Posted on 07/18/2006 9:54:03 AM PDT by ncountylee
Late on the night of July 18, 1969, a car went off a bridge on Martha’s Vineyard. With a young senator from Massachusetts, Edward Kennedy, at the wheel, the Oldsmobile sank into the water beneath the Dike Bridge.
In a sequence of events that instantly became famous, Senator Kennedy escaped from the submerged vehicle and swam to shore. By 2:30 a.m. he had made his way back to his hotel in Edgartown, where he was sighted in the lobby. He made 17 phone calls to family members and associates. But not until 10 hours after the accident did he call the police to tell them about the car crash—and the other person in the car, who had died.
Senator Kennedy had not been alone. Riding alongside him had been a young woman, not his wife, named Mary Jo Kopechne. She had been sitting next to him as they drove away from a party, and as they crossed Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island the accident ended her life. It would haunt the rest of Kennedy’s career.
After President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and then the killing of Robert F. Kennedy, Ted Kennedy was regarded as the next standard-bearer of America’s foremost political family. With the 1972 presidential election approaching, many, including some of President Richard M. Nixon’s advisers, expected the youngest Kennedy brother to make a bid for the White House. As the details of the events at Chappaquiddick slowly emerged, however, they significantly weakened his prospects.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanheritage.com ...
You mean - had he stood up like a man and put some value on her life? He could have called for help, but I suspect he was too drunk to put on a convincing performance at the time -- ie, he had to sober up.
LOL
The "Boiler Room Girls" were the female members of Senator Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign staff. Six of them were:
Rosemary "Cricket" Keough: is partner in a Lincoln, Massachusetts law firm with husband Paul Redmond
Mary Ellen Lyons and her sister Nance Lyons: both are practicing lawyers in Boston
Esther Newberg: is a New York literary agent
Susan Tannenbaum: is a lobbyist for Common Cause in Washington, D.C. and is married to a Washington lawyer
Mary Jo Kopechne: died at age of 28 on Chappaquiddick Island in 1969 in an accident involving U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, who pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident
'zachry! had he been a man and did his best, he'd have a lot less to worry about now...
That was the story he told, yes. But it wasn't missing, it was part of the theory.
hey my wife's daughter was at the field this day, and because fat boy showed up the children were not allowed on the field or to visit behind the green monster (fat boys security) as they had planned on when setting up the field trip. they were bummed
He wasn't fat then, remember. I think they both had been drinking. He undoubtedly just saved himself and, worrying about the alcohol level and bad press, waited 10 hours to get his story straight. Sad for her, though, and her family.
He should have died in prison anyway. And not for Watergate.
I remember those days well. The Kennedy-loving crowds were pushing Teddy's candidacy for President as their last, best hope of the Camelot legacy. The Chappaquiddick incident saved the country from having Teddy as President.
And the people he talked to during those 17 calls aided and abetted this crime as well.
My memory of it was that there was question at the time as to how Mary Jo had died: from drowning, or from suffocation.
Since the Kennedy family pressured/bribed the Kopechne family to refuse to allow an autopsy to be performed on Mary Jo, the mode of death was never formally determined, nor her blood alcohol level.
However, as someone posted above, the police diver who recovered Mary Jo's body eventually told a researcher, Leo Damore, that Mary Jo had probably survived for some hours by holding her head in a air pocket.
The police diver believed the evidence showed she had died of suffocation (as air left in the pocket was gradually replaced by her exhaled carbon dioxide).
Damore wrote about this in a book titled Senatorial Privilege: The Chappaquiddick Cover-Up.
As for the "investigation," IIRC there was an ONLY an inquest. NO trial. Kennedy did testify at the inquest -- in his neck brace, of course. But since no autopsy evidence existed to be presented, the timid examiner was able to skirt a lot of hard questions.
As far as I remember, Kennedy wasn't charged with much more than reckless driving, if even that. I believe he merely lost his driver's license for a few months.
Not meaning to disparage the dead, but Mary Jo is an example of what could happen to gullible, young single women when they head starry-eyed to Washington to work for politicians.
Drowning would have been a much quicker death for Kopechne. The diver who recovered her body says she suffocated. Most likely she survived in that air pocket in the back for several hours before dying.
BTW, if Tom Delay had been the perpetrator instead of Fat Teddy, you can bet your life that the media and legal treatment of the incident would have been VERY different....in fact, the media would STILL be yammering about it today.
No he named the dog after the sound of an ice cube going into a glass of scotch.
Great job!
"Chappaquiddick Exit Strategy" bump!
A couple of weeks ago I saw Larry the Cable Guy promoting his new annimated movie "Cars." He said it was real cool, no people just cars that drive themselves. He said he sent three of them to the Kennedys.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.