Ted Kennedy and the Chappaquiddick incident | Boston Globe
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2009
- Remembering the night in 1969 that left a young woman dead, and a young politician forever diminished.
Produced by Bill Greene and Ann Silvio / Globe Staff
Feb. 17, 2009
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Over 50 years and they still refer to it as a tragedy for the Kennedys. What about Mary Jo Kopechne and her family?
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.
Love how they think of poor Ted, and not the poor girl that was killed, and left in a car while he walks around alive. For people to elect him is beyond me.
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
I love how that dudes first thought is "there goes his presidency" terrible snob human. Just terrible.
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
"oh my god, there goes Ted's presidency right there"
NOT - "oh my god a woman died at the hands of a man who left her there to drown"
Pretty much says it all!
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
Rest in peace Mary Jo.
The fact that she suffocated and didn’t drown is still horrifying.
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 .
Sickening that one of his closest advisors' first thoughts when coming on-scene was, "Oh no, there go his presidential hopes." No mention of an ended young life? Wow. Those are the kinds of people in our government.
Just saw the film on Netflix. No wonder one of my professors despised that man.
“Omg there goes Teds presidency” what about omg that poor girl lost her life 😡🤬
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
Pissed up, panicked when I seen the deputy and sped off crashing and causing the death of the young woman. Then tried to cover it up. Should have gone to prison for manslaughter at least.
The boston globe still protecting teddy
How???
So he could swim across the channel but couldn’t swim down to the car?
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.
Brings up the notion of a "family curse" to deflect his guilt.
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!
and it was not another kennedy tragedy. the assassinations of the two brothers were a tragedy; ted brought this on himself
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
I happen to know people who knew the area well at the time. There was a nearby house clearly visible with all of its lights on, a normal practice of theirs because they had an autistic child. Kennedy could have easily gone to their door and asked to call for help.
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.
Mystery? There's no mystery here. Ted was more concerned with saving his political career than saving Mary Jo that night. Seems pretty straightforward to me.
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 CZcams.
One thing is certain:
At no point did the option “do the right thing” cross his mind.
The real problem are the people in Massachusetts who vote for Kennedys.
mikemwfitz why?
That's the truth. Never a dumber bunch of idiots.
Like people who vote for traitor trump 👎😡
Why the hell didnt he tell anyone after getting to the town !!!!!! how can you go to sleep in a hotel room when your friend is trapped in a submerged car !!!!!!!! WTF
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 CZcams.
I first saw this documentary in 1994 on, I believe A&E.
It is the best documentary on Chappaquiddick ever produced!
Here we have a married man, hanging out with other married men, with 6 single young girls, on the beach all day and drinking together at night at the "cabin" which it's not. Why doe he take the dirt road back to the beach and end up driving over the edge of the bridge at 1245 AM? High tide for this Island didnt occur till after next daylight, so he drove car off long before high tide came. There was no water turbulence! He left her for dead, then walked back to the house which was what 30 min. or longer, to contemplate what to do next, to save his political career. Never called mainland police station. Never sought help from Island people, nothing. He swam across the ferry route, gee!! Then, walked to his hotel and called his advisers and they came up a plan to deal with this...headache he created for himself. I remember all this as a kid. Whole nation was in uproar and yes, people knew they were screwing around. That's why the pregnancy was questioned. Also, in 1983, Teddy Kennedy committed TREASON against the United States by conspiring with the Soviet Union KGB Head to attack the U.S. President and keep him from winning the 1984 election!! He was a coward, a murderer and a TRAITOR during the Cold War. Semper Fi
Perfectly said,fleetwoodray!!! And true...
Absolutely
Why would you test him of alcohol?!?!
He killed that girl and got away with it
MurkWahlberg_813 How?
there was a cottage next door - hmm, seems like Ted could've gone up there immediately, said, "call the police and the fire dept." and within minutes could have rescued Mary Jo.
Instead - he left
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
'Moses had a temper, Peter betrayed Jesus. I have chappaquidick!'
