Chappaquiddick incident

Ted Kennedy in 1968

U.S. Senator Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy, age 37, and his cousin, Joseph Gargan, 39,[Notes 1] planned to race Kennedy's sailboat, Victura, in the 1969 Edgartown Yacht Club Regatta on Friday and Saturday, July 18 and 19, 1969, after having forgone the previous year's Regatta because of the assassination of Kennedy's brother, Robert, that June.[13] Gargan rented secluded Lawrence Cottage for the weekend on Chappaquiddick Island,[14] which is a tiny island accessible by ferry from Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard. They hosted a cookout party at the cottage at 8:30 p.m that evening[15] as a re-union for the "Boiler Room Girls", women who had served on Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign. Six of these attended the party: Mary Jo Kopechne, Rosemary Keough, Esther Newberg, sisters Nance and Mary Ellen Lyons, and Susan Tannenbaum. All were in their twenties, and single.

The men at the party included the crew of Kennedy's sailboat entered in the regatta: Gargan; Paul Markham, a school friend of Gargan who had previously served as the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts;[16] and John B. Crimmins, 63,[8] a long-time political associate of Kennedy who served as his chauffeur for the weekend.[17] Others in attendance were attorney Charles Tretter, a Kennedy advisor; and Raymond LaRosa, who had worked on Kennedy's Senate campaigns. All the men were married, except Crimmins;[8] wives were not invited to the Chappaquiddick weekend.[18] Other friends and campaign workers, male and female, had been invited, but did not attend, for various reasons. Markham and Crimmins intended to spend the night at the cottage, while the others were booked at hotels on Martha's Vineyard - the men at the Shiretown Inn, one block from the Edgartown ferry slip, and the women at the Katama Shores motor inn, about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the ferry slip.[19]

A short time after 8 a.m., a man and a fifteen-year-old boy, who went fishing off Tom's Neck Point, saw Kennedy's submerged car in Poucha Pond and notified the residents of the cottage nearest the scene, who, in turn, called the authorities at about 8:20 a.m.[34] Edgartown Police Chief Dominick James Arena arrived at the scene about 10 or 15 minutes later.[35] He attempted to examine the interior of the submerged vehicle,[35][36] then summoned a trained scuba diver and equipment capable of towing or winching the vehicle out of the water. John Farrar, captain of the Edgartown Fire Rescue unit, arrived at 8:45 a.m., equipped with scuba gear, and discovered Kopechne's body in the back seat; he extricated it from the vehicle within 10 minutes.[37][38] Police checked the car's license plate, and saw that it was registered to Kennedy.[18] Rosemary Keough's purse was found in the front passenger compartment of the car, causing Arena to misidentify Kopechne.[39][Notes 2]

Meanwhile, Kennedy, Gargan, and Markham crossed back to Chappaquiddick Island on the ferry, where Kennedy made a series of telephone calls from a pay phone near the ferry crossing—the same phone that the three men had stood by approximately six hours earlier discussing Kennedy's options. Kennedy called friends and lawyers for advice, however, instead of notifying the authorities that he was the operator of the vehicle, which was still upside down in Poucha Pond. He called his brother-in-law Stephen Edward Smith,[Notes 3][40] congressman John V. Tunney,[41] and others that morning, but he still did not report the accident to authorities.[16]

Kennedy was still at the pay phone when he heard that his car and Kopechne's body had been discovered;[42] he then crossed back to Edgartown to go to the police station with Markham. Meanwhile, Gargan went to the Katama Shores to inform the Boiler Room Girls of the incident.[16] Kennedy entered the police station at approximately 9:50 a.m. He asked to make some telephone calls, and was told he could use Arena's office. When Arena returned to the station at 10:00, he was "stunned" to learn Kennedy already knew of the accident and the true identity of the victim, and admitted he was the driver.[43] Arena led Kennedy to another empty office where he could privately dictate his statement to Markham, who wrote it out in long hand. Arena then typed out the statement:[44][Notes 4]

