|
Do you believe in...
The Kennedy Curse
by Mr. Peck
* Please note that Mr. Peck does not believe in curses!
A list of the tragedies that have befallen the family of
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
E-Mail
Mr. Peck
- Early 1850’s: Thomas Fitzgerald (1822-1885),
great-grandfather of the future president, leaves Ireland to avoid the potato
famine and poverty, and to find opportunity in America. He lands in Boston.
Eventually he marries Rosanna Cox in a Roman Catholic ceremony. She gives
birth to twelve children. Five of her children, including all of her
daughters, die before they reach adulthood. In their early years, the family
lives in poverty, renting a small, crowded apartment in a tenement building,
with a kitchen, and two other tiny rooms with no doors. One room is filled
with hay for the family to sleep on. Eventually Thomas becomes part-owner of a
store, and later owner of a home and two tenements. He supports the Democratic
party, as do most immigrants. Rosanna becomes sickly, and later dies suddenly
at age 48 when she hears that her husband and some of her family are involved
in a train wreck. She was soon to give birth to her thirteenth baby. The train
wreck report turns out to be false.
Patrick Joseph "P.J." Kennedy
(1858-1929), grandfather of the future president, is born in Boston. His
father, also named Patrick, dies when P.J. is less than one-year-old. P.J.
grows up in poverty. In his twenties, he buys and operates several taverns and
becomes financially secure. One of his four children dies before reaching
adulthood.
John Francis "Honey Fitz"
Fitzgerald (1863-1950), son of Thomas and Rosanna and grandfather of the
future President, is born. Through the influence of family friends, he becomes
involved in politics. Eventually, he serves in the Massachusetts State Senate
1893-1895, U. S. Congress 1895-1901, and Mayor of Boston 1906-1908, and
1910-1913. He becomes one of the nation’s most famous users of the spoils
system when he appoints many supporters to city government posts. When some of
these appointees misuse city government money by paying too much to their
businessmen friends for coal and other supplies, "Honey Fitz" is
blamed by many voters and leaders. He loses an election to end his first term,
and is forced out by Democratic party leaders to end his last term. His
reputation is permanently damaged in the eyes of some people.
Josie Hannon (1865-1964), grandmother of
the future president, is born near Boston. Five of her eight siblings do not
live to adulthood. The only brother who does survive to adulthood suffers a
horrible accident in his early teens. His foot becomes stuck in a railroad
track and is mangled by a passing train. She lives long enough to see her
grandson become president, and to see him assassinated.
Joseph P. Kennedy (1888-1969), son of
P.J. and father of the future president, is born. He graduates from Harvard
College, and begins work for a firm that buys and sells stocks. He learns the
workings of the stock market well, and earns himself huge profits from insider
trading. Insider trading means using secret information to make money from
stocks, a practice that is illegal today. However, it was only looked down
upon in the nineteen-teens and 1920’s when Joseph was trading. Could this
have contributed to the source of the Kennedy curse?
John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald
and Josie Hannon marry in a Roman Catholic ceremony. John and Josie are second
cousins. Some members of their families object to the marriage for this
reason, fearing that their children may be weak or retarded. Could this be
partly responsible for the Kennedy curse?
Rose Fitzgerald (1890-1994),
daughter of John and Josie, and mother of the future president, is born.
Joseph Kennedy and Rose
Fitzgerald marry. Joseph soon becomes extremely wealthy by investing in
stocks.
The future president, John
Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963), is born. He becomes a very sickly child, and
almost dies from scarlet fever.
Rosemary Kennedy (1918-2005 ), sister of the
future president, is born. The family soon realizes that she is mentally
retarded.
Joseph Kennedy begins to believe
that the stock market will soon drop. He starts to sell his stocks. Six months
later, the stock market crashes. Joseph Kennedy has cashed in his stocks just
in time.
Joseph Kennedy, father of the future
president, is appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt as ambassador to Great
Britain. When World War II starts in Europe, Kennedy begins to disagree with
FDR due to his strong desire to keep America out of the war. Kennedy is afraid
that America will be hurt by the war, and is afraid that family members may be
killed. He finally resigns his ambassadorship in 1940, but his fears turn out
to be right.
The mental health of Rosemary Kennedy,
the future president’s retarded sister, begins to worsen. Her father Joseph
arranges for her to undergo an experimental brain operation. He does not tell
his wife Rose, her mother, who is away on a lengthy trip. The operation is a
serious failure. Rosemary is kept in an institution for the rest of her life.
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.
The next day, the U. S. declares war and enters World War II. John F. Kennedy,
the future president, soon joins the Navy. His older brother, Joseph Kennedy,
Jr. joins as a navy pilot.
John F. Kennedy, the future
president, is serving as captain of a small PT (patrol) boat, PT 109, in the
Pacific. In the middle of the night, a Japanese destroyer runs over the boat,
slicing it into two parts. Two of the thirteen men on board are killed.
