The other 45 years ago

[Sangersteve]

The Chappaquiddick incident involved the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a young colleague of U.S. Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy, in a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts on July 18, 1969.

According to his own testimony, Kennedy accidentally drove his car off a bridge and into the channel, before swimming free and leaving the scene, and not reporting about the accident within nine hours. Meanwhile, Kopechne had died in the car through drowning or suffocation. The next day, Kopechne's body and the car were finally recovered. Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury and later received a two-month suspended jail sentence.

[BillB]

I've always wanted to know what really happened.
I read that Kennedy wanted to write down the true story before he died, but his family talked him out of it.
The only thing we know for sure is that she was injured before the car went into the water. She had dried blood on her dress and blood doesn't dry under water.

[GFB]

What's to KNOW?

Drunken womanizing lowlife drives off a small bridge and kills his latest fling.

..thereby becoming..drunken womanizing lowlife murderer.

[GFB]

..and establishing the first and only confirmed kill in the war on women.

[BillB]

What's to KNOW?

Drunken womanizing lowlife drives off a small bridge and kills his latest fling.

..thereby becoming..drunken womanizing lowlife murderer.

We know that's what didn't happen. He was a drunken murderer but he didn't drive off the bridge and kill her.
The best guess is that he wrecked the car, severely injured her and thought she was dead. He walked back to the house and got his buddies and they decided to push the car off the bridge and concoct the story that he had driven off the bridge.

There was more damage (and different damage) to the car than would have been sustained by driving off the bridge.
As I posted, she had dried blood on the front of her dress. That had to have happened quite a while before she went into the water.

[Red Oak]

I won't say every Kennedy is a scumbag, but I will say all the ones I know the names of are.

Democrat Royalty for sure !

[BillB]

I won't say every Kennedy is a scumbag, but I will say all the ones I know the names of are.

Democrat Royalty for sure !

Robert Kennedy was probably the best of the bunch and he was nothing to write home about.

[Red Oak]

Joe Junior may have been OK - but of course be died on a dangerous bombing mission.

[Kiamichi]

What the people who believe Kennedy was driving when the car went off the bridge have never been able to explain is the fact that several disinterested witnesses saw him, dry and unconcerned, at the hotel on the mainland very shortly after the accident (after he, a poor swimmer, had supposedly swum in his clothes across the channel after the last ferry had run) and that he was visibly shocked the next morning when people came from the island to report the accident.

The best explanation I have ever heard is that Kopechne and he left in the car with Kennedy driving and that they spotted the police car that was known to be in the area. Kennedy was borderline drunk and in addition did not want the political embarrassment of being caught with Kopechne so he got out of the car and walked to the nearby ferry and caught one of the last runs to the mainland. Kopechne, who was not familiar with the road and the narrow bridge and not used to driving a large car, went over the bridge and was not found until morning. Kennedy lied about being the driver since they had been seen leaving together and in a moment of bad judgment he thought it would sound less suspicious to claim he had still been in the car rather than explaining why not, and was then trapped in this lie.

[Swartzy]

I had just gotten married on July 11th and we finally made it back to the University after a so called honeymoon. We were in our first apartment, still trying to get settled in. My wife was making dinner for us while we watched it. there were a couple of neighbor kids who didn't have a TV, it was summer and their parents were just at the University for a summer class. They asked if they could come in and watch it with us. We had a couple of kids and we were eating dinner. It was quite remarkable.


I still don't know why we haven' t been back dozens of times since then. It is a shame not to have kept it up. We should have had a base up there by now.

[GFB]

What the people who believe Kennedy was driving when the car went off the bridge have never been able to explain is the fact that several disinterested witnesses saw him, dry and unconcerned, at the hotel on the mainland very shortly after the accident (after he, a poor swimmer, had supposedly swum in his clothes across the channel after the last ferry had run) and that he was visibly shocked the next morning when people came from the island to report the accident.

The best explanation I have ever heard is that Kopechne and he left in the car with Kennedy driving and that they spotted the police car that was known to be in the area. Kennedy was borderline drunk and in addition did not want the political embarrassment of being caught with Kopechne so he got out of the car and walked to the nearby ferry and caught one of the last runs to the mainland. Kopechne, who was not familiar with the road and the narrow bridge and not used to driving a large car, went over the bridge and was not found until morning. Kennedy lied about being the driver since they had been seen leaving together and in a moment of bad judgment he thought it would sound less suspicious to claim he had still been in the car rather than explaining why not, and was then trapped in this lie.

That implies he would rather be a murderer than simply a womanizing drunk..(which everyone already knew).. so I do not believe this is credible.

[Kiamichi]

Photographs of the car at the scene show it had the roof pushed in and the windshield badly cracked, understandable as it was resting on its top in the water, but no front-end damage at all, so the collision theory does not hold water.

[BillB]

What the people who believe Kennedy was driving when the car went off the bridge have never been able to explain is the fact that several disinterested witnesses saw him, dry and unconcerned, at the hotel on the mainland very shortly after the accident (after he, a poor swimmer, had supposedly swum in his clothes across the channel after the last ferry had run) and that he was visibly shocked the next morning when people came from the island to report the accident.

The best explanation I have ever heard is that Kopechne and he left in the car with Kennedy driving and that they spotted the police car that was known to be in the area. Kennedy was borderline drunk and in addition did not want the political embarrassment of being caught with Kopechne so he got out of the car and walked to the nearby ferry and caught one of the last runs to the mainland. Kopechne, who was not familiar with the road and the narrow bridge and not used to driving a large car, went over the bridge and was not found until morning. Kennedy lied about being the driver since they had been seen leaving together and in a moment of bad judgment he thought it would sound less suspicious to claim he had still been in the car rather than explaining why not, and was then trapped in this lie.

Can't be.
The ferry stopped running at Midnight.
Kennedy was seen at Midnight back at the cottage where the party was. He then left with cronies: Paul Markham and Joseph Gargan to the accident scene.
Kennedy's car sustained severe damage to its right side which is not consistent with running off the bridge.
Also, your theory does not explain the dried blood all over the front of Kopechne's dress. She could not have gotten that under water.

[BigTex]

Maybe she got in a girl fight at the party. Or had a little nose candy.

[BillB]

Maybe she got in a girl fight at the party. Or had a little nose candy.

She had head injuries that explained the blood. They don't explain why the blood was dried.
There were plenty of people who testified what went on at the party. There wasn't any mention of a fight.
She was injured after she left the party and before the car went into the water.

[BigTex]

Maybe Ted punched her out when they got in the car.

[BillB]

Maybe Ted punched her out when they got in the car.

I'll have to find a description of her injuries. I don't believe they will be consistent with a fist. I'll see if I can find it.

[BigTex]

Maybe Ted punched her out when they got in the car.

I'll have to find a description of her injuries. I don't believe they will be consistent with a fist. I'll see if I can find it.

That would certainly be definitive, because there is not a chance in hell that the Kennedy family could influence a coroner on Martha's Vineyard.

[Kiamichi]

That car looks just like I would expect a car to look that had rolled on its right side down a steep embankment and come to rest on its roof.

[BillB]

That car looks just like I would expect a car to look that had rolled on its right side down a steep embankment and come to rest on its roof.

Yes, but that's not what happened. It supposedly left a a bridge and went directly into the water.
How about the ferry that Kennedy could not possibly have taken back to the mainland?
How about the dried blood?