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

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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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  (#2) Legend Says The Grimaldi Family Was Cursed By Witches

  Grimaldi was once one of the most powerful families in Genoa, eventually becoming lords of Monaco in the 15th century. In the 13th century, however, a witch supposedly cursed the Grimaldi name as recompense for a vicious act committed by Lord Rainier I. According to the legend, he assaulted a young girl, and she later learned the ways of witchcraft. She used her knowledge of the dark arts to ensure no Grimaldi would ever find happiness in marriage.

  This curse may have manifested into something far more sinister, considering that Princess Grace, the wife of Prince Rainier II, passed in a 1982 car crash. Her daughter Stephanie, who survived the incident, endured one failed marriage and several other failed relationships later in life. Grace's other daughter, Caroline, also had a tumultuous love life, with an early divorce, a second husband who died in a speedboat accident, and a third husband (a prince) with a reputation for aggression and medical problems.
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  (#3) The Von Erich Family Curse Left Only One Surviving Son

  In the 1950s, wrestler Jack Adkisson created his sinister alter ego, Fritz Von Erich, and began what would become a successful career in the sport. The Von Erich family curse began during this time, in 1959, when Jack's six-year-old son was lost in a bizarre electrical accident: knocked unconscious by a short circuit in his family's trailer park, he fell into a puddle and drowned.

  Jack's remaining sons went on to become successful wrestlers, though they, too, suffered unfortunate fates: David Von Erich died suddenly in 1984 at age 26 during a wrestling tour in Japan, reportedly from acute enteritis of the upper intestine, though he was rumored to have mixed alcohol with a bottle of sleeping pills; Mike Von Erich, after shoulder surgery in 1985, contracted toxic shock syndrome, which he narrowly survived. He suffered from an altered mental state and sunk into poor mental health. He ended his own life in 1987 at the age of 23.

  In 1986, Kerry Von Erich was wounded in a motorcycle incident that led to the eventual amputation of his foot. After struggling with pain and drug addiction for years, he took his life in 1993 at age 33. The youngest son, Chris Von Erich, dealt with numerous health issues which ultimately overwhelmed him: he, too, ended his own life at age 22 in 1991. Six years later, Jack Von Erich succumbed to cancer of the brain and lungs.

  Doris, their mother, passed at age 82 in 2015. Kevin Von Erich is the only surviving member of the family.
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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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  (#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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  (#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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  (#7) The Wadiyar Royal Family Curse Played Out Almost Exactly As Promised

  Alamelamma, the wife of King Tirumalaraja - who ruled the Vijayanagar Empire before Wadiyar came into power - placed the Wadiyar curse on Raja Wadiyar of the Mysore Kingdom in the early 15th century when Wadiyar came in and took her husband's throne. Alamelamma fled, taking her jewels to the nearby town of Talakadu. When officials came to apprehend her, she spoke a three-part curse before jumping into the Cauvery River to end her life.

  The curse condemned Talakadu to become a "barren expanse of sand" and for Malangi, a village near the river, to "turn into an unfathomed whirlpool." The curse also condemned the kings of the Wadiyar family to "not have children for eternity." While events didn't play out exactly as Alamelamma asked, they came eerily close. Talakadu became a desert-like place (full of sand), the river near Malangi commonly sees whirlpools, and the Wadiyar family has only birthed male children in alternate generations, which has made it difficult for kings to have direct heirs.
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  (#8) The Agnelli Family Curse Eliminated Most Of Their Heirs

  The origin of the so-called "Agnelli Curse" is unknown, but the misfortune surrounding the family is significant enough that some have referred to them as the "Kennedys of Italy." Gianni Agnelli, born in 1921, became a wildly successful businessman in the automobile industry as the primary shareholder of Fiat, his grandfather's company. But with his riches seemed to come something sinister. 

  Gianni's father passed in a plane crash when Gianni was only a young teenager. In 1952, Gianni himself almost perished in an automobile crash but survived only to see his brother Giorgio pass at age 35. His aunt, Ancieta Nasi, died in childbirth, and his son, Edoardo, a drug addict known affectionately as "Crazy Eddie," ended his own life in 2000. The automobile genius even witnessed the loss of his nephew, Giovanni Alberto, from stomach cancer at 33. 

  The man himself succumbed to prostate cancer in 2003.
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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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  (#10) A World Of Riches Couldn't Stop The Getty Family Curse

  In 1957, J. Paul Getty found oil in the Middle East's Neutral Zone, which ballooned his bank account to 10 digits. Unfortunately, all that money couldn't save him from a life of tragedy. He lived through the self-inflicted end of his oldest son and the overdose of his daughter-in-law.

  Further, Getty's grandson, J. Paul Getty III, was kidnapped as a teenager by Italian gangsters in 1973. In 1981, a drug overdose and stroke left Getty III partially blind, paralyzed, and unable to speak. 

  The alleged curse reared its head again in 2015 when Andrew Getty - another grandson - died mysteriously.
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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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