'The Kennedy Curse' Strikes Again With Death of Mary Kennedy, A Timeline Of Family History And Misfortune

Richardson Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was found dead on Wednesday in what police called an apparent suicide.

Despite their political fame and fortune, the family has been ridden with tragedy for decades, even years before the late-former President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. After this event, and the death of Robert Kennedy five years later, many began to believe the Kennedy family was under some sort of ominous curse, causing its members to die young from illness, assassinations and accidents, once they delved deeper into the history. Some even say troubles for the Kennedy family, an Irish-American clan originally from Massachusetts, began when the patriarch and father-of-nine Joseph Kennedy became an ambassador to Britain in 1937.

1941: Joseph Kennedy and wife Rose order a lobotomy for eldest daughter, Rosemary Kennedy, to control her violent mood swings. The procedure was not successful, prompting them to place her in a mental institution.

1944: On August 12, at the young age of 29, the eldest son, Joseph Jr., dies in a plane crash in World War II, after his bomber exploded.

1948: Kathleen Cavendish, the fourth of the children and the Marquess of Hartington, dies in a plane crash in France on May 13 at age 28.

1955, 1956: Jackie Kennedy, the wife of John F. Kennedy, has a miscarriage in 1955 and a stillbirth in 1956.

1961: Joseph Kennedy suffers a stroke which renders him speechless and in a wheelchair.

1963: Patrick, the son of John F. Kennedy and wife Jackie, dies two days after his birth in August.

1963: JFK, 46, is assassinated on Nov. 22 in Dallas, Tex. during a ride in an open convertible with his wife by Lee Harvey Oswald.

1964: Senator Edward Ted Kennedy survives a plane crash in June which killed his aide Edward Moss,

1968: Robert Kennedy is assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan after winning the Calif. Democratic primary on June 6 while on his campaign trail for the presidency.

1969: Edward Kennedy drives off a bridge in Mass. on July 18, leaving his aide, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, dead in the accident.

1973: Edward Kennedy Jr. has his right leg amputated after discovering osteosarcoma.

1973: Robert Kennedy's son Joseph is involved in an accident in Cape Cod that results in one person left paralyzed.

1984: David Kennedy, son of Robert, dies of a drug overdose at 28-years-old in Florida.

1986: Patrick Kennedy, son of Edward Sr., is treated for drug addiction.

1994: Jackie Kennedy Onassis dies May 19 of cancer at 64-years-old.

1997: Michael Kennedy, son of Robert, dies in a skiing accident in Colorado at 39 on New Year's Eve.

1999: JFK Jr. dies at age 38 along with wife Carolyn-Bessette-Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette on July 16 in a plane crash, having reportedly become disoriented on July 16.

2008: Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 88, dies at Cape Cod Hospital.

2009: Edward Kennedy, 77, dies Aug. 25 of a brain tumor. He is the last of the four Kennedy brothers to die.

2012: Mary Kennedy, estranged wife of Robert Kennedy Jr., is found dead of apparent suicide in New York.