Chappaquiddick Facts and the Two Faces of Teddy Kennedy
Chappaquiddick: Ted Kennedy, Mary Jo Kopechne, and the Facts the MSM Has Ignored
1974 National Lampoon
“Do not speak ill of the dead” seems to be the central theme relating to Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy’s recent death. “Not now”, say the pundits, not when his death is fresh. “Let it lie”.
Former Newsweek Foreign Editor: Chappaquiddick One of Ted’s ‘Favorite Topics of Humor’
“Do we operate under a system of equal justice under law? Or is there one system for the average citizen and another for the high and mighty?”
Senator Edward Kennedy, referring to Nixon’s pardon
Chappaquiddick Facts
-On July 18, 1969, attorney Edward M. Kennedy was 37 years old, married with three children, and had served seven years as a Democrat Senator for the state of Massachusetts. Prior to serving in the Senate, Kennedy worked as an assistant district attorney for Suffolk, Massachusetts, where he “developed a hard nose for crime”.
-While attending the University of Virginia law school, Kennedy was cited four times for reckless driving, one incident, caught driving 90 mph, at night, through a residential area with his headlights off.
-The Chappaquiddick party was a steak cookout, “get-together”, held at a small, rented 2 bedroom cottage on Chappaquiddick Island on Martha’s Vineyard.
- Kennedy testified he was unfamiliar with Chappaquiddick, yet Kennedy and his brother John had frequented Chappaquiddick “for years”. It was Ted who arranged to have the party held at the cottage.
- There were six “Boilerplate Girls”: young, single women who worked in Robert Kennedy’s ill-fated campaign for President. The six men, including Ted Kennedy, were married and without their wives. They included Ted Kennedy, Paul Markham, Joe Gargan, Jack Crimmins, Kennedy’s chauffeur, and two Kennedy “advance men”, Charles Tretter and Raymond La Rosa.
-Jack Crimmins was staying at the cottage, while the Boilerplate girls, Kennedy, and his entourage of Markham, Gargan, Tretter, and La Rosa had hotel rooms in nearby Edgartown.
-Crimmins was “eager” for everyone to leave that evening.
“Get all these douchebags out of here,” Crimmins said. “I want to get some sleep. The last ferry leaves at 12 o’clock. I want everybody out.”
- Kennedy claimed he was giving Mary Jo Kopechne, 28, brother Robert’s former secretary, a ride back to her hotel room in Edgartown. Mary Jo left her purse at the party and didn’t ask the other girl whom she shared a hotel room with, Esther Newburg, for the key.
-Mary Jo Kopechne, a devout Catholic, wore a a white, long-sleeved blouse, dark slacks, sandals, two bracelets, and a ring. The coroner stated she wasn’t wearing any panties.
-Kennedy claimed he and Mary Jo left the party at 11:15 pm and that the accident happened at 11:30.
-Deputy Sheriff Look spotted Kennedy’s car, an Oldsmobile Delmont 88, turning towards Dike Bridge at 12:45 am.
Kennedy’s Olds 88
-Kennedy’s car went off Dike Bridge in a “rolling turn” and “half flip” into Poucha Pond, a depth of approximately 7 feet.
-Kennedy’s car hit the water on the passenger side and top with “such force that it dented the top, cracked the windshield, and blew in both of the passenger side windows”.
-As the car slowly filled with water, the car “toppled over” and “settled down into the pond with the wheels up on the surface, pointing backwards from the direction it came”.
-According to the tides at the time of the accident, when the car hit the water, Kennedy’s open window would have been an “escape hatch”, above the pond’s surface between 8 and 22 inches. At low tide, the water depth was “5-6 feet”. Kennedy’s Olds 88 was 6 feet, 8 inches wide.
-Kennedy claimed he remembered Mary Jo, “struggling, hitting, or kicking him”. Some have concluded that Kennedy stood on Mary Jo as he climbed out of his window.
-Kennedy claimed he had “no recollection” of how he managed to escape the sinking car.
-Kennedy, at 6’2″, 220 pds, and a “bad back” from a prior airplane accident, managed to escape the car. Slender Mary Jo, at 100 pds. didn’t, even though Kennedy’s window was open.
-The car headlights remained on for some time after the car landed in the water and became submerged.
-Kennedy claimed he tried several times to “dive down” and rescue Mary Jo who was trapped in a car that was in a pond, seven feet or less deep, and that he became “exhausted” and quit.
-Kennedy claimed that he was initially “swept away in the current” yet, at the time Kennedy claimed the accident occurred, it was low tide, and no current.
-In Kennedy’s statement to the police he claimed that he walked back to the cottage arriving at 12:15 am, climbed into the back seat of car, then asked someone to bring him back to Edgartown.