'Yes Moses had a temper...but he never left a woman at the bottom of the red sea!'
How would you know?
@@dewilew2137 why don't you go look and find out
I can not believe he tried to rescue her as he said.
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.
Swim home to the hotel and sleep while a woman lies dead in the car? I think not.
“ there goes Ted’s presidency “ not “ there’s a girl in that car !”
Even if they werent fooling around, even if he wasn't drunk.....even if he didn't speed off the bridge cause he was trying to evade the cop who was following him...he left her to drown/suffocate cause he was too busy trying to cover his ass....that's murder
Back when he was in law school, he was also caught driving under the influence and possibly speeding. Bobby reportedly said to him, "Mother wants to know if you're going to be the defendant or to be a defense attorney?"
"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others".
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"
It is what it is... Kennedy left a young woman to her avoidable fate.... horrible death, an animal dying on the side of a road would have had a better chance of recuse than this poor woman did.
53: the first thought was about Ted's presidency ... what about the Mary Jo?
That's the point: He was in serious trouble, drunk or not, for not trying to rescue the girl (at least by calling someone--there was a house with a phone within a couple hundred feet of the bridge). Once he went awhile without reporting, then THAT became a far bigger deal than being drunk.
WAITING before reporting made things WORSE than immediately admitting he had too much to drink. Thus, his wait is NOT evidence that he was drunk.
Old political saying: "Bad news doesn't improve with age."
Hilarious they say the senators car drove towards the beach, as though it was acting independently of teddys wishes.
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!!
@rs216016 Not at all far fetched. Why do you think a drunk Ted Kennedy was driving a hot blonde girl over to the beach at night? To gaze at stars for a little while? He should have went to jail for this... A few years ago, Uncle Ted came to my alma matter (Mass Maritime Academy) to do a graduation speech. I almost wanted to stand there with a sign that said "Don't drive into the canal Ted!"
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!!
So the tide was too strong for a rescue, but not too strong to swim in to go back to hotel? Liars. Who’s the politicians wife he was seeing who was completely left out of story?
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.
Something happened before that car went into the water. And there was a purse found in the car that wasn't Mary Jo's but that of another Boiler Room girl. In his testimony, he said he had never been to Chappaquiddick except in the past when docking his boat to find a restroom. It was a big cover up.
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.
The wikipedia article on "The Chappaquiddick incident" supplies many facts. To my reading those facts suggest that in fact they sneaked off in the car for a "quickie," were interrupted as they were parked, and Ted sped off down a road he didn't know well, and then drove off the bridge. As far as I recall, no mention was made in the article of anyone reporting him to be drunk--while there WAS significant information provided to suggest their drive was not about taking her "back to her hotel."
+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.
Furthermore, I'm sure he was savvy enough to know that he could have gone back to the hotel, made the call to authorities (or had someone else do it), then gone down to the bar and had several stiff drinks--and by that sidestep any blood tests that could determine he was drunk BEFORE the crash.
This is a well-known strategy, actually, if you can avoid the police for awhile. The excuse is that you were so upset by the accident that you "needed a drink."
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.
How utterly tragic. What a loss. Ted's presidential hopes shattered. And how wonderful of Ted to allow the Kopechne family to mourn that tragic loss with him.
@0:53.. yeah, real sad he loses the presidency...I feel so sorry for him.
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.
I feel a cover up! Kennedy was bare foot when he did that interview. I bet that Mary Jo was pregnant. No autopsy? Who waits til the next day to report an accident knowing someone was left in a car.....Rip Mary Joe!🙏🏾
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.
This whole event sickens me to the core! The ONLY thing that explains everything was that he was drunk and of course didn't want the public to know. It cost a beautiful young lady her life. JFK and RFK were stellar public servants but TK was at the opposite end of that spectrum. To think he was charged only with leaving the scene of an accident is laughable. Had this same event been anyone else they'd have gone to prison for vehicle homicide.
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.”
More than a tragedy - it was a crime.
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.
