What you might not know about the American author
Curses have been a feature of many different cultures throughout history. They aren't widely believed anymore, but when you hear the stories of these unfortunate families, it might make you think twice. Some of the most famous families in the world have suffered terrible tragedies for generations. We may look at them and think they're incredibly fortunate and privileged, but clearly money doesn't buy happiness or good luck. Click through the following gallery to see which families have been afflicted, and where the source of their bad luck may lie!
Centered around the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, the Presley family has been plagued by misfortune and tragedy for almost a century. Gladys Presley, Elvis's mother, died at the age of 46, Elvis died at the age of 42, and in 2023 Lisa Marie Presley, his only child, has died at the age of 54. The sad news broke on Jan. 12 after Lisa Marie was found unresponsive in her California home.
Heart disease and addiction have taken many lives in the Presley family. Gladys Presley died of a heart attack that was linked to liver failure caused by alcohol poisoning, Elvis died of cardiac arrest after prolonged abuse of prescription medications, and Lisa Marie (pictured) has now also died of a heart-related condition. She was also still grieving the death of her son, Benjamin Keough, who took his own life in 2020 at the age of 27.
In addition to the many untimely deaths to occur in the Presley family over the decades, they have also suffered financially. Elvis came from a poor background and his father spent a brief period in jail for forging a cheque. Despite becoming the top-selling solo artist in history, Elvis was financially abused by his manipulative manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
Lisa Marie was the sole heir to his estate and inherited US$100 million, which she entrusted to her own business manager, Barry Siegel. After years of being reassured that her fortune was in good hands, she discovered that Siegel had whittled it down to US$14,000. Priscilla Presley had to sell her home in 2019 in order to help her daughter with her debts.
The misfortune of the Kennedy family is well known, but the tragedies and scandals go far beyond the high-profile cases.
The most famous examples are the assassinations. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. His brother, Robert F. Kennedy, was also assassinated during his run for president in 1968.
Historically, the family also has terrible luck with air travel. Two of JFK's siblings were killed in plane accidents decades earlier. His brother died when his plane mysteriously exploded during WWII, and his sister died when her plane crashed into a mountain.
In 1999, JFK's son John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, all died in a plane crash at sea. Beyond the planes, there were deadly skiing accidents, drug overdoses, car crashes, and more.
The family who created the famous Irish stout have obviously amassed great wealth, but they've also suffered greatly over the generations. Most recently it was 19-year-old Honor Uloth, who died on August 6, 2020 in a swimming pool accident. But the family curse started long before.
The founder and creator of the Guinness brewery, Arthur Guinness had 21 children, but only 10 survived into adulthood. He didn't live long enough to see it, but many of his children and grandchildren became alcoholics or ended up in psychiatric hospitals.
One of his descendants, Lord Moyne, was assassinated in Cairo in 1944 by a terrorist group called the Stern Gang. This was when the public first started to speculate about a 'Guinness curse.'
The family continued to experience a series of mysterious deaths and tragedies, including the death of Tara Browne in a car wreck. He was a friend of John Lennon and his death inspired the song 'A Day in the Life.'
The Grimaldis were a powerful family in history who would go on to be the rulers of Monaco. Their curse began with Prince Rainier I. It's said that he raped a young girl who later became a witch. She supposedly used her powers to curse him and ensure he would never find happiness in marriage.
It seems that the curse affected many of his ancestors as well! Prince Louis I's wife Catherine-Charlotte left him to become the mistress of King Louis XIV of France. Many other Monaco royals were left by their wives and experienced infidelities.
Tragedy struck again in recent history when Grace Kelly, wife of Rainier II, tragically died in a car accident.
The tragic incident was traumatic for her daughters, but perhaps the curse also played a role in their lives. Princess Stephanie has had a notoriously troubled history with relationships. Her many scandalous affairs were widely reported. She married her bodyguard for a short time, and later ran away with the circus when she fell in love with an elephant trainer.
The curse on the Nepalese royal family is said to have begun when the first king of Nepal, Prithvi Narayan Shah, insulted an important yogi.
The legend says that the king met the yogi Gorakhnath while walking through the woods. The yogi offered him food, but the king rejected it. The yogi was outraged by this disrespect and declared that the kingdom would be destroyed after 10 generations.
It's likely that no one paid much attention to this prophecy throughout history. But on June 1, 2001, Crown Prince Dipendra opened fire on his family at the royal palace, killing his parents, two of his siblings, and seven other royal family members.
The Crown Prince Dipendra was part of the 10th generation of the Nepalese royal family, so many believe that this horrific massacre was the result of the yogi's curse.
Hollywood martial arts star Bruce Lee met an untimely death at the age of 32. His career was a little on the dangerous side, but his death was completely unrelated. He had an allergic reaction to some medication he took for a headache and died of a cerebral edema.
His son Brandon followed his father's footsteps and became an actor and martial artist. He sadly died at the age of 28, even younger than his father.
Brandon died while filming a scene that involved a prop gun. Somehow there was a mix-up and he was shot with a real bullet. Both father and son lost their lives in freak accidents.
The name Rockefeller is well known thanks to the family's enormous wealth. John D. Rockefeller was the world's first billionaire, and it's speculated that this made him a lot of enemies.
Tragedy first struck when his great niece killed herself and two of her children by locking them in the garage with two running cars.
The most famous disaster in the family was when Michael Rockefeller, the heir to the fortune, died on a trip to New Guinea. It was assumed that he drowned when his boat capsized, but evidence was later found that he may have made it to shore only to be eaten by cannibals.
Two decades later, John D. Rockefeller III died in a three car pileup. The family has continued to experience a series of disasters including plane crashes and scandalous infidelities in the public eye.
The Von Erichs were a family of professional wrestlers in the United States. The first was Jack Adkisson, who took on the character Fritz Von Erich. It was a villainous Nazi persona, and many believe that he was cursed by the ghost of a Holocaust survivor for making light of Nazism.
The family experienced such terrible tragedies that they became known as the "Kennedys of Wrestling." Fritz Von Erich had six sons, and the tragedies began when his youngest son died in a freak accident at the age of six.
In 1984, his son David was found dead in a hotel room. It was ruled an accident, although the circumstances were strange. Two of his other sons later committed suicide.
By the time Fritz Von Erich died, he only had one surviving son: Kevin. If curses don't really exist, then it seems that some families just experience far more than their fair share of tragedy.
Sources: (The Delite) (Independent) (New Idea) (Fact Republic) (Grunge)
The Presleys, Kennedys, and other famously cursed families
Some of the most privileged families in history have had the worst luck!
CELEBRITY Mystery
Curses have been a feature of many different cultures throughout history. They aren't widely believed anymore, but when you hear the stories of these unfortunate families, it might make you think twice. Some of the most famous families in the world have suffered terrible tragedies for generations. We may look at them and think they're incredibly fortunate and privileged, but clearly money doesn't buy happiness or good luck. Click through the following gallery to see which families have been afflicted, and where the source of their bad luck may lie!