https://www.usatoday.com/story...ears-ago/1742106001/

50 years ago, Ted Kennedy veered off a Chappaquiddick bridge and caused a woman's death

BOSTON — The crash ended a young woman's life, and with it, a man's White House dreams.

U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's Oldsmobile sedan veered off a narrow bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, an extension of the resort island of Martha's Vineyard off Massachusetts, and plunged into a moonlit pond 50 years ago Thursday. His passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned.

Kennedy, 37, survived, but his presidential ambitions did not. The Massachusetts Democrat waited 10 hours to report the accident to police, and the "whys?" dogged him for the rest of his days.

Half a century later, what did and didn't happen on Chappaquiddick Island on July 18, 1969, continues to fascinate and frustrate.

Every time there's an anniversary, it's like it happened yesterday," Leslie Leland, who served as foreman of the grand jury that investigated, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home on the Vineyard.

Now 79, Leland was a young pharmacist on the island when he was swept up in the aftermath. He recalls getting death threats and 24-hour police protection, and says he is still frustrated by the judge's refusal to subpoena anyone who was at the party or share key investigative documents — stymieing the grand jury's efforts to determine whether Kennedy had been drinking.

"If we'd been allowed to do our job, there would have been an indictment and a request to have a jury trial," he said. "Justice wasn't served. There were so many discrepancies, but we weren't allowed to do our jobs to get to the truth — whatever the truth may have been.

"I was young, and I believed in the system. I believed everyone played by the same rules. I learned they don't."

Kennedy was driving after a party when his car flipped into the chilly waters, trapping Kopechne inside. She had been a campaign worker for Kennedy's brother, Robert, who was assassinated the previous year in Los Angeles during California's Democratic presidential primary.

Kennedy, who managed to free himself from the submerged vehicle, said he tried in vain to rescue Kopechne. He later described his failure to report the accident to police for 10 hours as "indefensible," attributing the delay to exhaustion, shock and a concussion.

The nation, too, was shocked. But it was also distracted by the historic Apollo 11 moon landing, which eclipsed news coverage. Kennedy, who insisted he hadn't been drinking, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a suspended sentence of two months in jail. He was never indicted.

For Kopechne's family, bitterness has given way to a desire to honor her memory by telling her story and awarding scholarships in her name to bright young students, said William Nelson, a cousin born three years after she died. Kopechne's father died in 2003; her mother died in 2007.

"We've shifted into trying to have Mary Jo's life mean something," said Nelson, of Slatington, Pennsylvania. "She was kind of glossed over as the girl in the car. It was all about Ted Kennedy. She would have gone on to do great things."

Kopechne's commitment to civil rights drew her to Robert Kennedy's campaign. Relatives believe she would have pursued more activism and perhaps a political career of her own.

"Mary Jo was ahead of her time for women in 1969, so I'm pretty sure she would have pioneered a new path for women in Washington," Nelson said. "The true tragedy of that night in Chappaquiddick is she never got that chance."

And what of Kennedy's own legacy?

Were it not for Chappaquiddick, Kennedy may well have been the Democrat who denied Richard Nixon a second term in 1972. But he didn't dare run then, and a later presidential campaign in 1980 fizzled.

"The phenomenon of the personal becoming political began with Chappaquiddick," said Patrick Maney, a Kennedy expert and professor of political science at Boston College. "There was something different in American politics after Chappaquiddick than there was before."

Even so, Kennedy went on to serve another four decades in the Senate, where he was one of the nation's longest serving and most influential legislators of the 20th century, securing his place in the pantheon of American politics.

In "True Compass," a memoir published shortly after his 2009 death, Kennedy called Chappaquiddick "a horrible tragedy that haunts me every day of my life."

Not surprisingly, nothing is planned to mark Thursday's anniversary at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, erected in his memory in the shadow of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in Boston.

On its website, Chappaquiddick — which inspired a 2018 film of the same name — appears only in a few obscure interviews conducted as part of an oral history project.

Curious if it will ever be public how much money the Kennedy family paid the Kopechne family to stay quiet.

In related news, were coming up next month on the 10th anniversary of Ted being sober.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
https://www.usatoday.com/story...ears-ago/1742106001/

50 years ago, Ted Kennedy veered off a Chappaquiddick bridge and caused a woman's death

BOSTON — Every time there's an anniversary, it's like it happened yesterday," Leslie Leland, who served as foreman of the grand jury that investigated, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home on the Vineyard.

Now 79, Leland was a young pharmacist on the island when he was swept up in the aftermath. He recalls getting death threats and 24-hour police protection, and says he is still frustrated by the judge's refusal to subpoena anyone who was at the party or share key investigative documents — stymieing the grand jury's efforts to determine whether Kennedy had been drinking.

"If we'd been allowed to do our job, there would have been an indictment and a request to have a jury trial," he said. "Justice wasn't served. There were so many discrepancies, but we weren't allowed to do our jobs to get to the truth — whatever the truth may have been.

