Ted Kennedy and the Chappaquiddick incident | Boston Globe 

The movie that came out(which would not had he lived), gives a voice to her and her family. RIP Mary Jo.

Exactly

"Collateral Damage."

The Kennedys are assassins & narcissists! Period!

@@benschlechter : the Kennedys did try to block the movie. I saw the movie, but found it very bland. Read the excellent book "Chappaquiddick Speaks" , by Bill Pinney. The book refutes a lot of the assumptions which the media has put in front of us these last 52 years. The sequence of events in the media version is so off; a lot more happened that night. Kennedy=cover-up. And the Edgartown police were infatuated with the Kennedys and so were useless and provincial in their handling of the case. Yet, unbelievably, the voters kept him in office to the end of his days. Thankfully he never became president.

I remember when the story broke. A friend of mine was from Massachusetts. He said: "the people of Massachusetts would re-elect him if he'd shot her on Boston Common during the rush hour."

@@williamwingo4740 Sadly, he is right. I do not care of any of the Kennedy's. They are all crooked. Joe took damn near every penny that Gloria Swanson made, then tried to act like some savvy business man. Stealing and earning are two different things. I read a book, and damn if I can remember the name, but the guy goes into how the mob put a hit out on John, because I guess Joe owed them big time for getting John elected. I don't like when people put families up on pedestals, when they are in reality crooks.

Or, more likely, Kennedy was framed and many knew he was framed. For sure, he was not in that car that night. Not everyone who admits to a crime is guilty. Just as: not everyone who declares innocence is not guilty.

That’s seriously should’ve been the end of his political career.

@@rmp7400 lol okay thinking that

Terrible indeed!

@@dzs1945 Absolutely!

Like you. Immediately , I thought the same thing

Speaks volumes to the character of the people in that region. Especially when you consider that they continued to reelect him till his death.

It's the nature of his job hun. It'd be like a doctor looking at a medical chart and making an assessment: 'it's terminal cancer, this guy will be dead b4 xmas'...doesn't mean he's heartless

I wonder, Gregory, if Gifford already knew that Ted was not the driver.

What a really SICK animal that he is...

@jeff pain .. Actually, we cannot be absolutely sure of that......

Very telling

I didn't know about this

BINGO

Two things. The current was much stronger at the dike bridge. Also, he was drunk when the crash happened, and pretty sober when he swam across the channel.

Or evidence pointing to the fact that she was killed before the "accident"

@@henriknielsen9674 How long was Mary Jo Kopechne alive after the car flipped? Kopechne likely did not die instantaneously, but her final moments remain a mystery. When John Farrar, a diver for the local fire department, found Kopechne’s body the morning after the crash, its positioning suggested she had remained alive for an unknown period of time after the car went underwater. Her face was pressed into the footwell, and her hands gripped the back of the front seat, as if she had been trying to push her head into a pocket of air.

Dr. Mills, the M.E. did not perform an autopsy but said when he examined the body, he pressed on her chest and water came out of her mouth and nose indicating she had water in her lungs, she did drown.

They literally just said there was no autopsy, so where are you getting that information?

@@dewilew2137 Dr Mills was a associate Medical examiner for Dukes County . He would have had to request that a pathologist do the autopsy .Dr Mills was a general practice physician on the island .

It may not have been clear anyone was in the car, or the person in the car may have seemed fine.

@@bearmarco1944 yeah sure, why would he say that if no one was in the car?

@@lightingbolt8148 because he's speaking about ted exclusively, just crashing his car would be bad enough

How???

There's no curse.

A lot of those 'family curses' in the deaths of Kennedy family members are simply the result of bad decisions or reckless behavior.

🔴 Me If Im Wrong They Bring A Lot of This Too Themselves

Yes! He ( and his advisors) coined that phrase "Kennedy curse" in an attempt to explain away his responsibility.

@@janisebartlett5504 Of course there's a curse - stupidity!

SUNMAYDEN518 Yep, if he had just left a little earlier it wouldn't have been so dark and he could have drove her home safely!

It WAS a Kennedy tragedy... for Mary Jo

mikemwfitz why?

That's the truth. Never a dumber bunch of idiots.

