– Charles Pierce, January 5, Boston Globe Magazine
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25 years later, Chappaquiddick remains mystery
Two important events happened 25 years ago this week. Man walked on the moon and Mary Jo Kopechne died near Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts. Ironically, the young woman’s death may well have had a bigger impact on the history of America and the world.
In the late 1960s Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D.-Mass.) could have had his party’s presidential nomination for the asking. With the ghosts of two murdered brothers and the attendant sympathy surrounding him, Kennedy had a reasonable expectation of becoming president.
Then came Chappaquiddick and the probable end of any possibility of Teddy Kennedy moving into the White House. Questions about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne remain unanswered.
She and five other women, all in their 20s and unmarried, attended a party in a rented cottage with Teddy and five other men. All the men, except for the 60-year-old chauffeur, were married, but none of their wives was present.
It was some party. Refreshments for the twelve included three half gallons of vodka, four fifths of scotch, two bottles of rum and two cases of beer. Kennedy denied he was under the influence when he and Miss Kopechne left the party together.
He said he took a wrong turn and drove his car into eight feet of water. He got of the car, returned to the party and brought two other men to the scene of the accident. When they were unable to rescue the girl, he told the others he would call the police.
He did not. Instead, he returned to his motel, spoke to an employee there, began making telephone calls to associates and went to sleep. All that time Mary Jo Kopechne remained in the car.
Possibly she could have been saved. The captain of the Edgartown, Massachusetts scuba team believes she may have stayed alive in an air pocket for several hours.
The next morning the car and the girl’s body were found. When Kennedy finally completed an accident report, he didn’t even know her name, referring to her simply as “Miss Mary ___.”
There was a conflict on what time the accident had occurred. A sheriff said he had seen Kennedy’s car hours after Kennedy said the accident occurred. The senator said he based his estimate on the clock of the rented car he was driving. When it was determined the car didn’t have a clock, Kennedy changed his story.
A grand jury investigated, but the results were already decided. Said the district attorney, “I feel sorry for him (Kennedy). What’s all this business about a conflicting statement? That’s nothing! Never mind the press. Never mind being president. Let’s save him.”
Senator Kennedy didn’t want the girl’s body exhumed for an autopsy. Fortunately for him, neither did the judge responsible for making the decision. Described as a “party-line Democrat of limited judicial gifts,” the judge maintained a bust of President Kennedy on display in his chambers.
The jury foreman later complained, “Things might have been different,” if the grand jury had been allowed access to necessary information, “but we couldn’t get our hands on it.”
Another member of the grand jury admitted, “We were dupes and boobs and let ourselves be manipulated. Nobody ever briefed us properly about what we could do.” Bragged the district attorney later, “There’s no question in my mind that the grand jury would have brought an indictment against Ted Kennedy for manslaughter, if I had given them the case.”
The senator gave a televised speech in which he denied any wrongdoing. The speech was so full of contradictions from what was already known that its author, Ted Sorensen tried to distance himself: “To the best of my knowledge there are no misstatements of facts.”
Attorney Melvin Belli was on target when he said, “The irony is, the public’s impression that the JFK autopsy was unsatisfactory, and now Teddy Kennedy’s female companion gets none. The Kennedy family is hiding the actions of those two days. They’ve gone around parading themselves as sponsors of the little people and yet that little person in the back seat of a car goes unexamined to the grave.”
The people of Massachusetts continue to keep Kennedy in the Senate, where he has long been a liberal pinup boy. As a member of the Judiciary Committee he’s allowed to pass judgment on lesser mortals like Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.
The truth of what happened at Chappaquiddick 25 years ago will never be known. It died with Mary Jo Kopechne.