"I was young, and I believed in the system. I believed everyone played by the same rules. I learned they don't."

Kennedy, who managed to free himself from the submerged vehicle, said he tried in vain to rescue Kopechne. He later described his failure to report the accident to police for 10 hours as "indefensible," attributing the delay to exhaustion, shock and a concussion.

For Kopechne's family, bitterness has given way to a desire to honor her memory by telling her story and awarding scholarships in her name to bright young students, said William Nelson, a cousin born three years after she died. Kopechne's father died in 2003; her mother died in 2007.

What happened that night on the bridge wasn't the only thing that was "indefensible", the coverup that only a Kennedy or Clinton would be afforded was too. It's hard not to note that certain family members of Kopechne have gotten past bitterness. How can you be bitter, when you were born years after the victim died and the grieving (and presumably "bitter") parents are both dead and buried?

Those who care about justice and lived through the debacle (i.e. Leslie Leland, the foreman of the Grand Jury that was prevented from doing their job) have every right to be bitter and I'm glad at least they're around to speak out on behalf of the dead.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
The nation, too, was shocked. But it was also distracted by the historic Apollo 11 moon landing, which eclipsed news coverage.

I remember talking to a buddy's father about Chappaquiddick, and he said that nobody really paid much attention to the story because of the moon landing, which happened the day after the news reports of the bridge accident. And after the Apollo 11 hoopla subsided, The Tate Murders happened a few weeks later.

Gutless wonder. "Lion of the Senate" my ass.

Good thing that POS didn't drive a Volkswagen. He might have been President. Regards 18DAI

The smart money at the time thought she was carrying his child, and he drowned her to get rid of the politically embarrassing oops. Couldn't be proved after the family was pressured into refusing to allow an autopsy. Damn shame. The world would be a better place if he had drowned, and she had lived.

An aide went into Rose Kennedy’s bedroom early one morning to tell her the sad news that Jackie had died. “That’s terrible,” the old lady rasped. “Was Teddy driving?”

Probably the reason he was an alcoholic. Tried to drown his guilt.

(To the tune of Sgt Pepper's)

"It was 50 year ago today
When Teddy Kennedy drove away
He'd been drinking like being in style
But couldn't stop even for awhile
So may I introduce to you
A story you known all these years
The Chappaquiddick Briiiiidge!!!"

quote:

Chappaquiddick

I recommend everyone see the movie of this title made a couple years ago. The DNC tried to get production stopped, it tells it like it was.

Ted Kennedy

The ONLY democrat with a confirmed kill in the War on Women

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
Probably the reason he was an alcoholic. Tried to drown his guilt.

To be fair, he has been sober 3614 days and counting.

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
Probably the reason he was an alcoholic. Tried to drown his guilt.

I truly doubt that he ever felt guilt over that incident, or anything else. Just one more of the protected democraP power players.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
Probably the reason he was an alcoholic. Tried to drown his guilt.

To be fair, he has been sober 3614 days and counting.

Please don't get this thread locked.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
Ted Kennedy

The ONLY democrat with a confirmed kill in the War on Women

Actually, his cousin Michael has a confirmed kill.

Dennis Leary said it best; "Ted Kennedy, great senator, bad date"

quote:

Originally posted by Floyd D. Barber:

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
Probably the reason he was an alcoholic. Tried to drown his guilt.

To be fair, he has been sober 3614 days and counting.

Please don't get this thread locked.

Since we’re making requests, fix your signature. You’re one of the worst offenders.

But on the other hand, Kennedy has been sober since 2009.

Teddy the Red-nosed Senator

You know Hitler and Caesar and Agnew and Nixon
Stalin and Lenin and David the Klansman
But do you recall
The most famous politician of all?

Teddy the red-nosed senator
Had a very shiny car
And if you ever saw it
You were probably near a bar

All of the other senators
Wondered how he got his dames
They thought he drank too many
To play in any bedroom games

Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say
"Teddy with your nose so red
Won't you help me guide my sled?"

That's how the police found them
Wrapped around a maple tree
Teddy the red-nosed senator
He's a drunken S.O.B

He's a drunken S.O.B

quote:

U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's Oldsmobile sedan veered off a narrow bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, an extension of the resort island of Martha's Vineyard off Massachusetts, and plunged into a moonlit pond 50 years ago Thursday. His passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned.

Yes, the car just veered off the bridge. No one was driving it. And a woman drowned. Teddy was just a hapless victim of the events. A passive eye witness who took all the blame. Poor Teddy.

I know that farther down in the story, the author finally admits that Teddy was driving, but most people on the read the headline and the first 3-5 sentences of an article.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:


BOSTON — The crash ended a young woman's life, and with it, a man's White House dreams...

...Kennedy, 37, survived, but his presidential ambitions did not...

Poor Teddy. Poor, poor Teddy. He is such a victim and America was denied the benefit of his great leadership over such a silly and inconsequential thing.



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