Random Famous Historical Families With Eerie Curses You Can't Deny (11 items)

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  (#4) The Nepalese Royal Family Curse Lasted 10 Generations

  In 2001, Prince Dipendra of the royal family of Nepal shot his parents and eight other people before turning his gun on himself. Dipendra was crowned king by default while in a coma, but soon passed. As the 10th generation of the royal family, Dipendra's death marked an eerie manifestation of Gorakhnath's curse. 

  Gorakhnath was a yogi in the 11th century who supposedly possessed supernatural powers. He protected Gorkha, the kingdom from which King Gyanendra's forefathers originated.

  Legend claims that the first king of a unified Nepal, Prithvi Narayan Shah, once came into contact with a holy man who offered him some food that he refused. The king's disrespect caused the holy man to curse Shah, telling him his line would fall after 10 generations.
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  (#6) The Habsburg Royal Family Was Cursed Twice

  The House of Habsburg suffered at the hands of two alleged curses.

  One curse originated with a gift centuries ago, when Count von Altenbourg built a sanctuary for ravens where the Hapsburg Castle was to stand. When the Habsburg family made renovations to the castle, it upset the ravens. The birds began attacking members of the Habsburg family, leading the family to eradicate the birds. From then on, the legend states that a raven is always spotted before a tragedy befalls a member of the Habsburg family.

  In another legend, Countess Karolyi placed a second curse on the family after the countess's son, who belonged to a group of rebels, was slain on the authority of Francis Joseph, the ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Francis Joseph's wife was slain, his son took his own life, and his nephew Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, leading to the start of WWI. 
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  (#1) The Kennedy Curse May Be The Most Infamous

  The Kennedy Curse is one of the most documented cases of a family curse. Heartache and tragedy span through generations of the Kennedy family tree. In the late 1940s, Joseph Kennedy Jr. and Kathleen Kennedy Cavendish both perished in plane crashes. Rosemary Kennedy struggled for years with developmental issues - leading to a tragic lobotomy that only made things worse - before passing in 2005.

  John F. Kennedy was supposed to turn the family’s luck around, and most were optimistic when he became president; however, his presidency ended in catastrophe when Lee Harvey Oswald fatally shot him in 1963. Five years after JFK’s assassination, a lone gunman named Sirhan Sirhan murdered his younger brother, Robert Kennedy, in Los Angeles.

  Two of Robert Kennedy’s children perished in tragic incidents, one in the '80s of a drug overdose and another in the '90s in a skiing mishap. Additionally, in 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. - JFK's son - lost his life alongside his wife and sister-in-law in a plane crash.
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  (#11) The Rockefeller Family Curse May Feature Cannibals

  The Rockefeller family found wealth when John D. Rockefeller co-founded the company Standard Oil in 1870. Tragedy began to haunt the family in 1951, however, when Winifred Rockefeller not only ended her own life, but also the lives of two of her children. A decade later, Michael Rockefeller met an untimely end while on a trip to New Guinea. Rumors persist that, after nearly drowning during a canoeing trip, cannibals attacked and ate him.

  In 1979, Nelson Rockefeller passed in his home with his assistant (and presumed mistress) at his side. His tragic end followed that of his brother, who was lost in a car crash. The curse ostensibly persists with the family even a century later, as Richard Rockefeller met his untimely fate while piloting a single-engine airplane in 2014. 
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  (#5) The Guinness Family Is Marked By Tragedy

  Arthur Guinness was born in Kildare, Ireland, in 1725 and crafted the beer that forged both his legacy and fortune in 1759. After he married, Guinness and his wife had 21 children - 11 of whom tragically never reached adulthood. Whispers of a curse surrounding the Guinness family began when members began suffering from addiction and perishing in unusual ways.

  Some of Guinness's grandchildren fell into alcoholism or were committed to psychiatric institutions. In 1944, extremists killed Guinness's descendant, Lord Moyne. In 1966, Tara Browne - the 21-year-old heir to the brewery - was in a fatal car crash. In 1978, Lady Henrietta Guinness jumped off of a bridge. The same year, Dennys Guinness was found dead from an overdose, while a car wreck killed one of John Guinness's sons. Another Guinness relation, Olivia Channon, suffered a fatal drug overdose in 1986. Robert Hesketh, married to a Guinness descendent, also passed from an overdose in 2004.
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  (#9) The Suicide Of Ernest Hemingway's Father Was The First In A Long Series

  Clarence Edmonds Hemingway died by his own hand at his home in 1928. His would be only the first in a series of self-inflicted deaths within the Hemingway family tree: his son, the writer Ernest Hemingway, also claimed his own life at age 62. Ernest's younger brother, Leicester, took his life in 1982.

  Their sister, Ursula Hemingway, suffered a fatal overdose in 1966. The granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, actor and author Mariel Hemingway, was born after Ernest's death. Mariel grew up with alcoholic parents, but she managed to make a name for herself and pursues a healthy lifestyle to keep mental illness at bay. Mariel's mother, Byra, passed from cancer in 1988. Her older sister, Margaux, fought depression and addiction throughout her life, and her drug dependence ultimately led her to overdose at age 41. Mariel explores her family's grim legacy in a memoir and documentary film. 

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