Nearly two decades have passed since the car driven by Senator Kennedy plunged off Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island. In the intervening nineteen years, Kennedy has seen the specter of that mishap haunt, frustrate, and finally foil his presidential ambitions. Not even the Kennedys' daunting political weight has been able to suppress the questions left, until now, unresolved by the official investigations into the accident: Why was a married United States Senator with Miss Kopechne in a remote part of Chappaquiddick Island? Why did he flee--how could he flee--an accident scene while she remained trapped, suffocating, in a car beneath the waters of Poucha Pond? And why did he not report the accident to the police until 10 a.m. the following morning?
What had begun in effervescence--six unmarried "Boiler Room" girls (former workers on Robert Kennedy's campaign staff) and six married men, partying in a rented cottage--had ended in tragedy Chappaquiddick shook the Kennedy dynasty to its very foundations, ending perhaps forever the presidential dreams of Ted Kennedy. Yet, on a deep and human level--the level of crime and punishment, of right and wrong--Chappaquiddick also came to symbolize cover-up, incompetence, and ruthless, raw power, a cruel travesty of justice.
Here, for the first time, are the words of Joe Gargan, Kennedy's cousin, co-host of the Chappaquiddick party, and trusted operative of the Kennedy clan, who finally decided that he had protected Ted Kennedy long enough. Gargan gives his candid recollections of the night of the party, and provides an eye-witness account of the initial attempts to rescue Mary Jo. Here, also, is a detailed report of how Kennedy, his high-powered lawyers, and his public relations counselors were able not only to contain investigations into the accident and Kennedy's conduct afterward, but to cover up numerous facts and implications in order to shield Kennedy against legal and even moral accountability
In seeking the answers to the many questions that surround the Chappaquiddick incident, Leo Damore conducted over 200 interviews, many with people close to the case--including police officers--who had never before spoken to the press. He had access to the files on Chappaquiddick locked in the district attorney's vault in Barnstable, and to personal notes about the case kept by key investigators of the accident. The result of his meticulous research is Senatorial Privilege, the true story of what really happened during those dark hours at Poucha Pond, and, over the months ahead, in the world of the Kennedy compound, as a massive apparatus of power and influence schemed and plotted to assure for Ted Kennedy life-after-Chappaquiddick's-death.
Thanks for the ping! That man is one sick puppy! I don't understand how he keeps getting re-elected--even if he is a Kennedy! The people of Mass. can't be that immoral as a whole--can they?
gonna get that book.