Kennedy injures his back. The crew swims to a desert island, where they are
rescued days later.
Kathleen "Kick"
Kennedy, sister of the future president, marries an Englishman, William
Cavendish, the Marquess of Hartington. He is a soldier in the British army
during World War II. The Kennedy parents object to the marriage, because
Kathleen is a Catholic, while her new husband is a Protestant.
Joseph Kennedy, Jr., the
future President’s older brother, is killed during World War II. He is
flying a warplane loaded with a special bomb to drop on a German missile site
in Europe, but apparently the bomb explodes early in the air over the English
coast. His body is never found.
Kathleen’s husband,
William Cavendish, is killed by a German sniper during fighting in Belgium.
They had been married just four months.
Three years after the end of
World War II, Kathleen Kennedy Cavendish, the future President’s sister, is
killed in a plane crash in France. The plane had entered a severe
thunderstorm, and struck a mountain. She had been preparing to marry a second
time. Her parents had objected to this marriage also, since her husband-to-be
was another English Protestant who happened to be divorced.
Massachusetts Democratic Senator John F.
Kennedy, the future President, undergoes two serious back operations that
almost cost him his life. His recovery takes many months.
In one of the closest
presidential votes in American history, John F. Kennedy is elected President
of the United States. He defeats Republican Vice President Richard Nixon.
Joseph Kennedy, father of the president,
suffers the first of a series of strokes. He is unable to speak clearly, and
is confined to a wheel chair, until his death in 1969.
The President and Mrs. Kennedy
experience the premature birth of a baby son. The boy, Patrick, dies two days
later from lung problems.
President Kennedy is
assassinated in Dallas, Texas while riding in his limo during a motorcade.
The deceased president’s youngest
brother, Massachusetts Democratic Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy
(1930- ) breaks his back in the crash of a small plane in the mountains of
western Massachusetts. One passenger in the plane is killed.
The deceased president’s
younger brother, New York Democratic Senator Robert Kennedy (1925-1968), is
shot and wounded by an Arab, Sirhan B. Sirhan, in Los Angeles, California. The
shooter is angry at Kennedy’s support for Israel. Kennedy had just finished
a speech during his campaign for the Democratic nomination for President, for
the election to be held later that year. Robert Kennedy dies the next day. He
leaves a widow, Ethel Skakel Kennedy, and eleven children, the last child,
daughter Rory, born after his death.
In possibly the most famous
traffic accident in American history, Senator Edward Kennedy survives after a
car he claims he was driving rolls off a small bridge and into ocean water on
Chappaquiddick, Martha’s Vineyard, an island near Cape Cod. The mishap
occurs in the middle of the night, after a party. A young and attractive
campaign office worker, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowns inside the overturned car.
Kennedy testifies that he had made a wrong turn down a lonely back road before
the accident, and that he repeatedly tried to rescue her. The accident
mysteriously goes unreported for many hours. Some Americans wonder if the
married Senator was having an affair with the 28-year-old girl. Details of the
accident remain unclear to this day. The story shares headlines with the first
manned moon landing.
The teenage son of Senator Edward Kennedy,
Edward, Jr., suffers the amputation of his right leg, due to cancer. He
recovers.
Joseph Kennedy III, son of Robert and
nephew of the deceased president, crashes his over-loaded jeep while driving
on Nantucket, another island near Cape Cod. A young female passenger is
paralyzed for life. Joseph survives, and eventually serves in Congress for
eleven years.
Senator Edward Kennedy enters a
series of presidential primary elections, trying to convince Democrats to
choose him to run for president. Voters turn him down, apparently recalling
the Chappaquiddick incident.
David Kennedy, son of Robert and nephew
of the deceased president, dies of a drug overdose in a hotel in Palm Beach,
Florida.
Patrick Kennedy, teenage son of Senator
Edward Kennedy and nephew of the deceased president, enters a clinic to
undergo treatment for addiction to cocaine. Years later, he is elected to
Congress from the state of Rhode Island.
William Kennedy Smith, nephew of Senator Edward
Kennedy and of the deceased president, is charged by police with attacking a
girl in Palm Beach, Florida. At his highly-publicized trial, he is found not
guilty.
Rose Kennedy, mother of the deceased
president, dies at the age of 104.
Michael Kennedy, son of
Robert and nephew of the deceased President, is killed after striking a tree
while skiing in Aspen, Colorado.
John F. Kennedy, Jr., son of
the deceased president, is killed when he loses control of his small plane,
and it crashes into the ocean near Martha’s Vineyard. Also killed are his
wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister. He had been traveling to attend
the wedding of his cousin, Rory Kennedy.
Michael Skakel, nephew of Robert
Kennedy and his wife Ethel, is placed on trial for the murder of his
15-year-old neighbor, Martha Moxley. The murder was committed in Greenwich,
Connecticut in 1975, 27 years earlier, when Michael himself was just 15.
The following month he is found guilty by the jury.
**************************************
|