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Feds Seek To Destroy Forged JFK Documents
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Feds Seek To Destroy Forged JFK Documents -
Feds Seek To Destroy Forged JFK Documents -
Feds Seek To Destroy Forged JFK Documents -
Feds Seek To Destroy Forged JFK Documents -
Feds Seek To Destroy Forged JFK Documents -
Feds Seek To Destroy Forged JFK Documents -
Feds Seek To Destroy Forged JFK Documents -
Feds Seek To Destroy Forged JFK Documents -
Feds Seek To Destroy Forged JFK Documents -
Feds Seek To Destroy Forged JFK Documents
OCTOBER 16--Federal investigators are seeking court permission to destroy a cache of forged documents purported to have been authored by John F. Kennedy that were sold to unsuspecting collectors as part of a $7 million swindle hatched by a Connecticut con man. In a civil complaint (found at left) filed October 8 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, prosecutors argue that they need to destroy the 250 documents because "there is a significant risk that these forgeries will re-enter the marketplace" since several of the collectors who purchased the material from swindler Lawrence Cusack are demanding the return of the fakes. Cusack, now serving nine years for his 1999 mail and wire fraud conviction, had claimed that he discovered the Kennedy documents in files maintained by his father, a New York lawyer. According to Cusack, his dad discreetly counseled JFK on sensitive personal matters, from his relationship with Marilyn Monroe to tangles with J. Edgar Hoover. In this role, the elder Cusack supposedly often received correspondence from the late president and secreted the documents in his personal files, where they were discovered by his son following the lawyer's 1985 death. In reality, Cusack, 53, fabricated the documents and, with the help of memorabilia dealer John Reznikoff, sold the bogus artifacts between 1993 and 1997 for about $7 million. As part of the FBI probe of Cusack, agents seized documents from hoodwinked collectors who thought the items were legitimate (an Oklahoma woman, for example, bought 11 JFK documents for $800,000). Now, with some of those collectors demanding the return of the confiscated material, prosecutors want to trash the Cusack fakes to insure the documents never resurface on the memorabilia market. As for Cusack, who is now being held in a Massachusetts lockup, he will return to circulation in November 2007. (10 pages)