Even though none of the five remaining women were ever officially asked questions about what happened that night, Kennedy’s claim that he “climbed into the back seat” meant that none of the women could later testify as to Kennedy’s “condition” when he arrived at the cottage. The only two witnesses that could testify to Kennedy’s condition were Gargan and Markham. Joe Gargan, attorney and Kennedy’s cousin was raised by Ted’s parents, Rose and Joe Kennedy. Markham was a former U.S. attorney for Massachusetts.
“ON THIS DATE, [REDACTED, EDGARTOWN, MARTHA'S VINEYARD, MASS, ADVISED BODY OF FEMALE FOUND IN OVERTURNED CAR IN WATER. TENTATIVELY IDENTIFIED AS ABOVE, WHO WAS FORMER SECRETARY TO ROBERT F KENNEDY. [REDACTED] CONFIDENTIALLY ADVISED THAT DRIVER OF AUTOMOBILE WAS SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY WHO WAS UNINJURED. STATED FACT SENATOR KENNEDY AS DRIVER WAS NOT REVEALED TO ANYONE.”
Archived FBI Files, Chappaquiddick, 1969
-One week later, in a televised speech, Kennedy claimed that he walked back to the cottage then asked two friends, cousin Joseph Gargan and Paul Markham, to go back to the “scene” and help “rescue” Mary Jo. Both Gargan and Markham were attorneys, as was Kennedy.
-On the “walk” back to the cottage, Kennedy passed a house with its light on. Kennedy also passed four cottages that had phones. Across the street from the “party” cottage was the volunteer fire station with a “glowing red light” and unlocked door-open 24 hours a day.
-At the inquest, Kennedy stated he asked Ray LaRosa to “get Joe Gargan”, then climbed into the backseat of a car parked in front of the cottage. Kennedy stated that he told Gargan to “go get Paul Markham”. Kennedy stated that he told Markham and Gargan that “there’s been a terrible accident, we have to go”.
-Kennedy stated he instructed Markham and Gargan to not tell the other five women that Mary Jo was in his submerged car, or that there had been an accident. Kennedy claimed the women would have wanted to go to the scene and try to rescue Mary Jo, thus causing “another accident”.
-During Kennedy’s testimony he was asked how “long” he knew La Rosa. Kennedy stated, “eight years, ten years, eight to ten years”. Kennedy was asked if he was familiar with the fact that La Rosa had “some experience in skin diving”? Kennedy stated, “No, I never did”.
-Kennedy claimed that he, Markham, and Gargan returned to the submerged car-in less than 7 foot of water-and that Gargan and Markham “took off all their clothes” then repeatedly “dived” in an effort to rescue Mary Jo.
-When asked what time it was that the men were at the submerged car, Kennedy stated that he “looked at the Valiant’s clock” and that he believed it was “12:20″. The Valiant was later inspected by investigators from Time magazine who found no evidence of a clock in the Valiant, and that that particular model was never equipped with one.
-Kennedy reported Gargan was “scraped all the way from his elbow, underneath his arm was all bruised and bloodied”.
-None of the girls at the cottage reported seeing Gargan or Markham, “wet” or “exhausted” after they returned to the cottage, or Gargan, injured in any way.
-During Kennedy’s televised account of what occurred, he stated that he instructed Gargan and Markham to “not alarm the other girls” and that he had the two men take Kennedy to the “crossing”.
Kennedy claimed that the “ferry had shut down for the night” and that he “suddenly jumped into the water and impulsively swam across, nearly drowning in the effort”. Kennedy had failed to mention this in his one and only statement to the police made the day Kopechne’s body was discovered.
-A man named Ballou claimed to have spotted three men crossing the channel in a boat at 2 am.
-Both Gargan and Markham told the women that they had been “looking for a boat”.
-A boy reported that someone had used his boat during that night and that it had been tied up in another location.
-Kennedy claimed that once he reached his room at the Shiretown Inn, he was “shaking with chill” and that he shed his clothes and “collapsed on the bed”. He also claimed he became “conscious of a throbbing headache, of pains in my neck, of strain on my back, but what I was even more conscious of is this tragedy and the loss of a devoted friend”. Even so, Kennedy left his “devoted” friend’s body in his submerged car for an estimated period of nine hours before the car was discovered.
-In Kennedy’s first statement to the police he stated that he had walked around for a “period of time” before going back to his hotel room. When he “realized what had happened this morning”, he “immediately contacted the police”.
-Kennedy made 17 phone calls from Chappaquiddick before he left the island and 12 before he reached the Shiretown Inn. The calls were made with Kennedy’s credit card number through the Edgartown operator. Kennedy denied making the calls.
-Kennedy’s first call, to the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port which lasted 21 minutes and was made while Mary Jo was trapped in the submerged car.
