Monday, May 14, 2018

An Essay on the Chappaquiddick Incident

Ted Kennedy, circa 1970.


Bobby Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne, circa 1968.

Ted Kennedy's Oldsmobile after it had been pulled out of Poucha Pond, July 19, 1969.
After seeing the movie Chappaquiddick, I wanted to dig more deeply into the actual Chappaquiddick incident itself. I did the same thing several years ago after reading Joyce Carol Oates’ fictional treatment of Chappaquiddick, Black Water. Rather than burden my review of Chappaquiddick with superfluous detail about the historical event, I thought it would be better to simply write a separate essay. 

Because presumably the only witnesses to the accident itself were Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne, who are obviously both dead, we will never know with true certainty what actually happened. Also, because the accident was, at best, sketchily investigated at the time, many key questions went unanswered. 

Ted Kennedy sailed in the Edgartown Yacht Club Regatta on Friday, July 18, 1969. Later that evening, a party was held at a cottage on Chappaquiddick Island. Edgartown and Chappaquiddick are separated by a narrow channel. The party was organized by Joe Gargan and Paul Markham, two long-time friends of Kennedy’s. Attending the party were several of the “Boiler Room Girls” who had worked tirelessly for Bobby Kennedy’s 1968 Presidential campaign. The “Boiler Room Girls” all had hotel rooms in Edgartown. Only Markham was planning on spending the night at the cottage on Chappaquiddick Island. The plan was to catch a ferry back to Edgartown before the last ferry of the evening, which ran at midnight. However, no one at the cottage took the ferry that night. 

According to the testimony of everyone at the party, Ted and Mary Jo left the cottage together around 11:15-11:30. Plenty of time to make the midnight ferry, right? You would think. The next person to see Kennedy’s car was Deputy Sheriff Huck Look, who saw Kennedy’s large Oldsmobile Delmont 88 sedan near the T intersection of Dike Road and Chappaquiddick Road. Look estimated the time to be about 12:45AM. Look had been working at the Edgartown Yacht Club Regatta dance until 12:30AM. Look saw Kennedy’s car miss the turn for the ferry and head straight, down a private dirt road called Cemetery Road. Look thought the driver might be lost, so he got out of his car and shouted an offer of help. The car backed up Cemetery Road and headed down Dike Road, away from the ferry. Look identified enough of Kennedy’s license plate for authorities to later conclusively determine that it was Kennedy’s car. So, if Ted and Mary Jo really left the party at 11:30PM at the latest, what did they do for an hour and fifteen minutes until Look saw the car? Were they chatting in a field, as the film Chappaquiddick shows them doing? That’s certainly a possibility. Were they lost, and aimlessly driving around the island? That seems unlikely. Chappaquiddick is a very small island; it doesn’t take an hour to get anywhere. If they were driving around that entire time, they would have seen the whole island several times. 

It seems clear to me that everyone at the party in the cottage was covering for Kennedy, so they wanted to make sure the timing of his departure matched when you could still catch the ferry. But because of Look’s testimony, there is a lot of time that is unaccounted for. However, if Ted and Mary Jo actually left the party after midnight, the question would be, where were you going if the last ferry has already left? There aren’t many possibilities other than fooling around in a field or on the beach. 

While everyone noticed Ted and Mary Jo leaving the party, there are other mysteries that remain. Why didn’t Mary Jo take her purse along? Why did she leave her hotel room key behind? Did Ted and Mary Jo actually intend on returning to the party? That would obviously mean that Ted’s story about driving her to the ferry was false. Also, if Ted and Mary Jo were leaving to take the ferry, wouldn’t that have spurred the other party-goers to think, “Maybe I should catch the ferry too?” And if Ted really was just taking Mary Jo to the ferry, and not indulging in any adulterous activities, then why not simply have his driver, who was at the party, drop them off at the ferry launch? That would make more sense, and would also be a way to get the car back to the cottage, so other guests could be easily shuttled to the ferry launch as well. Kennedy was leaving 5 men and 5 women at the cottage with only a rented Plymouth Valiant to get them to the ferry.

