“It has been said that the sins of the father are bestowed upon his sons.” Author Unknown
Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr. was born on September 6, 1888, at 151 Meridian Street in East Boston Massachusetts.
He was intelligent, a hard worker, and ruthless. He was also a criminal and fervent anti-semite. The Volstead Act, officially known as the National Prohibition Act, was a US law enacted in 1919 to enforce the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages.
This action by Congress strengthened the power of organized crime in New York, Chicago, and Kansas City. Joe Kennedy Sr. decided that his path to wealth was with organizing a relationship with organized crime by becoming the most powerful bootlegger in the United States.
Within months he became a multi-millionaire. He was soon blessed with four sons. He was determined to ensure that his first born, Joe Kennedy Jr. would become the first Irish Catholic president in the history of the United States.
It would not happen. Joe Jr., the most honorable of his brothers, was killed during World War II. His father was crushed. But, for the Kennedy family, it would get much worse.
In 1960, his second son, John F. Kennedy, was elected president by an extremely tight margin over former vice president Richard Nixon. However, Nixon would have his revenge in 1968 by being elected after another tragedy in the Kennedy family. President Kennedy was charming, charismatic, and young. He was also inexperienced.
His fateful choice was to nominate his younger brother, Robert, to serve as the 29 year old attorney general. For unknown reasons, Robert conducted hearings in Congress and sought to prosecute the five families of New York who were his father’s partners in past criminal activity.
Even though he was a Democrat, President Kennedy could have been remembered as one of the greatest presidents in history as he gained experience. Unfortunately, old enemies surfaced in Dallas, Texas. Joe Kennedy’s second son died from the bullet of a sniper while trying to woo voters in a motorcade in the southern state that was not keen on politicians from the north.
In 1961, Joe Sr. suffered a massive stroke, was bound to a wheelchair, and could not speak. He had already witnessed the deaths of his first two sons. More pain would follow.
In 1968, his third son, Robert Kennedy won the California primary which ensured his nomination as the Democrat selection for president. He was heavily favored to beat Richard Nixon during the general election.
However, while announcing his victory in California, a young man named Sirhan Sirhan walked to the podium at the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel and shot Kennedy in the chest with a handgun in Los Angeles. Robert Kennedy was dead within minutes.
Edward Kennedy was the fourth and weakest brother. Like John and Robert, he had an affinity for women who were not wives.
He was also a United States Senator who wielded great power.
On July 19, 1969, Senator Kennedy became extremely intoxicated and drove a car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. His companion in the car, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, Robert’s former lover, died. The senator did not even try to save her from her death by drowning.
Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. died at home in Hyannis Port on November 18, 1969, two days before what would have been Robert’s 44th birthday; he was 81 years old. Kennedy had outlived three of his four boys, suffered the cowardice of his fourth, and the death of one daughter while in a wheelchair and speechless.
I do not judge the man. I simply point out that greed, hate, anger, and criminal activity can perhaps be sent to the next generation.