Ep. 120 | The TERRIFYING Kennedy Curse

I'm not giving up. I am selling the building. The final season of FX is the Bear. The restaurant is flooded. Everything's either going to be okay. No, stop! Or not. We are outgunned and we are outmanned, but we have each other. FX is the Bear, the final season. All episodes now streaming on Disney+. Cozy season is ahead and you'll be spending way more time inside. Is your home ready? Don't worry. With Wayfair, you can upgrade your space without breaking the bank. Score up to 70% off during their Labor Day clearance on furniture, area rugs, mattresses, and more. Plus, surprise flash deals you can't miss. Whether it's one room or the whole house, Wayfair has pieces for every style and budget. Shop Wayfair's Labor Day clearance now through September 7th at Wayfair.com. Wayfair. Every style. Every year. One family. Three generations. Nine children raised on competition, ambition, and the expectation that losing wasn't an option. And they put a president in the White House, two brothers in the Senate, and a name on nearly every building that mattered. They were considered royalty. But right there, beside the successes, there were tragedies. Assassinations, plane crashes, overdoses, drownings. A son lost to war. A daughter lost to a surgery. She never regained. She never got back to her family. before television cameras inside his father's home and addressed the nation about an incident on chappaquiddick island one week earlier and ted told the country he'd been hit by quote a jumble of emotions grief fear doubt exhaustion panic confusion and shock unquote and somewhere in the chaos he said one question kept servicing quote whether some awful curse did actually hang over all the kennedys unquote and that was the first time anyone in the family had said the word out loud on the record to an audience of millions but the feeling had surfaced before and five years earlier in 1964 ted's small plane had crashed in a massachusetts orchard breaking his back and killing two people on board and bobby kennedy reportedly said to an aide named ed guzman quote somebody up there doesn't like us unquote while bobby's words were private ted's were broadcast to the entire country and between the two the idea of a kennedy curse found its language in stock because the kennedys were one of the most visible families in the world spread across generations drawn to risk and constantly in public eye so any family that large and that exposed tracked by cameras and tabloids for over a century will accumulate tragedy naturally and the question is whether what happened to the kennedys is a pattern that demands an explanation or just life at a scale most families never reach amplified by fame until it looks like something more so rosemary marie kennedy was born on september 13th 1918 the third child and first daughter to joseph patrick kennedy and rose elizabeth fitzgerald the obstetrician wasn't there yet when rose went into labor so a nurse physically held the baby inside the birth canal until he arrived and this delay starved rosemary of oxygen and the damage was permanent so every milestone took her longer than it had her brothers like crawling walking and just fine motor skills and rose and joe didn't grasp the full picture until the younger girls started passing her in developmental terms and in an era where intellectual disability carried deep stigma and almost no support infrastructure most families in their position would have sent her to an institution sadly and joe refused though saying the family could do better for her at home than any facility could which is really nice that's really good and rose described her daughter as quote an affectionate warmly responsive and loving girl unquote eager to earn the compliments she worked so hard to deserve and joe's ambassadorship brought the family to england and rosemary was placed in a catholic school operated by nuns and for the first time she actually really thrived and the nuns were preparing her to work as a teacher's aide but the start of world war ii ultimately brought the kennedy family back to america and everything rosemary had gained in england kind of fell apart so she was an adult now and she wanted the same freedom her brothers and sisters had and when she didn't get it she pushed back and she started sneaking out at night and in eunice's words quote rosemary was not making progress but seemed instead to be going backward unquote so joe and rose were worried that she'd be taken advantage of or that her behavior could jeopardize the family's political ambitions and that's when joe heard about a pre-frontal lobotomy it was experimental and the american medical association hadn't endorsed it but its pioneers assured him it could help and rose knew nothing about it and in november of 1941 joe scheduled the lobotomy and at this point she was 23 years old and the surgeons were dr walter freeman and dr james watts and if you don't know what a lobotomy is essentially they bored two openings into rosemary's skull and fed small metal spatulas through to cut the connections between her prefrontal cortex and the rest of her brain and she was conscious for all of it carrying on conversations and reciting poems while they cut and her silence at the end told them the cutting had gone far enough and the surgery actually destroyed her she could barely walk could barely speak so the person she had been was completely gone now and she was moved to a private psychiatric facility near new york city just devastating and in 1949 they moved her to the saint coletta school in jefferson wisconsin and she would never leave and the family told the public she was reclusive then later that she was mentally ill which makes me ill to be honest because it was their fault that she was like this and took joe senior to the hospital where she was and took joe senior to the hospital where she was no longer in the hospital and took joe senior having a massive stroke in 1961 having a massive stroke in 1961 having a massive stroke in 1961 to change things and only after he was to change things and only after he was to change things and only after he was incapacitated did rose finally visit incapacitated did rose finally visit incapacitated did rose finally visit rosemary and the rest of the siblings rosemary and the rest of the siblings rosemary and the rest of the siblings only then learned where rosemary had been only then learned where rosemary had been only then learned where rosemary had been all those years because they didn't know all those years because they didn't know all those years because they didn't know which is horrifying your sister just goes which is horrifying your sister just goes which is horrifying your sister just goes missing and you don't know why because missing and you don't know why because missing and you don't know why because your dad gave her lobotomy that she your dad gave her lobotomy that she your dad gave her lobotomy that she shouldn't have even gotten in the first shouldn't have even gotten in the first shouldn't have even