After Look saw Kennedy’s car around 12:45AM, the next time someone who was not at the party at the cottage saw Kennedy was at 2:25AM. Somehow, Kennedy had made it back to Edgartown and his hotel room. The front desk clerk saw him standing at the bottom of a stairway. Kennedy said he was bothered by noises coming from a party next door, and added that he had misplaced his watch and asked the time. Was this an attempt by Kennedy to create an alibi for himself after the accident?

The next people to see Ted Kennedy, at around 7:30AM, were the morning desk clerk of his hotel, and Ross Richards and Stan Moore. Richards had won the Edgartown Regatta the day before, and was a casual acquaintance of Kennedy’s, and they chatted amiably for 15 minutes or so. Richards said that Kennedy seemed very normal, and showed no signs of being agitated or distressed. As Kennedy was talking to Richards and his wife, Joe Gargan and Paul Markham walked up. Gargan and Markham were visibly agitated and asked to speak with Kennedy in private. It was clear that something was wrong. If Ted Kennedy’s account of the accident is true, Gargan and Markham were furious at Kennedy for not having reported the accident to the authorities. 

But there is another possibility, one put forth by Bernie Flynn, a Massachusetts police detective. Flynn theorizes that Mary Jo Kopechne was driving the car when it went off the bridge, and Kennedy didn’t know about the accident until the following morning, when Gargan and Markham showed up at the Shiretown Inn around 8AM. 

Flynn postulated his theory in Leo Damore’s 1988 book Senatorial Privilege: The Chappaquiddick Cover-Up. Flynn guesses that after the encounter with Deputy Look, Kennedy panicked about being pulled over while driving a car under the influence with a woman who was not his wife. So Kennedy got out of the car, and told Mary Jo to circle around and pick him back up. Unfamiliar with the roads, and also driving under the influence, she drove the car off the bridge, and was unable to escape from the car. Kennedy knew something was wrong, so he went back to the cottage, told Gargan and Markham what happened, they drove him to the ferry and he swam across to Edgartown. All the partygoers spent the night looking for Mary Jo. When Gargan and Markham finally saw the car upside down in the water in the morning, they took the ferry to go tell Ted about the accident. 

Flynn’s theory is based on “the fact that a man like Ted Kennedyor any man, except for a hardened criminalcould go through the experience of driving off a bridge and not report the accident if he knew that a girl was still in the car. I just can’t believe Kennedy went to sleep, got up the next morning and was standing on the deck, supposedly prepared to go yachting, talking to people about the weather like nothing was going to happen, if he knew the girl was dead. You’d stay in your damn hotel room. You’d be biting your fingernails trying to figure out: ‘What am I going to do? What am I going to say?’ You’d expect to be locked up any minute; and you’d be frightened.” (Senatorial Privilege, p.257) 

Flynn’s theory lets Kennedy off the hook for his delay in reporting the accident, as there was no way he could have reported an accident he knew nothing about until the next morning. Flynn’s theory also explains Kennedy’s behavior in the hours after the accident better than Kennedy’s own story about Chappaquiddick did. Of course, it’s unfair to let Kennedy off the hook if he really was driving the car, in which case his delay in reporting the accident is obviously unconscionable. 

It was reported in 1969, shortly after the accident, in Jack Anderson’s newspaper column, that Kennedy originally tried to convince Joe Gargan to take the fall and say he was driving the car. This theory could also explain why Kennedy didn’t report the accident that night, if he expected Gargan to do so and to take the blame. 

Curiously, no one who saw Kennedy that next day saw any evidence that he had been involved in a serious car accident the night before. He had no cuts or abrasions on his face. That seems unlikely for someone in an accident where a car flipped over and landed on its roof. If you see pictures of Kennedy’s car after it was towed out of the pond, you can see the car was completely totaled. The right hand side of the car was severely dented, the roof was dented, and the windshield was shattered. How could Kennedy have emerged from an accident that severe seemingly uninjured? Because an autopsy was never performed on Mary Jo Kopechne, whatever injuries she may have had from the accident seem to have gone unrecorded. 

