Damn? Bad luck? Chance? Be that as it may, the number of violent and dramatic deaths suffered by the American family led by patriarch John Fitzgerald Kennedy is not even normal and they didn't even start with it. Although it is true that its members are counted in dozens and that they are characters that interest the public, which is why their misfortunes are better known than those of anonymous families, statistics or media exposure do not explain so much accident.
Below we review the long score of dramatic events - sometimes non-fatal - suffered by the Kennedys and those characters who, without bearing the surname, got too close to them. The last one, the double death of a granddaughter of former Senator Robert F. Kennedy and her eight-year-old son, took place this week.
Rose Marie Kennedy, sister of JFK (1918-2005)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Born in 1918, Rose Marie was the third daughter of the marriage of Joseph Patrick Kennedy and Rose Kennedy. Born after Joseph Jr. and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, due to complications in childbirth, Rose Marie suffered a mild mental disability that did not prevent her from leading a normal life.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. Rose Marie was a happy young woman, likeable and loved by her family and friends. However, his father, fearful that his disability would become promiscuous and, later, in an unwanted pregnancy, decided to solve the problem by resorting to lobotomy. The operation, carried out in 1940, went wrong and Rose Marie not only did not increase her intellectual capacity, but also lost the ability to walk on her own and communicate clearly. Faced with such a situation, her parents detained her in a psychiatric institution. He passed away in 2005, after having survived several of his relatives, including his parents.
Joseph Kennedy Jr., brother of JFK (1915-1944)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Joseph was the Kennedy's eldest son, which is why he was named after the family patriarch. He was the older brother of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Rose Marie.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. Young model, Joseph Jr. played sports, had graduated from Harvard and was engaged to his girlfriend when he enlisted in the United States Navy as a pilot to fight in World War II. During the conflict he completed more than twenty missions, which gave him the right to return home. However, he decided to volunteer for a complicated mission that involved taking off a bomb-laden plane, setting the route, and parachuting before the plane crashed into the target. On August 12, 1944, while carrying out the mission, one of the bombs he was carrying exploded, destroying the plane and causing his death.
Kathleen Kennedy Cavendish, sister of JFK (1920-1948)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. She was the fourth daughter of the marriage formed by Joseph Patrick Kennedy and Rose Kennedy after Joseph Jr., John and Rose Marie. Despite her short life, just 28 years old, Kathleen had time to marry, become a widow, work for the Red Cross in Europe and have a lover.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. When in 1938 Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Joseph Patrick Kennedy ambassador to London, Kathleen accompanied her parents and siblings to Europe. Although the diplomatic mission ended in 1940, Kathleen decided to return to England in 1943 to collaborate with the Red Cross during World War II and to marry William Cavendish, from whom she became a widow after four months. He later fell in love with Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, who was married but decided to divorce to marry her. It was not possible. In 1948, while traveling through the south of France, they suffered a plane crash that cost them their lives.
Arabella Kennedy (1956), JFK's first daughter
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. In 1956, Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, gave birth to a stillborn girl. The couple had thought to call her Arabella, but on the baby's grave, located in Arlington Cemetery, the text on the tombstone is simply "Daughter" and the date of birth, August 23, 1956].
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. Arabella would have been the first daughter of JFK and Jackie Kennedy. After that tragic denouement, that place would be occupied by Carolina, born in November 1957.
Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), lover of JFK
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. In the 1950s, Marilyn Monroe was one of the most popular actresses in Hollywood and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, an attractive and promising Democratic politician, member of one of the most important families in the country. Actress and politician met in 1954 at a party at the home of producer Charlie Feldman, which Marilyn attended with her then-husband, baseball player Joe Di Maggio. Thereafter, Marilyn Monroe and John Fitzgerald Kennedy maintained an intermittent relationship apart from their respective partners that was known, not only by other Hollywood artists, but by the Edward J. Hoover FBI and a good part of American society. that, logically, something suspected when he saw the actress sing the happy birthday to the already president Kennedy in Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. The writer François Forestier narrates in his book Marilyn and JFK (Aguilar, 2010) that a few days after the president's birthday party, on May 24, 1962, Kennedy, through his friend, brother-in-law and confidant Peter Lawford, He informed Marilyn Monroe that the relationship had ended and that she should not attempt to communicate with him again. Thereafter, some sources and documents, such as a letter from Jean Kennedy, JFK's sister, claimed that the actress had begun an affair with Robert Kennedy, then Attorney General of the State. In any case, less than three months after Lawford's call, on August 5, 1962, the actress appeared dead in her apartment. The autopsy detected remains of barbiturates in the body and suicide was included in the death certificate as the cause of death. However, gaps in the investigation and contradictions in witnesses and documents have fueled the theory of the murder in which the US secret services would be implicated.
Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, third son of JFK (1963)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Patrick Bouvier Kennedy was the third child of the marriage of JFK and Jacqueline Kennedy.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. The baby was born premature on August 7, 1963, and died two days later after developing neonatal respiratory distress syndrome. This sad event, which added to the death of the first baby of the marriage that occurred in 1956, seemed difficult for the Kennedys to overcome but, when it comes to dramatic matters, this family always surprises.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Born in 1917, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the second of the Kennedy family's children. The young man was brilliant, an athlete, a good student, a war veteran and with a promising political career in the Democratic Party, which took shape when, in January 1961, he was inaugurated President of the United States of America. In short, a winner whose tragic end no one expected, which made it even more traumatic for citizens and family.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. On November 22, 1963, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, in one of the most spectacular and murky assassinations in history, which, if that were not enough, was recorded by television cameras and the Super8 footage of Abraham Zapruder. Before this mournful event, JFK also suffered some health problems, among which he highlighted a complicated spinal operation carried out in 1954 and that would leave sequelae for the rest of his life.
Jackie Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994), wife of JFK
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. In 1952 Jacqueline Bouvier met Congressman John Fitzgerald Kennedy and, a year later, they were married. In 1961 JKF was elected President of the United States and Jacqueline Kennedy became First Lady. In addition to restoring the White House and starting an important art collection to decorate it, Jacqueline accompanied her husband in some of the acts in which he participated as president, for example, the visit to Dallas in November 1963.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. Jacqueline Kennedy lived in the first person the murder of her husband, a fact that would change his life and plunge him into a great depression. This emotional situation would be aggravated when his brother-in-law Robert Kennedy, who had been a great support within the family, was also assassinated. In fact, in June 1968, as one more member of the Kennedys, he went to the Los Angeles hospital where Robert was admitted after the attack and died hours later. Given such events, Jacqueline Kennedy considered that her life and those of her children were threatened and decided to leave the United States. In October 1968, she married Aristotle Onassis and spent long periods in Europe.
Lee Harvey Oswald (1939-1963), possible JFK assassin
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Despite all the unknowns and doubts related to the murder of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, official history has determined that a single man was able to design the assassination, take control of the murder carbine, locate himself in a strategic location, shoot, hit and take action. leakage. That man was Lee Harvey Oswald, born in New Orleans in 1939, enlisted in the Marines in 1956, and deserter of that body in October 1959 to settle in the Soviet Union, where he remained until 1962. A history that, everything is said, does not It benefited him too much when trying to prove his innocence.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. Although he has gone down in history as the JFK assassin, the truth is that Lee Harvey Oswald could never be tried for the facts that were imputed to him. Two days after the attack on the President, Oswald was transferred from Dallas Police Headquarters to the County Jail. As he walked escorted by officers, a man named Jack Ruby pushed his way through the crowd and shot him in the abdomen. Although he was taken to a hospital, Oswald died hours later.
Robert Kennedy (1925-1968), brother of JFK
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Robert was the seventh child of the nine who had the marriage of Joseph Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Like his male siblings, he played sports, received military training, pursued higher education at Harvard, and pursued a brilliant career in the fields of law and politics. Between 1961 and 1964, he served as Attorney General and, from '64, Senator for New York State. In 1968 he decided to go to the primaries of the Democratic Party. What happened next will surprise you although, in the case of the Kennedys, perhaps not.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. There are many legends regarding the seventh son, who is considered gifted with special talents and powers. Bluesman Willy Dixon addressed the legend in his song Seventh Son , in which he states that this seventh son can “predict the future before it becomes the past / do things that make your heart happy / look at the sky and know if it is going to rain / recognize when a woman has another lover ”. This was not the case with Robert. While the Kennedy's seventh son had an enviable and almost supernatural career, the family curse was stronger than that special talent, and the brilliant Bob was unable to foresee the plot looming against him. After proclaiming himself the winner of the Democratic Party primaries on June 5, 1968, he was approached at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles by a Palestinian citizen who shot him point-blank as a protest against his pro-Israel policy. Transferred to a hospital, he died on the morning of the 6th.
