TED KENNEDY DRIVES OFF DIKE BRIDGE, FEMALE COMPANION DROWNS
Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts (JFK+50) On July 18, 1969, a 28 year old woman named Mary Jo Kopechne* climbed into a 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 with Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts).
Although the Senator claimed the accident occurred "shortly after" he left a party at 11:15 p.m., Martha's Vineyard Deputy Sheriff Christopher Look later testified that he saw the couple in Ted's car near Dike Road about 4o minutes after midnight on July 19.
While the time frame is muddled, the result is not. The Senator drove his car off the Dike Bridge and into Pouche Pond. The Olds came to rest upside down and while Teddy was able to escape, Ms Kopechne was not.
Senator Kennedy said he made seven or eight unsuccessful attempts to rescue her. A scuba diver discovered Mary Jo's body inside the submerged vehicle at 8:45 a.m. John Farrar would testify that he found the body pressed up in the car where an air bubble had formed. It was estimated that she lived as long as two hours before her air ran out.
As for Ted, he would later write...
"That night has remained with me and (will) haunt me for the rest of my life."
Lorraine Boissoneault writes in Smithsonian Magazine...
"The details (of Chappaquiddick) at the time were, as they are now, sparse."
Reasons for this phenomenon include Ted's waiting ten hours before reporting the accident to authorities, talk of a cover-up and the Kennedy press team downplaying the incident.
Despite their best efforts, however, the 'incident' ended Ted Kennedy's presidential aspirations. With that far from certain at the time, Senator Kennedy said in a televised address to the people of Massachusetts...
"Atonement is a process that never ends. Maybe its a New England thing, or an Irish thing, or a Catholic thing. Maybe all of those things. But it's as it should be."
*Mary Jo Kopechne (1940-1969) was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania & graduated from Caldwell College for Women in 1962. MJK served as a secretary for Senator George Smathers, a close friend of JFK, & as a speechwriter for RFK's presidential campaign in 1968.
SOURCES
"The Kennedys, All the Gossip Unfit to Print," by Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince, Blood Moon Productions, Ltd., 2011.
"True Compass, A Memoir," by Edward M. Kennedy, Twelve, New York City, 2009.
"Why the True Story of 'Chappaquiddick' Is Impossible to Tell," by Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian Magazine, April 2, 2018, www.smithsonianmag.com/
