While many of you most likely know that John F. Kennedy was assassinated, did you know that in the past 75 years, 17 other Kennedy’s have been involved in tragedies, ranging from assassinations to plane crashes to botched lobotomies? Today, I will tell you what the Kennedy curse is, a few family members who were affected, and why the Kennedy curse affects all of you.
According to wiseGEEK.com, a website that I accessed on February 19th that is run by Dennis Grosz who received his PhD in philosophy from UC Berkeley, the Kennedy curse refers to a number of misfortunes suffered by one of America’s most prominent political families, the Kennedys. Unnatural deaths and unfortunate events have also extended to those related to the Kennedys by marriage, such as John F. Kennedy’s wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and even to those casually acquainted with members of the family. Some say that the Kennedy curse is actually the result of a hex cast against the family as some sort of vendetta. Others say that the Kennedy Curse is simply an invention of mass media meant to create hype. However, the most popular usage of the world is simply a term to describe the series of tragedies that have befallen the family.
Many of you probably know that John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States was assassinated in 1963, but many of you probably don’t know that his younger brother, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated five years later during his own campaign for the presidency. Furthermore, according to Wikipedia, which I accessed on February 19th, six Kennedys have been involved in four different plane crashes, and only one Kennedy survived. According to an article in The Guardian written in 2009 that I accessed on February 19th, John F. Kennedy’s sister Rosemary, known for her fiery temper as a teenager, was lobotomized at age 23 at the request of her father, and this left her with the mental capacity of a two year old until she died at age 86. Other...