RFK Jr. apparently cut off private parts of dead raccoon on the road, while his kids ‘waited patiently’

A newly released biography of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) is drawing attention for a striking passage drawn directly from his personal journals, including an account in which he allegedly cut off the private parts of a road-killed raccoon as his children waited in the family car.

The detail appears in RFK Jr.: The Fall and Rise, an investigative biography by journalist Isabel Vincent, which compiles material from Kennedy’s private diaries spanning roughly 1999 to 2001. According to multiple excerpts cited in reporting on the book, the journals were later passed to Vincent through a source connected to Kennedy’s late second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, following her death in 2012.

In one of the most widely circulated passages, Kennedy describes a roadside stop in November 2001 while traveling with his wife and children. He reportedly wrote that he pulled over after spotting a dead raccoon along the highway and then examined the animal before removing a portion of it for later study. The entry includes the line: “My kids waited patiently in the car.”

The book frames the episode as part of Kennedy’s long-standing fascination with wildlife and roadkill, which he has publicly acknowledged in various interviews over the years. According to reports, he has described collecting roadkill and preserving animal remains for study or feeding falcons he trains.

The raccoon passage is one of several unusual revelations drawn from the journals. The biography also reportedly includes references to Kennedy tracking his extramarital relationships in detail, including rating encounters in coded entries, as well as personal reflections on his family and political frustrations.

RFK Jr. raccoon incident: Not the first time

The biography also adds to a broader pattern of controversial and strange anecdotes that have followed Kennedy in recent years. These include widely reported claims—some originating from earlier interviews with family members—that he once transported a whale head on the roof of a family vehicle after cutting it from a carcass to examine it, an episode that has resurfaced in political reporting and criticism.

Another widely discussed passage in the book describes a separate journal entry in which Kennedy stops along a highway and dissects a different dead raccoon, underscoring the biography’s depiction of repeated roadside encounters with animal carcasses. Critics have seized on these stories as emblematic of eccentric or unsettling behavior.

Taken together, the new biography paints a portrait of Kennedy that blends political ambition, environmental advocacy, and a private journal filled with deeply personal—and at times bizarre—entries. The author, Vincent, has spent years compiling and reviewing the diaries as part of her research into Kennedy’s life and political evolution.

While supporters of Kennedy have often framed his unconventional wildlife interactions as part of a broader environmental interest, the newly published material is already fueling renewed scrutiny due to its graphic and unusual nature.

The book’s release adds another chapter to the long-running public fascination with Kennedy’s personal history, which has frequently intersected with stories about animals, wilderness encounters, and controversial private behavior, each resurfacing periodically as his political profile rises and falls.