gotten in the first place just awful and when they saw each place just awful and when they saw each place just awful and when they saw each other again rosemary lashed out at rose other again rosemary lashed out at rose other again rosemary lashed out at rose and she had no other way to say what she and she had no other way to say what she and she had no other way to say what she felt and nobody outside the family knew felt and nobody outside the family knew felt and nobody outside the family knew what had happened to rosemary until 1987 what had happened to rosemary until 1987 what had happened to rosemary until 1987 when historian doris kearns goodwin when historian doris kearns goodwin when historian doris kearns goodwin published the details in the fitzgerald published the details in the fitzgerald published the details in the fitzgerald and the kennedys and the family had kept and the kennedys and the family had kept and the kennedys and the family had kept the secret for 46 years and her sister the secret for 46 years and her sister the secret for 46 years and her sister eunice kennedy shriver driven by what eunice kennedy shriver driven by what eunice kennedy shriver driven by what she'd witnessed founded the special she'd witnessed founded the special she'd witnessed founded the special olympics in 1968 which olympics in 1968 which olympics in 1968 which is wonderful and jfk became the first is wonderful and jfk became the first is wonderful and jfk became the first president to propose and sign major president to propose and sign major president to propose and sign major legislation for people with intellectual legislation for people with intellectual legislation for people with intellectual disabilities and ted carried that disabilities and ted carried that disabilities and ted carried that mission forward in the senate and on mission forward in the senate and on mission forward in the senate and on january 7 2005 rosemary passed away from january 7 2005 rosemary passed away from january 7 2005 rosemary passed away from natural causes at 86 years old and natural causes at 86 years old and natural causes at 86 years old and jean eunice patricia and ted were all jean eunice patricia and ted were all jean eunice patricia and ted were all there at the end she now rests buried there at the end she now rests buried there at the end she now rests buried beside her parents beside her parents beside her parents hello look what tj maxx dragged in the hello look what tj maxx dragged in the hello look what tj maxx dragged in the devil wears prada 2 is now streaming on devil wears prada 2 is now streaming on devil wears prada 2 is now streaming on disney plus and hulu we are digital we disney plus and hulu we are digital we disney plus and hulu we are digital we are downloadable we are streamable are downloadable we are streamable are downloadable we are streamable the fashion event of the year is the fashion event of the year is the fashion event of the year is certified fresh pull yourself together certified fresh pull yourself together certified fresh pull yourself together we have work to do critics say it's we have work to do critics say it's we have work to do critics say it's smart and witty and the perfect sequel smart and witty and the perfect sequel smart and witty and the perfect sequel that's all get runway ready for the that's all get runway ready for the that's all get runway ready for the devil wears prada 2 on disney plus and devil wears prada 2 on disney plus and devil wears prada 2 on disney plus and hulu rated pg-13 now joe jr was the first born kennedy now joe jr was the first born kennedy now joe jr was the first born kennedy and the one his father had chosen for and the one his father had chosen for and the one his father had chosen for the white house and in her memoir rose the white house and in her memoir rose the white house and in her memoir rose as a natural leader unquote from the as a natural leader unquote from the as a natural leader unquote from the time he was young and before the war time he was young and before the war time he was young and before the war he'd represented the family at the 1940 he'd represented the family at the 1940 he'd represented the family at the 1940 democratic national convention and a democratic national convention and a democratic national convention and a congressional campaign was supposed to congressional campaign was supposed to congressional campaign was supposed to come next but he enlisted in the navy as come next but he enlisted in the navy as come next but he enlisted in the navy as a pilot in june 1941 and he would hit a pilot in june 1941 and he would hit a pilot in june 1941 and he would hit 25 combat missions by may 1944 and 25 combat missions by may 1944 and 25 combat missions by may 1944 and actually qualified to go home but he actually qualified to go home but he actually qualified to go home but he refused and flew another 25 guy was a refused and flew another 25 guy was a refused and flew another 25 guy was a war hero and louis papa as a fellow war hero and louis papa as a fellow war hero and louis papa as a fellow pilot recalled that joe jr volunteered pilot recalled that joe jr volunteered pilot recalled that joe jr volunteered for every mission that carried quote for every mission that carried quote for every mission that carried quote unquote extra hazard earning quote unquote extra hazard earning quote unquote extra hazard earning quote everybody's unlimited admiration and everybody's unlimited admiration and everybody's unlimited admiration and respect unquote and then he signed up respect unquote and then he signed up respect unquote and then he signed up for operation anvil it was classified for operation anvil it was classified for operation anvil it was classified and the target was nazi fortified and the target was nazi fortified and the target was nazi fortified bunkers on french soil and the plan was bunkers on french soil and the plan was bunkers on french soil and the plan was to load a bomber with around 22 000 to load a bomber with around 22 000 to load a bomber with around 22 000 pounds of explosives and two pilots pounds of explosives and two pilots pounds of explosives and two pilots would take it up switch on autopilot would take it up switch on autopilot would take it up switch on autopilot and jump out over england and from there and jump out over england and from there and jump out over england and from there a trailing aircraft would fly the unmanned a trailing aircraft would fly the unmanned a trailing aircraft would fly the unmanned plane by remote control straight into plane by remote control straight into plane by remote control straight into the target the technology was barely the target the technology was barely the target the technology was barely functional that's like the early 1940s functional that's like the early 1940s functional that's like the early 1940s at this point and the program's risks at this point and the program's risks at this point and the program's risks were enormous and