Mary Jo Kopechne (1940-1969), campaign secretary for Robert Kennedy
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Born in 1940, Mary Jo Kopechne was a young professor, secretary, and Democratic activist who collaborated in Robert Kennedy's political campaign in 1968. That experience brought her into contact with the clan and she was invited to the tribute that on July 18, 1969 they received the Boiler Room Girls , which was how the girls who worked in the "boiler room" of the politician's campaign were known. However, the Kennedy curse, which is not only fattened by family members, would end up reaching it that morning.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. On July 18, 1969, Kopechne attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island, in the exclusive Martha's Vineyard area. There she met Senator Edward Kennedy, known as Ted, with whom he left the party without telling anyone. In fact, she left her purse and the keys to the hotel where she was staying, which invites us to think that her plans were to return later to the place. However, it never did. The car in which Mary Jo and Edward Kennedy were traveling, who was driving, fell into a swamp and began to submerge. The politician was able to leave the car, but she was trapped inside and drowned. The scandal ruined Edward Kennedy's career at the White House who, although he pleaded guilty to leaving the site without helping the woman, was unable to explain why he went to his hotel to sleep and did not call authorities until the next morning. . The case inspired Joyce Carol Oates in the book Black Water and one of the plots in the Sucession series is very reminiscent of the Kopechne-Kennedy case.
Pamela Kelley
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Pamela Kelley was the girlfriend of David Anthony Kennedy, the fourth child of Robert Kennedy with his wife Ethel Skakel, and therefore JFK's nephew.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. In 1973, while Pamela and David Anthony were traveling in a Jeep, the vehicle, which was driven by David Anthony's brother, Joseph Kennedy II, overturned and caused damage of varying consideration to the passengers. The most serious were those of Pamela, who was paralyzed, and those of David Anthony, who suffered injuries to a vertebra. The police proved that the fact was due to the reckless driving of Joseph Kennedy II and the family was forced to compensate Pamela and cover her expenses for years.
Joseph Patrick Kennedy (1888-1969), father of JFK
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. He is the patriarch of the family saga. From his marriage to Rose Fitzgerald nine children were born: Joseph Patrick Jr., John, Rose Marie, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean Ann, and Edward. He was an ambassador, politician and businessman.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. Unlike other members of the Kennedy family, Joseph Patrick did not die violently. However, he spent the last years of his life with great communication and mobility limitations derived from an embolism suffered in 1961 and that would end up causing him death in November 1969. To make everything even sadder, among the limitations of Joseph Patric Kennedy, There were the cognitive ones, so, despite his condition, he was fully aware of the murders of his sons John and Robert, as well as Edward's problems in Chappaquiddick.
Aristotle Onassis (1906-1975), Jackie Kennedy's second husband
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Aristotle Onassis married Jacqueline Kennedy in 1968. Although the JFK's widow was not a Kennedy by birth but by marriage, if you look at the bad streak that the Greek shipowner has experienced since then, everything points to taking the alleged “ Kennedy curse. "
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. The marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy, who would henceforth be known as Jackie O (from Onassis), was not as idyllic as the Greek businessman had hoped. The former lady was capricious, fickle, and forced her husband to satisfy his eccentricities no matter how expensive and absurd they were. For example, that the owner's private plane traveled three hundred kilometers daily so that Jackie had her favorite bread for breakfast. Fed up with that lifestyle, Onassis tried to win back Maria Callas, her previous partner, but the singer rejected him. To these sentimental setbacks would be added a fact that would leave Onassis emotionally devastated until his death: the death of his son Alexander as a result of the injuries sustained in a plane crash.
