Rosemary Kennedy was the third child of Joe and Rosemary Kennedy (born 1918). Today she would be diagnosed with a learning disability and would be placed in special classes and given provisions to help with her difficulty.
In 1941, Joe Kennedy had her lobotomized, which tragically altered her life.
After the barbaric operation, Rosemary was put away for the rest of her life in a Catholic-run home for the mentally disabled, Saint Coletta.
Now there’s a new book out written by the niece of one the nuns that took care of Rose for 35 years.
Ed Kennedy gave himself a total liverbotomy and still managed nearly 47 years in the US Senate.
Hell, with a frontal lobotomy Rosemary still could have been a stellar democratic Congressional Representative or Secretary of State.
I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy
I’m not surprised the Kennedys would do something like that.
Too bad they didn’t give the gift of lobotomy to Ted and a few others.
She had the kennedy libido and he couldn’t have her acting like the boys now, could he? It had nothing to do with her being mentally slow.
80/60 hindsight.
How many were helped by the procedure? There is much evidence that many were.
Was she one of them? We will never know as, for good or bad, research on this and other types in physical intervention have been outlawed.
Now, electrodes that turn off parts of the brain to help in epilepsy and other mental illnesses have some effect, but only after the fact.
Often I think that science was safer under religious rule than it is under government rule.
I have to disagree with you about lobotomy helping anybody. They removed part of the brain, or scrambled it with knitting needles, so the person could no longer function. Symptoms would lessen as a side effect.
Where is there evidence of anybody post-lobotomy being fully functioning in society? Maybe I missed it?
If it worked, they’d still be doing it.
What they did to Rosemary was a crime and people should have gone to jail for crippling her for the rest of her remaining life.
Be sure to take a look at the link. There are a number of personal pictures taken of various Kennedys with Rosemary at Saint Coletta.
“…a dynasty’s darkest secret.”?
As horrible as this is, I bet there is something darker.
Teds’ liver was replaced with Rosemarys’ brain.
So tempted to say Rosemarys’ baby.
There never was a Kennedy born that was worth a shit. Rosemary seems to be the best of a sorry lot.
I always believed there was a special place reserved in hell for old Joe Kennedy…I hope he is still roasting.
The Kennedy;s were always good at hiding things that put the family in bad light. Mary Jo like Rosemary were such instances of the evil the Kennedy’s have done to people. How ironic though that the family was filled with one tragedy after another. What goes around comes around as they say.
They don’t call it the Kennedy Karma for their stellar human rights record.
By all accounts, Joe was an early Whitey Bulger.
Despite all the government jobs I gave Joe, trust me, this place is too good for that bastard.
This, from Wikipedia, will break your heart…
“We went through the top of the head, She had a mild tranquilizer…We just made a small incision, no more than an inch.” The instrument Dr. Watts used looked like a butter knife. He swung it up and down to cut brain tissue. As Dr. Watts cut, Dr. Freeman put questions to Rosemary. For example, he asked her to recite the Lord’s Prayer or sing “God Bless America” or count backwards….. “We made an estimate on how far to cut based on how she responded.” ….. When she began to become incoherent, they stopped.
In other words, Teddy came by his sleaze honestly…
I had always heard that one as “…a free bottle in front of me than a pre-frontal lobotomy”, but your version works too, I guess.
😉
Actually, I think they accidentally gave it to Ted instead.
Rosemary’s lobotomy was less intrusive that the lobotomy oswald gave Jack.
That is sickening. She looked pretty normal in the picture above. No sign of even depression on that smiling face. Has to be the worst thing somebody could do to a family member.
Thanks for posting that link.
“The Only Good Kennedy is a … Kennedy.”
“link” , h*ll! I meant thanks for posting that info.
🙂
No wonder there was a curse on this family, the horrible things they did.
Perhaps some investigation is in order for Joey Biden’s past mental health interventions.