Suicide Adds to History of Kennedy Misfortunes

BEDFORD, N.Y. (AP) -- Every family has its share of pain and triumph. And then there are the Kennedys.



America's great political dynasty is grieving again after Mary Richardson Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert Kennedy Jr., hanged herself Wednesday at the family's 10-acre estate in suburban New York.



Her death, at age 52, came as a shock to some friends and family, even though the past two years had been undeniably tough ones. The couple was going through a divorce, and Mary had been charged twice with driving while intoxicated in 2010.



But Victoria Michaelis, a friend since Mary's college days, said she hadn't seemed suicidal, or crippled by the alcohol problems that briefly landed her in the headlines two springs ago.



"She was definitely suffering, but she was very, very spiritual and a resolute Catholic," Michaelis said. "I'd say she was depressed the last two years since the divorce. But she would put that aside and ask you how you were. I saw her a couple of weeks ago, and she was fine."



Her death resonated, too, with a public that has watched tragedy march through the ranks of the Kennedy clan again and again.



"I think every family has its tragedies. But this is too much," said Kim O'Connell, who dropped off a bouquet of Calla lilies at the family's home in Bedford on Thursday morning. She had met Robert and Mary only a few times, while working at their health club, but felt a connection anyway. "I just thought she was just a lady. I woke up this morning, and I wanted to do something."



Mary Kennedy had lived much her life at the edge of the spotlight that shines on the Kennedy family. An architectural designer with New Jersey roots, she met her estranged husband's sister, Kerry, in boarding school when they were still teenagers and had stayed close to the clan through the decades before marrying Robert in 1994.



Robert is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, the former U.S. attorney general who was slain in 1968 while running for the Democratic presidential nomination, and the nephew of assassinated President John F. Kennedy and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.



Mary was RFK Jr.'s second wife, and she entered the family in less than storybook circumstances.



When they married, she was already pregnant with their first child, and Kennedy was only weeks removed from the divorce of his first wife.



Yet the wedding had the usual Kennedy touch of romance and politics. The ceremony was held aboard an environmental research vessel on the Hudson River, which Robert had been fighting to protect as an attorney with the environmental group, Riverkeeper.



The couple's fourth child -- Robert's sixth overall -- was born while he was serving a 30-day jail sentence for trespassing on U.S. Navy property to protest bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island Vieques.



She had been with the family long enough to become a partner in its rituals of grief.



She was there when the clan buried Michael Kennedy, killed in a New Year's Eve skiing accident in 1997, and John F. Kennedy Jr., who died in a plane crash in 1999.



"Mary married into the family. But, believe me, the Kennedys don't marry into your family, you marry into their family. So you're transformed when you marry into their family," said Laurence Leamer, author of the book "The Kennedy Women."



"And she was truly a Kennedy," he added. "She was a Kennedy in her interests. Her husband is one of America's leading environmentalists. So was she."



In recent years, police in Bedford had been called several times to the family's home. Twice in 2007, Robert told police that he was afraid his wife would try to hurt herself, according to records obtained by The Journal News for a 2010 report about the series of disturbances.



Police have said almost nothing about the circumstances of the death, but the Westchester County medical examiner's office said after an autopsy Thursday that she died of asphyxiation due to hanging.



A person familiar with the investigation into her death says that authorities have concluded that her death was a suicide. The person was not authorized to release the information and spoke on condition of anonymity.



Neither side of her family has discussed her manner of death publicly, but released statements noting her "gentle soul and generous spirit," her work advocating environmentally responsible building designs, and her deep love for her children.



"It's a terrible and tragic time for Mary, her family, and, perhaps most importantly, for Bobby and Mary's children, Conor, Finny, Kyra, and Aidan, and for all of us who loved her," said a brother-in-law, former U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II. "We appreciate the expressions of condolence and ask for privacy during this difficult time."



Political historian Thomas J. Whalen said he thinks the whole notion of the Kennedys being cursed is largely created by the media, but said that is the perception many Americans have of the family.



"There's no curse. It's just foiled family ambition, risk taking and bad luck," he said. "It's a large family. Things happen in large families, both good and bad."



Mary Kennedy grew up in Hoboken, N.J., the daughter of a professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology. She had two brothers and four sisters.



She was active for years with the Boys & Girls Club in Mount Kisco, volunteering for the club's annual fundraising dinner and hosting its Youth of the Year awards at her home.