joe jr wrote home were enormous and joe jr wrote home were enormous and joe jr wrote home telling his parents he'd been doing telling his parents he'd been doing telling his parents he'd been doing quote something different for the next quote something different for the next quote something different for the next three weeks unquote but assured them it three weeks unquote but assured them it three weeks unquote but assured them it wasn't dangerous and his father wrote wasn't dangerous and his father wrote wasn't dangerous and his father wrote back advising him not to force his luck back advising him not to force his luck back advising him not to force his luck too much but on august 12th 1944 joe too much but on august 12th 1944 joe too much but on august 12th 1944 joe jr climbed into the cockpit alongside jr climbed into the cockpit alongside jr climbed into the cockpit alongside co-pilot lieutenant wilford willie for co-pilot lieutenant wilford willie for co-pilot lieutenant wilford willie for the navy's first anvil mission but they the navy's first anvil mission but they the navy's first anvil mission but they never made it to the bailout point at never made it to the bailout point at never made it to the bailout point at around 6 20 pm the aircraft blew apart around 6 20 pm the aircraft blew apart around 6 20 pm the aircraft blew apart in two massive explosions and one of the in two massive explosions and one of the in two massive explosions and one of the pilots watching from the mothership pilots watching from the mothership pilots watching from the mothership called it quote the biggest explosion i called it quote the biggest explosion i called it quote the biggest explosion i ever saw until the pictures of the adam ever saw until the pictures of the adam ever saw until the pictures of the adam bomb unquote and the bodies naturally bomb unquote and the bodies naturally bomb unquote and the bodies naturally were never recovered and joe jr was 29 were never recovered and joe jr was 29 were never recovered and joe jr was 29 years old at the time and both he and years old at the time and both he and years old at the time and both he and willie received the navy cross willie received the navy cross willie received the navy cross posthumously though tall boys a new posthumously though tall boys a new posthumously though tall boys a new generation of british heavy bombs could generation of british heavy bombs could generation of british heavy bombs could destroy those same targets the drone destroy those same targets the drone destroy those same targets the drone program failed to achieve a single program failed to achieve a single program failed to achieve a single successful strike and when the news successful strike and when the news successful strike and when the news reached home jfk reportedly said quote reached home jfk reportedly said quote reached home jfk reportedly said quote unquote now the burden falls on me kathleen kick kennedy was the family's kathleen kick kennedy was the family's kathleen kick kennedy was the family's rebel the one sibling who insisted on rebel the one sibling who insisted on rebel the one sibling who insisted on charting her own course and she was 18 charting her own course and she was 18 charting her own course and she was 18 when her father's ambassadorship brought when her father's ambassadorship brought when her father's ambassadorship brought her to london where she was crowned her to london where she was crowned her to london where she was crowned debutante of the year and that's where debutante of the year and that's where debutante of the year and that's where she met william or billy cavendish she met william or billy cavendish she met william or billy cavendish marquis of harrington and the two fell marquis of harrington and the two fell marquis of harrington and the two fell ceremony in may 1944 and married billy ceremony in may 1944 and married billy ceremony in may 1944 and married billy anyway and joe jr showed up for the anyway and joe jr showed up for the anyway and joe jr showed up for the wedding before his passing and he was wedding before his passing and he was wedding before his passing and he was the only one in the family who did and the only one in the family who did and the only one in the family who did and unfortunately the marriage would only unfortunately the marriage would only unfortunately the marriage would only last four months because a german last four months because a german last four months because a german sniper killed billy on the belgian front Joe Jr. had died less than a month earlier, and in a letter, Kick told a friend, life holds no fears for someone who has faced love, marriage, and death before the age of 25, unquote. And Kick went back to England carrying the title Lady Harrington, and eventually she would fall for Peter Fitzwilliam, another wealthy Protestant who was trying to get out of his marriage. And her parents severely disliked the idea and threatened to cut her off entirely. But in May of 1948, Kick and Fitzwilliam flew out to visit Joe in France, but before they could make it, storms drove the aircraft into the mountains, killing everyone on board. And she was 28 years old. And just like the wedding, Joe Kennedy Sr. was the only family member at the funeral. Kathleen Cavendish Martianus of Harrington was laid to rest in a small churchyard in Enzer, England. And the Kennedys barely acknowledged what happened, because Kick had been involved with a married man at that point, and JFK was trying to build a political career. So the family couldn't afford a scandal. So even before Dallas, John and Jackie Kennedy faced tragedy within their own home, and they buried two children. Jackie's first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage in 1955, and the following year, she delivered a stillborn daughter by C-section. And the couple never officially named her, though Jackie would later call her Arabella. And their daughter was buried in a Catholic cemetery in Rhode Island, in a grave marked daughter. And years later, the first family had two healthy children, Caroline and John Jr. Then on August 7th, 1963, Jackie gave birth to Patrick Bouvier Kennedy at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, roughly five weeks earlier. Weighing four pounds and ten and a half ounces. But within hours, Patrick developed symptoms of Hyaline Membrane Disease, now called Respiratory Distress Syndrome, or RDS. And his lungs were too underdeveloped to manufacture surfactant, the substance that stops a newborn's air sacs from sealing shut. And at the time, the disease was killing roughly 25,000 babies a year. And he was rushed to the Children's Hospital in Boston and placed inside a hyperbaric chamber. And he lived 39 hours. And many say his death transformed neonatal medicine, giving rise to the modern NICU and driving new research funding from the National Institutes of Health. So millions of babies were able to live in no small thanks to that research. And today, roughly 95% of infants diagnosed with RDS