Like people who vote for traitor trump 👎😡

Not while he was drunk.

Yes, he could have knocked on a door, but he was drunk and he knew he would have tested drunk, so he felt he had to sit this out to sober up. He saw the situation as an inconvenience for himself.

GUILTY

@@SnowyCountryChicken The local police were on the Kennedy payroll. They should have done a BAC test on him in the morning, it would still have shown where his alcohol level was, and it would have been higher the previous evening. They knew he was drunk, they covered for him or they’d be out of a job. Mary Jo was just a bump in the road to his presidency, she was expendable. Any means to the end, Papa Joe drilled that into his sons.

I have often wondered if he was in a blackout. Or even if he was in the car at all when it went in. We will probably never know. My heart is with Mary Joe's loved ones.

Ironically, he ended up ruining his chances for presidency.

He could've reported it at the scene of the accident and he might have turned out okay. Chappaquiddick destroyed his chances of carrying out the Camelot Dynasty.

The mystery is that his actions, after the accident, as he described them, seem calculated to inflict maxium damage on himself.

What an awful way to go.

Hey genius, tell me, how would you get out of a car, in the driver's seat, with the windows rolled up, upside down and submerged in water! When Senator Kennedy was asked how he got out of the car, he answered "I don't know". The reason Kennedy didn't report the accident is that he didn't know she was in an accident! Watch the documentary "Chappaquiddick" narrated by Ian Holm. It's on RU-vid.

There is speculation that he was not with her when she drove it over the bridge and in the water and did not learn about it until the next day. I have never hear of a study of the seat position of the car when it was found. She was much shorter than Kennedy and if she was driving the seat position would have been forward .

He was either shit faced, or a cold blooded liar and killer. Maybe both.

scott walker ....😂 Teddy didn't know she was in the car

scott walker Senator Kennedy wasn't in the car!!! A few minutes earlier, a law enforcement official spotted Kennedy's car in a lover"s lane. He recognized Kennedy's car. He testified that Kennedy sped off when he got out to see if Kennedy was OK. It is theorized that Kennedy panicked and got out of the car and told Mary Jo to drive back to the cottage that he would walk back. Mary Jo, also in a panicked state, became lost and drove off the bridge.

Because Kennedy was never in the car! Please watch the documentary "Chappaquiddick" narrated by Ian Holm! It explains everything! You can view it on RU-vid. I first saw this documentary in 1994 on, I believe A&E. It is the best documentary on Chappaquiddick ever produced!

Perfectly said,fleetwoodray!!! And true...

Absolutely

MurkWahlberg_813 How?

Actually he passed up 3 cottages (the 1st even had lights on)...if he had wanted to call for help he could have simply knocked on any of those doors!

@@sjpavur He also passed the fire station!

......... Ted was at least semi-drunk at that time...... just like all at the party.

there were tons of things he could have done, he had a retired fire fighter back at the cottage, what does he do when he gets there? brings the lawyers out to the car, the island fire station right across the road. Has a public bell, you ring it, they come, that friggin cheat. Good Riddance.

he was probably never in the car

He looked unscathed the next morning. No signs of trauma or a fight. The rescue attempt would have been bad. In fact, with the current there you would need to be a trained rescuer. Regardless, I do not think any attempt was made by him.

@@m.e.d.7997 i think you're right!

One theory is that was all made up afterwards to try to make him look like less of a spineless wimp. "Since obviously nobody called the police, let's at least say we tried to rescue her ourselves."

@@williamwingo4740 Well said.

Kennedys don't rescue women -ask Marilyn.

How would you know?

@@dewilew2137 why don't you go look and find out

Old political saying: "Bad news doesn't improve with age."

She wasn't that hot and described as medium attractive in a muted way..

Muffie1174... it doesn't matter what she looked like, a pc of ass, is a pc of ass!!

Some say there was a rowboat they could have rowed back in. I recently learned this.

@@m.e.d.7997 I never believed he swam back to the mainland. They "borrowed" a boat somewhere; but when it came time to make up stories, the swimming version was more Kennedy Macho.

Yup nobody likes to bring up that other woman’s name.

Just like they always say 'the gun did it"....