On July 18, 1969, at approximately 11:15 p.m. in Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, I was driving my car on Main Street on my way to get the ferry back to Edgartown. I was unfamiliar with the road and turned right onto Dyke [sic] Road,[Notes 5] instead of bearing hard left on Main Street. After proceeding for approximately one-half mile on Dyke [sic] Road, I descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge.[Notes 6] The car went off the side of the bridge. There was one passenger with me, one Miss Mary ___,[Notes 7] a former secretary of my brother, Sen. Robert Kennedy. The car turned over and sank into the water, and landed with the roof resting on the bottom. I attempted to open the door and the window of the car, but have no re-collection of how I got out of the car. I came to the surface, and then repeatedly dove down to the car, in an attempt to see if the passenger was still in the car. I was unsuccessful in the attempt. I was exhausted and in a state of shock. I recall walking back to where my friends were eating. There was a car parked in front of the cottage, and I climbed into the backseat. I then asked for someone to bring me back to Edgartown. I remember walking around for a period and then going back to my hotel room. When I fully realized what had happened this morning, I immediately contacted the police.

Kennedy said the statement was correct as Arena typed it, but did not sign it.[45]

As the Medical Examiner Dr. Robert Nevin had the day off, Associate Medical Examiner Dr. Donald Mills was called to the crash site to examine the body. He was satisfied that the cause of death was accidental drowning, but asked the District Attorney's office for direction on whether an autopsy was necessary, and was told it was not, as long as there were no signs of foul play and he was satisfied it was a drowning. He signed the death certificate to that effect and released the body for embalming, and directed that a blood sample be collected and sent to the State Police for analysis of alcohol content.[46] The result was 0.09%, which Mills mistakenly thought represented only a "moderate" level, but, in fact, indicated in a person of Kopechne's weight, up to five drinks of liquor within an hour prior to death.[47]

Kopechne's body was released to her family, and the funeral was held on Tuesday, July 22, in Plymouth, Pennsylvania.[48][49][50]

Medical Examiner Nevin strongly disagreed with Mills' decision to forgo autopsy,[51] believing that ruling out foul play would work to Kennedy's advantage by laying prurient public speculation to rest.[52]

After President Richard Nixon's security operative Jack Caulfield learned of the incident, he dispatched Anthony Ulasewicz to Dike Bridge in disguise as a newspaper reporter to collect information since he believed Kennedy would be his rival in the 1972 presidential election. Although Ulasewicz was able to interview several witnesses before law enforcement authorities, he found no useful information.[53]

Edgartown and Chappaquiddick Island in relation to the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, south of Cape Cod

Kennedy returned to his family's compound in Hyannis Port. Stephen Smith, Robert McNamara, Ted Sorensen, Richard N. Goodwin, Lem Billings, Milton Gwirtzman, David W. Burke, John Culver, Tunney,[41] Gargan,[60] Markham, and others arrived to advise him.[61] Smith, the Kennedy family business manager and "master fixer",[61] resigned himself to the fact that the political damage had been done, and Kennedy's chance of running for President at the next available window, 1972, was gone. The problem remained how to protect him from a charge of manslaughter.[61]

Kennedy's court hearing was held before Massachusetts District Court Judge James Boyle on July 25, seven days after the incident. Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident causing bodily injury. His attorneys argued that any jail sentence should be suspended, and the prosecutors agreed by citing his age (37), character, and prior reputation.[62] "Considering the unblemished record of the defendant, and insofar as the Commonwealth represents this is not a case where he was really trying to conceal his identity...", Boyle sentenced him to the statutory minimum two months in prison, which he suspended, saying that he "has already been, and will continue to be punished far beyond anything this court can impose."[4]

Despite an Associated Press story published that morning, Boyle was unaware that Kennedy's driving record was, in fact, far from "unblemished".[4] While attending University of Virginia School of Law (1956–1959), he had compiled a record of reckless driving and driving without a license.[63] In one particular March 14, 1958, incident, Kennedy ran a red light, then cut his tail lights and raced to avoid a highway patrol officer. When Kennedy was caught, he was cited for reckless driving, racing to avoid pursuit, and driving without a license.[64]

