[Americana]: Kennedy tragedies ...

From: The New York Times, Aug 1 2019

The Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Mass.Credit...Benny Snyder/Associated Press

There is a litany of tragedies that have befallen the Kennedys and taken on the grim aura of a family curse. President Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy were both slain by assassins. Their brother Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. was killed in World War II, and their sister Kathleen Cavendish died in a plane crash in 1948. The president’s son, John F. Kennedy Jr., was killed in 1999 when the airplane he was flying crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Martha’s Vineyard; his wife and sister-in-law were on board and were also killed.

Several other Kennedys have died young or in accidents, including Ms. Kennedy Hill’s uncle David Anthony Kennedy, who struggled with alcohol and drug addiction and was found dead in 1984 in a hotel in Palm Beach, Fla. Thirty years later, when Ms. Kennedy Hill was 16, she wrote in a message to her uncle that she posted online: “You were a kind, gentle spirit that went through unimaginable struggles in your life. It saddens me to know that we will never meet in this world, but I know I will see you up in heaven with my grandfather, Uncle Michael, and other family members.”

Last month marked the 50th anniversary of Chappaquiddick, another Kennedy family tragedy that took place when Edward Kennedy drove off a bridge on a small island next to Martha’s Vineyard. The accident killed Mary Jo Kopechne, the 28-year-old passenger in Mr. Kennedy’s car. ...

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