Maria Callas (1923-1977)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. In the late 1950s, Maria Callas had an affair with Aristotle Onassis that was a scandal because they were both married. Despite having to endure all kinds of criticism and disrespect, Callas came out ahead, because, after all, he was living a relationship with the person he loved and with whom he planned to marry.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. The marriage of Onassis and Callas had not just been celebrated due to something as absurd as the difficulties in setting the date. When it was not the singer's busy schedule, it was the commitments of the businessman, who ended up having an affair with Jacqueline Kennedy. To continue the relationship, the former first lady demanded that she marry, arguing that she was a Catholic and, as she said, she could not bear her children to see her go out with a man without being married. Aristotle Onassis accepted and Maria Callas never forgave him. When the owner wanted to return with the artist, she did not accept, although the two recognized that the other had been the love of their life.
David Anthony Kennedy (1955-1984)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. The Kennedy family is very extensive. This fact makes it difficult to follow his adventures and misadventures. Despite this, they surely remember David Anthony, the fourth son of Robert Kennedy, Pamela's boyfriend. Yes? Well join us in this sad story. One more.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. On June 4, 1968, as he spent the day at the beach house of film director John Frankenheimer, a friend of the Kennedys, David Anthony nearly drowned. His father Robert came to his aid, jumped into the water, swam with all his might, and managed to save him. During the rescue, the politician suffered scratches on his forehead that were covered with professional makeup provided by Frankenheimer because, a few hours later, Robert Kennedy was to appear on television to announce his victory in the Democratic primaries. On the morning of June 5, David Anthony saw his father's speech on television and, moments later, the news special that reported on the attack he had suffered and that would cause his death. In just a few hours, the boy, who had not yet turned 13, saw his father risk his life to save him and then died assassinated. The experience traumatized David, who began to abuse alcohol and drugs, which he had in abundance after the Jeep accident he suffered with his brother and girlfriend Pamela. Although pain relievers were first prescribed by doctors, over time he began using heroin. Intravenous use caused him different illnesses and, although he underwent several detoxification programs, he was unable to quit. He suffered several overdose pictures throughout his life from which he recovered but in 1984 and after several days of partying, his lifeless body was discovered by employees of the Brazilian Court Hotel in Florida. The autopsy revealed that the body of David, who had not yet turned 30, had traces of cocaine, Mellaril and Demerol, the latter a powerful opiate.
Michael Kennedy (1958-1997)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Did you find the story of David Anthony Kennedy sad? Let us introduce Michael, the sixth of the children of Robert Kennedy and Ethel Skakel, David's brother, who was five years old when his uncle was killed, ten years old when his father was killed, eleven when his grandfather died, and 26 when his brother.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. Michael LeMoyne Kennedy studied at Harvard, received his law degree from the University of Virginia and collaborated with various NGOs dedicated to assisting vulnerable elderly people or limiting the sale of firearms in the United States. In addition, he had married Victoria Denisse Giford, daughter of American football player Frank Giford, and they had three children, a boy and two girls. In short, an idyllic life, perhaps too much for a Kennedy. In 1997 it was published that Michael had had a relationship with the family babysitter when the girl was 14 years old, which was not denied by him, although he claimed in his defense that they had not had sexual relations before she turned 16 As if that were not enough, in December of that year, while playing football with skis on the Aspen slopes, he collided with a tree and suffered serious injuries that caused his death.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. (1960-1999)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. John Fitzgerald Kennedy or John John, as he was nicknamed by the media, was that two-year-old boy who, at the direction of his mother, released himself from his hand, took a step forward and greeted John's coffin in a military style Fitzgerald Kennedy senior, his father, during the funeral held in Washington on December 26, 1963. Although that situation was already sad, as it usually happens with the Kennedy family, the thing was even more dramatic: JFK had been killed on 22 November, three days before John John turned three, and the funeral was held a day after the child's birth anniversary.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. In addition to the emotional consequences of the father's violent death at such an early age, John John lived a childhood marked by the media interest that he, his sister and his mother aroused. Despite this, John John developed a brilliant career in which he worked as a lawyer, journalist and editor of George magazine. On September 21, 1996, he married Carolyn Bessete and, three years later, died in a plane crash when the plane he was piloting disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean.
Carolyn Bessette Kennedy (1966-1999)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. In 1992 Carolyn met John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. who was then in a relationship with actress Daryl Hannah. They started dating in 1994, went to live together in 1995 and married in 1996.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. The relationship with Kennedy made Bessette go from being an anonymous citizen to a regular figure in the media. Additionally, he had to quit his job at Calvin Klein's advertising department, causing substantial changes in his lifestyle. Finally, she was traveling with her husband, a Kennedy, when she suffered the accident that caused her death. All this in just 8 years. If it's not a curse, it's too bad luck.