Kennedy's wife Joan was pregnant at the time of the Chappaquiddick incident. She was confined to bed because of two previous miscarriages, but she attended Kopechne's funeral and stood beside her husband in court.[65] Soon after, she suffered a third miscarriage,[66] which she blamed on the Chappaquiddick incident.[67]

At 7:30 p.m. on July 25, Kennedy delivered a lengthy speech about the incident, prepared by Sorensen[61][68] and broadcast live by the three television networks.[69][70] He began by reading the speech off a prepared manuscript.[71]

Kennedy explained that his wife did not accompany him to the regatta due to "reasons of health". He denied he engaged in any "immoral conduct" with Kopechne or driving under the influence of alcohol that evening. He said that his conduct during the hours immediately after the accident "made no sense to me at all", and said that his doctors had informed him he had suffered "cerebral concussion and shock". He said he regarded his failure to report the accident to the police immediately as "indefensible". To the horror of Gargan's attorney, his statement revealed his enlistment of the help of Gargan and Markham to try to rescue Kopechne (despite assurances he had made to the effect that he would not involve them).

He said "all kinds of scrambled thoughts" went through his mind after the accident, including "whether the girl might still be alive somewhere out of that immediate area", whether "some awful curse actually did hang over all the Kennedys", whether there was "some justifiable reason for me to doubt what had happened and to delay my report", and whether, "somehow, the awful weight of this incredible incident might in some way pass from my shoulders". He said he was overcome "by a jumble of emotions — grief, fear, doubt, exhaustion, panic, confusion, and shock". He said he instructed Gargan and Markham "not to alarm Mary Jo's friends that night", then returned to the ferry with the two men and "suddenly jumped into the water and impulsively swam across, nearly drowning once again in the effort, returning to my hotel around 2 a.m. and collapsed in my room".

Kennedy then put down his manuscript (though he continued reading from cue cards), and asked the people of Massachusetts to decide whether he should resign:

"If, at any time, the citizens of Massachusetts should lack confidence in their Senator's character or his ability, with or without justification, he could not, in my opinion, adequately perform his duties, and should not continue in office. The opportunity to work with you and serve Massachusetts has made my life worthwhile. So, I ask you tonight, the people of Massachusetts, to think this through with me. In facing this decision, I seek your advice and opinion. In making it, I seek your prayers. For this is a decision that I will have finally to make on my own."

The speech concluded with a passage quoted from John F. Kennedy's book Profiles in Courage (ghostwritten by Sorensen): "A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences".[72]

Critical reaction to the speech was immediate and negative. NBC newsman John Chancellor compared it to Richard Nixon's 1952 Checkers speech. Kennedy admirer David Halberstam wrote in Harper's magazine that it was "of such cheapness and bathos as to be a rejection of everything the Kennedys had stood for in candor and style. It was as if these men had forgotten everything which made the Kennedys distinctive in American politics, and simply told the youngest brother that he could get away with whatever he wanted because he was a Kennedy in Massachusetts."[61]

Although Kennedy received many messages from voters opposed to his resignation from the Senate, reaction in much of the news media, and of District Attorney Edmund Dinis, was that Kennedy's televised speech left many questions unanswered about how the accident happened, and his delay in reporting it. On July 31, 1969, the same day Kennedy returned to his Senate seat,[73] Dinis wrote to the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court, Joseph Tauro, asking for a judicial inquest into Kopechne's death.[74] He received a response the next day that such inquests are under jurisdiction of the District Court. Dinis then sent his request to Kenneth Nash, the Chief Justice of the lower court.[75] Nash advised Dinis that a grand jury investigation had more "teeth" than an inquest, as it had the power to indict defendants, whereas an inquest was only authorized to determine if a crime has been committed.

