the body of bobby kennedy jr.'wife, mary, the battle over her body, and fighting the disputed claims that sh e was ill. >> the latest article detailing the last days of mary kennedy, apparently filled with darkness and despair. but even more disturbing, what bobby kennedy wrote in the court documents, leading up to mary kennedy's final moments. mary kennedy hanged herself from a rafter in the couple's ban just last month. but according to new documents obtained by "newsweek" her problems started years before. and only became inflamed during her bitter divorce. >> she's drinking. in 2006, her meds change. and she becomes an alcoholic. >> reporter: a new report reveals never-before-seen excerpts from a sealed 60-page verse affidavit, filed by bobby kennedy jr. in it, bobby claims mary was physically abusing them before they were married. saying, hit me in the face with her fist. her engagement ring crushed my tear duct, causing permanent damage. the document goes on to say, after the couple's separation, on may 26, 2

but he became very close to bobby kennedy.n the book that in 1968, walter cronkite even urged bobby kennedy to run for president, kennedy being a new york senator at that time, and challenged lyndon johnson for the democratic nomination because cronkite had gone to vietnam and was sick by what he saw about the johnson administration and lied to the american people and called the war a stalemate. many people are questioning why would cronkite urge somebody like bobby kennedy to run for president. the answer was vietnam tore the country apart and cronkite stayed in the middle from '65 to '68. once he went in-country, looked around, his sense of being a humanist transcended him being an anchor. >> it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of vietnam is to end in a stalemate. >> i want to talk about this whole idea of liberal and conservative when it comes to news. we hear so much about it now, especially with the advent of cable news and people being on the right and people being on the left. was walter cronk

but he became close to bobby kennedy. in 1968, cronkite urged bobby kennedy to run for president and challenge lyndon johnson for the nomination, cronkite went to vietnam and was sickened by what he saw. people question, why would he urge somebody like bobby kennedy to run for president, is that ethical and the answer was vietnam tore the country apart. once he went incountry and looked around, his sense of being a humanist was above him being an anchor. >> thank you very much. a legal drug that is believed to be connect to several crimes. one young man called it the devil because he overdosed on it. >>> want to check the headlines, george zimmerman no longer a free man, the man who shot trayvon martin to death in self defense is back in jail. he lied about the money he had, and that amount determined his bail. >>> a death toll is rising after a plane crash in nigeria. a plane fell into a city and killed all 153 people on board. the president of knthe country s declared a period of mourning. >>> a strong earthquake struck

but he became close to bobby kennedy. 1968, cronkite urged bobby kennedy to run for president and challenge lyndon johnson for the nomination, cronkite went to vietnam and was sickened by what he saw about the johnson administration and lied to the american people. many people are questioning why would cronkite urge somebody like bobby kennedy to run for president. concrete stayed in the middle from '65 to '68. once he went in country, looked around. his sense of being a humanist transcended him being an anchor. >> a legal drug is believed to be connected to several gruesome crimes. one young man says it is the devil incar nate because he overdosed on it. >>> want to check the headlines, george zimmerman no longer a free man, the man who shot trayvon martin to death in self defense is back in jail. he lied about the money he had, and that amount determined his bail. zimmerman's legal team says they'll seek another bond hearing tomorrow. >>> the death toll is rising following a fooirry plane crash in nigeria. a passenger p

so come back to the senate office, bobby kennedy and walter cronkite tells him what?kite recognized that morley safer was right and '65, morally told him that the vietnam war was a bust. cronkite not only did that report but he went to see bobby kennedy, sat with the kennedy press secretary and said you have got to run for the presidency, you have got to challenge lyndon johnson. cronkite turned anti-war and he felt a moral obligation to try to end johnson policies. for people in your world that is an unconscionable -- >> a line that should never be crossed. then he compounds it by interviewing senator ken don't air three days before he wound up throwing his hat into the '68 presidential race. we all remember -- i knew cronkite, i liked him, i respected him, avenues warm guy, but in his hey day, he was seen as mr. objectivity. you report that in his radio comment tears, which didn't get widely picked up, he was quite a liberal and said some pretty harsh things about the nixon administration. >> woe do a regular commentary, most people don't go back and look at cbs rad