One piece of information that was recorded, and the subject of much gossip, was the fact that Kopechne wasn’t wearing any panties. Make of that fact what you will. Kopechne’s blood alcohol level was .09%, above the .08% that is now the legal standard for drunk driving. (Her blood alcohol level was mentioned at the inquest, Senatorial Privilege, p.379) Kennedy was never given a blood alcohol test, so we don’t know how impaired his judgement may have been if he was driving. In their testimony, all of the party-goers downplayed the amount of drinking that went on at the party, but I suspect that they were all covering for Ted and Mary Jo. Because Kennedy’s initial statement to the police didn’t mention anything about a party, the police didn’t know there were other people who could shed light on the events of the evening. Gargan and Markham also hustled everyone off Chappaquiddick very quickly the next day, so they had ample time to coordinate their stories in order to protect Ted.

Another piece of evidence that doesn’t make sense is that the purse found in Ted’s car had Rosemary Keough’s Senate pass in it. How did Rosemary’s purse end up in Ted’s car? Maybe Mary Jo grabbed Rosemary’s purse by mistake? This has led some authors to put forth the theory that Ted was driving the car, Rosemary was in the passenger’s seat, and, unbeknownst to either of them, Mary Jo was asleep in the back seat. Why would she have gone out to the car to sleep? That doesn’t seem very logical, but then again, no theories about people’s actions in the Chappaquiddick accident are logical. According to this theory, Ted drove the car off the bridge, he and Rosemary escaped, but they weren’t concerned about trying to rescue Mary Jo because they didn’t know she was in the car. Kennedy didn’t see the need to report the accident, since he thought everyone was safely out of the car. Also, if he waited until later to report the accident, he wouldn’t get arrested for drunk driving. Again, this theory explains Ted’s subsequent actions better than if he knew Mary Jo was in the car. This theory also better explains Kopechne’s position in the car, as she was found in the back seat. 

But why would Kennedy admit to being the driver of the car if he really wasn’t? Most likely, because he knew nobody would believe the real story. If what actually happened was that he was going to the beach to drunkenly fool around with Mary Jo, got startled by Deputy Look, then gets out of the car and Mary Jo drunkenly drives it off the bridge, he looks like a total coward. By saying he was the driver of the car, he’s able to create the narrative that he was acting honorably by taking her to the ferry because she didn’t feel well. Flynn couldn’t explain why Kennedy would have falsely admitted to being the driver, “unless somebody said to him, ‘We can make you look like a hero. You dove in, you tried to save her. You expended all your energy…’ He might have gone for that; that sounds pretty damn good.” (Senatorial Privilege, p.258) That certainly sounds better than just leaving Mary Jo to fend for herself. 

Also, if what really happened was that Kennedy was driving the car, with Keough in the passenger seat and Kopechne asleep in the back seat, Kennedy would run into embarrassing questions if he admitted the real story. Where were you going with Rosemary Keough at 12:45AM? How could you not have known that Mary Jo was asleep in the back seat? 

Rosemary Keough is one of the few “Boiler Room Girls” who has ever spoken on the record about the events of that weekend. On the first anniversary of Kopechne’s death, Keough said, “My friend Mary Jo just happened to be in the wrong car at the wrong time with the wrong people.” (Senatorial Privilege, p.407) It’s very odd that Keough used the plural to describe who was in the car. Was that just an innocent slip of the tongue, or was it an oblique reference to the fact that another person besides Ted and Mary Jo was in the car?

There have been numerous inaccuracies, or flat-out lies, in what Ted Kennedy and others at the cottage said about the events of that night. According to Kennedy’s televised speech about Chappaquiddick, he went back to the cottage after the accident and told Gargan and Markham, but not anyone else at the party, about the accident. Kennedy, Gargan, and Markham drove back to Dike Bridge in the Plymouth Valiant and Gargan and Markham repeatedly tried to get Kopechne out of the submerged car. Kennedy’s initial statement to the police on the morning after the accident makes no mention of this second rescue attempt, which seems like a very odd omission. In pinpointing the time the three of them arrived at Dike Bridge, Kennedy testified that the clock in the Valiant showed 12:20AM. This would place it about 25 minutes before Deputy Look saw Kennedy’s car on dry land. But the bigger problem with Kennedy’s testimony: The Boston Globe ascertained that the Valiant did not have a clock in it.

