Channel 5 - The Kennedys: A Fatal Ambition (2018)

On Friday night, while I was waiting for the 2020 Presidential Election result, I downloaded this documentary to watch.

Obviously, like many others, I was aware of the deaths of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, followed by a plane crash that U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy survived but killed one of his aides as well as the pilot then the "Chappaquiddick Incident", where Ted Kennedy accidentally drove his car off a bridge, resulting in the drowning death of 28-year-old passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.

This year, of course, Maeve Kennedy McKean, the granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, and Gideon McKean, her 8-year-old son, went missing during a canoe trip in the Chesapeake Bay and their bodies recovered later.

In between times, however, there were many tragic Kennedy deaths and incidents, as the documentary revealed.



A sad, sad, story but only one of the Kennedy's trials and tribulations, including:

• Deaths
• August 12, 1944 – Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. died when the BQ-8 aircraft he was piloting accidentally exploded over East Suffolk, England.
• May 13, 1948 – Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy (formally known as Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington) died in a plane crash in France.
• April 25, 1984 – David A. Kennedy died of a drug overdose in a Palm Beach, Florida hotel room.
• December 31, 1997 – Michael LeMoyne Kennedy died in a skiing accident in Aspen, Colorado.
• July 16, 1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr. died when the plane he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. The crash was attributed to pilot error and spatial disorientation. His wife and sister-in-law were also on board and also died.
• August 1, 2019 – Saoirse Roisin Kennedy Hill, granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, died of an accidental drug overdose at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts on Cape Cod.

Other incidents

• October 3, 1955 – Ethel Kennedy's parents, Ann and George Skakel, died in a plane crash in Oklahoma.
• August 13, 1973 – Joseph P. Kennedy II was the driver of a Jeep that crashed and left his passenger, Pam Kelley, paralyzed. Fellow passenger brother David A. Kennedy was injured.
• April 1, 1991 – William Kennedy Smith was arrested and charged with the rape of a young woman at the Kennedy estate in Palm Beach, Florida. The subsequent trial attracted extensive media coverage. Smith was acquitted.

There were many more misfortunes which were not revealed in the documentary but, even so, I was left thinking "If I was a Kennedy, would I be wondering 'Am I next?'" .....

One to watch if it comes your way .....

Inevitably, that part of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country” was included - words which inspired a generation .....