she was in the midst of a bitter divorce from bobby kennedy, her final months laid out in excruciating detail in this "newsweek" article. mary's violin andfold abuse continued before -- he said she sell she intended to kill herselves. he went over to mary's house after separating. i opened the door and she leapt out of the bed and hit me with a roundhouse punch. bobby says mary screamed at him saying in front of their son, everything he does is evil and a fraud. he is a flanderer, an adulterer, a sex addict. lawrence lamer, a respected kennedy boy grapher, wrote the article, speaking exclusively with nbc news. >> she drank heavily. because of her drinking, the children were taken away from her. what was left? she had nothing. her identity as a kennedy was finished. the man she both thought of as an idol, a god, and as a monster, was finished with her. what was left? >> soon "newsweek" says a judge would grant bobby kennedy full but temporary custody of the four children as mary reportedly turned to alcohol, bobby's life seemed to be going well, at least publicly seen off with actress c

i had not met bobby kennedy before. other side of the pool in a bathing suit, jumps in the water. kennedy's face kind of lights up. he starts swimming toward this side of the pool. of course in my mind ten days earlier i photographed her coming out of the pool with nothing on. so i wondered if that's what we would have. she came out with her bathing suit. i saw them together. i don't know how deep that relationship was. >> you wrote a lot about how she wasn't the marilyn that you knew was not the marilyn that people talk about. she was sort of all of the bad stories, the drugs, the loneline loneliness, you saw something different. who was marilyn you knew? >> i saw a tremendously insecure woman who at one point when i was talking to her, my first wife and judy were going to have our second child and she went almost inside of herself saying i want to have a baby but i can't have a baby. my mother was in a mental hospital. i think she said something about her father attempting suicide. and she got so much emotional and the

warned him that khrushchev would be tough on berlin was a soviet spy who was meeting regularly with bobby kennedy. when the summit began, kennedy expressed desire for good relations and he said essentially let's divide the world. he said, we have our part of the world, you have your part of the world. let's leave each other alone. let's not bother each other. khrushchev totally refused that. he said, no. we are the wave of history. we're not going to let you get away easy. you may think that we should divide the world, but actually the world will soon be ours. so khrushchev rejected that proposal. then kennedy stressed a mutual responsibility to avoid war. they both had nuclear weapons. and he said, we have to avoid miscalculation. in the documents that you are look at you may find that word as well. miscalculation khrushchev bellowed is not a word that i accept. he said that miscalculation was a device to get the soviet union to sit on its hands like children in school. and he absolutely refused to do it. he raved and ranted for about five minutes saying there could be no hesitation on either si

mike pavin tony joins me now as an attorney and host of the ring of fire radio program bobby kennedy mike welcome back tom great great to have you with us palosi nancy pelosi former speaker pelosi said she could have arrested karl rove given what darrell i suggested in retrospect shouldn't she have arrested rove i think you hit it on the head we've given him so many passes course now understand at this point you had you had george bush that also gave rove a past by by entering his executive order which really protected cowrote ultimately bush would have come to his aid but you're right the democrats should have jumped in they should have done what they failed to do on the iran contra same thing same thing iran contra they had everybody dead to rights they had senior bush they had rumsfeld they had everybody but they didn't pull the trigger this is a great example you gave a great example of the problem here do you think mike the republican the democrats are have learned from this experience. not really i think it's i think it's just a part of the democratic party that is let's let's

know it might have been tony joins me now he's an attorney and host of ring of fire radio with bobby kennedy mike welcome back to the program. i'm great what was your take following up on the conversation we just had was that johnny of the fondling of jamie diamond in the senate yesterday. well i had the story been told what we would have found out is that the document has been lying to us he told us in april that there was no problem with his london desk there he said he's looked into it it was really a tempest in a teapot it was some rogue who had done wrong but what we really found out is that he not only lied to us about that but if you remember jamie diamond lied to us about the fact that he was smarter than the rest of the guys in the room he didn't he didn't get involved in mortgage derivatives and c.d.o. and synthetics that was a lie in of itself those questions were never asked of the minister the families so and then and now we have sheldon aid on one guy pledging one hundred million dollars isn't this from this point of view more an investment than a campaign contribution well it

