The Kennedy family stands out in American history as one of triumph and tragedy juxtaposed. Among them are a president, two cabinet secretaries, two governors, six members of Congress, five ambassadors, various philanthropists and many others.
The Kennedy Family Curse explains at least 30 assassinations, illnesses, plane crashes and drug overdoses that struck the relatives of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) and those associated with them since 1941.
The family’s story began when Patrick and Bridget Kennedy fled Ireland and settled in Boston in the 1840s. While they hoped for a better life, Irish Catholics faced heavy discrimination and segregation.
His grandson, Joseph Patrick Kennedy (JFK’s father), confronted this prejudice, leading him and his wife, Rose Fitzgerald (another Irish Catholic Bostonian socialite), to push their nine children to do anything to give the family a better reputation.
Joseph became Ambassador to Britain during Roosevelt’s administration before World War II. Ironically, he tainted the family name for unapologetically sympathizing with Hitler’s Nazism, which Roosevelt was unaware of beforehand.
One of his daughters, Rosemary, suffered from an intellectual disability and numerous mental illnesses. In 1941, Joseph authorized a lobotomy on her without consulting other family members, reasoning she would embarrass the family in the future.
However, the lobotomy left her with the mental capacity of a toddler, so Joseph sent her to a mental institution for 20 years. Her siblings remained unaware until 1968.
The full truth was revealed to the public in 1987. Although Rosemary didn’t pass until 2005, the pressure she faced from her parents to “become normal” at the very least set the tone for their parenting style.
Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., Joseph and Rose’s firstborn, served in the Navy as an aviator.
Although his father desperately wanted him to become the country’s first Irish Catholic president, his dreams were dashed when Joseph Jr. and his co-pilot were killed on a secret bombing mission over France in 1944 when their payload prematurely detonated.
Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy, another of JFK’s sisters, fell in love with British culture while his father was an ambassador. She married William Cavendish, an English royal, who was killed in combat in 1944.
Four years later, while flying to Paris with a new lover, Peter Wentworth- Fitzwilliam, the plane crashed, killing the four individuals on board.
The assassination of JFK is probably the most famous of all. Whilst waving to the Dallas public riding an open-top motorcade, he was shot through his neck by Lee Harvey Oswald, and then through his head by an unknown second gunman. However, the full details are too extensive for this article.
Some of JFK’s descendants also faced misfortune. Jackie, his wife, had a miscarriage, a stillborn and a son who died two days after birth.
Their only son to live to adulthood, John Kennedy Jr., died while he piloted a plane near Martha’s Vineyard along with his wife and sister-in-law in 1999. Caroline, his only child alive today, is a former ambassador.
The second most notable death of the Kennedy family may be that of Attorney General, Senator and social justice warrior Robert “Bobby” F. Kennedy, another of JFK’s brothers. While campaigning for the presidency in 1968, he was shot after winning the California primary.
Bobby’s children were not spared from tribulation. David died of a drug overdose in 1984, while Michael crashed into a tree during a family ski trip in 1997. Maeve and her son drowned in the Chesapeake Bay while canoeing. One of Bobby’s granddaughters, Saoirse, overdosed on antidepressants in 2019.
RFK Jr. is the most prominent Kennedy today, currently serving as Health and Human Services Secretary in the Trump administration.
Ted, the youngest of JFK’s brothers, served as a U.S. senator for over 40 years, but endured a plane crash in 1964 that killed two passengers and a 1969 car crash that killed another.
Post-incident, he wondered “whether some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys,” which truly began the conspiracy obsession. After he died in 2009, his son, Edward Jr., said, “Our family is just like… every other family in America in many ways,” dismissing such rumors.
The notion of a curse around this family is captivating, yet I find substantial evidence on the contrary.
For one, Joseph Sr. and Rose pressured their children toward high-status pursuits, encouraging competition against one another that led to risky behaviors. Flying planes is also a reasonable pastime for a very wealthy family.
For a family that fights for equal rights, politics is surely a more lethal field in the mid-1900s. Unsubstantiated claims accuse the family of bootlegging alcohol during Prohibition and of connections with criminal organizations in the early 1900s.
That leads to how public the lives of this family were. Tragic incidents don’t indicate a targeted assault. Rather, it seems that the media frenzy surrounding each death amplified the narrative.
Joseph and Rose had 89 descendants, 15 of whom died in tragic, public ways, but other branches of the family thrived and were completely untouched.
The Special Olympics, Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, the Peace Corps, the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation and Very Special Arts are all organizations founded by Kennedy family members.
Ultimately, I find it disingenuous to remember the Kennedys only for their deaths. It’s more respectful to celebrate their meaningful contributions to society.