I remember quite clearly the drowning of Mary Jo. There were a lot of us very angry citizens. It was so, so blatent. Unless you were living then, it's a little difficult to understand the power of the Kennedy family, and the reverence the press had for them, especially Jack.
My father (USMC) was at the Pentagon in '60-'63. Our entire block in Woodbridge, VA was completely military. Officer across the street from us was JFK's copter pilot. He got shipped to Nam and was killed there. After my Dad retired in '65 (having also been in Nam) he told me that the pilot was shipped out because he had seen too much of Jack's philandering, etc. Also that he was given plenty of hazardous copter duty deliberately to lessen his chances of returning. As some of you know, the attrition rate for copter crews was pretty bad.
As most of you know, the attrition rate for the little people in the orbit of powerful people with bad habits is also pretty bad.
Your memory is cloudy. Kopechne didn't drown, she suffocated.