How the 'Kennedy Curse' kills: tragedies haunting a famous family for 80 years
'14.06.2020'
Source: Tatler
How this legend arose and which cases of death in the Kennedy clan are considered the most suspicious and mysterious - says Tatler.
President John F. Kennedy was one of nine children in the family of Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr. and Rosa Kennedy - and five of them suffered a terrible fate. Joseph himself was a very difficult person: he made a fortune by illegally trading alcohol during Prohibition, as well as on stock speculation. As a result, by the beginning of World War II, the Kennedy clan was second only to the Rockefellers in wealth.
It is believed that the “Kennedy curse” brought Joseph to the family. His dream was to become president, but in the end he received only the post of ambassador to the UK (and even then for the active financial support of the Democratic Party). Kennedy Sr. was an anti-Semite - during his work as an ambassador, he refused to issue visas to Jews who fled from Germany to Britain, and during the war he advocated rapprochement with Hitler. Rosa, Joseph’s wife, believed that sex was needed only for childbearing, so not only his secretary Janet Fontaine was on the long list of his mistresses, but also actresses Gloria Swanson and Marlene Dietrich (a romance with Dietrich was later attributed to his son John). Kennedy Sr. also actively used the services of prostitutes.
It all started back in 1941 - his eldest daughter Rosemary showed clear signs of developmental delay, and outbursts of anger became completely uncontrollable. Parents decided to make the girl a lobotomy (then this method was considered progressive, and Joseph and Rosa decided to try). The operation was unsuccessful, and Rosemary's intelligence fell to the level of a two-year-old child. She lost the ability to walk and talk on her own and was placed in a psychiatric hospital, where she died in 2005 at the age of 86. After the operation, Rosemary’s name was forbidden to pronounce in Kennedy’s house, and during John’s presidential campaign, her father called Rosemary not “mentally unhealthy,” but “backward” to preserve the future president’s reputation.
The first death among Kennedy children occurred in 1944, during World War II: Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr., a future Harvard graduate and the main heir to family wealth, volunteered for military aviation and died when his plane exploded for unknown reasons in the air near English coast. There were several tons of explosives on board, so it was impossible to find his remains.
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The same thing could happen with the second son - the future president of the United States. Having also signed up as a volunteer (but not in the aviation, but in the navy), he barely survived when his boat was hit by a Japanese torpedo. John sailed 5 km to the shore, dragging a wounded sailor. He managed, but he only had 20 years to live, until he was killed by a direct shot in the head on November 22, 1963.
In 1948, Kathleen Kennedy, another daughter, died in a plane crash. She was 28 years old. Then a series of troubles subsided until 1961: at first Joseph Patrick suffered a severe stroke, lost his ability to move and speak, and spent his last eight years in a wheelchair, without any reaction to the death of his children - he simply did not understand what was happening.
Then there was the assassination of President Kennedy. And five years later, his brother Robert Kennedy, who was the father's favorite and favorite of the new presidential race, was shot dead by an Islamic fanatic. They shot him live - only because he sympathized with Israel.
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Another son, Edward Kennedy, also really wanted to become president, but his plans were disrupted by the incident of July 18, 1969. On the bridge towards Chappakwiddick Island (not far from Boston), Edward's car lost control and fell into the water. Edward himself hurriedly sailed to the shore, and his assistant (and lover), 31-year-old Mary Joe Kopechne, died. The public unanimously blamed Edward for the girl’s death, and the presidency could be forgotten. Speaking in court, Edward said: "Perhaps the curse actually hung over the Kennedy family."
Soon, the “Kennedy curse” (if it really exists, of course) took on a new generation of the family - the next in line was the son of the shot Robert, David. On the night of the murder, a 13-year-old boy watched TV and watched his father’s agony live. This impressed him that soon after the incident, David was always withdrawn, humble, and attached to his father. Growing up, he managed to study at Harvard (he was expelled from there) and work as a journalist, but by the age of 28 his addiction had reached such a stage that he could look like a street beggar. On April 25, 1984, he was found dead at The Brazilian Court Hotel in Florida, the cause of death was an overdose of cocaine mixed with demerol.
Then there were the deaths of his younger brother Michael (crashed while skiing in December 1997) and John F. Kennedy Jr., the president’s son, - he died in a plane crash with his wife Carolyn. His private jet crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, John was only 38.
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But the worst was probably the fate of Rose Kennedy, the mother of nine children and the wife of Joseph Patrick Sr.. She survived many of her children and grandchildren and died in 1995, at the age of 104. All these years, she watched her family leave.
Is there a “Kennedy curse”? Seeing this impressive list in front of you, the easiest answer is to say yes exists. But Kennedy has always been a very large family. Joseph Sr. and Rose had nine children, John had five, and Robert had eleven. Even statistically, a certain proportion of people do not die by their own death. And if a person goes to war or takes a political post, the chances of a sad end increase. To believe that all these deaths is the result of the untidiness of Joseph Sr. is very convenient, but too simple. Representatives of the family themselves (except, perhaps, Edward) usually regarded the possible “curse” as stupidity, and at some point they stopped commenting at all.
Nevertheless, the list of deaths is growing and growing.
1 August 2019 years in Massachusetts at the age of 22 years Saersha Kennedy Hill passed away - The granddaughter of the American politician Robert Kennedy and the granddaughter of the 35th US President John F. Kennedy. The cause of death was called an overdose of drugs. A 22-year-old girl combined methadone, alcohol, and several prescription drugs.
In April 2020, the granddaughter of Robert Kennedy, 40-year-old Maeve Kennedy Townsend Mackin and her eight-year-old son Gideon, died. Maeve and her son played on the beach, and one of them accidentally dropped a ball into the water. To get it, Maeve and Gideon got into a canoe and went down to the water, but a strong current carried them away from the shore. After 30 minutes, witnesses noticed their canoe moving at high speed and called the police.
After some time, the boat was discovered, but Maeve and Gideon were not nearby. Their bodies were found a few days later, drowning was recognized as the cause of death.
