The Kennedy family has occupied a revered place in American politics over the last century.
But several members of the Kennedy family have passed at relatively young ages, often
in tragic circumstances.
Here's the truth behind the "Kennedy curse."
President John F. Kennedy is the most high-profile in the Kennedy family, but his life might
have gone completely differently if it weren't for the fate of his older brother, Joseph
P. Kennedy Jr.
Joe was the eldest child and the namesake of his father, and it was originally he who
was the focal point of Joe Senior's political aspirations, long before anyone had even dreamed
of a "Kennedy curse."
Joe Jr.'s grandfather Joseph Fitzgerald even told the press that the child was, quote,
"the future president of the nation."
Joe Jr. certainly seemed to be heading that way.
He was a star athlete and a gifted student with a keen interest in politics, and even
reportedly considered a run for Congress.
However, his career took a dramatic left turn in 1941 when he chose not to wrap up his law
studies at Harvard, instead enlisting to become a naval aviator.
Soon he was flying patrol planes in the Caribbean, and he later piloted bombers for the British
Naval Command, completing 25 missions with characteristic gusto and deciding to go for
even more.
In 1944, he joined Mission Aphrodite, a top secret program where his payload was an early,
radio-controlled drone plane loaded with explosives.
The idea was to release the drone in the air and help its controllers crash it into its
target, a rocket launching site.
Unfortunately, the project went awry, and two mysterious explosions destroyed the drone,
ending him and another pilot.
John F. Kennedy's sister Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy was born in 1920 and got a lot done in the
28 years before her untimely passing.
Apart from maintaining a lavish social presence, she volunteered for the Red Cross, worked
for a newspaper in Washington D.C, and arranged a number of charity events.
In 1944, she married a British nobleman named William Cavendish, the Marquess of Hartington,
and became Lady Kathleen Hartington.
It sounds downright idyllic, but Kennedy's mother was reportedly unimpressed with the
pairing because Cavendish was a Protestant.
Unfortunately, peaceful family life was not in the cards for Kathleen.
Her new husband was in the military, and called up for service a mere four weeks after the
wedding - a few months later, he was gone.
Apart from a quick visit to see her Stateside family, the widowed Lady Hartington chose
to remain in England, and even found new, scandalous love in Peter Fitzwilliam, another
Protestant and an extremely married man.
One divorce and assorted threats of disownment later, they were married.
In 1948 the newlywed couple boarded a plane to visit Kennedy's father in France, but a
storm caused the plane to crash, ending everyone on board.
Her father Joe was the only member of the Kennedy clan to attend the funeral, and the
family did its best to hush up the so-called scandalous events of her life to protect JFK's
career.
It's hard to see the concept of the "Kennedy curse" being as famous as it is today without
the most high-profile example: the assassination of the 35th president of the United States.
John F. Kennedy was fatally shot on November 22nd, 1963, while riding in an open-air motorcade
in Dallas with the First Lady seated next to him.
The accused shooter was former U.S. Marine Lee Harvey Oswald, who in turn was shot by
a nightclub bigwig called Jack Ruby before he could be taken to court.
As if Kennedy's passing wasn't bad enough already, the cloud of confusing details around
the case have turned into a hotbed of unanswered questions and conspiracy theories that run
rampant even today.
Robert Kennedy is commonly seen as operating in the shadow of his brother's political career.
He got his start by acting as JFK's campaign manager during his 1952 Senate run, and assumed
the same role for his brother's 1960 presidential campaign.
After his victory, JFK appointed Robert as his administration's attorney general.
In the years after JFK's untimely passing, It seemed that Robert's star was on the rise.
On March 16th, 1968, he announced his own candidacy for the office of the president.
But he never made it to the White House; on June 5 of the same year, a man called Sirhan
Sirhan shot the 42-year-old senator in a hallway of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, shortly
after Kennedy had won California's Democratic primary.
Talk of a so-called Kennedy curse didn't just jump into existence on its own.
The concept actually came from the family itself, partly as a way of rationalizing yet
another Kennedy crisis.
The "curse" was conceived by Senator Ted Kennedy in 1969, following a fatal tragedy in which
he played a key role: the infamous Chappaquiddick incident.
On July 18th, 1969, Robert drove a car off of a bridge and into the pond below under
mysterious circumstances, after which he swam to safety and then returned to his hotel room.
He did not report the incident to police until the next morning, despite the fact that the
young woman who had been riding with him, Mary Jo Kopechne, was still trapped underwater
in the car.
In a televised statement, Kennedy asserted that he, quote, "was not driving under the
influence of liquor."
He also claimed to police that he had tried his best to rescue Kopechne before returning
to his hotel.
Kennedy didn't raise the alarm until after police had already discovered the sunken car
with Kopechne's body in it, reportedly in a position that implied she'd been struggling
for air.
It was later hypothesized that if Kennedy had immediately reported the incident, Kopechne
could have possibly survived.
"Whatever the future holds for me, I hope that I shall have - be able - to put this
most recent tragedy behind me."
Mary Richardson Kennedy he was a successful designer and architect who entered the Kennedy
clan when she married Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
She had four children, worked on nonprofits and political campaigns, and was known to
her friends as a positive and pleasant person.
But in 2012, the 52-year-old's seemingly peaceful existence imploded in a dramatic fashion,
with her life becoming a chaotic blur that reportedly included domestic assaults against
her husband, as well as a drunk driving charge.
Her husband of 16 years asked for a divorce in 2010.
Two years later, she was found in her home, having taken her own life.
Most of the Kennedys struck by the "Kennedy curse" have at least had time to make a life
for themselves.
Not so in the case of the most recent in their long string of family tragedies: On August
1st, 2019, Saoirse Kennedy Hill became the latest Kennedy to perish before her time,
as she was found of a suspected overdose at the Kennedy family's compound in Massachusetts.
She was only 22.
Kennedy Hill was the granddaughter of the assassinated Robert F. Kennedy, and while
her acquaintances at Boston College say she seemed quite happy, they were also aware that
she faced challenges.
She reportedly suffered from depression, and in 2016 she wrote an essay for her high school
newspaper detailing her struggles.
She even revealed a previous attempt to take her own life in an effort to encourage others
to open about their own struggles with mental health.
If you or anyone you know is having thoughts, please call the National Prevention Lifeline
at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).