"Oh my god, there goes ted's presidency!" . . .and oh yeah there is a dead girl . . . .
It's possible he didn't see her.
This is why there is a Kennedy Curse. They have been evil since their daddy made a deal with the devil. He traded his soul for status and riches and from that point on nothing but tragedies🤷🏾♀️
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.
If she left without purse and keys she was unconscious. Ted did something really bad and was covering it up. He put her in backseat and drove her off the bridge. He bailed before going over. How’s this scenario. Plausible??
If you need to ask yourself and your constituents if you should resign from public office, you already know the answer to the question. And yet...
I wonder if money changed hands to quiet any family of Mary Jo. With all due respect to the Kopechne family,the Kennedy clan is a powerful force that lets nothing get in the way.
Yes, it did I believe I read somewhere and that their mortgage on their house was paid off.
It's one thing to hear about this and years ago not a lot of people went there. But to be there and see it and see with your own eyes what they are talking about leaves you speechless. The only thought in you brain is he killed her!
My family crossed path with Ted Kennedy in 72 in D.C. We were taking a tour of the Capital, the Rotunda at the White House, to be exact. I was just a young teenager. My Dad was in front of me. Suddenly, we see Sen. Kennedy and two obvious Security Men walking flank left and right of him. My Dad froze up, star-struck by Kennedy's sudden appearance. Because he was standing about 20 yards ahead of him, rather than smile when my Dad waved, Kennedy stared at him and got his Security guys to glare at my Dad and wave him away "out of his presence." I kid you not. It left a VERY bad taste in mind for the arrogance of this Kennedy. Later, in life, I knew an executive in D.C. who frequented a swank bar Ted Kennedy frequently tell me she saw a beautiful busty woman crawl under his table (and she wasn't looking for her contacts). In my opinion, and many others, Ted Kennedy murdered Mary Jo. He was never prosecuted because he was a Kennedy. He was the WORST of all the brothers.
After a police officer noticed Ted's car, Ted did not want to be seen with Mary Jo in the car, so he left her to drive his car back to the cottage, and swam over to the hotel he was staying at. The plan was that Mary Jo would then drive the car back to the cottage where she had been partying. But she was unfamiliar with the area, took a wrong turn, and the car landed up in the water. Meantime, Ted made it clear that he was at his hotel by loudly complaining that other guests in the hotel were making too much noise. He needed to prove that he was at the hotel. He knew nothing of the accident or Mary Jo drowning, until he was informed of it the next morning. He fabricated the story that he was driving the car.
@@sjb3460 They’ll lie for each other, and step over dead bodies if it suits their agenda. Sickening.
Guarantee he was drunk and that's why he went back to his hotel and didn't report it for 10 hours! He should have at the very least, been charged with manslaughter!
Two things I always wanted to know: 1) Was either front door open or even ajar when Chief Arena or the diver arrived? If Ted had been in the car and had escaped using either the driver or front passenger door, it would NOT have been firmly closed. It would have been either open or ajar. I get the impression the doors were closed. 2) Who did Ted call that night around 2AM from the pay phone out in front of the hotel in Edgartown? According to phone logs, he made something like 14 calls in those early morning hours. If he was calling defense attorneys and his family, that would seem to suggest that he knew about the accident, presumably by first-hand knowledge. If he had been calling other people, that might suggest a different narrative. As a former telecomm engineer, I will tell you that those phone logs should still be on record, if they haven't been sanitized. My theory, and some state police and insurance investigators seem to think the same way, is that Ted, fearful of the optics of being caught in flagrante delicto, inebriated and with a single girl late at night, took off down the dirt road fleeing Deputy Huck, then pulled over, got out and told MJ to drive on and meet him back at the hotel. Ted then made his way back to the hotel on his own and when MJ didn't show up with the car got concerned and started making phone calls. In the meanwhile, MJ took off down the road driving a car much larger than that to which she was accustomed, with a front bench seat that she hadn't had time to adjust for her height (Ted was over 6 feet tall, MJ was around 5'2"), traveling down an unlit road with which she was unfamiliar, lost control of the car at a sudden turn, plunged into the water, was unable to escape and subsequently asphyxiated.
