Why people believe in the 'Kennedy curse' amid series of awful tragedies that’s struck one of America's most notable families
People believe there is a 'Kennedy curse' that has struck one of America's most notable families.
The Kennedy family have long been considered America's most prominent political dynasty, and have also had more than their fair share of strange tragedies over the years.
From horrific illnesses to plane crashes, car crashes, assassinations and more, the family have suffered grisly premature deaths that appear straight out of a Final Destination movie, so much so that a theory has emerged over a so-called 'Kennedy curse.'
Even Ted Kennedy, the youngest of nine children to Joseph Patrick Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald, and brother of JFK, pondered after a car crash and the strange deaths of four of his siblings by 1969 if 'some awful curse did actually hang over the Kennedy's'.
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Here are just some of those incidents that could be attributed to the Kennedy 'curse.'
1941: Rosemary Kennedy
Rose, born in 1918, was thought to have been starved from oxygen at birth and struggled to meet typical developmental milestones as she grew up.
At the age of 23, her father decided to take her for an experimental new procedure, a lobotomy, in 1941, which went terribly wrong.
Rosemary was left permanently incapacitated with the intellectual capabilities of a two-year-old.
Unable to walk and talk, she was institutionalised for most of her life up until she died at the age of 86 in January 2005.
1944: Joe Kennedy Jr.
The eldest of the Kennedy brood, Joe had tiptoed into politics when World War Two broke out.
So, he enlisted into the US Naval Reserve in June 1941.
Yet, during a top-secret bombing mission to Europe codenamed Anvil in August 1944, an explosive his jet was carrying detonated prematurely and killed him and his co-pilot instantly.
Joe was just 29 years old when he died, and was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his service.
1948: Kathleen Kennedy
Kathleen, nicknamed Kick, suffered several tragedies of her own.
While working in the UK, she sparked a romance with Lord William Hartington, whom she married in May 1944 against her father's wishes.
Her brother, Joe, was the only member of her family to attend the wedding since he was serving in Britain at the time.
Well, we know Joe died just three months after the ceremony, but Kathleen's husband also died not long after.
Hartington was killed by a sniper while in active service in Belgium just four months after tying the knot.
Four years later, Kick then met her own demise in a plane crash in 1948.
She was flying out to Paris to convince her father to approve of her new partner, the 8th Earl Fitzwilliam, whom also perished in the crash.
1963: Patrick Kennedy
In August 1963, JFK's wife Jacqueline Kennedy gave birth to a baby boy whom they baptised and named Patrick.
The infant sadly only lived for 39 hours after being born premature and succumbing to complications of hyaline membrane disease.
JFK and Jacqueline had already suffered a miscarriage and a stillbirth prior to Patrick's death.
Three months after Patrick, JFK was gunned down in an assassination.
1963: John F. Kennedy
Before becoming 35th President of the United States, JFK suffered chronic health conditions for most of his life, and a life-long back injury from playing football as a child.
While he was medically disqualified from the US Army in 1940, he joined the US Naval Reserve, where he re-injured his back in a patrol torpedo boat accident in 1943, but heroically saved the life of another crewman.
The most famous of the Kennedy tragedies unfolded on 22 November, 1963, when the then POTUS was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, at the age of 46.
1968: Robert F. Kennedy
The seventh child of the Kennedy's, Robert, also entered the political ring in the 1960s, serving as attorney general between 1961 and 1964 and later as US senator for New York.
RFK was emerging as a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nominee in 1968, hoping to follow in his brother's footsteps.
Horrifically, not long after winning the California primary in June that year, he was also assassinated.
1969: Ted Kennedy
Edward 'Ted' Kennedy likewise served in politics as a member of the senate from 1962 up until his death in 2009.
While he died of a brain tumor at the age of 77, two weeks after the death of his sister Eunice, the senator became embroiled in a tragedy where he lived to tell the tale.
Late one evening in July 1969, Ted left a party on Chappaquiddick Island to take a party-goer, Mary Jo Kopechne, back to land.
While driving, Ted reportedly lost control of the car and the pair plummeted into the water below.
Ted escaped and swam to shore, only reporting the incident to the cops at 10am the next morning, by which point the 28-year-old's body had been found.
Ted received a two-month suspended jail for leaving the scene of an accident and was suspended from driving for 16 months.
The so-called Chappaquiddick Incident tarnished his image and his dream of ever becoming president.
1973: Ted Kennedy Jr.
Ted's son, aptly called Edward Kennedy Jr., was born in 1961.
Medics later determined Ted Jr. suffered from osteosarcome, a form of bone cancer, in his right leg at the age of 12.
After several rounds of failed chemotherapy, doctors decided to surgically amputate his leg in 1973.
Though fortunately still alive today, working as an attorney in New York City, it appears the 'Kennedy curse' has still followed the 63-year-old for most of his life.
Ted Jr., narrowly missed being aboard Air Florida Flight 90 by 10 minutes which crashed into the Potomac River and killed 74 people.
1984: David Kennedy
RFK's fourth son, David, born in 1955, similarly dodged death when he almost drowned.
His father jumped in and saved his life. The next day, David watched his father's assassination live on TV.
It is reported David turned to drugs to help him cope with the trauma while a car accident in 1973 left him addicted to opiods.
In April 1984, he died of an overdose from a combination of cocaine and prescription meds.
1999: John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr.
On his third birthday, JFK Jr., also known as John-John, participated in the funeral procession of his father.
As an adult, he worked for almost four years as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, and went on to work as a journalist and founder of politics-lifestyle magazine, George.
After several high profile relationships with some of Hollywood's famous faces, John-John married Carolyn Bessette in 1996.
Although the death of his cousin in a skiing accident put him off for a few months, JFK Jr., was a keen pilot and decided to jet off with his wife and sister-in-law on July 16, 1999, to attend another cousin's wedding.
The jet failed to arrive and days later, the wreckage of his plane were found strewn across the seabed.
All three bodies were recovered.
Topics: US News, Politics, John F. Kennedy, History
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