I think they said it that way to suggest that they aren't entirely convinced that Kennedy was actually driving the car at the time of the accident. Some people think Mary joe might have been driving. See my comment above.

Actually at that time, very little in Massachusetts acted independently of his wishes.

@@CaesarInVa Yep he was never the driver.

So glad you said it!!

+GetMeThere1 Ted was about to, or in the process, of having some 'nookie' with MaryJo.... when a sheriff's deputy, heading home after his work shift, spotted Ted's car. Ted got scared... and managed to persuade MaryJo to drive off and hide BY HERSELF.... as Ted walked back to the party house. He did not know about the accident until apprised by two of his close buddies the next morning. After consulting with his personal advisors and attorneys, they "established a narrative".. in which Ted claimed that he was the driver... during the accident. This was decided by that cabal because it would provide him with the best political recovery.. given the bad mess.

What do you mean made a deal with the devil? He got rich by shorting right before the Great Depression, that's the most genius thing I've ever heard of!

@@bushmg1061 He also made a bundle bootlegging during prohibition.

@@bushmg1061 Arriving at London in early 1938, newly-appointed U.S. Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy took up quickly with another transplanted American. Viscountess Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor assured Kennedy early in their friendship that he should not be put off by her pronounced and proud anti-Catholicism. "I'm glad you are smart enough not to take my [views] personally," she wrote. Astor pointed out that she had a number of Roman Catholic friends - G.K. Chesterton among them - with whom she shared, if nothing else, a profound hatred for the Jewish race. Joe Kennedy, in turn, had always detested Jews generally, although he claimed several as friends individually. Indeed, Kennedy seems to have tolerated the occasional Jew in the same way Astor tolerated the occasional Catholic. As fiercely anti-Communist as they were anti-Semitic, Kennedy and Astor looked upon Adolf Hitler as a welcome solution to both of these "world problems" (Nancy's phrase). No member of the so-called "Cliveden Set" (the informal cabal of appeasers who met frequently at Nancy Astor's palatial home) seemed much concerned with the dilemma faced by Jews under the Reich. Astor wrote Kennedy that Hitler would have to do more than just "give a rough time" to "the killers of Christ" before she'd be in favor of launching "Armageddon to save them. The wheel of history swings round as the Lord would have it. Who are we to stand in the way of the future?" Kennedy replied that he expected the "Jew media" in the United States to become a problem, that "Jewish pundits in New York and Los Angeles" were already making noises contrived to "set a match to the fuse of the world." During May of 1938, Kennedy engaged in extensive discussions with the new German Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, Herbert von Dirksen. In the midst of these conversations (held without approval from the U.S. State Department), Kennedy advised von Dirksen that President Roosevelt was the victim of "Jewish influence" and was poorly informed as to the philosophy, ambitions and ideals of Hitler's regime. (The Nazi ambassador subsequently told his bosses that Kennedy was "Germany's best friend" in London.) Columnists back in the states condemned Kennedy's fraternizing. Kennedy later claimed that 75% of the attacks made on him during his Ambassadorship emanated from "a number of Jewish publishers and writers. ... Some of them in their zeal did not hesitate to resort to slander and falsehood to achieve their aims." He told his eldest son, Joe Jr., that he disliked having to put up with "Jewish columnists" who criticized him with no good reason.

@@bushmg1061 RACIST DEMOCRAT EUGENICS SUPPORTER Roosevelt may have reconsidered had he been privy to correspondence between Kennedy and Joe Jr. from 1934, in which the son calls the Nazi’s “dislike” of the Jews “well-founded,” and the father replies that he is “very pleased and gratified at your observations of the German situation.” ccording to confidential German documents made public by the U.S. State Department in 1949, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. met with the German Ambassador to Great Britain, Herbert von Dirksen, in June 1938. Dirksen later informed Baron Ernst von Weizsaecker, State Secretary of the German Foreign Ministry, that Kennedy told him that the “Jewish question” was of vital importance to U.S.-German relations. Kennedy continued for years to loudly advocate for appeasement, in London and at home, arguing that Britain would be destroyed otherwise. He attempts to set up a personal meeting with Adolf Hitler, again failing to inform the State Department, but it never materialized. An embassy aide, Harvey Klemmer, later shared Kennedy’s summary of his anti-Jewish sentiment, even as news of concentration camps came across the wires: “Individual Jews are alright, Harvey, but as a race they stink. They spoil everything they touch. Look what they did to the movies.”