Dinis met with Edgartown District Court Judge James Boyle on August 8 to explain his reasons for requesting the inquest. Boyle did not recuse himself, even though he had presided over the hearing at which Kennedy pled guilty.[76] Boyle announced the inquest was scheduled to start on September 3, and would be open to the press.[77] On September 2, Kennedy's lawyers petitioned the Massachusetts Supreme Court for a temporary injunction against the inquest,[75] which was granted.

On April 6, 1970, a Dukes County grand jury assembled in special session to investigate Kopechne's death. Judge Wilfred Paquet instructed the members of the grand jury that they could consider only matters brought to their attention by the superior court, the district attorney, or their personal knowledge.[95] He cited the orders of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and told the grand jury that it could not see the evidence or Boyle's report from the inquest, which were still impounded.[95] Dinis had attended the inquest and seen Boyle's report, and he told the grand jury that there was not enough evidence to indict Kennedy on potential charges of manslaughter, perjury, or driving to endanger.[95] The grand jury called four witnesses who had not testified at the inquest; they testified for a total of 20 minutes, but no indictments were issued.[95]

On July 23, 1969, the registrar of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles informed Kennedy that his license would be suspended until there was a statutory hearing concerning the accident.[96] The suspension was required by Massachusetts law for any fatal motor vehicle accident if there were no witnesses. The in camera hearing was held May 18, 1970, and found that "operation was too fast for existing conditions." On May 27, the registrar informed Kennedy in a letter that "I am unable to find that the fatal accident in which a motor vehicle operated by you was involved, was without serious fault on your part" and so his driver's license was suspended for a further six months.[97]

Journalist Jack Olsen wrote the first investigative book on the case, The Bridge at Chappaquiddick, in 1970, attempting to solve the unanswered questions of the incident. Lieutenant Bernie Flynn, a state police detective assigned to the Cape Cod district attorney's office, was a Kennedy admirer who came up with a theory which he couldn't prove: that Kennedy got out of the car, and Kopechne drove herself off the bridge. "Ted Kennedy didn't want to admit being drunk with a broad in a car late at night. When he saw 'Huck' Look, he got scared. He thought a cop was coming after him." Flynn claimed to have told this theory to Olsen, who didn't seem to be very impressed.[98] Although Olsen denied having ever talked to Flynn, he related this theory in his book.[99] Kopechne was 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m), a foot shorter than Kennedy, and Olsen argued that she might possibly not have seen the bridge as she drove Kennedy's car over unfamiliar roads at night, with no external lighting, and after she had consumed several alcoholic drinks. He wrote that Kopechne normally drove a Volkswagen Beetle, which was much smaller, lighter, and easier to handle than Kennedy's larger Oldsmobile 88.[100]

A BBC Inside Story episode titled "Chappaquiddick", broadcast on July 20, 1994 (the 25th anniversary of the incident), repeated Flynn's theory. The episode argued that the explanation would account for Kennedy's lack of concern the next morning, as he was unaware of the accident, and for the forensic evidence of the injuries to Kopechne being inconsistent with her sitting in the passenger seat.[101]

Fourth-generation Chappaquiddick resident Bill Pinney, in his 2017 book Chappaquiddick Speaks, presents a theory that Kopechne was seriously injured in an earlier crash, and then the bridge accident was faked.[102] The book laments how the incident robbed Chappaquiddick of its traditional peace and privacy, attracting large tourist groups wanting to view the sites connected with the tragedy.

National Lampoon fake VW Beetle ad mocking the incident.

The case evoked much satire of Kennedy. For example, Time magazine reported immediately after the incident that "one sick joke already visualizes a Democrat asking about Nixon during the 1972 presidential campaign: 'Would you let this man sell you a used car?' Answer: 'Yes, but I sure wouldn't let Teddy drive it.'"[103] A mock advertisement in National Lampoon magazine showed a floating Volkswagen Beetle, itself a parody of a Volkswagen advertisement, showing that the vehicle's underside was so well sealed that it would float on water, but with the caption, "If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen, he'd be President today." The satire resulted in legal action by Volkswagen, claiming unauthorized use of its trademark; the matter was later settled out of court.[104][105]

Following his televised speech on July 25 regarding the incident,[70] supporters responded with telephone calls and telegrams to newspapers and to the Kennedy family.[69] They were heavily in favor of his remaining in office, and he was re-elected in 1970 with 62% of the vote, a margin of nearly a half million votes, but it was down from 74% in the previous election in 1964.