. >> bobby kennedy was the most political, jack kennedy, the old man. >> he wrote a book on jack kennedyst political guy in the sense of hardball, if it weren't for him and louis wofford bringing robert kennedy into the arms of mrs. king and hooking up with martin luther king, that one phone call brought the african-american community in with the kennedys. >> and my father knew all of them, and he worked to desegregate the catholic schools and the catholic hospitals in chicago in the '40s and '50s. so this call shortly after martin luther king was arrested in 1960 and a lot of people feared for his life, dad and louis martin and wattford came up to get mr. kennedy to make the phone call to express his concerns >> and bobby got on the phone and worked with the governor and got him released from jail. he was the tough guy, but he agreed finally your dad was right. >> some people say it was a great political move, but i believe it was dad's effort to alleviate the racial tension in this country. that's what i learned in this book. this was a consistent part of his life. he did it in the '40

and they dismissed the voter preferences expressed for mccarthy in new hampshire and bobby kennedy in the california primary. sadly assassinated the night he was to win the california primary. then humphrey's loss to richard nixon in 1968, triggered calls for reform. we got them a governed fraser commission. george mcgovern south dakota senator and minnesota governor. they worked to come up with a set of reforms and rules where women, young voters and minorities would be represented in proportion to the population. in the 1972 four years later, 40% of the delegates in miami at the convention was women. it was my first convention. i was a tell x operator for "newsweek." i worked in the suite in the fountain blue hotel. it was starry eyed. it was wonderful to watch the politicians. they were to me, stars and clebs, in a way they still are. in 1968, 13 percent of the delegates were women. it gives you an idea of how much reform occurred in the four years. george mcgovern, i lived in a little vacuum myself. i thought everybody i knew supported george mcgovern and i was rather shocked when

as bobby kennedy advices, if you have a problem hang a lantern on it.ext, a lead up to the miss usa contest. some of them were in a trivia contest. they did not fare too well and the subject was politics, specifically the question of who is the current vp of the united states. >> oh god. >> oh shoot. >> oh my god. >> what's his name, this is so bad. >> joe biden. >> biden. >> i don't know anything about politics. >> joe biden. >> i don't know. >> joe biden. >> world peace. >> world peace? anyway, one of the contestants had mixed results last night thanks to arsenio hall. >> how do you explain so many of them not knowing that answer. >> i went through that process, it was 4:00 in the morning, we were very tired, they really do know who the vice president is. it was a very good day. >> who is it they want to know. >> who is it? >> biden. >> they were up late. reminds me of jaywalking. i guess ignorance is bliss. show this for pulling teeth in bob mcdonald has been floated as a vp for romney, but yesterday he tried to dance around the fact that president o

. >> you knew that bobby kennedy was at that hotel, right?e was the one that was shot right? >> correct. we knew he had an event there. the told us to stay by the area, but i did not know who was shot at the time. >> nor did you know who it was to have shot him. what was your thought process then? because the people who had contained the killer at the time, they were not too kind because they knew what had happened. >> i did not know he was at the time. people had him in a headlock. actually, a football player at the time was lying on top of him. he was pretty emotional. we moved all these people from him. i took him off the table and handcuffed him with my hand cuffs that i had on. >> when you look back at some of this video now, what goes through your mind all these years later? >> that i was very young. i was 21 years old. to think about it now, it is amazing. it is amazing that only four years later i am -- only 44 years later i am just speaking about this. i think this would not have happened, what would it be like now? history. this is

>> reporter: soon the judge would grant bobby kennedy full custody of her four children. turned to alcohol, bobby's life was going well, at least publicly, seen often with actress cheryl hines. >> it was pure horror in the house. he was afraid to be beaten up, afraid she was going to kill herself. he needed a little bit of peace. he found it with cheryl who was very good to him. >> bobby believed mary had bpd, borderline personality disorder. mary denounced the accusations at the time. her family called it false and an insult to those that struggle with this mental illness. saying it was a brutal weapon in the divorce case, full of lies. proof perfect of the unbelievable emotional, psychological abuse mary endured during the last years of her life and now in death. >> mary richards kennedy didn't know who she was. that was the tragedy of her life. >> so the bitter family feud goes on. we reached out to the kennedy family. they had no comment. by the way, mary's family and the kennedys even fought over where to bury her. her family wanted a funeral in vermont, the kennedys

bobby kennedy got swept in. these things can happen. i think that elizabeth warren has a problem. he will see how that plays out. it is such a democratic state. she could win it. >> the problem sometimes is too many chiefs and not enough indians. [laughter] >> oh. where is the seven second replay. [laughter] >> mass., a landslide for republicans would be 52%. he has no margin for error. i would rather be him at this point. let's switch. we want to get to questions. i want to go to the fiscal cliff and the end of this year. this is a sophisticated audience. you know all of the background. my best friend has written some good stuff on what may happen at the end of the year. let's see. who wants to go first? between now and the election, lame-duck or sudden death, meaning after the first of january. >> i vote for sudden death. nothing is going to happen between now and the election. lame ducks are very unproductive. there are going to be a lot of lame ducks. it is going to be hard to do much. whatever happens happens in january or february. >> will whatever that happens, will it be p