And Joe sided with the Germans and lobbied Churchill to sue for peace.

Ms. Kopechne's purse and keys were left in the cottage. And he had been across the same bridge going to the beach earlier in the day.

He lied his entire life

May well have not been on the car.

I don't remember where I saw this but someone said that Ted tried to talk his cousin into saying that he was driving that car, not Ted. Also that the cousin Joe never spoke to him again after the accident.

My pal tried that in London 20 years ago, it doesn't work the Cops and Techniques they use now can tell if you where over the limit when the accident took place

Well, the quite obvious fact is, youd have to be awfully drunk, or not be able to hold your drink because you are unused to it, to take a right turn instead and then fly off a bridge. Something else must've been involved, and I don't really assume that the Kennedies were greenhorns at drinking. Drinking was part of life in the 1960s, and i believe people possibly drove often then not completely sober, there's a possibility that im wrong somehow of course, but Id assume youd have to be really drunk to do that, and then why get behind a bloody wheel? then, some other thing, must've been involved.

Sickens me that the poor girl was driving and essentially killed herself. Sad

@@FrankIsAlwaysRight In the end, Kennedy didn’t resign from the Senate, but he did announce he wouldn’t run for president in 1972, as many supporters had been hoping he would before Chappaquiddick. The fallout from the accident (and lingering rumors of a cover-up) permanently doomed Kennedy’s presidential ambitions: In 1980, when he finally did seek the Democratic presidential nomination, he suffered an embarrassing defeat to the unpopular incumbent Jimmy Carter. Kennedy would serve Massachusetts in the Senate for three more decades, and would become one of the nation’s most respected elder statesmen by the time of his death, of brain cancer, in 2009. In True Compass, a memoir published after his death, Kennedy wrote that his actions the night of the accident were “inexcusable,” and that he “made terrible decisions.”

Not only that the car went in upside down, which means Ted could not of opened the door, the only possible way out was the window, but that was rolled down when they found the car. They also found no impact injuries to her at all, she should of had impact damage, and lacerations from the broken glass. Also, the diver says she was found in air pocket were she could've survived for up to two hours. I think she died before the "Crash" ever happened and they staged the whole crash as a diversion.

@@dtho6231 ????

@@Jay-vr9ir She was found in an air pocket which still had enough oxygen to survive, and the windows and doors were all closed. It means no one exited while it was underwater, and she didn't die due to drowning. So the death happened before the car was ever crashed.

@@dtho6231 Well what did she die from?. She was not dead. She breathed in an air pocket in the car for a period of time.

@@m.e.d.7997 We don't know. There was no autopsy, and her parents were going to have her exhumed and have one conducted. For whatever reason they decided to change their minds.

i don,t think he should ever have run for the presidency,clearly he wasn,t suited to it.

@@61505 But he had to, whether he wanted to or not. He was a Kennedy; it was his destiny.

Yes, it did I believe I read somewhere and that their mortgage on their house was paid off.

It's often that both are coterminous.

In addition, Kennedy’s public perception was bolstered by the immediate damage control and legal efforts undertaken by a group of Kennedy confidantes and advisers, including ex-defense secretary Robert McNamara and JFK speechwriter Ted Sorensen. These behind-the-scenes maneuverings are explored in the 2018 film Chappaquiddick, whose script is based on the historical record, including the inquest into the accident released by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1970. The film portrays the inner workings of the Kennedy political machine as it worked to obscure the facts of the tragic incident from the public and save Ted Kennedy’s political career from imploding.

It's possible he didn't see her.

@@sjb3460 They’ll lie for each other, and step over dead bodies if it suits their agenda. Sickening.

It's possible that nobody knew the exact details of the accident itself. Ms. Kopechne was dead; and senator Kennedy--if he was the driver--was affected by alcohol, fatigue, and perhaps even shock, as he claimed. He may really not have known exactly what happened. But lots of people knew what happened afterwards, or portions of it: everyone at the cottage, and the Kennedy lawyers and retainers who cleaned it all up and helped fabricate the cover story. Kennedy loyalists all, they closed ranks and kept the lid on tight for over fifty years. I wouldn't expect any new revelations now. Richard Nixon should have had such loyalists. And maybe also such sympathetic friends in law enforcement and the media.