survive. So all four of them, John, Jackie, Arabella, and Patrick are buried together now at Arlington National Cemetery. Now, John Fitzgerald, Kennedy, was born May 29th, 1917 in Brooklyn, Massachusetts. And he became the 35th President of the United States on January 20th, 1961, serving 1,036 days before his death at the age of 46. And he was the first Catholic to hold the office and was beloved during his time in the White House. And his family's influence ignited a whole generation's idealism referenced through journalist Theodore White's comparison to Arthur's Camelot. And he championed the US space program, navigated the Cuban Missile Crisis without a nuclear exchange, and signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the Equal Pay Act. And though his presidency only bore the weight of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the standoff over Berlin and the early escalation in Vietnam, before politics, he'd been a Navy officer in the Pacific during World War II. And a Japanese destroyer sank his patrol torpedo boat in the Solomon Islands and Kennedy led his surviving crew to safety, earning the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. An anchorman, Walter Cronkite, later reflected on the Kennedy era, saying, "Kennedy seemed to be leading us into a new era of youthful exuberance over the fun of life, the fun a country could have being itself being important to the world. We were dancing on clouds." And Bob Schieffer with CBS News called him, "the technicolor president," saying America had "sort of seen the presidency in black and white up until that point." So on November 21st, 1963, the President and the First Lady flew to Texas and met up with Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to motorcade through cities. And the trip doubled as a political mission. And Texas Democrats were feuding, and Kennedy needed the state for reelection in 1964. And his first stops in San Antonio, Houston, and Fort Worth drew warm crowds. And Kennedy gave a speech in Fort Worth that morning. Then the group flew the short hop to Dallas Love Field, one of the airports there. And former KRLD reporter Bob Huffaker recalled that day began gray and cold with a misting rain, and then the skies opened into a beautiful blue morning. And with clear skies overhead, the bubble top came off the presidential limousine. And the crowd of Love Field was enthusiastic. And Kennedy and Jackie worked the fence line, and then settled into the back of an open convertible. And Texas Governor John Connolly and his wife Nellie sat on the jump seats in front of them. And the route to the trademark where Kennedy was due to give a speech ran roughly 10 miles, and an estimated 200,000 people packed both sides of it. Now the motorcade swung into downtown Dallas, and Nellie Connolly turned to Kennedy from the jump seat. Quote, "Well, Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you." Unquote. And then at around 12:30 PM, the limousine continued on Elm Street, heading toward the triple underpass. And that's when shots rang out. And a round hit the base of Kennedy's neck and tore out through his throat. And the Warren Report held that the same bullet then hit Governor Connolly in the rib, wrist, and thigh. And a second bullet struck the president in the back of the head. And Connolly, a lifelong hunter, knew the sound instantly. Quote, unquote, "The crack, the crack of a hunting rifle." And the motorcade proceeded to Parkland Memorial Hospital, and Dr. Kenneth Salyer, on neurosurgery call, recalled a large jagged wound on the right side of the president's skull with pieces missing. And Jackie was at the back of the room the entire time with her dress still covered in blood. And at 1:00 PM, John F. Kennedy was declared dead. And Walter Cronkite broke the news, though the network didn't have a live camera running, and the audience got up to him, but his voice laid over a static card on screen. Here is a bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas. And once the death was confirmed, Cronkite addressed the nation. From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1:00 PM Central Standard Time, 2:00 Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago. In Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1:00 PM Central Standard Time, 2:00 Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago. And once the death was confirmed, Cronkite addressed the question, "Who was the murderer and why did he do it?" And once everyone stepped out, Jackie went back to her husband, and she rested on his chest, removed a ring, and placed it on his finger. Now, Vice President Lyndon Johnson had been riding three cars behind Kennedy in the motorcade, and he went back to Air Force One at Love Field, bringing the former president's body with him in a bronze casket. The president's body was removed from his chest and placed on his chest, and the former president was placed on his chest, bringing the former president's body with him in a bronze casket. The president's body was removed from his chest and placed on his chest, bringing the former president's body with him in a bronze casket. And his first public statement as president was, "We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed. For me, it is a deep personal tragedy. I know that the world shares the sorrow that Mrs. Kennedy and her family bear. I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help and God's." And Johnson established November 25th as a day of national mourning, and more than 800,000 mourners stowed along Pennsylvania Avenue as a horse-drawn caisson bore Kennedy's flag-draped coffin from the Capitol Rotunda to St. Matthew's Catholic Cathedral. And alongside the procession walked a riderless horse named Black Jack, boots reversed and an empty saddle. A military tribute to the fallen. And outside the cathedral, three-year-old John F. Kennedy, Jr. raised his hand and saluted his father's casket. And they laid Kennedy to rest at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. And leaders from many different nations attended. And Jackie lit the eternal flame that has burned at his gravesite ever since. And by 2:15 that afternoon, before the country had even absorbed what happened, Dallas police had already arrested a man named, Lee Harvey Oswald. Now, Oswald was a new employee at the Texas School Book Depository. And he had been charged with Kennedy's assassination and with the fatal shooting of Dallas patrolman J.D. Tippett, who was killed roughly 45 minutes after his president was hit. And Oswald denied any involvement during police questioning, telling reporters, quote, "I didn't shoot anybody. No, sir. I'm just a patsy," unquote. And two days later, on Sunday morning, November 24th, police were transferring Oswald to the county jail when a Dallas nightclub owner named Jack Ruby shot Oswald point blank in the stomach on live television in front of the press. And Oswald died at Parkland Memorial Hospital. And it was the same building where, 48 hours earlier, the president had died. So with Oswald