With one of her children battling severe allergies, she co-founded the Food Allergy Initiative, billed as the world's largest private source of funding for food allergy research, and appeared with her family at its annual ball at Manhattan's Waldorf Astoria

The Ravisher: Edward Haight

Not only was I shocked to learn of the Stamford "Bra Murders", I was shocked when I read about this Stamford teenager who became infamous in the 1940s: Edward Haight.

Accoring to Trutv, he is known as "One of the most reviled killers to ever sit on death row at Sing Sing". He was executed for his crimes, and here's why:

"His shocking story, which generated national headlines in the autumn of 1942, began in the tranquil village of Bedford in Westchester County. On September 15, 1942, two girls, Margaret Lynch, 7, and her sister Helen, 9 were seen getting into a Ford station wagon that was reported stolen in nearby Stamford, Connecticut. They were never seen alive again.

By late night, a massive search for the missing girls was conducted in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Hundreds of cops and volunteers, armed with shotguns, rifles and clubs scoured the countryside. Police investigation revealed that several other children had observed the same station wagon cruising in the area.

Soon, police located a young woman who said she was driving on the Merritt Parkway earlier that day when she experienced a scary incident with another motorist. She told police that a young man who was driving a Ford station wagon had forced her over to the side of the road. When she asked him what he wanted. The man replied, "I want you!" As the suspect tried to assault her, the woman's dogs, who were in the back of her car, tried to bite him. The man jumped back into his car and sped away. But she was able to provide police with a description.

The very next day, a Connecticut state trooper was driving along a road in north Stamford when he observed Edward Haight, 16, drive by in a small truck. The Haight family was well known to the police since they had many run-ins with local cops. When Haight was pulled over, police found a gas ration book from the stolen Ford station wagon in his pocket. He was taken into custody and soon confessed to the murder of both Lynch sisters.

Edward Haight took cops to the place where he disposed of the little girls after he tried to rape them. Helen's body was fished out of the Kensico Reservoir. Margaret had been strangled and her body was located in the woods near the reservoir. "I put a handkerchief in Margaret's mouth to stop her from screaming," he said. When he tried to rape her, the little girl fought and Haight mutilated her with a large hunting knife. With the body still in his car and Helen tied up in the trunk, he cruised into the village of Bedford to get some food. Haight then drove to a deserted wooded area and sexually assaulted Helen. He then placed the terrified girl under the car and drove over her several times, killing her. "I threw her off the bridge into the creek," Haight said, just as an ambulance drove by on its way to an unrelated car accident. Then he abandoned the stolen car in nearby Stamford and walked home.

Haight was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and locked up in the Bedford jail. At his arraignment the next day, Haight smiled and showed no remorse. He was talkative to reporters and freely gave out details of the crimes. On September 24, Haight pleaded not guilty in White Plains County Court. "It was hard to believe that the coverall-clad, black-haired youth was Edward Haight, self-confessed ravisher and slayer of two small Bedford girls 10 days ago in brutal crimes that rocked the nation!" said a story in a local newspaper.

During the trial, which opened on October 29, both the prosecution and defense psychiatrists offered conflicting opinions on the defendant's sanity. Haight had a wretched upbringing and lived in a place that was "as bad as a shack on a public dump" said one attorney. Meanwhile, the teenage killer alternately grinned, smiled and twiddled his thumbs in the courtroom. When the prosecutor held up photographs of the dead girls for the jurors, Haight actually broke out into a laugh. On November 5, Haight was found guilty of first-degree murder. "Edward Haight, still amused and apparently proud of his brutal, cold-blooded murder of two little girls, started down the last mile of his short life," said the Citizen's Register newspaper. Deliberations lasted less than one hour. As the guilty verdict was read, Haight smiled broadly at the jury. When his father came over to talk to him, Edward shrugged his shoulders and said "So what?"

He was taken immediately over to death row in Sing Sing. Ironically, Edward's father, Arnold Haight, once did four years at Sing Sing for a burglary back in 1932. Over the next eight months, Edward maintained an ongoing attitude of bravado and indifference. He lay in his bunk most of the day and spoke to almost no one. He ate vigorously though and gained over 50 pounds on prison food. When asked if he wanted anything, Edward said to the guards, "I'm not asking for nothing!"

But when he was interviewed on the day of his execution, he told reporters: "I was a fool. I don't know why I did it. I'm pretty sure this is my last day. And I'm only 17!" On July 8, 1943, he became the youngest person to be executed in Sing Sing's electric chair. His father was unable to claim his body and Edward Haight was buried in a plot of quick lime in nearby Peekskill."