... 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.
The Lion -- brief pause for vomiting -- of the Senate . . .
Read the excellent book "Chappaquiddick Speaks" to understand the sequence of events. The version parroted by the media these 51 years is way off.
Also it is amazing that none of the other Boiler Room Girls ever came forward to explain. They are all still alive - grandmothers now - all went on to great careers too after Chappaquiddick.
Coincidence ?
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.
Thanks for being such a great police chief.......im a Black man and I bet I wdv got life for the same offense. "and justice for all" = unless you re a Kennedy.....
I was only 11 at the time but when I saw his neck brace I thought what a fake.
Her poor mother and father, god only knows what sort of life they had . RIP Mary Jo
My years on earth..,, The fact people in Massachusetts kept on electing him I’ll never understand!!! 😡 . Politics is a cult
There are people out there still walking around who know exactly what happened that night. Until one of them come forward with the facts, it is all speculation.
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.
But how, how did he get that door open under water. How? If he got the door open Water would of filled the car. The pressure would make a difference. She died of lack of air!
He was able to swim across that channel that was amazing. How ever he and his buddies could not get that girl out of the water the wheels were clearly visible. Was he even in that car. She would of fallowed him out. He left her in there to die, why? Why did she leave her purse and hotel key back at the party? Why were they going the wrong way to the ferry? Looks like he killed her and his family wealth covered it up.
I really enjoyed all 2 pixels of this....
StrawberryNinja Nibbles I'm not sure what you mean
'I saw the car and I though, there goes Ted's presidency' What about Mary Jo.
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.
You know, I held out hope that Senator Kennedy might leave a letter, towards the end of his life, to be read after he died explaining what really happened that night and early morning for the good of the Country but he never did. R.I P. Mary Jo Kopechne.
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.
I'll BET THAT SHE HAUNTED HIM. SHE'S SCREAMING HELP ME TED I'M DROWNING IN THIS CAR. HELP ME TED GET ME OUTTA HERE.
He did not call the police, but instead go on to the hotel and go to bed. hmm suspect
Well, I'd rather go hunting with Dick Cheney than a ride with Ted Kennedy.
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!
Drunk Teddy
One wouldn't be terribly surprised if Edward and Cricket escaped unharmed from the front seat and made it back to the cottage, only to learn later that MJ Kopechne was asleep in the back seat. This scenario leaves us with a lot fewer questions. Unless Cricket Redmond talks, we'll never know.
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.
boiler room girls ??? is that what they called them those days??
.. 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.
Buh Bye Chappaquidick ted.......
Justice finally caught up to him...
40 years to late IMO.
Ted’s first impulse was to cover it up.
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.
What was the seat position of the car when found. She was much shorter than Kennedy. If seat forward, she was driving. Did anyone look?
@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.
Since he managed to get out, y didn't he go back for her..🤔
I heard a local radio talk show host talk about this story a while back and the theory as to why he murdered her was she was pregnant with his child. And clearly being a married man this was a problem. Driving his car into the lake and leaving her trapped inside the car to drown solved his problem.
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 . . . .
The "Senator".............."Liked a bit of the Creature".
Corrupt politicians
Pkr: I don't believe in harping on the negative immediately after his death,BUT,on the facts,of course he could be called a coward and killer;what justification is possible for not calling the Police the same night?He basically confessed to a "lack of character' in this case.
K. Dun Gifford at 0:48 "I saw the car and everything & the commotion down there and I thought, 'Oh my God, there goes Ted's presidency right there."
It may have been an off the cuff comment but Gifford, didn't you instead think:
" Oh my God - has anyone been hurt? Is everyone OK? Has anyone drowned? "
or just "WTFF???"
This is one of the most insensitive, minimizing, dismissive & invalidating comments I've ever heard about what happened at Chappaquiddick.
SHAME on you K. Dun Gifford.
