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View Full Version : 40 years ago yesterday/today: Teddy Kennedy drove off Chappaquiddick bridge



Little-Acorn
07-19-2009, 03:40 PM
http://www.examiner.com/x-5919-Norfolk-Crime-Examiner~y2009m7d17-40th-anniversary-of-Mary-Jo-Kopechnes-drowning-at-ChappaquiddickKennedys-story-still-doubtful

40th anniversary of Mary Jo Kopechne’s drowning at Chappaquiddick...Kennedy's story still doubtful

July 17, 6:02 AM

http://image.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/145px-Mary_Jo_Kopechne(1).jpg
Mary Jo Kopechne

Sometime around midnight, on July 18, 1969 Kennedy drove his Oldsmobile 88 off of a small bridge on Chappaquiddick island, into eight feet of chilly water. The vehicle landed upside-down. While Kennedy managed to free himself from the wreck and swim to safety, his passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne was left in the car to drown.

Once he reached shore, Kennedy claims to have made seven or eight attempts to rescue Kopechne, but could not free her.

Kennedy then walked back to the cottage where he and four other men, were partying with several young women known as the “Boiler Room Girls“ who had worked on Robert Kennedy‘s campaign. Though Kennedy passed by a fire station and a private home to return to the cottage, he never stopped to ask for help for the trapped Kopechne.

He returned to the party and according to Kennedy himself, informed his cousin and a friend of the situation. The two men, Joseph Gargan and Paul Markham claim to have returned to the scene of the accident and made several unsuccessful attempts to free Kopechne.

Then Kennedy’s story takes an even stranger turn.

After the failed rescue attempts, Kennedy claims to have jumped back into the water and made the 500-foot swim across the channel back to Edgartown. He then walked back to his hotel and spent the night. He even took the time to change clothes and pay a visit to the front-desk, to complain about a noisy party--no doubt Kennedy's sloppy attempt at securing an alibi.

The next morning, Gargan and Markham around 8:00 a.m., and were supposedly shocked to discover that Kennedy never reported the accident to police. According to Kennedy‘s own testimony, he told them: "about my own thoughts and feelings as I swam across that channel ... that somehow when they arrived in the morning that they were going to say that Mary Jo was still alive"

The two men along with Kennedy went back to Chappaquiddick, where Kennedy spent some time making phone calls, seeking advice from various individuals as to how to proceed.

Meanwhile, two fisherman had discovered the submerged car and notified police. At 8:45a.m. a diver recovered the lifeless body of Mary Jo Kopechne.

It was not until 10a.m., over nine hours after driving-off of the bridge that Ted Kennedy went to the police station in Edgarton to report the accident.


(Full text of this article can be read at the above URL)

gabosaurus
07-19-2009, 03:45 PM
Dang, I thought this thread was going to be about Woodstock.

Mr. P
07-19-2009, 04:45 PM
Dang, I thought this thread was going to be about Woodstock.

Teddy didn't go to Woodstock..he was busy covering a death he was involved in and responsible for.

stephanie
07-19-2009, 04:53 PM
The Kennedy clan has been some of the slimiest people in this country..

I get so sick of the media trying to hold them up as Royalty..

Binky
07-19-2009, 05:35 PM
And there you have it, folks....The reason why Ted Kennedy has never ran for president. There are too many folks still alive today, that remember the incident and that he literally got away with uh.....manslaughter. He was driving while drunk, and in so doing, killed that young woman. And then never bothered to try and help her or get her help. He came from one of the wealthiest families in the country with loads of connections and that is why he got off scott free. Would you have voted for him had he ran? Not I.