The 20th Century history of the Kennedy family is peppered with incidents of death, scandal and general misfortune, typically involving firearms, women or light aircraft mixed with foggy weather conditions. All these events have served to either tarnish the clan's reputation or remove those members who seemed destined to fulfill their political ambitions, leading some commentators to suggest that there is a curse on the Kennedys that prevents them from ever being able to turn their vision for America into reality. The fact that today's generations of Kennedys mostly languish on the fringes of the political scene or have abandoned politics altogether in favor of other career paths continues to demonstrate this lack of success.
So what is behind this mysterious "curse"? Could it really be that this one family is simply prone to vast amounts of bad luck? Did their political views or millionaire's lifestyles help to put them at additional risk? Some have said that there is a rather more sinister side to the whole thing, suggesting that many of these misfortunes were set up as part of a conspiracy by the American political and business establishments who were determined to prevent the Kennedys from getting near the White House or staying there too long. To fully understand the concept of a Kennedy Curse come along with me as I take you back almost 100 years to meet the man who laid the foundations of this great political dynasty, and began the sequence of events leading to its downfall.
