The US government filed a law suit today seeking to destroy sensational forgeries about John F. Kennedy's rumored affair with Marilyn Monroe and his supposed links to organised crime.
The suit, filed by Manhattan federal prosecutors, asks the court to allow the government to destroy some 250 papers that were used in the prosecution of Lawrence Cusack III, a Connecticut paralegal, who was convicted of the forgeries in 1999.
The government had subpoenaed the evidence from investors who had bought the papers believing they were valuable historical documents. Now, some of those purchasers want their property returned and prosecutors want a court order blocking their demands. Cusack made millions of dollars from the sale of the bogus papers.
Generally, property used in prosecutions is returned to its rightful owner after a criminal case ends. However, the government does not have to return items that are deemed "contraband" or illegally possessed.
Prosecutors said in the suit that if the papers are returned to the purchasers "there is a significant risk that these forgeries will re-enter the marketplace." The only way to stop this is to destroy them, they argued.
The case against Cusack caused a furor in 1997 after Pulitzer Prize-winning author Seymour Hersh deleted material based on the documents from his book "The Dark Side of Camelot." One of the most provocative papers purported to be a 1960 agreement in which Kennedy paid hush money to keep secret an affair with Marilyn Monroe.
The suit said the documents included bogus trust agreements that had been "manipulated by Cusack" to give the impression Kennedy set up a trust for Monroe's mother in exchange for Monroe's silence about her relationship with the president and "her knowledge of Kennedy's dealings with 'underworld personalities.'"
Among prosecutors' evidence were taped conversations in which Cusack confessed to forgery. Cusack said the letters were from the files of his late father, a prominent lawyer who Cusack said had secretly advised Kennedy. Among the papers were supposed love letters to Monroe, a copy of her will and letters describing Kennedy's battles to prevent FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover from blackmailing him.
Prosecutors said Cusack's father had no connection with Kennedy and had fabricated the letters.