The Kennedy curse is a term used to describe a series of misfortunes involving members of the Kennedy family of the United States of America.[1][2][3][3][4][5][6][7][8] Skeptics have argued that many of the events are normal, and it is not improbable that a large extended family would experience them.[9][10]
Chronology
Events that have been cited as evidence of the family's misfortunes include:[citation needed]
1941—Rosemary Kennedy was often believed to have been intellectually disabled, and due to her severe mood swings and the worry that she would damage the Kennedy reputation [citation needed], her father, Joe, Sr., arranged in secret for her to undergo a lobotomy. The lobotomy instead left her unable to walk or speak well, and as a result, Rosemary remained institutionalized until her death in 2005.[4][5][6][11][12]
August 23, 1956—Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy gave birth to a stillborn daughter.[6] Although she is buried at Arlington National Cemetery next to her parents with a marker reading "Daughter", her parents had intended to name her "Arabella".[13]
June 19, 1964—U.S. SenatorTed Kennedy was involved in a plane crash in which one of his aides and the pilot were killed. Ted was pulled from the wreckage by fellow senator Birch E. Bayh II and spent weeks in a hospital recovering from a broken back, a punctured lung, broken ribs, and internal bleeding.[4][5][12][14]
July 18, 1969—In the Chappaquiddick incident, Ted Kennedy accidentally drove his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, fatally trapping his 28-year-old colleague, Mary Jo Kopechne, inside.[4][5][6][7][12] In his televised statement a week later, Ted stated that on the night of the incident he wondered "whether some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys."[15][16]
August 13, 1973—Joseph P. Kennedy II was the driver of a car that crashed and left his passenger, Pam Kelley, paralyzed.[4][6][11]
November 17, 1973 - Ted Kennedy, Jr. had his right leg amputated because of bone cancer.
April 1, 1991—William Kennedy Smith was arrested and charged with the rape of a young woman at the Kennedy estate in Palm Beach, Florida. The subsequent trial attracted extensive media coverage.[18] Smith was acquitted.[1][3][4][11]
September 16, 2011—Kara Kennedy died of a heart attack at age 51 while exercising in a Washington, D.C. health club. Kara had reportedly suffered from lung cancer nine years earlier, but she had recovered after the removal of part of her right lung.[19][20]
July 13, 2012 - Kerry Kennedy sideswiped a tractor trailer on Interstate 684 in Westchester County while under the influence of zolpidem, which Kennedy stated she had mistaken for her daily thyroid medication.[22] She was acquitted on all charges on February 28, 2014.[23]