dead, there would be no trial, no public cross-examination of the evidence, and no definitive resolution to the questions surrounding November 22nd. And a jury convicted Ruby of murder and gave him the death penalty, though an appeals court later threw out the verdict. But still, he died on January 3rd, 1967 from a blood clot complicated by cancer before any retrial could begin. And a special presidential commission led by Chief Justice Earl Warren spent months investigating the assassination. And its conclusion was that Oswald acted alone, firing every shot that killed the president. And the commission saw nothing tying either him or Ruby to a larger plot. But most Americans never fully accepted the commission's conclusion. And when FiveThirtyEight polled the public in 2017, just one in three Americans said they believed Oswald acted alone. Not me. I'm not one of those. And that's why this is a conspiracy podcast. And an onlooker named Abraham Zapruder had captured the assassination on film. And its frames raised questions the official account struggled to answer. And the commission's account held that three rounds left Oswald's rifle in 8.6 seconds. And one bullet supposedly passed through Kennedy and then struck Governor Connolly, as we know. The critics called it the magic bullet theory, arguing a single round could not cause that much damage and remain nearly intact. And others pointed out that Oswald was not the only one who was killed. Oswald was the only one who was killed. And the commission's comment was that Oswald was the only one who was killed. And the commission's comment pointed out that Oswald was the only one who was killed. to a grassy knoll ahead and to the right of the motorcade as the position of a second shooter. And broader theories implicated the CIA, organized crime, and Cuban exiles. And in 1979, a House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded after a two-year investigation that a second gunman had probably fired and that Kennedy was, quote unquote, probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. And the committee also found that the Soviet government, the Cuban government, the CIA, the FBI, and the Secret Service were not involved, though it could not rule out individual members of organized crime or anti-Castro groups acting independently. And the committee faulted the Warren Commission for not digging deep enough into whether a conspiracy existed. And the files stayed partly sealed for decades, despite a 1992 law requiring full release within 25 years. And President Biden delayed disclosure on three separate occasions. And on January 23rd, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing officials to present plans for the release of assassination records for JFK, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. And the National Archives released more than 77,000 pages on March 18th, 2025. And historians noted the documents did not change the lone gunman finding, though they shed new light on CIA covert programs from the early 1960s, including the recruitment of agents within Fidel Castro's government. And biographer Frederick Logval flagged one hole the new documents still hadn't closed. As weeks before the assassination, Oswald traveled to Mexico City and sat down with diplomats from both Cuba and the Soviet Union. And when the signing was finished, Trump passed the pen to an aide, quote unquote, give that to RFK Jr. And Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the slain president's nephew, told NBC News he was, quote, very grateful to President Trump. Unquote. So seven months after the events in Dallas, Ted Kennedy nearly died in a plane crash. And on the evening of June 19th, 1964, the 32-year-old senator left Washington for the Massachusetts State Democratic Convention, where he'd be re-nominated by acclamation. And he had stayed in the Capitol all day for the final vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And it was dark by the time he could fly out. And the twin-engine aerial command commander carried five people. Ted, Indiana Senator Birch Bayh and his wife Marvella, and legislative aide Edward Moss and pilot Edwin Zimney. And fog and drizzle had closed in by the time they neared Barnes Municipal Airport in Westfield, Massachusetts, just before 11 p.m. And the plane slammed into an apple orchard just three miles short of the runway. And Ted watched the altimeter plunge from eleven hundred feet to six hundred. And he compared it to a toboggan ride along the treetops, followed by a violent collision with a tree. And Zimney and Moss both died overnight from their injuries. And Birch and Marvella Bayh walked away with minor injuries from their seats at the back of the plane. And Ted broke three vertebrae and two ribs and suffered a collapsed lung. And Birch Bayh actually pulled him from the wreckage. And Ted was hospitalized for five months after that, immobilized in a frame that held his broken vertebrae in place. And Harvard professors came to his hospital room and lectured at his bedside. And he tore through stacks of books between visits. And this is the crash that spurred Bobby to say his quote unquote "somebody up there doesn't like us" line. And though Ted recovered, Bobby would meet a similar fate to JFK. So Robert Francis Kennedy, or RFK, had served as attorney general in his brother's administration from 1961 to 1964 and won a U.S. Senate seat from New York in 1965. But before politics, he'd enlisted in the Navy during World War II, serving from 1944 to 1946. And Bobby declared his run for the Democratic presidential nomination on March 16, 1968, standing in the Senate caucus room in Washington. And his brother, JFK, had stood in that same room eight years earlier to launch his own White House bid. And Vietnam had to find his candidacy because he campaigned to end the war while openly admitting that he had helped extend it during his years as JFK's top advisor. And fighting poverty and racial inequality became the foundation of his platform. And he won primaries in Indiana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Washington, D.C. And on the night of June 4, 1968, Bobby won the California primary, beating Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy 46% to 42%. And around midnight, he delivered a victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. And his wife, Ethel, was next to him, three months pregnant with their 11th child. And he closed with a line to the crowd saying, "So, my thanks to all of you. And now it's on to Chicago and let's win there." And at 12:15 a.m., Bobby left the stage and was led through a service store. And he leaned over the counter to shake hands with a 17-year-old busboy named Juan Romero. And just then, a man named Sirhan Sirhan, armed with a.22 caliber revolver, rushed forward and opened fire. And three bullets struck Bobby. One graced his forehead, and another went through his neck. And the third went through his right ear, killing him. And five bystanders were also wounded from this attack. And Sirhan was tackled at the scene. And Robert