Chappaquiddick incident

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The "Chappaquiddick incident" refers to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign worker for the assassinated U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York. Kopechne's dead body was discovered inside an overturned car belonging to Senator Ted Kennedy in a channel on Chappaquiddick Island. The incident became a national scandal and may have affected the Senator's decision not to run for President in 1972.

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[edit] Incident and initial response

On July 18, 1969, Ted Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick, a small island adjoining Martha's Vineyard and connected to it via a ferry. The party was a reunion for a group of six women, known as the "boiler-room girls"[1] who had served in his brother Robert's 1968 presidential campaign. Also present were Joseph Gargan (Ted Kennedy's cousin), Paul Markham (a school friend of Gargan's who would become United States Attorney for Massachusetts under the patronage of the Kennedys)[2], Charles Tretter (an attorney), and John Crimmins (Ted Kennedy's part-time driver). Kennedy was also competing in the Edgartown Yacht Club Regatta, a sailing competition which was taking place over several days.[1]

According to the testimony of the other party-goers, Kennedy left the party at around 11:15 or 11:30, and party guest Mary Jo Kopechne asked for a ride back to her hotel.[1] Kennedy drove his mother's 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88. A deputy sheriff later testified that he saw Kennedy's car on Dyke Road at 12:40 am, and that the driver sped off when he approached it.[3]

According to Kennedy, he made a wrong turn onto an unlit dirt road that led to Dike Bridge (also spelled Dyke Bridge), a wooden bridge angled obliquely to the road with no guardrail, and drove over its side. The car plunged into tide-swept Poucha Pond (at that location a channel) and came to rest upside down underwater. Kennedy later recalled that he was able to swim free of the vehicle, but Kopechne was not. Kennedy claimed at the inquest that he called Kopechne's name several times from the shore, then tried to swim down to reach her seven or eight times, then rested on the bank for several minutes before returning on foot to Lawrence Cottage, where the party attended by Kopechne and other "Boiler Room Girls" had occurred.

According to one commentator, his route back to the cottage would have taken him past four houses from which he could have telephoned and summoned help; however, he did not do so.[3]

According to their later testimony, Gargan and party co-host Paul Markham then returned to the pond with Kennedy to try to rescue Kopechne. Both of the other men reported that they also tried to dive into the water and rescue Kopechne multiple times.[1] When their efforts to rescue Kopechne failed, Kennedy claimed that he said to the others, "You take care of the other girls and I will take care of the accident".[1]According to Gargan and Markham, they then returned to the cottage and told the women nothing, at Kennedy's request. [2]According to Gargan and Markam's testimony, they assumed that Kennedy was going to inform the authorities once he got back to Edgartown, and thus did not do so themselves.[2]

Kennedy decided to return to his hotel; however, the Edgartown-Chappaquiddick ferry (which connects Chappaquiddick to the rest of the island) had shut down for the night, so Gargan and Markham drove Kennedy to the ferry crossing and Kennedy then swam across the 500-foot channel, back to Edgartown, where he fell asleep on his hotel bed at around 2 am.[1]

Back at his hotel, Kennedy complained at 2:55 am to the hotel owner that he had been awoken by a noisy party.[2] By 7:30 am the next morning he was talking "casually" to the winner of the previous day's sailing race, with no indication that anything was amiss.[2] At 8 a.m., Gargan and Markham joined Kennedy at his hotel where they had a "heated conversation", even though the ferry operator did not see them take the ferry to get to Edgartown.[2] The three men subsequently crossed back to Chappaquidick Island on the ferry, where Kennedy made a series of phone calls from a payphone by the crossing to his friends for advice; he again did not report the accident to authorities.[2]

Earlier that morning, two fishermen had seen the overturned car in the water and had called the police.[1] A diver was sent down and discovered Kopechne's body.[1] The diver, John Farrar, later testified at the inquest that Kopechne's body was pressed up in the car in the spot where an air bubble would have formed. He interpreted this to mean that Kopechne had survived for a while after the initial accident in the air bubble, and concluded that

“ Had I received a call within five to ten minutes of the accident occurring, and was able, as I was the following morning, to be at the victim's side within twenty-five minutes of receiving the call, in such event there is a strong possibility that she would have been alive on removal from the submerged car.[3] ”

Police checked the car's license plate and saw that it was registered to Kennedy.[1] When Kennedy, still at the pay phone by the ferry crossing, saw that the body had been discovered, he crossed back to Edgartown and went to the police station: Gargan simultaneously went to the hotel where the Boiler Room Girls were staying to inform them about the incident.[2] Kennedy discussed the accident with several people, including his lawyer and Kopechne's parents, before discussing it with the police the next morning.

