluctant to come forward, but did speak at length to The Vancouver Sun, alluding to himself as "a potential Rosetta Stone for a confusing time in American history," and suggesting the Vanity Fair article might provide some information that would solve the cloud of mystery that still hangs around the assassination of JFK.

The article published on its website today does anything but, giving Worthington a starring role as a man of "conflicting assertions and motives and press conferences," a man whose mother denies him and who "was told [by Vanity Fair] that he was free to take his story elsewhere." ... [Read the full story here]

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