April 10, 1998
On June 18, 1969 Senator Ted Kennedy left a party being held on a tiny Massachusetts island called Chappaquiddick. He generously offered to give a secretary named Mary Jo Kopechne, who was a little tipsy, a ride home.
Ted was always an erratic driver, but this wrong turn was extreme even for him. Instead of the ferry, he headed in the exact opposite direction - toward the beach.
About a half-mile down the road rose an old wooden bridge bending off slightly to the left. Ted didn't see the bend. The Oldsmobile plunged into the eight-foot-deep tidepool below. Somehow Ted escaped but Mary Jo was trapped.
So what did Ted Kennedy do? Unfortunately, nothing.
He didn't call police until 10 hours later - by that time Mary Jo was long dead.
When the found Mary Jo, her face was pressed against the floor of the upside down vehicle, as if she'd been breathing from a small air pocket, hoping desperately for the rescue that never came.
The subsequent scandal destroyed Ted Kennedy's hopes of following in his brother's presidential footsteps.
Teddy, wearing his controversial neck brace, at the funeral Mass for Mary Jo Kopechne.