On Oct. 5, 1969, Jackie Onassis was walking out of a movie theater on West 57th Street when Daily News paparazzo Mel Finkelstein, camera in hand, confronted her. According to Finkelstein, the former First Lady put him in a judo hold and aggressively flipped him over; a doorman witness, however, said the photographer simply slipped. So, who was right?
WWD looked into the matter and interviewed judo specialist Raymond Gould for a story later that week. “If the photographer was walking backward, she could have pushed him, put her leg behind his and thrown him over,” said Gould, who claimed to have taught the sport to an ex-governess of the Kennedy kids.
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“Gould thinks [she] might have tutored Jackie in the judo basics. Or else the Secret Service men may have done a little coaching on the side,” WWD wrote, adding that “Gould is agog with admiration for Jackie. Nearly unheard of, he says, for a woman to grab a male opponent with her right hand while she maintains her right-handed grasp of handbag and shades.” The paper also had its own conspiracy theory going: “Judo is now an Olympic sport. Daddy O runs Olympic Airways. Can it all be a sales promotion campaign?”
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Here, a few more of the article’s “expert” opinions on Jackie and her alleged judo flip.
Wendy Vanderbilt: “For self-defense it might be good to know, but there might be something better. I don’t know. There’s always Mace.”
Margaret Case: “I’m not sure [Jackie] did it. I don’t think she knew anything about judo, had ever taken lessons. I’d be disgusted if she did. It’s very unattractive for a woman.”
Eugenia Sheppard: “I don’t think she ever judo-ized. It’s out of character.”
Mae West: “I’ve studied judo a little, but I don’t expect to use it on anyone, except perhaps on one of my bodyguards.”