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.
Good point.
If this was to be a legit party why wsn't it held at Hyannisport? Plenty of room there, near the water, lots of lawn, lots of servants, lot of places to sleep. Why a remote cottage on a remote island?
Marlene Buchhalter You know why.
Intimate little hideaway
...... to get laid, ya dummy!
The party was held in connection with the Edgartown Regatta.
As I told folks all too many years ago: Ted Kennedy's car killed more
people than my handgun. What's Hell like Teddy Boy? RIP Mary Jo and Mary
Ann from Gilligan's Island.
I agreed with him on probably 90% of the issues, but never would have voted for him for President.
A person can escape mans wrath if they are wrong and get special treatment but in no way can they escape God's wrath unless maybe they truly repent on a heartfelt level.
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 ?
It’s no mystery. He was drunk and thought about himself, and his career over that poor girl.
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.
He was probably drunk and didn’t want to get charged for DUI accident and death.
there seems to be no mention of an off duty patrolman who saw vehicle at intersection ?
I think that was what started this all. Ted got out so as not to be spotted with her.
They had to remove him from politics. Having a party obvious with alcohl and then driving a car at night has not justifications. I'm also surprised that the girl went up with him; she could just as easily remain with the others in the house. Continuing to vote for the senator was a big mistake. The people of Massachusetts voted for him or for the tragisc story of his brothers ?
Could've been the case for METoo! If anyone else had done this, that person would have gotten life in prison. If Joe Kennedy(bootlegger), who died a few months after this incident, had not been incapacitated, or if RFK or JFK had been alive, this would never have happened.
The BBC did a documentary on this a number of years ago and repeated it after he died.
They demonstrated that he wasn't in the car and that he had stopped on the road and got out to walk home, leaving Mary Jo to drive. Her injuries were consistent with her being in the driver's seat and his actions were consistent with him being unaware of anything happening after he got out.
He was to blame for her death, all the same but not in the way people think.
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.
All about the presidency...nothing about Mary Jo Kopechne. Sad,and cruel.
Essentially a coward ..
and they say there can never be to much wealth.....
Off-topic, but check out the German hyperinflation in the early 1920's.
Ted himself admitted he was the driver. And even if she was, he still didn't call the Police right away like any decent man would have. Instead he went back to his hotel room and sobered up as he pondered how he would get out of the situation and keep his precious Senate Seat. He was a piece of garbage.
No. Ted CLAIMED that he was the driver.... so it could, if properly handled (and that wasn't difficult for an Irishman in Mass.), be written off as an accident. Ted's CLAIM was a political decision, making the best he could out of a bad situation... per his personal advisors.
He also had an expired driver's license that was magically made unexpired.
34Packardphaeton It just seems like there’s been a lot of interpretative gymnastics surrounding what I see as a fairly clear cut situation.
"He showed his pain, he showed his sadness." Bullshit. He's acting. He had the bravery and presence of mind to dive back in but not to call the police? Bullshit.
Another of life’s tragedies and impenetrable mysteries. The poor young lady but it’s not for me to cast aspersions , make any assumptions or comment and offer an opinion but I do thank you for the video.
Well, if this state trooper had chosen to take the money, then I guess we can all just what kind of a person the trooper is.
Apparently money and a threat was enough to stop a supposedly "decent" person from telling the truth and let justice be served.
So much for keeping to the oath.
Kennedy may have offered bribes, but taking it and shutting up is just as bad and no more decent.
This was quickly covered up not just for Teddy who was without question guilty (AGAIN) of partying/drinking with women but to also save face for Mary Jo & her parents. She's a "Boiler Girl," enamored with the Kennedy's. She leaves her keys & purse behind in her haste to leave with Teddy.I'm not saying SHE had other motives, but it's possible, it certainly was most likely Ted's intent. If there's an afterlife, for Teddy it must be Hell.
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.
The car wasn't even in deep water, you can see the car, he tried to save her is bullshyt..
he could have saved her but instead he went to sleep and think it over.