Posted on 07/18/2009 12:31:44 PM PDT by mover631
Sometime around midnight, on July 18, 1969 Kennedy drove his Oldsmobile 88 off of a small bridge on Chappaquiddick island, into eight feet of chilly water. The vehicle landed upside-down. While Kennedy managed to free himself from the wreck and swim to safety, his passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne was left in the car to drown.
Once he reached shore, Kennedy claims to have made seven or eight attempts to rescue Kopechne, but could not free her.
Kennedy then walked back to the cottage where he and four other men, were partying with several young women known as the “Boiler Room Girls“ who had worked on Robert Kennedy‘s campaign. Though Kennedy passed by a fire station and a private home to return to the cottage, he never stopped to ask for help for the trapped Kopechne.
He returned to the party and according to Kennedy himself, informed his cousin and a friend of the situation. The two men, Joseph Gargan and Paul Markham claim to have returned to the scene of the accident and made several unsuccessful attempts to free Kopechne.
Then Kennedy’s story takes an even stranger turn.
After the failed rescue attempts, Kennedy claims to have jumped back into the water and made the 500-foot swim across the channel back to Edgartown. He then walked back to his hotel and spent the night. He even took the time to change clothes and pay a visit to the front-desk, to complain about a noisy party--no doubt Kennedy's sloppy attempt at securing an alibi.
The next morning, Gargan and Markham around 8:00 a.m., and were supposedly shocked to discover that Kennedy never reported the accident to police. According to Kennedy‘s own testimony, he told them: "about my own thoughts and feelings as I swam across that channel ... that somehow when they arrived in the morning that they were going to say that Mary Jo was still alive"
The two men along with Kennedy went back to Chappaquiddick, where Kennedy spent some time making phone calls, seeking advice from various individuals as to how to proceed.
Meanwhile, two fisherman had discovered the submerged car and notified police. At 8:45a.m. a diver recovered the lifeless body of Mary Jo Kopechne.
It was not until 10a.m., over nine hours after driving-off of the bridge that Ted Kennedy went to the police station in Edgarton to report the accident.
Kennedy then gave the following prepared statement to police: “On July 18, 1969, at approximately 11:15 p.m. in Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, I was driving my car on Main Street on my way to get the ferry back to Edgartown. I was unfamiliar with the road and turned right onto Dike Road, instead of bearing hard left on Main Street. After proceeding for approximately one-half mile on Dike Road I descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge.
The car went off the side of the bridge. There was one passenger with me, one Miss Mary [Kopechne], a former secretary of my brother Sen. Robert Kennedy. The car turned over and sank into the water and landed with the roof resting on the bottom. I attempted to open the door and the window of the car but have no recollection of how I got out of the car. I came to the surface and then repeatedly dove down to the car in an attempt to see if the passenger was still in the car. I was unsuccessful in the attempt. I was exhausted and in a state of shock.
I recall walking back to where my friends were eating. There was a car parked in front of the cottage and I climbed into the backseat. I then asked for someone to bring me back to Edgartown. I remember walking around for a period and then going back to my hotel room. When I fully realized what had happened this morning, I immediately contacted the police”
In a move which must have been rather tortuous for her parents, Kennedy attended Mary Jo's funeral, wearing a neck brace (which he reportedly never wore again) and looking rather pathetic.
The diver who recovered Kopechne’s body, John Farrar testified at the official inquest that her body was found where the air pocket would have formed. He said: “Had I received a call within five to ten minutes of the accident occurring, and was able, as I was the following morning, to be at the victim's side within twenty-five minutes of receiving the call, in such event there is a strong possibility that she would have been alive on removal from the submerged car.”
A week after the incident, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a suspended two-month sentence. Kennedy then went on national television to repeat his rather implausible story, and to ask for the public’s “prayers.”
The ensuing scandal and questionable details given by all of those involved is now left to speculation. It was obvious to most people that Kennedy had allowed a young girl to drown, in a desperate and self-serving attempt to protect his political career.
It was Bush’s fault...
He is a coward. His time in hell is coming. I hope he fries.
TEDDY GOT AWAY WITH THIS INCIDENT!
Will Teddy’s Healthcare be rationed?
How many Cardinals and Bishops will preside at his funeral?
I paaahked the caaah behind the baaah!
The Kennedy’s are another media creation.
While some of them were good people, many of them were not.
How Ted Kennedy ever got elected and became a Senator only shows just how powerful the media can be when they want someone elected.
He skated partially on sympathy for recent events before the accident.
Ted Kennedy should be up for Parole, not a Senator.
Perhaps all the drinking is his way of dealing with the guilt he’s felt all these years.
Must be tough to wake up in the middle of the night, hearing her screaming your name and begging you not to leave her behind.
No wonder he drinks himself into oblivion.
There’s a website on this that everyone should review. I do annually.
It’s clear that Mary Jo was alive for several minutes.
I’ve seen re-enactments of this. Imagine yourself half drunk... YOu drive your car into a lake... the car is upside down....
It’s dark and your disoriented.
I have no idea how Kennedy got out...
He either opened the door or rolled down the window...Or jumped out before the car went over....
I don’t think I would have the where withall in that instance to figure out where I was... etc.
There fore I think Kennedy was thrown out or bailed out of the car before hand..
There has been speculation that she was pregnant.
Was there any autotopsy done on her?
The family was paid off obviously...AS they have remained silent all these years...
If John Kerry were president, Mary Jo would still be alive today. /john-edwards
Of course, I was not even conceived yet, so I hope you'll forgive me.
It would be even better if he suffocated.
Let us always remeber this murderous act. Especially as the media and the Democrats and the RINO’s fawn over what a great man Ted Kennedy is/was.
Before OJ Simpson got away with murder, there was always Ted Kennedy. At least OJ stood on trial for his crimes.
This shit is sickening every single way.
It’s more revolting as the years pass. No justice.
International reporting on this story at the time claimed that Ted had passed out on the bank for 10 hours. A far cry from the story that we were force fed. I tend to believe the former.
Hope the swimmer enjoys eternity.
That comes later.
Whatever Satan has in store, I'm sure the sensation of constant suffocation will play a big part...
I simply cannot comprehend what goes on in your minds.
This article isn't quite the way the Royal Idiot, His Excellency the Duke of Delmont, Sir Rhosis of Liver, Count of Cutty, Baron of Beer, Chivas of Regal, and Captain of the S.S. Oldsmobile, recalls things.
Of course, after decades of overusing ethanol brainwash, the proud Inventor of the Waitress Sandwich doesn't remember much of anything these days.
Of course poor Teddy had to change. He wet his pants.
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