Page 45 - All About History - Issue 52-17

The Curse of the Kennedys

Mary
David A. Richardson
Kennedy
Kennedy
Drug overdose Suicide

Michael L.
Kennedy John F.
Skiing accident Kennedy, Jr.
Plane Crash

The dark secret of Rosemary Kennedy

How JFK’s sister was lobotomized and hidden from the public.

Rosemary Kennedy (1918-2005) was the eldest she was sneaking out of the convent. Joe Kennedy,
daughter of Rose and Joe Kennedy. Diagnosed with unwilling to risk damage to his political ambitions for
learning diiculties in childhood, Rose was placed the family, decided to have his daughter lobotomized.
in a convent and kept separate from other girls. Her The operation failed, leaving her permanently
mental age was assessed as comparable to that of a incontinent, and with the mental capacity of a two year
child between eight and 12 years old. This did not stop old. Joe and Rose hid her in an institution in Jeferson,
her from leading an active social life at times, and she Wisconsin, and told the press that she was a recluse.
was presented to King George VI when her father was Rose did not visit for 20 years, and Joe never visited at
American ambassador to the Court of St James. all. Rosemary lived another 63 years. “She was a sweet
Rosemary, experiencing puberty and frustrated with and lovely human being,” her brother Ted Kennedy Rosemary Kennedy and her father in
her disabilities, became increasingly aggressive and recalled. The tragedy may have inspired her sister London, 1938. After the lobotomy he
would never visit her in care
rebellious towards her parents and it wasn’t long before Eunice to found the Special Olympics.

limitations. In response, in 1941 Joe had his with him. Amid accusations of nepotism, Jack philandering, the most famous example of which
23-year-old daughter lobotomised. The operation appointed Bobby as attorney general. was Marilyn Monroe.
went wrong, and reduced her to a helpless Kennedy was not the first American president to After JFK’s assassination, Bobby Kennedy
condition. She spent the rest of her life in a remote be assassinated, but he was the first whose death entered the Senate for New York State. By 1968,
Catholic institution in Wisconsin, effectively was captured in colour film, and broadcast around he was the leading candidate for the Democratic
written out of the Kennedy story. the world. He had embodied youthful optimism as nomination. In June 1968, shortly after winning
After Joe Jr’s death, the family’s ambitions well as traditional patriotism. the California primary, Bobby Kennedy addressed
devolved onto his younger brother, John Fitzgerald The JFK who challenged the Soviets in his supporters at a hotel in Los Angeles. A
‘Jack’ Kennedy. After serving in the US Navy in launching the Space Race and declaimed ‘Ich bin Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan shot him three
the Pacific, Jack Kennedy entered Congress in ein Berliner’ by the Berlin Wall was also the JFK times at point blank range because, Sirhan said,
1947, then won a Senate seat in 1953. In the same who consorted with film stars and courted the the Kennedys supported Israel. His widow, Ethel
year, he married Jackie Bouvier, a stockbroker’s news media. The legend of the Kennedy White Skakel Kennedy, was left with 11 children.
daughter from New York. In 1960, Kennedy House as an enchanted and glamorous Camelot, The last and youngest of the Kennedy brothers
became the youngest elected president in a modern court of King Arthur, is coloured by stepped into the breach, but faltered almost at
American history; only Theodore Roosevelt, who Kennedy’s assassination and the images of Jackie once. In fact, Edward ‘Ted’ Kennedy was lucky
had succeeded to the office after the assassination and their young children, Caroline and John Jr, at to be alive at all. In 1964, a light aircraft in which
of William McKinley, was younger on entering his grave. Privately, the Kennedys suffered the loss he was travelling crashed in bad weather in
the White House. JFK’s younger brother Robert of two children in early infancy. Their marriage western Massachusetts. The pilot and one of
‘Bobby’ Kennedy entered the White House also suffered from Jack Kennedy’s constant Ted Kennedy’s aides were killed. Kennedy spent
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