Mary Jo Kopechne … Forty Years After

 You’re going to hear a lot of news this weekend about Barack Obama’s Health Care Plan, about the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice nominee Sotomeyer … 

You’re going to hear about Cap and Tax and you’re going to hear about the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s historic first steps on the moon. 

What you’re not going to hear about however – is the 40th anniversary of the woman who was killed by Senator Ted Kennedy – Mary Jo Kopechne. 

I can think of no higher example of Democratic hypocrisy than to point out that one of the primary “heros” of modern liberalism and “Lion of the Senate”, Ted Kennedy – actually KILLED a woman and attempted to cover it up.  The next time you hear a member of the Democratic party talk about Republican corruption – point out to them that they’ve been willing co-conspirators with Ted Kennedy in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne for over 40 years.  While they ran Trent Lott out of his leadership position in the Senate for simply saying nice things about Strom Thurmond at his birthday party – they have elevated a cowardly killer who has enjoyed a life of power he should have never been allowed to have.  Indeed, earlier this year, Ted Kennedy even became an honorary Knight of the British Empire.  

Let’s review the Lion of the Senate’s brave and heroic actions on that night … 40 years ago, on 18 July, 1969 … 

** On July 18, 1969, Ted Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick, a small island connected via ferry to the town of Edgartown on the adjoining larger island of Martha’s Vineyard. The party was a reunion for a group of six women, including Kopechne, known as the “boiler-room girls” 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), Charles Tretter (an attorney), Raymond La Rosa 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. 

** According to his own testimony at the inquest into Kopechne’s death, Kennedy left the party at “approximately 11:15 p.m.” When he announced that he was about to leave, Kopechne indicated “that she was desirous of leaving, if I would be kind enough to drop her back at her hotel”. Kennedy then requested the keys to his car from his chauffeur, Crimmins. Asked why he did not have his chauffeur drive them both, Kennedy explained that Crimmins along with some other partygoers “were concluding their meal, enjoying the fellowship and it didn’t appear to me necessary to require him to bring me back to Edgartown”.  Kopechne told no one that she was leaving with Kennedy, and left her purse and hotel key at the party.  

NOTE:  This is Kennedy’s explanation for leaving the party late at night, with a single woman – not his wife.  It’s curious and inconsistent with Kennedy’s testimony that Mary Jo wanted to return to her hotel – when she left her keys and purse at the party. 

** Christopher “Huck” Look was a deputy sheriff working as a special police officer at the Edgartown regatta dance that night. At 12:30 am he left the dance, crossed over to Chappaquiddick in the yacht club’s launch, got into his parked car and drove home. He testified that between 12:30 and 12:45 am he had seen a dark car containing a man driving and a woman in the front seat approaching the intersection with Dike Road. The car had gone first onto the private Cemetery Road and stopped there. Thinking that the occupants of the car might be lost, Look had gotten out of his car and walked towards it. When he was 25 to 30 feet away, the car started backing up towards him. When Look called out to offer his help, the car took off down Dike Road in a cloud of dust.  Look recalled that the car’s license plate began with a “L” and contained the number “7″ twice, both details true of Kennedy’s 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88. 

NOTE:  Deputy Look witnessed Kennedy’s car STILL in Chappaquiddick at 12:30 am – which is one hour and fifteen minutes after Kennedy says he left the party to go back to the hotel.  In one hour and fifteen minutes – you could drive 75 miles at 60 miles per hour.  The ferry that Kennedy was supposedly headed for … was no more than 4 miles away from the party he had attended.  Incidentally – Kennedy told police he intended to catch the last ferry to Martha’s Vineyard at midnight.  So here’s Kennedy – 30 to 45 minutes AFTER his ferry has left – and he’s still driving about Chappaquiddick with Mary Jo.  Was Kennedy drunk?  Not according to his television statement after the incident – in which he claimed he was NOT under the influence of alcohol.  So here’s a totally lucid Kennedy, unable to make it to his ferry even though he began the journey 45 minutes before the ferry was due to depart.  Remember – Kennedy is familiar with this area. 

** According to his inquest testimony, Kennedy made a wrong turn onto Dike Road, an unlit dirt road that led to Dike Bridge (also spelled Dyke Bridge). Dike Road was unpaved, but Kennedy, driving at “approximately twenty miles an hour”, took “no particular notice” of this fact, and did not realize that he was no longer headed towards the ferry landing.  Dike Bridge was a wooden bridge angled obliquely to the road with no guardrail. A fraction of a second before he reached the bridge, Kennedy applied his brakes; he then drove over the side of the bridge. 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. 

NOTE:  So here we have Kennedy, a man who was born and raised in this area, getting lost and travelling in the OPPOSITE direction from the ferry he says he was trying to reach.  Kennedy says he make a “wrong turn” but somehow he wasn’t tipped off that he had made a wrong turn when he found himself on a dirt road?  Additionally – in order to make that “wrong turn” … Kennedy had to overlook a reflective sign right in front of him with an arrow on it pointing the way to the fucking ferry he says he wanted to catch.   

In fact, the route Kennedy was actually on was taking he and Mary Jo to a beach just beyond the bridge he drove off of.  Hmmmmm… 

In fact – that beach is just about 100 yards beyond the foot of Dike Bridge – it’s the only thing after the bridge.  It meets a long stretch of very nice beach – probably the nicest on the island.  Google Map it – you’ll see that today lots of cars are parked just before the bridge – no doubt beachgoers out for some relaxation.  It’s not a stretch to conclude that Kennedy knew exactly where he was going – he was travelling down a dirt road at 20 miles an hour – while he lost – but not drunk?  No … he was familiar with this road.  Don’t know why he missed the bridge though on the way to what he surely thought, or hoped, would be a romantic get-away with Mary Jo.