Joe Gargan even testified at the inquest into the accident that he was actually able to get into the submerged Oldsmobile and “then began to lose naturally my breath at one point and I tried to get out. I couldn’t get out…and I turned myself this way and pushed myself out and came to the top of the water.” (The Education of Edward Kennedy, by Burton Hersh, p.504) I call bullshit on that. How would Gargan have been able to get into the car, but yet not get Kopechne out, or at least have seen her body in the car? 

Kennedy’s recollections about Kopechne varied over the years. In his posthumously published 2009 memoir, True Compass, he claims that he didn’t know Kopechne before that night. “During the evening, I began speaking with Mary Jo Kopechne. I did not know her socially before that evening. Perhaps I had met her before, but I did not recall it.” (True Compass, p.290) He contradicted himself in an interview with biographer Burton Hersh: “I knew Mary Jo, yes. She was very bright, lively, personable, loyal. Intelligent, highly intelligent. I’d gone to the party the Hacketts gave for the girls in January, and I think…I think that was the only other time  other than during the campaign I’d talked really with Mary Jo.” (The Education of Edward Kennedy, p.506) Hersh’s book was first published in 1972, when Kennedy’s memories about Kopechne were fresher in his mind. I don’t believe the gossip that Kennedy was having an affair with Kopechne, but I would guess that he knew her, even if he didn’t know her very well outside of the context of Bobby’s 1968 campaign. 

Kopechne has always been a cipher, as not much information has emerged about her and her life. Given the fact that she was 28 years old, single, with no children, and no siblings, it isn’t that surprising that we don’t know that much about her. Kopechne has always been painted as a devoted campaign staffer to Bobby Kennedy, and as a hard-working, serious person. Everyone at the party talked about how she didn’t drink, and wasn’t a flirt. Yet isn’t that exactly what we would expect those people to say if they were trying to protect the reputations of Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne? Even by 1969, Ted had a reputation as a drinker and a womanizer. There was rampant speculation about what Ted and Mary Jo were doing together anyway, and it surely would have even more widespread if Kopechne had a reputation for being overly flirtatious. I’ve speculated that sex, whether or not it actually happened that night, may have been a guiding factor in the actions of Kennedy and Kopechne. Of course, we will never know with absolute certainty, but as I wrote above, the effort of everyone at the cottage to scrupulously note that Ted and Mary Jo left well before midnight is implicitly saying, “He was taking her to the ferry, they weren’t fooling around.” Yet if Deputy Look is to be believed, there’s either an hour and a half gap that no one can account for, or Ted and Mary Jo left the party after midnightwhich leads to the inevitable question of where they were going together if the ferry had stopped running. I’m not trying to cast moral judgements on Kopechne’s decisions that evening, as we don’t know what her intentions were. The point I am trying to make is that it’s easy for others to read those decisions as being driven by sex, whether they actually were or not. 

Chappaquiddick was a tragedy, and an accident that could have, and should have been avoided. There are no grand conclusions I’ve come to about “what really happened.” The only thing I think can be said for certain is that there was much more to the story than ever emerged. I think there’s a possibility that either Mary Jo was driving or that Ted and Rosemary were unaware of Mary Jo, asleep in the back seat. Maybe I cling to those theories to give Ted Kennedy a better explanation for his own actions, to think that he didn’t knowingly leave Mary Jo Kopechne in that car and not report the accident for another 10 hours. I want to believe that he wasn’t that cowardly, that he acted more honorably under pressure.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well written blog, but you are missing a lot of the facts about this incident. Many newly discovered facts are described in Bill Pinney's book "Chappaquiddick Speaks". They answer most of the previously unanswered questions. Kennedy and Mary Jo DID leave the party at about 11:15 pm. Look DID see Kennedy's Oldsmobile about 12:40 am. That's a long time to drive such a short distance. Between those two times, Pinney's cousin was overtaken at high speed by Kennedy's rented Valiant, heading towards the bridge. That information set Pinney on a long search for the truth. He found it.

GMT -5 (Hugh) said...

