Ted Kennedy's 'night in a Chilean brothel' is revealed FBI files

(AP)

A young Ted Kennedy arranged to rent a brothel for a night while visiting Chile in 1961, a year before he was elected to the US Senate, according to a newly released FBI file.

The previously edited State Department memo, dated 28 December 1961, was released by Judicial Watch, a Washington-based organisation that said it obtained it through a Freedom of Information lawsuit.

According to the memo, the Massachusetts Democrat, younger brother of John F Kennedy, who was President at the time, made arrangements to rent the brothel "for an entire night" in the Chilean capital Santiago earlier in 1961.

"Kennedy allegedly invited one of the embassy chauffeurs to participate in the night's activities," according to the memo. One State Department official described Mr Kennedy as a "pompous and a spoiled brat". The future senator was making a fact-finding trip to Latin American countries, and met "a number of individuals known to have communist sympathies".

Mr Kennedy was a 29-year-old assistant district attorney in Boston at the time. He was elected to the Senate in 1962 and served more than four decades until his death in 2009. His family had no immediate reaction to the release of the memo.

The documents from Judicial Watch provide no indication of the source of the allegations or whether the FBI believed the allegations were true. Judicial Watch said it waged a "tough" fight with the Obama administration for access to the previously secret documents.

Last June the FBI released more than 2,300 pages of documents from Mr Kennedy's file, many containing information about various death threats against him and his family.

Some of the threats prompted investigations and some resulted in warnings to Mr Kennedy or local law enforcement authorities. There is no indication whether any attempts were carried out.

Kennedy family members were given a chance to review and to raise objections to the documents before they were released last June. The FBI has additional documents on threats to Mr Kennedy, possibly thousands more pages, that it plans to make public once the agency finishes reviewing them.

The family has no legal power to keep information withheld, the FBI has said, but the bureau does consider privacy concerns on a case-by-case basis.