The name Chappaquiddick brings to mind the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, who was a campaign worker in the presidential campaign of Robert Kennedy. Kopechne was killed when the Senator drove his mother’s 1967 Oldsmobile Delmonnt 88 sedan off a bridge and into a channel after a booze party on Chappaquiddick Island, just off Martha’s Vineyard.

After Robert was murdered by Sirhan Sirhan in 1968, it was thought Ted Kennedy would surely run for president in 1972 and be the favorite. The incident became a national scandal and likely affected the Senator's decision not to run for president that year.

On this day in 1969 Kennedy, some of his cronies and a few of the Robert Kennedy boilerroom girls which included Kopechne, met at the Lawrence Cottage on the Chappaquiddick Island for a party where much liquor had been brought to the cottage. The party was intended was intended to be a reunion of those who had worked on his brother’s presidential bid in 1968.

Kennedy drove away from the party with Kopechne in his mother's car late in the evening. According to Kennedy, he planned to drive to the ferry landing but made a wrong turn onto an unlit road that led to Dyke Bridge, a wooden structure and drove over its side. The car plunged into tide-swept Poucha Pond. Kennedy was able to free himself and swim away from the vehicle, but Kopechne was not able to do so. Kennedy claims he tried to swim down to the car to reach her several times, then rested on the bank for several minutes before returning on foot to the party at the Lawrence Cottage.

Kennedy cousin Joseph Gargan and party co-host Paul Markham then returned to the pond with Kennedy to try to rescue Kopechne. Although there was a telephone at the Lawrence Cottage, amazingly nobody called for help. When their efforts to rescue Kopechne failed, Kennedy decided to return to his hotel. However, the Edgartown-Chappaquiddick ferry (which connects Chappaquiddick to the rest of the island) had shut down for the night. Kennedy swam across the 500-foot channel, back to Edgartown.

The next morning, the police recovered Kennedy's car and Kopechne’s body. Kennedy discussed the accident with several people, including his lawyer and Kopechne's parents, before discussing it with the police the next morning. Her death was ruled an accidental drowning, and no autopsy was performed.
Oddly the diver who brought the body up from the car said, unlike a typical drowning victim her lunbgs were not full of water bu rather a pink foam came from her nose, indicating the possibility she had lived in a bubble trapped in the rear of the car and she may have eventually died of asphyxiation.

Kennedy entered a plea of guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. He received a sentence of two months in jail, which was suspended. The sentence raised many eyebrows since the statute for the crime provided only for mandatory jail time and not the discretion of a suspended sentence. An Edgartown grand jury later reopened the investigation but did not return an indictment.

Many (including the riter) have not forgiven Kennedy for failing to save Kopechne, for not seeking help immediately, and for contacting not the police. In true Kennedy fashionhe called his lawyer first.

Kennedy later appeared on statewide television to present a sob story designed to resurect the ghosts of his fallen brothers to elicit sympathy for him. Here is trhe link for that forgetable televised speech: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/tedkennedychappaquiddick.htmOnly

Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne knows for certain what happened that night. Kopechne can’t talk and Kennedy won’t.

Was it murder? I doubt it.

Was it a boozy drive off a bridge? You bet it was.

The swim to Edgartown while half in the bag? What do you think?

I can only imagine this man with the responsibility to make serious decisions on anything. If he panicked on 7/181969, what would he have done on 9/11?

Ciao.......Moe