-Kennedy’s second call was to Ted Sorenson in New York City. Sorenson was former special counsel and adviser to President John F. Kennedy.
-Kennedy’s third call was to Marshall Burke, Kennedy’s Washington, D.C., attorney.
-In none of the 17 calls did Kennedy contact the police, the fire department, or the Coast Guard.
-The Boston Globe, who published the results of an investigation in 1974, quoted a highly reliable source that Kennedy sought to have Joe Gargan as his alibi, claiming that it was Gargan who drove Mary Jo in the car, with Kennedy “unaware” of what had occurred until the next morning when the car was “found”.
-At 7:30 am, the morning after the accident, while Mary Jo and Kennedy’s car yet to be discovered, Kennedy appeared downstairs at the Shiretown Inn desk dressed in a white sport shirt, short sleeves, and a pair of blue slacks. Kennedy purchased several newspapers and borrowed a dime to make a phone call.
-Kennedy ran into Ross Richards, the winner of the previous day’s regatta. The two men spent a “leisurely 15 minutes” discussing the race and the one later that day. At 7:50, a man named Stanley Moore and Mrs. Richards joined Kennedy and Ross Richards. At no point did Kennedy mention Mary Jo. Kennedy was asked if he’d like to join them for breakfast. Kennedy allegedly replied he’d have breakfast with them “later”.
-At approximately 8 am, two fisherman spotted Kennedy’s car sticking out “above the surface” of Poucha Pond. The two ran to a nearby house and phoned the police.
-At approximately 8 am, Markham and Gargan joined Kennedy at the Shiretown Inn. It’s still a mystery as to how Markham and Gargan made it back to Edgartown as the ferry operator that morning claimed the two hadn’t boarded the ferry.
-At the inquest, Kennedy claimed Markham and Gargan had asked him if he’d contacted the police. Kennedy stated that he had “hopes” and “dreams” that “Mary Jo was still alive” and that he “didn’t have the strength” to contact Mary Jo’s parents at 2 in the morning.
-At approximately 8:30 am, Edgartown Police Chief arrived at the accident scene.
-Chief Arena put on swimming trunks and dove into the pond. Arena reported that the current was swift but that he was able to ascertain the number of the license plate on the car. Arena had an assistant radio the license number for identification. Deputy Sheriff Look confirmed it was the same vehicle he spotted at 12:45 driving towards Dike Bridge and Poucha Pond. A search got underway along the shoreline for “bodies”. Arena put out a call for John N. Farrar, a shopkeeper and Navy-trained Captain of the local Search and Rescue. Farrar received the call at approximately 8:30 am.
-On route to the accident scene Farrar suited up. When he arrived at the scene he immediately dove into the water. After first checking the driver’s side, Farrar swam to the rear of the car where he spotted Mary Jo’s feet through the rear window. Farrar entered the car through the broken out passenger side windows. Farrar found Mary Jo in the back seat, her head “cocked back”, her face, “pressed upwards into the foot well”, her hands “still grasping the edge of the back seat”. Farrar believed that Mary Jo suffocated in a tiny “air void” and that she had been alive for “three-four hours”.
Farrar based his opinion on the way the car entered the water, which would have “initially caused it to trap air”,
-the position of the car on the bottom of the pond-the car rested on its hood ornament, with the rear end, “slightly above the water”,
-the position of Mary Jo’s body,
-the “air bubbles” that emanated from the car when it was removed from the pond, and the large air void and lack of water in the trunk of the car.
-After a “quick, ten minute” examination of Mary Jo’s body, coroner Dr. Mills concluded Mary Jo died from drowning based on a “great outpouring of water” from Mary Jo’s nose and mouth.
-Standing next to Mills during the examination was undertaker Eugene Frieh. Frieh claimed there was some water, but mostly “foam”. Freih stated he “expected much more water”.
-Dr. Mills ruled out an autopsy even though his own handbook prescribed autopsies for automobile accidents if there was any question as to the cause of death.
-While at the Ferry Slip making a phone call to his attorney, Burke Marshall, Kennedy spotted a hearse headed towards Dike Bridge. Someone informed Kennedy that his car was in an accident and that there was a “dead girl”. Either Kennedy or Markham claimed that they had “just heard about it”. Kennedy then walked to the police station.
-Chief Arena called his office to have Kennedy “quietly located”. Arena knew Kennedy from when Arena worked as a driver for the State House and had driven Kennedy to the airport.
-Before Chief Arena arrived back at the police station, Kennedy was ensconced in his office, using Arena’s phone. One call was to an aide with the orders to have Mary Jo’s body removed from Chappaquiddick and moved to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts and to prepare Mary Jo’s death certificate.