Kennedy died at 1:44 a.m. on June 6, 1968, at the age of 42. And his wife, Ethel, his sisters, Jean, and Patricia, and his sister-in-law, Jackie, were at his bedside. And a funeral mass was held two days later at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. And Ted delivered the eulogy: "My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life. To be remembered simply as a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it." And his casket rode a funeral train 225 miles from Penn Station in Manhattan to Union Station in Washington. While tens of thousands of mourners lined the tracks along the road. And Bobby was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, 50 feet from his brother, JFK. And his assassination led to the extension of secret service protection of all major presidential candidates. Now, Sirhan Sirhan had grown up in Pasadena, California, after his family emigrated from Jerusalem in the 1950s. And the Six-Day War in June 1967 stirred something within him, and he focused his frustration on Kennedy after hearing the Senator voice support for Israel during the presidential race. And on the eve of the assassination, he reportedly said, quote, unquote, "I did it for my country." And it happened on the one-year anniversary of the Six-Day War. And he was convicted of murder on April 17th, 1969, and sentenced to death. And California Supreme Court later struck down the state's death penalty, and his sentence was reduced to life in prison. And Sirhan faced years of parole battles and appeals, and his lawyer in 2011, William F. Pepper, filed an appeal for a retrial using a second gunman theory and a brainwashing plot to make Sirhan the fall guy. And questions about a second gunman have persisted for decades because the kill shot hit Bobby behind the right ear from inches away. Yet every witness who saw the shooting put Sirhan face to face with Kennedy when he pulled the trigger. And an audio analysis of the shooting detected 13 shots, though Sirhan's revolver held only eight rounds. And Paul Schrad, one of the five bystanders wounded that night, had testified against Sirhan at the original trial. And by 2016, he had reversed his position, and he told the parole board that he no longer believed Sirhan was the one who killed Kennedy, pointing to what he called clear evidence of a second gunman. So just more conspiracy. And whether the case should be open is a question that has fractured the Kennedy family down the middle. RFK Jr. went to see Sirhan behind bars and came away believing the conviction may have been false. may have landed on the wrong person. And his sister, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, shares that view and has called for the investigation to be reopened. But their siblings, Joseph Kennedy II and Kerry Kennedy, oppose it. I'm not giving up. No, stop! Or not. We are outgunned and we are outmanned. We have each other. FX is the bear. The final season. Mary Jo Kopechny was 28 years old and had worked for the Kennedys. New Jersey born and raised, she campaigned for JFK as a college student, spent time teaching at a Catholic mission school in Alabama, and landed a position in Robert Kennedy's Senate office. And when Bobby launched his 1960, 1988 presidential bid, she was one of the people writing his speeches. And on the night of July 18th, 1969, she was on Chappaquiddick Island for a cookout that Ted Kennedy had helped organize. And the guest list included Kennedy, five other men, and six women from Bobby's campaign staff, a group known as the Boiler Room Girls. At around 11.15 p.m., Kennedy left the party with Kopechny. And Kennedy's account was that Kopechny wasn't feeling well, and the two of them left to catch the ferry to Edgartown, where they were saying, at separate hotels. In the car, a black Oldsmobile left the dyke bridge and flipped into Pouchapond, coming to rest upside down in the tidal water. And Kennedy got out of the submerged car, but Kopechny remained trapped inside. And he said he dove repeatedly into what he described as a strong and murky current, trying to reach her until exhaustion forced him to stop. And he made his way to the cottage and brought back two friends, Joseph Gargan and Phil Marcus. And they dove in after Kopechny, too, but neither one could reach her. But at this point, Kennedy still didn't call the police. And he told Gargan and Marcus to drive him to the ferry landing. And the ferry had stopped running for that night, so Kennedy jumped in and swam the channel to Edgartown, making it back to his hotel by about 2 a.m. And morning came before Kennedy contacted police, finally reaching them at around 10 a.m. on July 19th. More than 10 hours after that, Kennedy was found dead in the car. Kennedy was found dead in the car. And then there was John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., who was born on November 25th, 1960, less than three weeks after his father won the presidency. And he was the first infant to live in the White House since 1893. And he was widely referred to as John John, a nickname that started when a reporter misheard his father calling John twice in a row. And the family never used it, but the country did. And he was three days short of his third birthday when his father was killed. And his mother told him to salute the casket. And the photograph of that moment became one of the most recognized images of the 20th century. So the whole country watched him grow up in its living room. And in 1988, People magazine named the 27-year-old now law student the sexiest man alive. And tabloids tracked his every move, calling him America's most eligible bachelor. And he graduated from NYU's law school in 1989, failed the bar exam twice, then passed on his third attempt. And as a Manhattan assistant district attorney now, he tried six cases and won every single one. And in 1995, he launched George, a glossy political magazine that covered Washington through a pop culture lens, with celebrities posing as the founding fathers on its cover. And in 1996, he married Carolyn Bessette, a Calvin Klein public relations professional in a private ceremony held at Cumberland Island, Georgia. And Christopher Anderson, who wrote The Day John Died, put it this way, saying, If the Kennedys were American royalty, John Jr. was their crown prince. And on the evening of July 16th, 1999, John Jr. climbed into a single-engine Piper Saratoga at Airfield in Fairfield, New Jersey. And his wife, Carolyn, who was 33, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, who was 34, were with him. And the plane was to drop Lauren at Martha's Vineyard, then fly on the Hyannis Port for his cousin Rory's wedding the next day. But they were late before they started. And traffic in Manhattan delayed all three of them, and they didn't reach the airfield until around 8 p.m. And the plane lifted off at 8.38 p.m., roughly 24 minutes after sunset. And John Jr. held a private pilot's license, but no instrument rating, meaning he was certified to fly only when he could see the horizon. And he'd logged about 310 total