[edit] Kopechne family response

Kopechne's parents did not allow an autopsy to be performed on their daughter.[4] They did not bring any legal action against Senator Kennedy, but they did receive a payment of $90,904 from the Senator personally and $50,000 from his insurance company.[4] The Kopechnes later explained their decision to not take legal action by saying that "We figured that people would think we were looking for blood money."[4]

[edit] Aftermath

On July 25, seven days after the incident, Kennedy entered a plea of guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. He received a sentence of two months in jail, which was suspended, and lost his driving license for one year.[2] Later that day he announced on television that it was "indefensible that [he] had not reported the incident to police immediately."[5] He explained his behavior thus:

“ I was overcome, I'm frank to say, by a jumble of emotions - grief, fear, doubt, exhaustion, panic, confusion and shock.[5] ”

He denied that he had been engaged in "immoral conduct" with Kopechne, or that he had been driving under the influence of alcohol.[5] He wondered openly "whether some awful curse actually did hang over all the Kennedys".[5]

[edit] Attempt to exhume Kopechne's body

District Attorney Edmund Dinis filed for and was granted a hearing on his petition for the exhumation of Kopechne's body based on his testimony before a Pennsylvania[citation needed] court that blood was found on Kopechne's skirt and in her mouth and nose. Prior to Dinis' claim, there was no mention of the presence of blood on the body or clothing of Kopechne. The reported discovery was made when her clothes were turned over to authorities by the funeral director.[6]

[edit] Inquest

The inquest into Kopechne's death took place in Edgartown in January 1970. At the request of Kennedy's lawyers, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ordered that it be conducted in secret.[7][8] The 763-page transcript of the inquest was released four months later.[8] Judge James A. Boyle presided at the inquest. Among Judge Boyle's conclusions were the following:

  • "Kopechne and Kennedy did not intend to return to Edgartown" at the time they left the party.
  • "Kennedy did not intend to drive to the ferry slip".
  • "Kennedy's turn onto Dike Road was intentional".

Judge Boyle also said that "negligent driving appears to have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne".[8]

Under Massachusetts law Boyle could have ordered Kennedy's arrest, but he chose not to do so.[8] District Attorney Dinis chose not to pursue Kennedy for manslaughter, despite Judge Boyle's conclusions.

In April 1970 a Dukes County Grand Jury convened for two days to look into the drowning. Four witnesses were heard, but no indictments were issued.[9]

[edit] Significance and legacy

National Lampoon's fake Volkswagen Beetle print ad mocking the incident.
National Lampoon's fake Volkswagen Beetle print ad mocking the incident.

It is widely believed that the Chappaquiddick incident was the major factor in Kennedy's decision not to run for president in 1972.[who?] The case resulted in much satire of Kennedy, including a National Lampoon page showing a floating Volkswagen Beetle with the remark that Kennedy would have been elected president had he been driving a Beetle that night; this satire resulted in legal action by Volkswagen, claiming unauthorized use of its trademark.[10]

On November 4, 1979, CBS presented a one-hour special entitled "Teddy", during which the journey from the cottage to Dike Bridge was retraced by a car-mounted camera. As the car makes a sharp turn off the main road toward the bridge, the camera jumped up and down because of the rougher surface of the new road. According to one account, this suggested to viewers that Kennedy could not have been telling the truth when he said that he was unaware that he had taken a wrong turn.[5] This was one factor that led to Carter defeating Kennedy for the nomination.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bly, p. 202-206.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wills, p. 117-120.
  3. ^ a b c Anderson, p. 138-140.
  4. ^ a b c Bly, p. 216.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Jamieson, p. 379-381.
  6. ^ *"Dinis Says Blood On Mary Jo's Body", Boston Herald Traveler, September 16, 1969.
  7. ^ Trotta, p. 184.
  8. ^ a b c d Bly, p. 213.
  9. ^ Trotta, p. 194.
  10. ^ "Lampoon's Surrender", TIME Magazine, November 12, 1973, retrieved September 10, 2006.


[edit] Bibliography

  • Anderson, Jack; Daryl Gibson (1999). Peace, War, and Politics: An Eyewitness Account. New York: Forge. ISBN 0312874979. 
  • Bly, Nellie (1996). The Kennedy Men: Three Generations of Sex, Scandal, and Secrets. New York: Kensington Books. ISBN 1575661063. 
  • Jamieson, Kathleen Hall (1996). Packaging The Presidency: A History and Criticism of Presidential Campaign Advertising, 3rd edition, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195089421. 
  • Trotta, Liz (1994). Fighting for Air: In the Trenches With Television News. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0826209521. 
  • Wills, Gary (2002). The Kennedy Imprisonment: A Meditation on Power, 1st Mariner Books edition, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0618134433. 

[edit] Further reading

  • Olsen, Jack (1970). The Bridge at Chappaquiddick. Little, Brown and Co. ISBN 9780441079582. 
  • Damore, Leo (1988). Senatorial Privilege. Regnery Gateway. ISBN 0-89526-564-8. 
  • Jones, Richard E. "The Chappaquiddick Inquest: The Complete Transcript of the Inquest into the Death of Mary Jo Kopechne" (1979)

Coordinates: 41°22′24.0″N, 70°27′13.3″W