Ted. And he is gone.

When he thought that he didn't know she was in the car, duh

@@bushmg1061 It's a strange first thought when you see a car in water to think of the presidency. Surely his first thought should be for the safety of anyone who 'might' be inside. Just struck me as strange.

@@EllyB1104 I mean, humans are good at not assuming things that have no basis. Considering crashing your car as a presidential candidate is bad enough, it's best to think it can't be worse.

... All rather likely.... except he may not have been "pulled over" --- he may have done whatever out of FEAR... for himself and his 'future'.

It seems it would be impossible to open the doors in a submerged vehicle. Why didn't MJK escape like Ted did? She was apparently alive and conscious at the time. Seems strange.

what about th e2 guys who swore they helped him try and save her... if that is the case then kennedy had to have known the car went over... i agree he wasnt driving but i dont get his cousin and the former us attorney stating they tried to save MJ

The driver window was rolled down. Perfect for Ted (if driving) to escape from. The two passenger side windows were blown in. Could it be that Mary Jo couldn't swim? Or couldn't find the open windows in the pitch dark?

I agree. I have always thought that it was suspicious that Ted didn't have any memory of how he got out of the car. When you are in the line of fire, it's always best to say that you simply don't know/can't remember. If he got out by the window, why didn't she get out the same way? I think that the answer was that he was never in the car. She had dropped him off after Huck Look walked toward them. If Ted had honestly answered the question, "How did you get out?", there would be a great deal of this mystery removed. It's unfortunate that there was never an autopsy done for Mary Jo. It may have cleared up some of the mystery, although I have never believed the theory that she was pregnant.

Which is why the movie disappointed a lot. Teds version was riddled with lies to attempt to save himself politically. He wanted to say Mary Jo was driving and he was right that is the way it should have gone down. His advisors ill advised him to a large degree.

@@m.e.d.7997 : I also was very disappointed in the movie. The movie was very bland and only followed the public version of events.

StrawberryNinja Nibbles I'm not sure what you mean

.. They did.... and it's curious as to WHY . . .

@@34Packardphaeton They had worked phone banks drumming up and coordinating support for RFK in 1968. That was the "boiler room." The cookout was sort of a reunion/reward session for them, with the senator himself there to provide a charismatic Kennedy presence. That's the official story, anyway.

@@williamwingo4740 ... Yes, this is confirmed by Leo Damore's book.

@@34Packardphaeton A good read for a rainy weekend--or a rainy two or three weeks.

Nixon followed the same first impulse in Watergate. That gave rise to the "Chappaquiddick Theorem" in American politics: There is no better time to tell the truth than right away. Bad news does not improve with age. Nixon went down, but Ted Kennedy survived and had to settle for a life term in the senate--the White House in sight, just down the street but just out of his grasp. In fact, you could say that both of them forfeited the presidency.

raul macias or he didn't write the letter because he was always right about what happened. That's more plausible

Now why would he ever do that? Some of those who were complicit with Kennedy were still alive, for one thing. Deathbed confessions of criminals and others copping to earlier crimes and misdemeanors are Hollywood concoctions and fantasies.

@@jamesanthony5681 Absolutely, it could have hurt others still alive. No way.

I read that he left a letter with the Pope prior to his death. You know, one that will never be made public.

Marlene Buchhalter You know why.

Intimate little hideaway

...... to get laid, ya dummy!

The party was held in connection with the Edgartown Regatta.

You are most correct. Gifford is a groveling, lying bum!!

I know....Ted wondering about t=if there really was a Kennedy curse when he is alive and above ground (and water), while MJ is slowly asphyxiating in the back of his car.

Perhaps she was pregnant... and with Ted's child.   But I do think that somehow he persuaded her to drive across that bridge BY HERSELF.   She was alone in that Oldsmobile when it went off that bridge! It is mighty curious as to why Rosemary Keough's purse was in the car, though . . . .