hours in the air, but only around three of those were solo time in this particular aircraft. And he was also still recovering from a broken left ankle. His ankle fractured in a hang gliding accident that June. So the cast was off, but the injury had forced flight instructors to step in twice already to handle the rudder pedals and bring the plane down during lessons. So why he thought this was a good idea is beyond me. And one of his instructors volunteered to come along for the flight. But John Jr. turned him down, saying, quote, he wanted to do it alone. And the same instructor later admitted the combination of that route at night, the haze, and John Jr.'s experience level, would have kept him from signing off on the flight. So about 34 miles from Martha's Vineyard, the plane began descending from 5,500 feet. And thick haze hung over the water, erasing any line between sky and ocean. And another pilot who covered that stretch of sky the same evening described looking towards Martha's Vineyard and seeing nothing, saying, quote, There was nothing to see. There was no horizon and no light, unquote. And at approximately 9.38 p.m., the radar track turned. Sharp turns, sudden climbs, steep drops, and John Jr. had lost his spatial reference and couldn't tell which way was up. And the plane locked into a tightening right turn, nose falling and speed starting to build, a pattern aviators call a graveyard spiral. And by 9.41, the aircraft hit the Atlantic at a descent rate exceeding 4,700 feet per minute. And he had filed no flight plan, made no radio contact the entire trip. And sent no distress call. And there were no survivors. And by 10 p.m., the plane had not reached Martha's Vineyard. And Lauren's friends called the airport looking for answers. And a Kennedy family friend reached the Coast Guard at 2.15 a.m. And the Air National Guard, NOAA, and the Navy joined the effort with five states contributing resources. And wreckage began washing ashore on Martha's Vineyard the next day. And on July 20th, searchers deployed a remote-operated vehicle and found the wreckage. On the ocean floor, eight miles out and 120 feet down. And divers recovered the bodies the following afternoon on July 21st. And all three remained in their seats, belts fastened. And autopsies confirmed they died on impact. And on July 22nd, a Navy destroyer returned the ashes to the waters where the plane went down. And the family held a short service and the ashes were scattered at sea. And a memorial service was held in the Church of St. Thomas More in New York the next day. And Ted spoke saying, quote, We dared to think in that other Irish phrase that this John Kennedy would live to comb gray hair with his beloved Carolyn by his side. But, like his father, he had every gift but length of years, unquote. And John was only 38 when he died, younger than his father had been in Dallas. And the National Transportation Safety Board released its findings a year later. And the cause was spatial disorientation during a descent over water at night, compounded by haze and darkness. And investigators found no mechanical failure, no engine trouble, and no sign of foul play. And when investigators pulled the altitude indicator from the wreckage, it read 125 degrees of right bank and 30 degrees nose down, consistent with a classic graveyard spiral. And obviously, conspiracy theories surfaced, as they always do when a Kennedy dies. But the physical evidence seems to leave no room for them in this case. So Kara Kennedy was a television producer and the eldest of Ted Kennedy's three children. And doctors found lung cancer in 2002 and said the tumor couldn't be removed. And her father tracked down a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, willing to operate. And the team cut away part of her right lung and put her through chemotherapy and radiation. And according to her mother, Joan Bennett Kennedy, the cancer was behind her. And Kara swam, walked the beach, and lived without restrictions. Quote, unquote, she was very healthy, Joan would tell the Associated Press. And go on to say, quote, That's why this is such a shock, unquote. But on September 16th, 2011, Kara collapsed during a workout at her Washington, D.C. gym. She was 51 years old. And her brother, Patrick, told the press that the years of aggressive treatment had weakened her heart. Saying, quote, her heart gave out, unquote. End quote. She's with dad, unquote. And her father had died of brain cancer two years earlier. So Saoirse Kennedy Hill was 22 and a Boston College communications major. And the granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy through his daughter, Courtney. And she spent time in Mexico constructing schools for indigenous communities. And her family said she was, quote, unquote, moved by the causes of human rights and women's empowerment. And in 2016, she published a piece in the Deerfield Academy School paper laying out her years-long fight with depression. Saying, quote, My depression took root in the beginning of my middle school years and will be with me for the rest of my life, unquote. And she would continue to say, quote, Although I was mostly. So on the evening of July 31st, 2019, Saoirse ate dinner at the family home in Hyannis Port with her 91-year-old grandmother, Ethel. And afterwards, she headed to Embargo, a nearby bar, and sang karaoke with friends. And later that morning, she made it back to the compound, walked down to the ocean for a sunrise swim, and finally crawled into bed around 6.30 a.m. And when she still hadn't gotten up. By early afternoon, the family grew worried. And paramedics arrived around 2 p.m. And Saoirse lay unconscious and unresponsive still in her bed. And she was pronounced dead at Cape Cod Hospital at 3.14 p.m. And her official cause of death was an accidental combination of methadone, diazepam, and fluoxetine. And alcohol. And the death kind of echoed David's from the years prior. So Maeve Kennedy McKean had built a career in public. and human rights law, running Georgetown University's Global Health Initiative as its executive director. And her mother was former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, making Maeve a granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy. And during the early weeks of COVID in April of 2020, Maeve's family had moved into her mother's waterfront property in Shadyside, Maryland. where the kids could spread out more than their cramped D.C. home. And on the afternoon of April 2nd, Maeve, who was 40 years old. her three-year-old son, Gideon, paddled a canoe into the water to retrieve a kickball that had blown off the yard. And that afternoon, winds ran 15 to 20 miles per hour, with gusts hitting 35 miles per hour. But trees and houses along the shore shielded the backyard and kept conditions feeling calm. But once they cleared the cove, the full wind hit, pushing them into the water on Chesapeake Bay. And they capsized roughly two and a half miles out in water that measured 51 degrees. Crews searched for five days, scanning the bay floor with underwater sonar. And