- Joseph Kennedy Jr., the older brother of JFK, was killed in his bomber aircraft during World War II.
- August 12th, 1944
- JFK's sister, Kathleen Cavendish dies in a plane crash on a trip to France.
- May 13th, 1948
- Patrick Bouvier Kennedy dies of infant respiratory distress syndrome dying only two days after his premature birth. Patrick is actually buried beside his father at Arlington National Cemetary.
- August 9th, 1963
- JFK himself is assassinated in an open convertible on a trip to Dallas Texas. Millions of Americans were heartbroken.
- November 22nd, 1963
- Robert F Kennedy is assassinated just after winning the California Democratic primary. The gunman who shot him was Sirhan Sirhan who remains in jail in California to this day.
- June 5th, 1968
- Known as the Chappaquiddick incident, Ted Kennedy accidentally drove his car off a bridge.
- July 18th, 1969
- David Kennedy, the fourth son of Robert F Kennedy dies of a cocaine overdose, painkillers, and anti-psychotic medicine.
- April 25th, 1984
- Michael Kennedy, the sixth son of Robert F Kennedy is killed in a skiing accident
- December 31st, 1997
- John F Kennedy Jr., the son of JFK dies while flying his airplane. He allegedly became disoriented before crashing into the ocean.
- July 16th, 1999
- Kara Kennedy, the eldest daughter of Ted Kennedy dies of a heart attack at age 51 while exercising. She apparently had lung cancer nine years earlier but recovered after they removed her right lung.
- September 16th, 2011
Clearly, the Kennedy family has had their fair share of misfortune. In fact, Senator Ted Kennedy was the only one of four Kennedy brothers to die from natural causes, though his life was still undoubtedly filled with scandal and tragedy. Though, considering how large the Kennedy family was, such tragedies were no surprise. Though the following list has become known as the Kennedy curse.
The Kennedy family has been prominent in politics for decades now. In fact, one Kennedy has held federal elective office every year between 1943-2011. Today, a whole new generation of Kennedy's exist. Some as authors, all the way to actors. Let's just hope they don't face the same tragedies their ancestors faced.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/aug/26/kennedy-curse-senator-ted-death
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_family
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9271425/Timeline-the-Kennedy-Curse.html
Loved your post Claire!!!! I have to admit in class upon learning the assassination of Robert Kennedy I was shocked as well as intrigued to know more, I mean talk about bad luck two assassinations! Therefore I was super happy to see your blog post. While not a believer in curses myself I found it super interesting to know how far beyond John and Robert this goes. Something I found to be particularly sad it the even JFK lost two of his own children. While we often think of John and Jackie having 2 children Caroline and John Jr, they actually had 4. Jackie had a stillborn girl whom she informally named Arabella in 1956 and in 1963, two days after birth, her son Patrick died of an infant lung ailment! Talk about misfortune.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.firstladies.org/blog/the-children-of-jacqueline-kennedy/
Their luck really is unreal! How misfortunate that both JFK and Robert were assassinated at the peak of their political careers within five years of each other, and for a number of other family members to die in accidents as well. However, a recent member of the Kennedy family, Patrick Kennedy, claims that some of the deaths weren't just coincidence but rather due to untreated mental illnesses. For example, David Kennedy died due to overdosing on cocaine, but Patrick believes it was due to untreated PTSD. David had seen his father die on national television and the chaotic aftermath of the incident, so the shock of that could have caused him to suffer PTSD for the rest of his life.
ReplyDeletehttp://people.com/books/patrick-kennedy-mental-illness-caused-family-tragedies-not-kennedy-curse/
I had chills reading this post! I feel like I've heard of this story before, but now that I know that the unfortunate events didn't just end after JFK and RFK's death, this is definitely chilling. One of the tragedies that still scare me to this day, however, is the assassination of RFK. The perpetrator was most likely inspired by middle eastern politics, and he was later sentenced to death. Like many tragedies, however, this tragedy has a few conspiracy theories. One interesting theory is that there were actually two perpetuators. Discrepancies were found when the gun of Sirhan Sirhan, the original perpetuator, could only hold 8 shots. Forensics researchers came to the conclusion that RFK was shot 13 times, not 8. Furthermore, the shot that had killed RFK was shot closer than where Sirhan was standing. This claim was used in defense of Sirhan, but was denied.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Robert_F._Kennedy