Print

USA TODAY
Oct. 16, 1997
Disputed Kennedy papers investigated

Cusack and the tow dealers dispute ABC’s findings and say they are conducting more forensic tests in an effort to prove the documents’ authenticity.
The U.S. attorney’s office declined to confirm Wednesday that an investigation exists. But Kenneth Rendell, a documents dealer and expert on forgery, said that his Manhattan historical documents gallery had received a subpoena from a federal grand jury.
Rendell, who is scheduled to talk to a federal investigator today, believes he was subpoenaed because a certificate of authenticity he provided for one document in the collection apparently was used by Cusack and his associates to convince potential investors that the entire collection was authentic.
Rendell bought a note card, apparently signed by Kennedy, from Cusack’s collection. He then sold the card to a collector who, he discovered later, was buying it back on behalf of Cusack and his associates.
Documents from those transactions were requested by the subpoena, Rendell said. The note card he bought and authenticated was not among the documents examined by ABC.
Others involved in the controversy, including Hersh, Jennings, Cusack and documents dealer Joseph Maddalena of Beverly Hills, Cailf., said Wednesday that they had not been subpoenaed.
Maddalena, line Rendell, said certificates of authenticity he issued when he bought and resold two cards from the collection were cited as authentication for other documents he had never seen.
Cusack and his associates have “somehow married my reputation and Ken Rendell’s to this archive,” Maddalena said. “I never authenticated (the) archive. It’s a lie.”