This is a good post. I have been reading up on the Chappaquiddick incident and this post views matters the same way I do. Because of of all the actions taken by Kennedy and his crew to prevent collection of evidence, and because of all the obvious falsehoods, it is now impossible to know what really happened.

Emre Bilge said...
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Emre Bilge said...
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Emre Bilge said...

I think it's nearly impossible even at night that two people get into a car and neither of them never realise neither during the getting into the car nor during the journey that there is a third person lying at the back seat. We're talking about a full human here, not a cat or a bag.

My theory is Ted was driving and both Rosemary and Mary Jo were in the car and Ted and Rosemary both knew Mary Jo was in the car, in the back seat, so the three all planned the trip to the beach. My reasons are: 1.Ted wasn't surprised at all when the police informed him the next morning that an accident happened with his car the previous night and a woman was found death in it and she must be Rosemary as her ID was found in the car. Ted wasn't surprised at the mentioning of Rosemary at all and calmly just said that he was the driver and it wasn't Rosemary, but was Mary Jo. 2.Without herself riding in the car, it is very unlikely that, Rosemary's ID was in the car unless somebody deliberately grabbed it and put it in the car either before or after the accident to make it look like she was in the car despite she wasn't either to make it look like she was in the car either as a passenger for some reason or to frame her as the driver who did the accident. Yet, nobody claimed any of these, quite the other way around, they denied that she was in the car. So gathering all these findings together, she was in the car and they wanted to hide this. 3.Mary Jo was found at the back seat. If she was able to get to the back seat even though she was originally at the front seat as was claimed, she could also have found a way to get out of the car, because this might be indicating that she was conscious and was able to locate the places of the seats, doors and windows (yet, another guess is unfortunately, she still couldn't escape, because the windows and the doors must have been stuck or blocked with sand with the car being at the bottom of the water at the time). Well, she might also have been unconscious and have simply been drifted to the back seat if the direction of the waves of the water was from the front to the back according to the position of the car under the water at the time. Yet, I believe she was conscious, because the diver said she was holding to a pocket of air at the time he located her which indicates she was conscious and was trying to and was able to find the last pocket of air available and she didn't die from drowning, but suffocation. 4.As you said, Rosemary used "all those people in the car" language in her statement.

I cannot believe Ted simply didn't claim he was driving Rosemary to the ferry and they both didn't know Mary Jo was in the back seat of the car. It wouldn't have been worse with respect to relationship allegations and would have spared him of manslaughter accusations. Neither he nor any of his aides seem to have been able think of this.

Claudia said...

The one thing that made me wonder was the presence of Rosemary's purse in the car. Could it be that Mary Jo was very intoxicated and Ted was grabbing her purse for her and mistakenly grabbed the wrong person's purse? This doesn't answer the question of whether Ted planned to take Mary Jo to the ferry or to take advantage of her sexually since she was in a compromised state and either could have been possible. But it It would explain why Mary Jo didn't take her purse and hotel key from the cottage. And if she was very drunk, it might explain why Ted was able to escape from the submerged car and Mary Jo was not abke to and why it might have been difficult for Ted to get her out of the car if she was uncooperative either as a result of being intoxicated or too intoxicated to assist in her own escape. If she was intoxicated, it would have looked much worse for Ted if he was planning to try to have sex with her than if she was sober, which might have also been why he didn't report the accident until the next morning. If she was not used to drinking much, as was stated by those who knew her, perhaps having whatever amount to drink that she had at the party affected her more so than someone who is used to drinking. She might have started out in the front seat with Ted, but then climbed in the back seat to escape Ted's advances or perhaps they both moved to the back seat to engage in sex. But the purse thing sticks out to me as important. And it is easy to believe that Ted grabbed what he thought was her purse because she was unable to do so. It was mentioned that she didn't feel well. Couldn't that have been due to being intoxicated? Perhaps Ted had planned on attempting to have sex with her before dropping her off at the ferry but it didn't work out because she was either unwilling or because she passed out. If that were the case, Ted had to figure out what to do with an inebriated woman who couldn't possibly negotiate getting out of the car at the hotel and Ted couldn't risk the chance of being seen alone with her in that condition, which is why the car was seen by the policeman after midnight.

Unknown said...