The incident severely damaged Kennedy's national reputation and reputation for judgement. One analyst asked: "Can we really trust him if the Russians come over the ice cap? Can he make the kind of split-second decisions the astronauts had to make in their landing on the moon?"[103] Before Chappaquiddick, public polls showed that a large majority expected Kennedy to run for the presidency in 1972, but he pledged not to run in 1972. Further, Kennedy declined to serve as George McGovern's running mate that year. In 1974, he pledged not to run in 1976,[106][107] in part because of the renewed media interest in Chappaquiddick.[22]

In late 1979, Kennedy announced his candidacy for the presidency when he challenged President Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination for the 1980 election. On November 4, 1979, CBS broadcast a one-hour television special presented by Roger Mudd, titled Teddy. The program consisted of an interview with Kennedy; the interview was interspersed with visual materials. Much of the show was devoted to the Chappaquiddick incident. During the interview, Mudd questioned Kennedy repeatedly about the incident, and at one point directly accused him of lying.[108] Kennedy also gave what one author described as an "incoherent and repetitive" answer to the question, "Why do you want to be President?"[109] The program inflicted serious political damage on Kennedy.[109][110][111][112][113][114] President Jimmy Carter alluded to the Chappaquiddick incident twice in five days, once declaring that he had not "panicked in the crisis".[115] Kennedy lost the Democratic nomination to Carter, who, in turn, lost the general election to Ronald Reagan by a landslide. After the incident, Kennedy won seven re-elections to the US Senate. Kennedy remained a senator until his death in 2009.

After Kennedy's death, New York Times Magazine editor Ed Klein stated that Kennedy asked people, "Have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?" "It's not that he didn't feel remorse about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne", Klein argued, "But that he still always saw the other side of everything, and the ridiculous side of things, too."[116] The Dike Bridge became an unwanted tourist attraction,[117][118][119][120][121] and the object of souvenir hunters.[122]

The incident is fictionalized in Joyce Carol Oates' novella Black Water (1992).

It is the central subject of John Curran's film Chappaquiddick (2017).

A similar, fictional incident inspired by the Chappaquiddick incident takes place and is covered up in the season 1 finale of Succession.[123]

In 2019, the incident was featured in a season of Fox Nation's Scandalous.[124][125][126]

The 2019 series For All Mankind depicts an alternate timeline where Kennedy cancels his Chappaquiddick party after Soviets land on the Moon before the U.S., thus avoiding Kopechne's death; Kennedy eventually wins the 1972 Presidential election and is later accused of having an extramarital affair with Kopechne, who is working as a White House aide.[127][128]

•  1960s portal

• Miceli, Barbara. 'How to Turn a Forgotten Figure of American History into a National and Gender Emblem: Joyce Carol Oates's Treatment of Mary Jo Kopechne in Black Water', in Echinox Journal, 33/2017, pp. 240–254.
• Miceli, Barbara. "Black Water and Mudwoman by Joyce Carol Oates: Two Drownings in Comparison", in Revell, n.3, vol 26, pp. 276–291. https://periodicosonline.uems.br/index.php/REV/author/submission/4211

• FBI Chappaquiddick investigation files
• Chappaquiddick Inquest—Boston.com
• Edward M. Kennedy's Address to the People of Massachusetts on Chappaquiddick, broadcast nationally, from Joseph P. Kennedy's home, on July 25, 1969
• Photos of 1969 Chappaquiddick incident—New Haven Register
• Collection of newspaper articles covering the incident