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Revisiting Chappaquiddick After 35 Years
Human Events ^ | July 19, 2004 | Joseph Calandra, Jr

Posted on 07/19/2004 10:08:38 AM PDT by pilgrim

 

 

Revisiting Chappaquiddick After 35 Years


Posted Jul 19, 2004Thirty-five years after the night of July 18, 1969, when Ted Kennedy drove his Oldsmobile sedan off the side of a wooden bridge on Chappaquiddick Island on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., and left for dead Mary Jo Kopechne, the 28-year-old former secretary of his brother Robert F. Kennedy, in his submerged car, unanswered questions linger over the events of that fatal evening. Kennedy escaped the wreckage with a concussion and waited nine hours before reporting the incident to the police shortly after a young boy noticed the sunken car.

Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident, but no other charges were filed against the Massachusetts senator. Edgartown Police Chief Dominick J. Arena said that an examination of the evidence, shortly after the incident, showed that Kennedy could not be held legally responsible for Kopechne’s death.

Leo Damore, author of the best-selling 1988 book Senatorial Privilege: The Chappaquiddick Cover-Up (published by Regnery, a sister company of HUMAN EVENTS), described Chappaquiddick as “the most famous traffic fatality in the history of American politics. . . . The mysteries of the case continue to haunt Sen. Edward Kennedy’s [D.-Mass.] career. For many, Chappaquiddick stands as the single obstacle in his path to the Presidency.”

HUMAN EVENTS covered the aftermath of the fatal drowning in the weeks that followed the incident and concluded at the time that “the available evidence, in fact, suggests that Teddy, aside from his own statement that he dove repeatedly into the waters to retrieve Mary Jo Kopechne, did nothing else during this mysterious nine-hour interval to see that she received help. . . .

“While Kennedy has said he was ‘exhausted and in a state of shock’ after the accident, local officials found that he was not too shocked or exhausted to immediately call for his lawyer, Paul Markham, when he returned to the party at the Chappaquiddick cottage after the accident. The receptionist at his motel in Edgartown has also claimed the senator appeared ‘natural’ when he borrowed a dime from her to make a phone call two and half hours before he reported the accident to the police.”

The facts relating to the incident are as follows:



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: 35years; accidents; affair; anniversary; bushhater; camelot; chappaquiddick; chappaquiddickanniv; democrats; doublestandard; drunkdriving; imakennedy; kennedy; kennedylegacy; kennedys; kennedyscandals; kopechne; lyingliar; maryjokopechne; mediabias; murder; rfk; rfkennedy; robertfkennedy; senatorkennedy; senkennedy; shameofthesenate; sinkennedy; splashkennedy; swimmer; swimming; teddy; teddykennedy; tedkennedy
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To: longfellow
Whether the Kennedys murdered Marilyn or she was a suicide, her death is on their hands. Kicked to the curb.

It is an important question to learn if she was murdered. She was a prominent celebrity. If the head of state was willing to have her knocked off, what does that say for us "nobodies"?

61 posted on 07/19/2004 1:00:46 PM PDT by weegee (Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them. ~~Ronald Reagan)
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To: 1Old Pro
Found it, it was a '67 olds 88

The car in fact belonged to his mom Rose Kennedy and was towed from the pond, kept at a garage and crushed - all in short order.

No evidence - no crime

62 posted on 07/19/2004 1:01:14 PM PDT by ninonitti
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To: weegee

check out Boss of Bosses. great read and Giannconna says the mob did it .


63 posted on 07/19/2004 1:07:38 PM PDT by longfellow
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To: Tacis

You forgot the sarcasm notice.


64 posted on 07/19/2004 1:13:43 PM PDT by freeplancer
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To: longfellow
it's too bad he didn't drive Marilyn home when his brothers were done with her.

Unfortunatly, Marilyn met with another type of demise, and in my opinion, it wasn't sucicide. The Kennedy machine and the liberal press (yes, even in those days they covered for the Kennedy's..they all know about Marilyn) went into high gear at that time as well.

65 posted on 07/19/2004 1:14:32 PM PDT by LisaMalia (In Memory of Sgt. James W."Billy" Lunsford..KIA 11-29-69 Binh Dinh S. Vietnam)
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To: weegee

Bobby was in LA the day that Marilyn died, but had an airtight alibi courtesy of friends in the area he was "staying with". She had threatened a newsconference for the following Monday, finally sick and tired of being used and abused by the Kennedy brothers.

Giananca had no reason to kill Marilyn, and if he would have, the body would have never been found. Besides, that would have been doing the Kennedy's a favor, and at that point he hated them (especially Bobby) for turning on the mafia after they fixed the presidential election for Jack.

What a perfect target for murder, a depressed megastar who was already hooked on pills. Not too many people thought twice when she ended up dead. She played right into the Kennedy boys hands.


