Inside the Kennedy Curse: Family’s Deaths, Assassinations and Tragedies Explored

The Kennedy curse, as what the public has called the tragedies involving the members of the Kennedy family, dates back decades and begins with the death of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.

The first son of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy died on August 12, 1944, when the B-17 bomber he was piloting blew up midair during on a secret World War II mission. He was 29 years old.

On May 13, 1948, Joseph Sr. and Rose’s daughter Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy was killed in a plane crash at the age of 28. She was traveling from Paris to the French Riviera with her lover, Earl Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, when the accident occurred.

The Kennedys were rocked by a scandal when Ted Kennedy drove his car off the bridge on Chappaquiddick Island. Although he survived, Mary Jo Kopechne — one of the workers for Robert’s campaign — got trapped inside the vehicle and drowned.

Ted did not report her death until 10 hours after the incident happened, but he claimed he, his cousin Joe Gargan and friend Paul Markham attempted to rescue her.

The former senator died in August 2009. He was 77.

Robert and Ethel lost another son when Michael Kennedy got involved in a skiing accident in Aspen, Colo., on New Year’s Eve in 1997. The 39-year-old died after hitting a tree during the family trip.

On the night of July 16, 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. died along with his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister Lauren Bessette after the single-engine plane he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

He was 38.

Edward Kennedy‘s daughter, Kara Kennedy, died of cardiac arrest after working out at a gym in Washington, D.C. She was 51.

According to health experts, the fatal heart failure may have been related to the cancer treatment she underwent for her lung cancer years prior.

Amid her divorce from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mary Richardson Kennedy died by suicide after hanging herself in a barn behind her Bedford, N.Y., estate on May 16, 2012. She was 52 years old.

On August 1, 2019, Saoirse Kennedy Hill was found dead at the family’s property in Massachusetts following an accidental overdose.

“Our hearts are shattered by the loss of our beloved Saoirse. Her life was filled with hope, promise and love. She cared deeply about friends and family, especially her mother, Courtney; her father, Paul; her stepmother, Stephanie; and her grandmother, Ethel,” the Kennedys said in a statement.

The 22-year-old reportedly had a mixture of prescription drugs, alcohol and methadone in her system at the time of her death.

Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, and her eight-year-old son, Gideon, went missing on April 2, 2020, after a canoeing accident in Chesapeake Bay.

The matriarch’s body was found on April 6, 2020, while Gideon’s was recovered two days later.