What a nasty thing to say, you should be ashamed for vilifying human beings

@@bushmg1061 human beings can be vilified heck the establishment always vilify the common working class American.

@Ivan Nieves "the establishment" is very vague, not sure what you mean

Come up with something original!

Ouch!

Yep, Rosemary Keough's(Cricket) pocketbook was found in the backseat.

@@m.e.d.7997 Front seat, IIRC.

@@LarryRickenbacker Okay, thought I read front seat! Thanks! A fascinating story that may never be fully revealed. I do no think he was in the car when it went off the bridge. I think Mary Jo drove it off.

@@LarryRickenbacker IT does say backseat.

@@m.e.d.7997 My source is author Garry Willis, who maintains that Keough's purse was fished out of the front seat of Tedward Kennedy's car. Keough later married a powerful friend of the Kennedy's...and hasn't said a word about that night since.

@DAD RAB Rice ... at what point did Kennedy leave... the CAR ? ?

Not necessarily. Had she been the driver, she could have driven the car with the seat back, after all, she wasn't going a long distance.

@@jamesanthony5681 particularly if she took the driver's position in a hurry to get away from the officer. She may not have had time to adjust it, or didn't know how. She normally drove a Volkswagen, so everything about the big, heavy, powerful Oldsmobile would be unfamiliar, making it more likely to go off the bridge. That's one theory anyway.

@@williamwingo4740 That's a good point.

Unless she took control of the car in a hurry. Huck Look spotted the car and was going after it. Ted sped off fast but may have gotten out of the car and told her to go down the road and wait for him so as not to be seen with her being a married man.

powerinself I agree. Only God knows if he truly repented. If he was reprobate and hard of heart, justice was served. Eternally served.

Mandana Dowlatshahi And don't forget that only god knows that what happened was an accident.

Why do you people feel the need to bring the imagined entity into it ?

In addition, Kennedy’s public perception was bolstered by the immediate damage control and legal efforts undertaken by a group of Kennedy confidantes and advisers, including ex-defense secretary Robert McNamara and JFK speechwriter Ted Sorensen. These behind-the-scenes maneuverings are explored in the 2018 film Chappaquiddick, whose script is based on the historical record, including the inquest into the accident released by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1970. The film portrays the inner workings of the Kennedy political machine as it worked to obscure the facts of the tragic incident from the public and save Ted Kennedy’s political career from imploding.

Timing also helped: During that fateful weekend at Chappaquiddick, most Americans had their eyes glued to their TVs, watching a different drama unfold: the Moon Landing. Apollo 11 had lifted off from Cape Canaveral on July 16, 1969 and on the evening of July 20, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their first steps onto the moon’s surface.

I think that was what started this all. Ted got out so as not to be spotted with her.

Then how do you account for his being soaking wet when he returned to the cottage according to his own friends?

Ed Baker vf

We really don't know if the two friends went with him from the cottage. I feel if anyone including Ted had know Mary Jo was trapped in that car they would have done everything they could to save her. None of them would have left her to die. The only conclusion I can draw is Ted was not in the accident. When he was told what happened the next day his continence changed from happy/normal to panic.

Wrong. So what he ACTED like he didn’t know? You obviously haven’t encountered many politicians!

I doubt he was in the car either but more likely she was passed out in the back seat where her body was found in an air pocket and Kennedy had the car go off the bridge. It makes zero sense to say he was in the car if she drove off herself. But since she was in the back seat he had to admit to driving.

One reason I believe in an afterlife is to imagine what he said to her when they met again. I presume that if he were going to a different place, they would be allowed a short visit first.

It goes without saying.

What are you implying? That he was having an affair? That gets you a guaranteed ticket to hell?? Or are you saying he’s going to hell for causing the accident that killed this woman? Is that also true for people who fall asleep at the wheel and cause fatal accidents? Most of them never face criminal charges at all. I’m sure glad I’m not a Christian. Y’all seem to be quite hypocritical. Certain rules only seem to apply to people you don’t like personally.

Rose's Roses How?

@@bushmg1061 The car wasn't completely filled with water. There was an air bubble in the car 8 hours later she breathed all the oxygen in that bubble and then suffocated. If he would have gotten help she would have lived.