The Kennedy clan is called America's unofficial royal family. And the crown, as you know, can be incredibly heavy. Generation after generation, the Kennedy family has experienced great victories and tremendous tragedies.
Warring clans Fitzgerald and Kennedy
John F. Kennedy became president of the United States in 1960. He was trained for the civil service by authoritative politicians from his own family. His father Joe Kennedy held a high position in the Democratic Party and was close to President Franklin Roosevelt. John's grandfather Patrick Joseph Kennedy was a leading figure in the Boston branch of the party in the late 19th century and served in the Massachusetts Congress.
Maternal grandfather John Fitzgerald was mayor of Boston in the early 20th century. Interestingly, Fitzgerald and Patrick Kennedy were political rivals until their children Rosa Fitzgerald and Joe Kennedy were married.
Kennedy's father supported Hitler
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John F. Kennedy's father took part in Franklin Roosevelt's first campaign and was nominated to the Stock Exchange and the Maritime Commission as a reward. However, during World War II, Kennedy discredited himself. In Europe, the ambassador spoke to "a notorious circle of British aristocrats who hate Jews." He also suggested that the United States adopt a "fascist-style economic program" - this finally pissed Roosevelt out of himself.
Despite political divisions, Roosevelt sent Joe a letter of condolence when his eldest son Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. was killed in the war.
The president's sister was hidden in a mental hospital after a lobotomy
Perhaps the darkest moment in Kennedy's history. When John F. Kennedy was 24 years old, his younger sister, 23-year-old Rosemary, at the insistence of his father, had a lobotomy. Rosemary was considered "mentally retarded" (her development was influenced by the midwife's mistake during labor), and the head of the family hoped that the "new procedure" would correct the situation. However, after the operation, Rosemary could not walk or speak, she was sent to a mental hospital, and then to a Catholic institution, where she lived until her death in 2005.
A series of tragic deaths in the Kennedy family
The Kennedys have endured so much suffering that some mystics consider their family cursed. In 1944, John F. Kennedy's older brother Joseph Kennedy Jr. was killed on the front of World War II.
Kathleen "Kick" Cavendish, 28, the sister of John F. Kennedy, died in a plane crash in 1948 with her married lover. 46-year-old John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, shortly before the end of his first term as the 35th President of the United States. His brother, Senator Robert Kennedy, was killed in June 1968 in Los Angeles at the age of 42. Another younger brother of the assassinated president, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, died of brain cancer on August 25, 2009 at age 77. Of the nine children of Rose and Joe Kennedy Sr., only 90-year-old Jean Kennedy Smith, the former US ambassador to Ireland, is still alive.
Kennedy's losses continued into the next generation. John and Jacqueline Kennedy suffered a miscarriage in 1955, the following year, Jackie gave birth to a dead daughter, and in 1963 she lost her premature son. As a result, the couple had a daughter, Caroline (now 61) and a son, John. He died in 1999. Together with his wife and daughter-in-law, Kennedy Jr. flew on his own plane to the wedding of his cousin Rory Kennedy, the youngest daughter of Robert Kennedy. The plane, which was flown by Kennedy himself, fell into the Atlantic Ocean.
Robert Kennedy's son, 28-year-old David Kennedy, died of an overdose in April 1984. His brother Michael Kennedy died at the age of 39 on a ski slope in 1997.
John F. Kennedy's Treason
John F. Kennedy kept a whole "staff" of mistresses. The most famous fornication of the president is an affair with Marilyn Monroe. Stripper Blaze Starr admitted in 1989 that she also met with a politician.
Marilyn Monroe.
Actress Marlene Dietrich's daughter, 93-year-old Maria Riva, claims her mother had a brief meeting with Kennedy at the White House.
Among the alleged novels of Kennedy are relations with his wife's secretary Pamela Turner, with gangster Judith Campbell Exner, with White House trainees Mimi Alford, Priscilla Wear and Jill Coven, as well as with the Swedish aristocrat Gunilla von Post.
Jacqueline Kennedy's secret romance
She seemed blameless, but Jackie had her secrets. The first lady secretly dated her husband's younger brother, Robert Kennedy (or simply Bobby). The connection continued after Kennedy's death - until the assassination of Bobby himself. It was rumored that Jackie began dating her second husband, shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, in spite of Bobby and his infidelities. Aristotle and Jackie lived in a "free marriage" until his death in 1975.
Jacqueline Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis.
John F. Kennedy's serious illnesses kept secret
As a child, John F. Kennedy suffered scarlet fever, colitis, measles, mumps, whooping cough, bronchitis, appendicitis removal. The politician was plagued by chronic problems with his lower back - he injured his back while serving in the Navy.
In 1954, Kennedy underwent spinal cord surgery to relieve chronic pain caused by collapsed vertebrae. The operation almost cost him his life - Kennedy went through a coma. After his recovery, John F. Kennedy wrote the book Profiles of Courage, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize. As president, Kennedy suffered from Addison's disease, as well as urinary tract infections, allergies and brief mood disorientations - all against the backdrop of chronic stomach ulcers.
John F. Kennedy's illnesses could have played a role in his death. Before traveling in the convertible to Dallas, the president wore a back brace that kept his body upright, even after being wounded in the shoulder and neck. Dr. Kenneth Saler, who tried to rescue the president, suggested that if Kennedy hadn't been wearing a corset, Lee Harvey Oswald's second bullet might not have hit the head.
Family abusers and drug addicts
In Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: The Dark Side of a Dream, author Jerry Oppenheimer writes that the assassinated president's nephew, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as an assistant district attorney, was forced to support his cousin, William Kennedy Smith. He appeared before the court on charges of rape. The lawyer himself performed community service for the possession of heroin.
Authors: Maria Egorova, Inna Shcherbakova, Anastasia Pavlova