Lauren Bessette (1964-1999)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Born in 1964 in a multiple birth that also gave birth to another girl named Lisa, Lauren Bessete was the older sister Carolyn Bessette, wife of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. The Kennedy misfortune is not limited to direct family members, but splashes to second-degree members and even people passing by like Lauren Bessette, Morgan Stanley executive, who passed away after the plane she piloted her brother-in-law crashed in the Atlantic Ocean. John Kennedy Jr. and his sister Carolyn Bessette were due to go to a wedding on Cape Cod, relatively close to Martha's Vineyard, where Lauren was due to go. The Kennedy couple offered to take her on their plane and then continue the trip, but none of the three reached their destination.
Kara Kennedy (1960-2011)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Kara Kennedy was the third daughter of Edward "Ted” Kennedy. Therefore, she was the niece of John Fitzgerald and Robert Kennedy.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. We all have to die. The Kennedys too and not necessarily in a violent or spectacular way. In that sense, Kara is one of the few members of the dynasty that has had a conventional death: fulminant heart attack. The fact is that, as it could not be otherwise in the case of this family, she had a heart attack in her usual gym after doing her daily routines to keep fit. Paradoxes of life.
Mary Richardson Kennedy (1959-2012)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Mary Kathleen Richardson was an American interior designer and architect born in Bayonne, New Jersey, in 1959. In 1994 she married Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., that is, the son of Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy and nephew of JFK. Six years later, the marriage divorced.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. Three days after signing the divorce with Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., Mary Richardson was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. As a result, a judge ruled that custody of Kyra, the daughter she had had with Robert, be withdrawn and that it be awarded to the father. In the following months, Mary's emotional situation worsened and, in May 2012, she was found hanging in her home. The autopsy determined that he had also taken antidepressants.
Christopher Kennedy Lawford (1955-2018)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Christopher was the son of the marriage formed by Patricia Kennedy, sister of JFK, and Peter Lawford, actor in films like Ocean's eleven (1960), member of the Rat Pack and JFK confidant during his romance with Marilyn Monroe. Like his father, Christopher Kennedy worked as an actor in films such as The Russian House, Terminator 3, the Fraiser series and the movie Thirteen days, about the Cuban missile crisis of the year 62 that his uncle JKF starred (as president, not as an actor, obviously).
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. Like Kara Kennedy, Christopher had one of the most conventional deaths in what is common in this family clan: heart attack. But as with everything related to the Kennedy, his death also had its peculiarities: Christopher was practicing a form of yoga that is performed at high temperatures, when he was struck down.
Saoirse Kennedy (1997-2019)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Saoirse Kennedy was the daughter of Courtney Kennedy - Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy's fifth daughter of the eleven - and Paul Hill, a member of the "Guildford Four" who spent more than ten years in prison wrongfully accused of participating in an Army attack Irish Republican (IRA).
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. Prone to depression since adolescence and a victim of sexual assault, Robert Kennedy's granddaughter had tried to kill herself on several occasions. However, the death of Saoirse, just 22 years old, was accidentally caused by excessive drug use, although without the intention of killing himself.
Maeve Kennedy Townsend (1979-2020)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Maeve was the daughter of Kathleen Harrington, the first-born of Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy and, therefore, his granddaughter and cousin of Saoirse Kennedy.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. Maeve was quarantining Covid-19 at her mother's family home in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia.While he was playing ball with his children on the shore of the bay, the ball went into the water. Maeve decided to get on a canoe, with such bad luck that the boat was dragged out to sea. The event happened on Thursday, April 2, and until Monday, 6, the body was not found, which was submerged at the bottom of the sea four kilometers from the family home.
Gideon McKean (2011-2020)
What is your relationship with the Kennedys. Gideon McKean Kennedy was the son of Maeve Kennedy Townsend and David McKean. Therefore, great-grandson of Robert Kennedy.
What were the consequences of your relationship with them. So far, Gideon is the last of the Kennedys to have suffered one of those tragic endings so prevalent in the family. Last Thursday, April 2, the boy accompanied his mother to look for the ball that had fallen into the water of the Chesapeake Bay and they disappeared. He was eight years old.
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