kennedy became testy with him over an interview and why he encouraged bobby kennedy to run for presidentr here right here on cnn. >>> a daredevil attempts to break the speed of sound with the longest, highest free fall ever. all the way from the edge of space. >>> and we want our viewers to stay connected to cnn even on the go. grab your mobile phone and go to cnn.com/tv. foo you're on a desktop, you can also watch cnn live. at we did t: supported nearly 3 million steady jobs across our country... ... scientists, technicians, engineers, machinists... ... adding nearly 400 billion dollars to our economy... we're at work providing power to almost a quarter of our homes and businesses... ... and giving us cleaner rides to work and school... and tomorrow, we could do even more. cleaner, domestic, abundant and creating jobs now. we're america's natural gas. the smarter power, today. learn more at anga.us. >>> could be another first in the history of space ach. a popular daredevil is attempting an impossible jump many miles above the earth. here's brian todd from his story of air and space mus

bobby kennedy says mary's violence and physical abuse toward me began before we were with married.d anything to substantiate that. >> before they were married he said she was a trained boxer and she hit him in his eye ducts. if you see him now, he'll just start crying out of his left eye for no reason because of this. the person who saw him afterwards didn't know what happened, an awful lot of it was hidden, a lot of the violence was just in the house. the children saw it, the housekeeper saw it, the people outside the house didn't see it. >> what did the housekeeper tell you about the final days? >> well, first of all, she -- mary, because of the alcoholism she had two dui's, she was only allowed to see the children when she was supervised. the housekeeper was charged by the court to make sure she was okay. sunday she was with her four children, she started to drink, and she had to call the court, then she called mary's sisters and brothers and said she needed more care. >> you seem to think she was saying good-bye. >> her kids were in private schools, they wshe went to see then.

obviously, bobby kennedy was the most political. >> he wrote a book on him. >> i know.ly the least political guy in the sense of hardball i can imagine. bringing president kennedy, the candidate into the arms of working with martin luther king and calling up mrs. king, it changed history in terms of oofr can america african-americans in this country. >> dad knew martin luther king for his work as president -- >> he knew lloyd martin too. >> absolutely. this call which was shortly after martin luther king was arrested in 1960, a lot of people feared for his life. dad and louie martin came up with this idea to get senator kennedy to make the phone call to express his concerns. >> bobby got him released from jail. >> he did. >> he was the tough guy but agreed your dad was right. >> some people think it feels a great political move but i think it was dad's effort to try to alleviate some racial tension in this country. this was a consistent part of his life. he did it in the '40s, '50, '60s and '70s. he did it helping people with that poor or with the special olympics. tryi

we have seen bobby kennedy assassinated and martin luther king assassinated and the democratic convention turn into a war zone and part of johnson's calculation was what it would do to the country to have an outgoing president accused of a major party candidate of sabotaging peace negotiations at the most delicate moment but it was an extraordinary moment of confrontation and johnson ultimately decides not to challenge nixon about it. very close. four years later you understand reasons nixon kept johnson happy. johnson during the transition showed nixon where the tape recorders were in the white house and one of the reasons nixon got a club house and why he orchestrated johnson's birthday party and sent a jet to the ranch with briefing papers every week. he wanted to keep johnson in the tent. >> ladybird grove, special forces in california to pay homage to johnson. >> nixon won in a landslide and watergate gaining force. nixon calls johnson and that you might want to call friends from the senate and tell them to back off on this watergate investigation. or else we will reveal the fact tha

bobby kennedy says, quote, mary's violence and physical abuse towards me began before we were married sources to substantiate that claim? >> well, before he was married, he says that she was a trained boxer and she hit him in the face with such strength that she hurt his eye ducts. you see him now, he'll just start crying out of -- his left eye for no reason. that's because of this. i found somebody who saw him right afterwards. saw his face like that. now, that person didn't know what had happened. and that's -- an awful lot of this was hidden. a lot of this violence was just in the house. the children saw it. the housekeeper saw it. the people outside the house didn't see it. >> what did the housekeeper tell you about the final days? >> just -- well, first of all, she -- mary -- the children were -- she was only -- because of the alcoholism, the trouble, she had two duis, she was only able to see the children when she was supervised. the housekeeper was in charge by the court to make sure she was okay. on sunday, she was with her four children and she started to drink and she had to