Kennedy said that when the vehicle overturned in the water … “I felt water enter my lungs” and he felt the sensation of drowning.  Somehow, he managed to get to the surface – and he then stated that he dove repeatedly into the water to free Mary Jo from the wreckage.  Howver, Kennedy was encumbered by a back brace from an airplane crash in 1964 … and the fact that his lungs had filled with water (he says) … combined would have put this man in a very bad physical condition to dive several times into the cold water in a 1.5 knot current.

**  According to Kennedy … after his diving attempts to save Mary Jo – he rested on the bank for fifteen minutes – then walked back to the party at Lawrence Cottage. 

NOTE:  Along this route … Kennedy passed at least four lighted houses with telephones from which he COULD have called and summoned help.  He failed to do so – opting instead, to simply continue walking to the party.  The first house he passed, “Dike House” was occupied, lighted, and only 150 yards from the bridge.  Note here that there is a possiblity that, at this time – Mary Jo may well have still been alive in the vehicle – perhaps breathing in a trapped air bubble that was in the car.  Yet Kennedy walks past the Dike house – and three other houses – back to the party. 

** Kennedy then tells two different stories about what happened when he reached the party again.  He told police he jumped in the back of a car and asked someone else to drive him back to Edgartown.  How he finally managed to get to Edgartown – he didn’t relate.  However, in his public statements he had a second explanation, he said that when he reached the cottage, he talked to Gargan and Paul Markham, a former U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, and took them back to the bridge. Both of his friends then dived into the water, Kennedy said on TV, but failed to find Mary Jo. 

NOTE:  Neither Gargan nor Markham reported the incident to the police and, at this time – neither had Kennedy.  Let’s recap this sportsfans … these three men are pretty certain there’s a dead girl in the water and they have done nothing to report this to the authorities.  These aren’t redneck hicks – these men are all educated lawyers! 

**  Kennedy then says Gargan and Markham drove him to the ferry landing – where Kennedy suddenly dives into the water and SWIMS back to his hotel at Edgartown – nearly drowning in the process, according to Kennedy.  Gargan and Markham, however – never tell the other girls back at the party what happened – and Kennedy didn’t tell them either when he returned to the party after the accident.  

NOTE:  Does any of this sound like there’s a cover-up already happening? 

**  Kennedy emerges from the water – and returns to his hotel room – where he says he collapsed on his bed.  However – Hearing noises, he later put on a dry SUIT AND TROUSERS and asked the co-owner of the hotel what the time was: it was something like 2:30 a.m.  Kennedy then COMPLAINS that there’s a noisy party that’s keeping him awake (now there’s BALLS for you).  

NOTE:  The man he’s talking to … Russell Peachy, says that Kennedy looks fine – he’s dry and doesn’t look the least bit “in shock” – which is a state that Kennedy later claimed he was in at this point. 

** At 7:30 the next morning … Kennedy is at the hotel and he’s relaxed, dressed and having casual conversations with acquaitances.  Gargan and Markham then show up at the hotel and notice Kennedy and drag him back to his room where they have a heated conversation.  The two lawyers were, by this time, reportedly upset that Kennedy had not even yet reported the accident to authorities.  So what do these men do?  Do they report the accident?  Nope … they get on the ferry and go back to Chappaquiddick. 

**  Upon arrival at Chappaquiddick – Kennedy uses a pay phone – not to call the police or other authorities – but to call friends for advice.  Note here … Kennedy makes not just one call – he makes several to his “friends”. 

NOTE:  At this point – only Kennedy, Gargan and Markham even know about the accident – none of the others who attended the party know. 

** Earlier that morning, two amateur fishermen had seen the overturned car in the water and notified the inhabitants of the nearest cottage to the pond, who called the authorities at around 8:20 am.  A diver was sent down and discovered Kopechne’s body at around 8:45 am.  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” 

** By this time the police know that the car belonged to Kennedy – and they’re looking for him.  Kennedy is still at the ferry crossing at Chappaquiddick when he realizes that Mary Jo’s body has been found.  So he calls another lawyer … and … RETURNS to Edgartown. 

** AT 10 AM!! Kennedy finally walks into the Edgartown police stations – make a couple more phone calls … then DICTATES A STATEMENT to Paul Markham – which is then handed to the police. 

Negligent Manslaughter, Lies, and Coverup – that’s what this was.  Kennedy’s crimes were facilitated by Masachusetts state authorities who didn’t press him for answers and allowed him to get away with a simple typed statement as an explanation of the accident.  A statement, by the way – that differs in some cases from the statements Kennedy made on public television later. 

Mary Jo Kopechne … who had worked for civil rights in the South during her brief career – is DEAD. 

Ted Kennedy got a suspended sentence on a charge of leaving the scene of an accident.  He has been a Senator ever since – and is considered the “Lion of the Senate”.  He is now physically ill with brain cancer and will no doubt be hailed as a great American “patriot” when he dies – likely soon. 

Richard Nixon covered up a simple break-in … a break in that he had no knowledge of – but he attempted to cover up later when he found out about it.  No one lost their life in Watergate.  Yet Nixon resigned and later died in disgrace. 

TED KENNEDY KILLED A WOMAN.  YET HE WILL BE REMEMBERED AS A “HERO”. 

Ted Kennedy is a coward, a manslaughterer, a hypocrite … and despicable person.  He has enjoyed existence on this earth for 40 years longer than he deserved.  I will shed no tears when this man passes. 

Remember Mary Jo.