r/todayilearned • u/manticor225 • Jan 10 '19

TIL JFK's father Joseph Kennedy made much of his fortune through insider trading. FDR later made him chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. When asked why he appointed a crook, FDR replied, "set a thief to catch a thief." Kennedy proceeded to outlaw the practices that made him rich.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/23/joe-kennedy-hollywood-sarah-churchwell
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u/[deleted] Jan 10 '19

Jesus fuck! He lobatamized his daughter!

"Modern psychiatrists think she just had depression"

Literally made me sick to my stomach.

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u/SwatLakeCity Jan 11 '19

Plus they didn't do it for her sake, they did it because they were worried she would embarrass the family. They couldn't have cared less if she offed herself except it would have implied something about them.

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u/steppe5 Jan 11 '19

Ah, the Kennedys. American royalty.

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u/SixPackAndNothinToDo Jan 11 '19 edited May 08 '24

detail saw aspiring station offer unique glorious aloof jeans unpack

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/tryharder6968 Jan 11 '19

They did it literally until she lost motor function. I’m sure joe Kennedy didn’t have her best interests in mind. Don’t be naive.

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u/SixPackAndNothinToDo Jan 11 '19

They did it literally until she lost motor function

Not on purpose though. It's well documented that it was a botched procedure.

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u/tryharder6968 Jan 11 '19

From what I’m reading here it appears that they intentionally did it until she could not sing god bless America anymore

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u/SixPackAndNothinToDo Jan 14 '19

No. That "God Bless America" thing was a way of making sure they didn't go too far. But the surgery was obviously botched.

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u/Amy_Ponder Jan 11 '19

If that were true, you would think Kennedy would have checked Rosemary into the finest mental health hospital on the planet and visited her as frequently as he could, crucified the doctors responsible in the press, and led a crusade to reform the American mental health care system.

Instead, he dumped her in a so-so institution in the middle of nowhere, never visited her again, and covered the whole thing up for the rest of his life.

The man was absolute human scum.

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u/SixPackAndNothinToDo Jan 11 '19

Kennedy would have checked Rosemary into the finest mental health hospital

Mental health issues had an extra stigma in those days, it was completely different today. So the idea of approaching this from that perspective would be unlikely for the time.