divers pulled Maeve from the water on April 6th. And two days later, on April 8th, they located Gideon in roughly 25 feet of water, more than two miles south of his grandmother's property. And in a public statement, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend said her daughter had, quote, "dedicated her life to society's most vulnerable," unquote. And she remembered Gideon as a "loving big brother with a gift for sports, riddles, math, and sports." a gift for sports, riddles, math, and chess. So this was just a tragic loss of two generations in one accident. So Tatiana Schlossberg's parents were diplomat Carolyn Kennedy and artist Edwin Scholesberg. And she was one of JFK's three grandchildren. And she graduated from Yale and Oxford, reported on science for the New York Times, and wrote a book called "Inconspicuous Consumption" about hidden environmental costs. And on May 25th, 2024, she gave birth to her second child. But a routine blood panel during delivery came back wrong and her white cell count was far too high and doctors ordered additional testing. And results showed acute myeloid leukemia marked by a rare inversion three mutation. And doctors admitted her to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital for five weeks, then transferred her to chemotherapy at home. And her sister donated a stem cell transplant and Tatiana went into remission. But the cancer would unfortunately return. And a New Yorker essay published November 22nd, 2025, she would write, quote, "My doctor told me that he could keep me alive "for a year, maybe. "My first thought was that my kids, "whose faces live permanently on the inside of my eyelids, "wouldn't remember me," unquote. And in the same essay, she called her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., quote, unquote, "An embarrassment to me and the rest of my family." And she described lying in her hospital bed, watching his cabinet confirmation go through, despite a resume with no experience in medicine, public health, or government. Tatiana died on December 30th, 2025, at the age of 35, the most recent loss in the long line of Kennedy deaths, showing that even in present day, the curse stays relevant. And she's left behind her husband, George Moran, and their two children. And the tragedies didn't just stop at blood relatives. They kind of rippled outward through marriages, in-laws, and extended family. Now, of course, there's a rational explanation for all of this. Edward Kennedy Jr., who lost his leg to cancer at 12 and watched his family absorb loss after loss, said, quote, "The Kennedy family has had to endure these things in a very open way. But our family is just like every other family in America in many ways," unquote. And his aunt Eunice dismissed the whole idea. And the real problem, she said, was the nonstop tabloid coverage and a family that was never allowed to grieve in private. And J. Randy Taraboroli, who wrote The Kennedy Heirs, told people that-- "The family itself largely rejected the idea of a curse," noting that Ted's speech after Chappaquiddick was the lone exception. And author Les Williams went further, arguing the pattern traces back to a single source, Joe Kennedy Sr. And in The Kennedy Curse Shattered, he wrote that Joe, quote, "raised his children to believe that they were better than anyone else and that they had to win every time and at any cost," unquote, and that his obsessive ambition, quote, "would have disastrous consequences for the family over the years," unquote. And Patrick Kennedy framed it differently in his 2015 book, A Common Struggle, pointing to untreated mental illness and addiction as the thread running through decades of loss, from Rosemary's lobotomy to David's overdose. And it's not hard to see the skeptic's view here. A sprawling, wealthy, competitive family that flew private planes, held public office, and lived under constant scrutiny for over a century was always going to accumulate grief at a visible scale. And I think it's important to take into account that this tragedy alone can account for every single one of these tragedies. But even the rational mind can start to associate patterns. And not all of the Kennedys fully dismissed the idea. And Ted stood before those cameras in 1969 and wondered aloud whether some awful curse hung over his family. And after RFK's death, Jackie told those around her, quote, "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets. I want to get out of this country," unquote. And she married Onassis before the year of 2025, Tatiana Schlossberg, JFK's granddaughter, wrote, quote, "Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family's life, and there's nothing I can do to stop it," unquote. And five weeks later, she was gone. Three generations apart, and the language barely changed. And after her husband was killed, Jackie sat down with Life magazine, and she invoked the musical Camelot and quoted the line JFK had loved most, saying, quote, "Don't let it be forgot that once there was a spot for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot," unquote. And she wanted the country to remember what it had lost, and the country obliged. And every tragedy that followed added another verse to the same story. So whether you call it a curse, a consequence, or just the weight of living in the public eye for that long, the result is the same. One family just absorbed more grief than most people can catalog from memory, and America, watched every minute of it. And this, you know, curse may just be the word we reach for when the facts stop feeling like coincidence, but never quite prove anything more. So do I believe it's a curse? I don't think so. I think, you know, every family has its tragedies. Do I think there is 100% conspiracy behind some of the assassinations? Yeah, definitely, definitely. What do you think, though? Let me know down below. And if you have any other topics you want me to dive into, please let me know in the comments. I always read the comments. And I will see your beautiful face in the next one, all right? Bye. I see you. "Avatar: Fire and Ash" is now streaming on Disney+. It's the film critics are calling the best Avatar yet. Go, go, go, go, go! A true epic and completely jaw-dropping. This is the only pure thing in this world. Return to Pandora on Disney+. It will be an adventure for the whole family. And watch the Oscar-winning phenomenon at home. This is sick! "Avatar: Fire and Ash," now streaming on Disney+, rated PG-13. Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for "Mint Mobile." Are you looking for a beach read this summer? May I suggest your big wireless bill. It's got suspense, mystery, a slightly flat emotional arc, and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time. Fortunately, though, "Mint's" story is better. Every plan, $15 a month, even unlimited. That's it. Happy ending, zero tears. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 per month. $15 for six months, or $180 for a 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. May slow when network is busy. See terms.