we have seen bobby kennedy assassinated and we have seen martin luther king assassinated. we have seen the democratic convention turned to do a war zone and part of johnson's calculation was what it would do to the country to have an outgoing president accuse the major candy parted it -- party candidate of sabotaging peace negotiations at the most delicate moment but it was an extraordinary moment of confrontation and ultimately johnson decides not to challenge nixon about it. in that election you remember it was very close. four years later, you understand now the reason that nixon had to keep johnson very happy. it was johnson who showed nixon where the tape recorders were in the white house. it was one of the reasons why think nixon got the clubhouse, why he orchestrated johnson's birthday party, why he sent a jet down to the ranch with briefing papers every week. he really wanted to keep johnson and -- >> lady bird growth. they created a special force in california for lady bird to pay homage to johnson. >> he so nixon is reelected in a landslide and watergate is gaini

we've seen bobby kennedy assassinated kunhardt luther king assassinated.s the democratic assassination turn into a war zone. part of johnson's calculation was allegedly due to the country to have an outgoing president accuse a major party candidate of sabotaging peace negotiations of the most delicate moment. but it was an extraordinary moment of confrontation ultimately johnson decided not to challenge nixon about it. and that election year and was very, very close. four years later, you understand now the recent nixon and to keep johnson very happy. mr. the transition that showed with a tape recorders were in the white house. it was one of the reason why they got that pilothouse and orchestrated johnson's birthday party, why he sent a check down to the ranch with briefing papers every week. he wanted to keep johnson attend. >> the greatest social florist for a baby bird to pay homage to johnson. >> so watergate is now gaining for us and in january of 1973, nixon's man called johnson and say, you know, you might want to call your friends in the senate and

sixty-eight was bobby kennedy was assassinated. martin luther king was assassinated. buses were put around the white house that night to make sure the white house didn't get burned down. and then body, martin, vietnam war, race riots, counterculture, drug problems fleet is the racial problems and a vice president who resigned in disgrace. we came out of vietnam we didn't win that war and the president resigned in disgrace and still the soviet union and china was an communist nation that was aligned against us and yet through all of that, we never lost the conflict. jerry ford came on the scene as our president. simple midwestern values. people looked at him and were reassured and he brought us back and president carter had difficulty with the economy but he moved along. the soviet union has fallen and china is trying to become a world power not by invading anybody but by selling to us and they have gotten pretty good at it. imagine where we are now as opposed to 30 years ago where china is selling us stuff. the money we are paying them they moaned loan us to buy more.

they need to be aggressive about it. >> you talked about mario cuomo and bobbie kennedy.f those two men. that's a problem. and i think the argument that, you know, actually things are better and it could have been a lot worse is a really, really tough argument. it doesn't play well. he's in a box that way. a relative argument is not great for people who are unemployed. >> the strongest argument on the merits is one of the hardest political arguments to make. that's the conundrum. >> it surprises me you've written this book -- "the twilight of the elites." i'm going to actually be calling jon meacham and every wasp that i know -- >> meacham. >> and let him know our time is coming back -- >> the sun is setting. >> no. you're saying -- >> that we're going to go back to the d. >> it's going to be a bunch of wasps from princeton. epes ka pel yans will rule the land again. explain this argument. i don't mean politically radical argument, but it's certainly a culturally socially, it's a pretty radical argument you make here. >> yeah. i think what we've seen over the last 30 or 4

bobby kennedy was assassinated, martin luther king was assassinated, and buses were put around the white house, april 4th, to make sure the white house didn't get burned down. and then bobby, martin, vietnam war, race riots, drug problems, and then a vice president resigned in disgrace, we had to come out of vietnam, we didn't win that war, and then the president resigned in disgrace. and there was still the soviet union, and china, we weren't quite sure where it was headed at that time, but it was still a communist nation that was aligned against us. and yet through all of that we never lost hope or confidence. and a wonderful man who, i think, doesn't get sufficient credit, gerry ford, came on the scene. peek looked at him -- people looked at him, and they were reassured. president carter had some difficulties with the economy, but he moved it along, and then ronald reagan shows up, and he says it's sunshine morning in america, here we go. and a few years later it's the soviet union that's gone. it's china that's trying to become a world power not by invading anybody, but by selling to