The large Kennedy family in the 1930s–40s
The Kennedy family is one of the most famous political dynasties in American history. Over several generations, this family lost so many loved ones that journalists began speaking of a curse. People are generally eager to accept supernatural explanations when confronted with a long chain of tragedies. Assassinations, plane crashes, a failed lobotomy, car accidents, overdoses — the tragedies began in the 1940s and continued into the 2020s. Let’s examine what happened to each generation and how the Kennedys themselves view the curse.
The Kennedy Family: How the Clan’s Story Began
Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald married in 1914 and became parents to nine children: Joe Jr., John (the future president), Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert (Bobby), Jean, and Edward (Ted). Joseph Sr. was a major businessman and investor, and later the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He dreamed that his eldest son would become America’s first Catholic president. This ambition set the tone for the entire family history — and its tragedies.
The Kennedys were often called “America’s royal family” — they were wealthy, influential, and constantly in the public eye. But it was precisely this publicity that later turned every family tragedy into national news.
Portrait of the Kennedy family, first generation. Image source: mentalfloss.com
Rosemary Kennedy’s Lobotomy and the Deaths of the First Generation
The first blows struck the family as early as the 1940s. Rosemary, the eldest Kennedy daughter, faced developmental delays and learning difficulties from childhood. In her youth, her mood swings became more frequent, and anxiety grew within the family. In 1941, when Rosemary was 23, her father made a decision without warning his wife or children: he arranged for his daughter to undergo a lobotomy — a brain operation in which surgeons sever nerve connections in the frontal lobe.
The operation failed catastrophically. Rosemary lost the ability to walk and speak and spent the rest of her life in a specialized facility in Wisconsin — 64 years, until her death in 2005. The truth about the lobotomy was hidden from the public for decades — the family claimed that Rosemary simply “led a secluded lifestyle.”
In the 1940s, lobotomy was considered a cutting-edge procedure, but its consequences proved to be monstrous. This is one of the darkest examples of what psychiatric methods of the past looked like.
In 1944, the family suffered another blow. Joe Jr., the eldest son and his father’s main hope for the presidency, was killed during a secret World War II mission — “Operation Aphrodite.” He volunteered to pilot a bomber loaded with more than 20 tons of explosives: the plane was supposed to become a radio-controlled projectile for destroying German rocket bases. But the explosives detonated prematurely, and 29-year-old Joe Jr. perished along with the co-pilot.
Four years later, in 1948, their sister Kathleen Kennedy (nicknamed Kick) died in a plane crash in France during a storm.
Eunice and Rosemary Kennedy. Image source: mentalfloss.com
The Assassinations of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy: Tragedies on the Campaign Trail
The most famous tragedy of the clan is the assassination of the 35th President of the United States, John Kennedy. On November 22, 1963, he was shot in Dallas, Texas, during a campaign trip. The assassination of John Kennedy in 1963 became one of the most discussed tragedies of the 20th century. The circumstances of his death remain a subject of debate and conspiracy theories to this day.
Five years later, in 1968, his younger brother Robert (Bobby) was also assassinated — right after winning the Democratic Party primary in California. Bobby Kennedy was on his way to the presidency when he was shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Two assassinations in five years, both on the path to power. It was after this that the theme of the “curse” began gaining momentum in the press.
The youngest of the brothers — Ted Kennedy — was the first in the family to publicly speak about the “curse.” This happened after the incident on Chappaquiddick Island in 1969: Ted was driving a car that went off a bridge into a pond. The Massachusetts senator survived, but his 28-year-old passenger Mary Jo Kopechne drowned. Ted reported the accident to police only more than 10 hours later. After this tragedy, according to CNN, he wondered whether “some terrible curse” hung over the Kennedys.
John F. Kennedy. Image source: mentalfloss.com
Tragedies of the Second and Third Kennedy Generations: Crashes and Overdoses
The tragedies did not stop with the first generation — they passed on to the children and grandchildren. As early as 1963, John and Jacqueline Kennedy’s third child, Patrick Kennedy, was born. The boy arrived six weeks premature and died two days later due to lung problems.
In 1973, 12-year-old Edward Jr., Ted Kennedy’s son, had his leg amputated due to bone cancer. In 1984, David Kennedy, Robert’s son, died of a drug overdose at the age of 28. And in 1997, another of Robert’s sons — Michael Kennedy — was killed in a skiing accident at age 39.
In 1999, a tragedy occurred that once again stirred up talk of the “curse.” John Kennedy Jr. — the son of the assassinated president, a journalist and publisher — was personally piloting a light Piper Saratoga aircraft with his wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren. They were flying to a cousin’s wedding on Cape Cod, but in foggy and dark conditions, the pilot lost spatial orientation, and the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. All three perished. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the cause was “spatial disorientation” — one of those human factors that regularly appear on the list of causes of plane crashes. Kennedy Jr. did not have an instrument flight rating.
Already in the 21st century, the tragedies continued. In 2019, 22-year-old Saoirse Kennedy Hill, Robert’s granddaughter, died of an accidental overdose at the family compound on Cape Cod. And in 2020, another of Robert’s granddaughters, Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, and her 8-year-old son Gideon, perished during a canoe outing in Chesapeake Bay. Gideon belonged to the fourth generation of Kennedys.
What the Kennedys Themselves Think About Their Family’s “Curse”
Dozens of books have been written about the Kennedy curse — one of the most famous is called “The Kennedy Heirs,” by J. Randy Taraborrelli. According to the author, with the exception of Ted, the Kennedy family does not believe in any curse. Edward Jr. (Ted’s son) spoke about it directly: the Kennedy family experienced their losses in front of the entire country, but in his words, “our family is in many ways just like any other family in America.”
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics and sister of former President John F. Kennedy, also rejected the idea of a curse. In her view, the real “curse” was not the tragedies themselves, but the gossip and lack of privacy that deprived the family of the ability to grieve without cameras and headlines.
