"Senator Kennedy killed that girl the same as if he put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger" - George Killen ~ State Police Detective - Lieutenant on the scene
Posted on 05/05/2006 8:21:14 AM PDT by churchillbuff
On July 18, 1969, a couple of nights before Neil Armstrong took that "giant step for mankind," Ted Kennedy took a turn onto a narrow bridge in Chappaquiddick. The passenger in his car that night was Mary Jo Kopechne, a pretty, blond Capitol Hill secretary, just about to celebrate her 29th birthday. The two events are inextricably linked in my mind because my husband, who was a correspondent for a British newspaper, instead of reporting on our glorious odyssey into space, ended up at police headquarters on Martha's Vineyard covering that sordid story.
In case you have forgotten or never knew the details, Ted and five of his pals and six women known as the "Boiler Room Girls" who had worked in Bobby Kennedy's presidential campaign, cut short by his assassination the year before, were weekending together. Afterward, the men claimed it was just a couple of days of innocent fun to thank the girls for their help, though the six guys were all married but partying without their wives, and the young women were all single. One of the "Boiler Room Girls" is now big-time New York literary agent Esther Newberg, who was Mary Jo's roommate for the weekend. Like everyone involved in the incident, Esther remains close-mouthed about what occurred.
What everyone testified at the time was that Kennedy and Mary Jo left the party before midnight. Kennedy said he was driving her back to the ferry to Edgartown, and took a wrong turn, though he was very familiar with the roads on the island. His car toppled off a narrow wooden-planked bridge, a bridge that is in the opposite direction to the road that led to the ferry but is on the way to the beach. The car landed upside-down in eight feet of water and, Kennedy claimed that after escaping, he tried unsuccessfully to rescue Mary Jo. He then staggered back to the party, called out his cousin Joe Gargan and his pal Paul Markham, to return to the scene. What he didn't do, inexplicably, was seek help in a lighted house only yards from the bridge or use the fire-alarm phone at a fire station he passed on the way back to the party.
Right from the start, the reporters who arrived at the scene were skeptical of his story, skeptical even of how he claimed he got back to Edgartown that night. Markham and Gargan said when they drove to the ferry landing — the ferry had stopped running by then — Kennedy took them by surprise by jumping in the water, and swimming across the channel towards Edgartown. They assumed, they said, he would report the accident that night to the police. Instead Kennedy went back to his hotel, ostensibly to change his clothes but instead, went downstairs to complain about a noisy party that was going on.
The next morning Markham and Gargan were waiting for Kennedy when he arrived at 9 A.M. on the first ferry. The ferry operator said Kennedy appeared to be in a jovial mood, but probably only until he was told that his car had been found. Only then did Kennedy return and report the accident.
Some reporters, primarily the foreign press, did ask tough questions. For example: Did Kennedy really swim back to Edgartown that night? No one saw him with wet clothes and my husband, for one, interviewed a young man who had tied up his rowboat at the Chappaquiddick dock on Saturday night. When he got there on Sunday morning, he said, it had been retied and with what he called a "land lubber's knot."
But the whole incident was overshadowed by the worldwide coverage of the moonwalk. Besides, all the people involved had, by midday, left Martha's Vineyard and headed home. When the police went to the cottage where the party had taken place, all they found were some washed Coca-Cola bottles. There was no one to interview and no one who would talk then — or ever. Besides, Kennedy was treated like Massachusetts royalty by the local police chief, Dominick Arena, who even gave up his office so that Kennedy could make telephone calls to advisers and lawyers in privacy.
It may have been the last time when a scandal was so under-investigated, so quickly dispatched — and the man involved seemed to get off so easily for what he had done. A week later, Kennedy, who arrived in court wearing a neck brace, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a two-month suspended sentence and a year's probation.
BTTT
I watched the whole story on the news as it unfolded. I was too young to be interested in politics then, but at that time I became a staunch Ted loather.
It is funny how few young people have any idea that this ever happened.
Wet Teddy is a disgrace. A disgusting human being that never paid for what he did.
Lots of facts here: http://www.ytedk.com/
May the swimmer ted k. rot in hell!
Justice will be served. It is inescapable. Edward Kennedy will have to face a higher authority. There is no way around it.....
What this story doesn't explain -- although it gives broad hints -- is that Kennedy wasn't in the car when it went over the edge. He had exited the vehicle earlier, when he realized a local law officer was about to catch him and Mary Jo parked and in a compromising situation.
Most likely, he told poor Mary Jo to drive back to the party alone. He then journeyed to the mainland either via ferry or via small boat and went to sleep in his hotel room. He didn't know about the accident until he returned to the island the next morning.
The greatest mystery of the case is, Why didn't he simply tell the truth of what happened? Maybe because he thought nobody would believe him? Or just sheer stupidity?
"Senator Kennedy killed that girl the same as if he put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger" - George Killen ~ State Police Detective - Lieutenant on the scene
EVerything you need to know about this sordid affair is here:
http://www.ytedk.com/
I was lucky enough to find a used copy at Amazon last summer. I could not put it down. What a fascinating story.
I assume the reason for this piece is because his son Patrick was stopped and released for crashing into a barrier in DC. He's pleading that he was returning to vote therefore claiming immunity.
No breath test given.
Like father like son
Someone needs to post that photo of the TIME magazine cover with Teddy K in the neckbrace.
I'd like to think that this couldn't happen again today.
I said I'd LIKE to think that.
I know our drive-by press probably still worships Kennedys, but don't you think bloggers and talk radio would at least express the absolute OUTRAGE this incident engenders?
The truth is, Kennedy all but killed her to try and save his career. Several feet of water blocked out Mary Jo's cries, but please choose to imagine that his one-weekend-stand adultery took place in a home where, due to Kennedy's drunken sexual frivolity, Mary Jo became trapped under a fallen chest of drawers or bookcase.
Imagine her screaming for help, that her chest feels like it's about to crush! Kennedy goes to get some friends, talks over the best strategy for lying that he wasn't near her when this happened, while in the background you hear Mary Jo crying for help, trying to cough, begging. Finally they decide he should be SEEN miles away around the same time, and away he goes to complain about a loud party OFF the island. Then, as Mary Jo's screams turn to gurgles, he takes off his clothes and lies down for a good night's sleep.
In the morning his "friends" tell him the news, and he plays distraught. Because that is exactly what happened. Miss Kopechne may have had a good 8 hours of air in that car before the oxygen became depleted. And this man has been reelected Senator of Massachusetts for decades.
He was returning to the capitol from where, home? Does he have a wife and did she see him leave? She didn't think his behaviour was odd?
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