66 posted on 07/19/2004 1:30:50 PM PDT by LisaMalia (In Memory of Sgt. James W."Billy" Lunsford..KIA 11-29-69 Binh Dinh S. Vietnam)
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To: 1Old Pro

I don't know whether you could find a woman willing to ride in the car made up zombie style in what would probably be hot weather... but it would certainly draw attention.


67 posted on 07/19/2004 1:47:32 PM PDT by jejones
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To: pilgrim
We need Teddy on the US Olympic swimming team. Instead of a platform he can dive in from an Oldsmobile. Just like old time, eh Ted?

Disgusting bag of whale poop alert.

68 posted on 07/19/2004 1:53:18 PM PDT by timydnuc ("Give me Liberty, or give me death"!)
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To: EX52D
Amazing - if a "similar" incident had happened to any "average citizen", they would still be in prison...

The truth is so simple - even for someone who was only 2 days old at the time of this accident murder. Teddy had been drinking (24/7 activity), and drove into the water - and waited so long to make sure she was dead - she couldn't testify to his not trying to help her....

Did ole' Teddy have another reason to murder this young lady - quite possible, but that part isn't quite as simple....

Why this sick drunk has been re-elected so many times is a true puzzle to me - how could even people of Mass. be THAT blind and stupid? Probably the pork he brings home.

Amazing how the representation of "justice" is a blindfolded woman holding scales - when this case just proved, even 35 years ago, that justice is definitely NOT blind.

69 posted on 07/19/2004 2:30:50 PM PDT by TheBattman
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To: weegee
In New England towns have a "town meeting" not a city council. A board of selectmen and a manager sort of run the town, but anything like this has to be voted on by all the voters who show up at a town meeting. Chappy is, as best I can tell, trying assiduously to make the whole thing go down the memory hole.
70 posted on 07/19/2004 4:08:49 PM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Ideas so stupid only intellectuals could believe them.)
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To: pilgrim

are there more links on this subject from today?


71 posted on 07/19/2004 6:33:20 PM PDT by satchmodog9 (Murder and Weather are our only news.)
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To: pilgrim

"When I find myself....fallin for some girl.....I put her in that car of mine and take her for a whirl.......cause I'm a filanderer...yes a filanderer... it spins around and round and round and round and round....."


72 posted on 07/19/2004 8:36:35 PM PDT by Saints fan
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To: satchmodog9

http://www.ytedk.com/
http://www.google.com/search?q=Chappaquiddick+%2B+kennedy&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1


73 posted on 07/19/2004 8:46:28 PM PDT by Saints fan
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To: El Gran Salseron

You are so right, Fattie got away with murder, the Judgement Day will not have a bunch of Rat Lackies scrambling to save teddie's huge arse...he will no doubt burn to a crisp.


74 posted on 07/19/2004 10:14:44 PM PDT by Lewite (Praise YAHWEH and Proclaim His Wonderful Name, His Son Yahshua Messiah is coming soon!)
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To: BJungNan

You're right, anyone but the rich, powerful, and famous. But he will get his in the end. I'm sure that there is a nice hot furnace waiting for him when he leaves this world and meets his maker.


75 posted on 07/20/2004 4:24:12 AM PDT by fredhead (War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it - Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman)
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To: jejones
I don't know whether you could find a woman willing to ride in the car made up zombie style in what would probably be hot weather... but it would certainly draw attention.

Perhaps just put it on a car trailer and tow it. I'll bet a '67 wreck could be found at the Lewiston sp? junk yard.

76 posted on 07/20/2004 6:35:02 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: jejones
I don't know whether you could find a woman willing to ride in the car made up zombie style in what would probably be hot weather... but it would certainly draw attention.

Perhaps just put it on a car trailer and tow it. I'll bet a '67 wreck could be found at the Lewiston sp? (IT'S LEOMINSTER) junk yard.

77 posted on 07/20/2004 6:35:42 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: weegee
"There is no statute of limitations on murder."

As I understand it, unfortunately, because he pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident it blocks prosecution of him for any and all charges related to that death.

78 posted on 07/20/2004 9:10:43 AM PDT by El Gran Salseron (It translates as the Great, Big Salsa Dancer, nothing more. :-))
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To: 1Old Pro
"It may be sad, but it's also pathetic and shameful."

Agreed. I thought that "pathetic" and "shameful" were kind of a given. :-)

79 posted on 07/20/2004 9:13:25 AM PDT by El Gran Salseron (It translates as the Great, Big Salsa Dancer, nothing more. :-))
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To: Lewite

"Fattie got away with murder"

He sure did.


80 posted on 10/29/2004 12:36:07 PM PDT by gobucks (http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/classics/students/Ribeiro/laocoon.htm)
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