Rewriting History on Kennedy's Chappaquiddick Accident

usnews.com ^ | Aug. 30, 2010 | Paul Bedard

[Free ThinkerNY]

For many, the name Chappaquiddick conjures images of a drunken Sen. Edward Kennedy hitting on Mary Jo Kopechne in his Oldsmobile, losing control, and plunging into the water of Poucha Pond on Chappaquiddick Island, adjacent to Martha's Vineyard where President Obama was vacationing. Kopechne, a family friend, drowned; and Teddy fumbled for excuses about what happened.

Now, a year after Kennedy died, his lifelong biographer Burton Hersh, armed with fresh interviews with Kennedy's mistress at the time, tells Whispers that the whole July 1969 episode should have been handled as a simple crash, leaving the senator's legacy untainted. "It was a car accident," he says. "Ted was a terrible driver. He never paid much attention to where he was going."

"He took a tremendous blow on the head," says Hersh. In interviews following the crash, Kennedy displayed confusion and amnesia, he says.

"If the thing had been handled properly, the first thing they would have done is put him in a hospital. Then they would have said he was a victim of an auto accident and didn't know what he was doing and couldn't be held responsible for anything that happened really after that, which would have been a fair explanation," says author-journalist Hersh, who knew Kennedy since they were classmates at Harvard. "But instead, he felt terribly guilty about the whole thing ... tried to take responsibility and ... just confused the issue."

In Edward Kennedy: An Intimate Biography, Hersh adds some new details about the episode from Helga Wagner, Kennedy's then-girlfriend and "the love of [his] life," at least until he married his second wife, Victoria.

[rellimpank]

---you've got the wrong Hersch--- --, his lifelong biographer Burton Hersh,

[DoughtyOne]

Except for several things...

Teddy didn’t wander mindlessly around the countryside. He had the presence of mind to escape the car immediately. He walked home. He didn’t call anyone for ten to twelve hours. He didn’t get help for Mary Joe. He just stayed home until, of all things, he sobered up.

I don’t much care if the guy was having an affair, and I’m not trying to besmirch Mary Joe.

What I am saying, is that failing anything else, this man is the biggest asshole on record in Mass., considering he would have rather let some girl drown than expose himself as a drunken driver that may have put her life in danger.

Then he had to deal with the fact that he was more interested in keeping his nose clean, than keeping her alive.

The Kennedy family... what a pack of bottom-feeding losers.

Those who enable them and cover for them are second only to them, as the worst our nation has to offer.

[surrey]

Yeah, some amnesia and confusion that he was able to get from Chappy to Edgartown. That’s a pretty good swim.

[lady lawyer]

Now that’s funny.

[AU72]

While the Tedster was trying to get his story together, Mary-Jo had her head up in the remaining air pocket hoping for a rescue that never came.

[abb]

Accident? I call it negligent homicide.

[tx_eggman]

If the thing had been handled properly, the first thing they would have done is put him in a hospital.

Uh, right. He couldn't go to the hospital until his blood alcohol level returned to normal .. which is why he didn't go.

So as not to be totally negative in this post, I want to applaud Teddy for qualifying for his One Year Pin last week - alcohol free for a year, way to go Teddy!!!!

[kcvl]

Helga Wagner

******

Investigators found it difficult to understand why he was crossing Dyke Bridge when he said he was attempting to reach Edgartown which was in the opposite direction. They also could not understand why he was driving so fast on this unlit, uneven, road. They also could not work out how Kennedy escaped from the car. When it was recovered from the water all the doors were locked. Three of the windows were either open or smashed in. If Kennedy, a large-framed 6 foot 2 inches tall man could manage to get out of the car, why was it impossible for Kopechne, a slender 5 foot 2 inches tall, not do the same?

Local experts could not understand why Kennedy (and later, Markham and Gargan) could not rescue Kopechne from the car. It also surprised investigators that Kennedy did not seek help from Pierre Malm, who only lived 135 metres from the bridge. At the inquest Kennedy was unable to answer this question.

There were also doubts about the way Mary Jo Kopechne died. Dr. Donald Mills of Edgartown, wrote on the death certificate: "death by drowning". However, Gene Frieh, the undertaker, told reporters that death "was due to suffocation rather than drowning". John Farrar, the diver who removed Kopechne from the car, claimed she was "too buoyant to be full of water". It is assumed that she died from drowning, although her parents filed a petition preventing an autopsy.

[Jet Jaguar]

Senatorial Privilege by Louis Damore

[Venturer]

At the least it was manslaughter, at the worst cold-blooded murder.

[bill1952]

the whole July 1969 episode should have been handled as a simple crash, leaving the senator’s legacy untainted...

LOL! Why not portray him as a real hero who tried to save her?

[x]

The Kennedys have been Burton Hersh's bread and butter for 40 years.

He's not going to kill that golden goose any time soon.

(Sorry about the mixed metaphor.)

[Artemis Webb]

Re #39:

I stand corrected. :)

[MamaB]

Accident, my foot

[MIchaelTArchangel]

I guess one Whorevard classmate is as loony as another.

I guess Ms. Wagner doesn’t think Kennedy was an alcoholic because he did not drink as much as she?

I also love using drinking and whoring as diversions from doing “good” things in the Senate.

[truth_seeker]

In Orange County a man was just sentenced to 25 years to life, for 2nd degree murder, for a death which occured when he was driving while drunk.

It is NOT a faultless accident, when you act recklessly.

Kennedy got off easy. But money buys a certain kind of justice, then and now.

Today he MIGHT have been alcohol/drug tested IF an officer suspected such influence.

Today a family MIGHT sue in civil court for damages, but without a criminal trial, that would be difficult.

[kcvl]

Records show that Kennedy did not make any phone calls from the hotel. All his close political advisers confirm they did not receive calls from Kennedy that night. If they had, they would have told him to report the accident straight away. Kennedy made his first call (to Helga Wagner) a 8 a.m. the next morning.

Two friends of Kennedy, Ross Richards and Stan Moore, met with him in his hotel just before 8 o’clock. They reported that he appeared to be acting in a relaxed way and did not appear to be under any stress.

snip

Lieutenant George Killen, who investigated the case, was convinced that Kennedy had intended to have sex with Mary Jo in the car. He was drunk (evidence suppressed in court showed that Kennedy had consumed a great deal of alcohol that day).

http://tinyurl.com/234zvws

[maggief]