-Kennedy called Mary Jo’s parents from Chief Arena’s office, informing them that their daughter was dead.
-Kennedy was never “questioned” by Chief Arena. Instead, Markham and Kennedy worked on an “outline” of what occurred. Markhan wrote out Kennedy’s statement in long hand. The original statement later “disappeared” from Arena’s office.
-Kennedy instructed Arena to not release the statement until Kennedy had a chance to talk with his lawyer. Prosecutor Walter Steele arrived and spoke with Kennedy and Markham “in confidence”.
-Before Kennedy appeared at the police station, the “party” at the rented cottage had cleared out and cleaned the place, even rinsing out the coke bottles. All five girls were flown out and, to this day, have never publicly spoken about the incident. Nor were they ever interviewed by authorities.
-Chief Arena and local authorities arranged for Kennedy to leave the island incognito. State officials drove Kennedy to the airport where local Democrat leader, Bob Carrol, flew Kennedy to Hyannis Port.
-When Kennedy arrived at the family compound he was joined by Robert McNamara, former Defense Secretary of brother John, Ted Sorenson, special assistant to JFK, Richard Goodwin, attorney, special assistant to JFK, Burke Marshall, former assistant Attorney General to JFK, U.S. Congressman John Culver, Judge R. Clark, former District Court Judge of Massachusetts, Robert Clark III, son of Judge Clark, attorney, Sargent Shriver, Kennedy brother-in-law, Frank O’ Connor, Kennedy assistant, Paul Markham, Milton Gwirtzman, attorney and speech writer, U.S. Congressman John Tunney, and David Burke, attorney and Kennedy’s special assistant. The men stayed a week, planning Kennedy’s “defense” while Kennedy purportedly drank, cried, went sailing, and flew kites.
-Tuesday, July 22, funeral services were held for Ted Kennedy’s “good friend”, Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy arrived wearing a neck brace.
-A secret meeting was arranged between Judge Clark and his son Robert with the prosecutor and Chief Arena. The meeting was held in the woods, several miles from the prying eyes of the “public” on July 23.
-The next day, at a nearby airport hangar, a guilty plea deal was agreed to. The court date was changed from Monday, July 28, to Friday, July 25, thus avoiding a “full scale” trial.
-Late Thursday night, Prosecutor Steele, Chief Arena, and Kennedy’s defense attorneys helped Chief Arena “edit” his “statement of facts” to be presented at court.
-On Friday, July 25, at the courthouse, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident. Kennedy was then sentenced to the lowest possible sentence by law, while Steele informed the judge that Kennedy was driving with “extreme care”. Missing from the “trial”, evidence from Mary Jo’s autopsy as an autopsy was never performed.
-Scripps reporter Dan Thommason was thrown out of the trial and later denied access to the public record.
-A probation officer testified that Kennedy had “no prior records”, even though Kennedy had numerous prior driving convictions.
-Judge Boyle gave Kennedy a suspended two month sentence.
-After the trial Kennedy was taken out the back door, escorted to the airport, then flown back to Hyannis Port.
-It’s estimated that Mary Jo was in Kennedy’s submerged car for over nine hours.
-An autopsy was never performed on Mary Jo’s body, while a Kennedy aide prepared the dead certificate.
-The Kopechnes received a $141,000 settlement from Kennedy’s insurance company after their daughter’s death.
By LBG
Source- NNDB.com – Ted Kennedy
Source - Pocono Record
Source - Death at Chappaquiddick
Image – National Lampoon – Teddy Kennedy VW Ad
Image – Kennedy’s Olds 88 – Poncha Pond
Image – Diver John Farrar and Kennedy’s Olds 88
great piece
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Why on earth are these damning facts not public knowledge even 40 years later? Are there no actual reporters anymore, just leftist flacks?
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pete Reply:
September 1st, 2009 at 16:04
Because, Drew – nobody realllly cares.
Teddy got drunk and crashed, and ran away and devised a story instead of trying to rescue the girl.
He got away with it because he was from a rich influential family.
And… you just read it – what are you looking for FOX to start an investigation?
again, nobody cares.
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I saw a show on this back in the 80′s and wondered then how Kennedy got away with it. I guess money really can buy anything.
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6-7, maybe even 8 feet of water, with at least two open windows, and clear evidence that she was awake and holding on to the back seat. How is it possible that she did not try to get out? Even if she didn’t know how deep the water was she should have realized that she’d eventually get to the surface long before one good breath would run out. Even in pitch blackness she could have felt around, felt the open windows and maneuvered through one.
The whole thing remains unbelievable. And who the heck can’t dive down 8 feet! My 12-y.o. has been doing that since she was 7! And the water would have been relatively warm in July, still chilly but certainly not life-threatening.
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