The Assassination Of John F. Kennedy
Library of CongressMinutes before his death at the hands of Lee Harvey Oswald, John F. Kennedy is seen here with his wife Jacqueline alongside the governor and First Lady of Texas.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy is perhaps more responsible for the renown of his family name than any of his relatives.
In three short years, his was one of the most active presidencies of the 20th century, laying the groundwork for substantial civil rights and economic reforms as well as deepening U.S. involvement in conflicts in Vietnam and Cuba.
He also paved the way for the American entry into space, famously promising to put astronauts on the moon by the end of the 1960s.
President Kennedy was also active in Democratic Party affairs, which took him to Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, to mediate a local political dispute.
As he rode through the streets of Dallas in an open-topped convertible with his wife, Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally and First Lady of Texas Nellie Connally, assassin Lee Harvey Oswald shot the young president through the head from a sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository.
Just 30 minutes later, the 46-year-old president was pronounced dead, shocking the nation and the world. Mystery has surrounded the assassination ever since, with nearly 60% of Americans believing his death was the result of a conspiracy.
Sadly, he would be far from the last victim of the Kennedy curse.
Sirhan Sirhan Assassinates Robert F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and MuseumRobert Kennedy championed civil rights, lending his support to leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King would be assassinated just months before Robert Kennedy in 1968.
While his brother John earned a reputation as a mediator at home and a firebrand abroad, Robert Francis Kennedy made a name for himself as an arch-conservative under the tutelage of Joseph McCarthy before becoming a passionate liberal spokesman.
From a young age, Robert — the seventh of Joseph and Rose Kennedy’s nine children — struggled to stand apart from his siblings. Serving like his brothers in the U.S. Navy late in World War II, he sailed a short cruise on the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., named for his late brother.
Earning a law degree from the University of Virginia, he served as a senatorial aide to Joseph McCarthy before disavowing him for his bullying methods. He then devoted himself to liberalism and his brother’s presidential campaign and was subsequently appointed the Attorney General of the United States at the insistence of their father.
In 1968, Robert launched his own presidential campaign, winning key primary victories in South Dakota and California. Just as it seemed likely that another Kennedy would sit in the White House, RFK was struck down by an assassin’s bullet in Los Angeles.
Bill Eppridge/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty ImagesAmerican politician and Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy lies on the floor of the Ambassador Hotel’s kitchen after being shot while his wife, Ethel Kennedy, leans over him in Los Angeles, California on June 5, 1968.
Sirhan Sirhan/a>, a 24-year old Palestinian-American, had become obsessed with Kennedy because of his support of Israel. On June 5, 1968, Sirhan shot Kennedy through the head with a .22 caliber revolver in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel, making him the third Kennedy brother to fall victim to the Kennedy curse.
Later, interviews with Sirhan suggested that the young man was psychologically unstable and that he had written endless variations of the phrase “RFK must die” in his diary.
At Robert’s funeral at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, mourners lined up for 25 blocks outside the door. By now, public awareness of the disturbing sorrows to befall the Kennedy clan was becoming stronger, and many began to see it as something more than terrible luck.