Lets see what makes sense. Kennedy was having breakfast in Edgartown with no sign of panic.
Only when Gargan showed up did Kennedy start to panic. What makes sense is that Kennedy didn't know the car was in the water until he was told. If Huck Look saw the car at 12 45 Kennedy's story falls apart. Bernie Flynn's story is the only thing that makes sense. Look goes toward the car and Kennedy gets out or was already out. He hides and tells Mary Jo to take off in the car.




Unknown said...

That sounds like what happened. Case solved!!!

Pat in Jersey said...

Enjoyed reading this blog! Puts a lot of various theories out there. But, Ted K. was a stubborn, spoiled baby of the Kennedy's, and damn if he wasn't gonna drive his car, and be the man!

There are so many questions it makes my head spin to try and decipher everyone's opinion.

It doesn't make Mary Jo any less of a good person if she was interested in having a little fling with Ted Kennedy. The sex part is so obvious, and I don't know why it is always glossed over. Let's get over it.

I only read Leo Damore's book some years ago. I was 19 when this happened, and everyone was going crazy about the moon walk. Especially my father. At that time, we all ADORED the Kennedy's. Now, in my early 70s, I don't. There is a reason why all the boys (expect Joe Jr.) got in trouble. Maybe it was Joe Sr's constant adulterous activity.

I wish the Boiler room girls would of come out more openly. Even Markham and Gargan. My god, they make Gargan out to be a damn saint in the 2018 film "Chappaquiddick".

I am still waiting for the truth. Vicky Kennedy has her millions and she will say nothing. Joan is out of it. Who else is alive that knows the truth? Thanks for the insightful story.
Pat, in NJ

Pat in Jersey said...

Bernie Flynn's theory makes more sense to me the more I read on Chappy.

He was afraid of getting picked up drunk, with another woman when Huck Look saw his car parked at the side of the road towardsa Dike Bridge. So, he may have told Mary Jo to get in car, turn around and pick him up. Unfortunately she went towards the bridge, didn't know where she was going, and plunged off in the car.

Kennedy wasn't hurt. Nor scratched, banged up or otherwise. It's all a big story, and sadly, the Boiler Room girls, including the worst, Rosemary Keough, who is still glossing it over. They all did. Not a word. Even today, where the #metoo movement should behoove them to be honest. It's the Kennedy disease. I adored the Kennedys all through my life. Not anymore.

Anonymous said...

So, I remember when this happened and how bizarre the whole thing was....and still is.Lots of theories still floating around out there and we will never know. Here are my questions/thoughts:
Wouldn't you think, after all these years, with 10+ people in that cottage for a party, at least ONE of them would come clean? ALL of these people have chosen to live within a false narrative, a lie????? That just boggles my mind. Usually SOMEBODY will leak something.
Why was no autopsy performed? SOMEBODY knows if Mary Jo had bruises or cuts or scratches. More than one person pulled her out of that car and/or saw her afterwards. Did NO ONE see ANYTHING? NO scratches? Wasn't the windshield busted? Did the undertaker not see any scratches? Was he even interviewed as to what condition the body was in when preparing her for funeral?
Let's suppose Ted and Mary Jo slipped out for some fun. Some accounts say everyone saw them leave and some say no one knew they left. Did this inconsistency not come out when the police interviewed them?
How much/what has to happen before a person decides not to sell their soul in order to protect someone powerful? IF not something like this, then what?
No one had the guts to say to Kennedy, "dude no one will believe you passed several houses and a fire station and didn't notice them. You better think of another alibi for that."
None of this makes sense. None of it. How many people lied and still are lying?

Best case scenario: Mary Jo was not feeling well, Kennedy wanted to take her back to catch the ferry. It was all innocent as that. He took the wrong road by mistake and went off the bridge. No underwear for MJ because she didnt usually wear any. Nothing amiss here. Just the facts. He panicked, really was in shock, didnt notice the fire station and didnt think of calling 911. The whole thing happened just like this and no foul play in any way.

Worst case scenario: Kennedy and MJ snuck out without telling anyone (or maybe they did) and left together for the obvious reason...to have sex on the beach or wherever. They didnt make it to the beach and pulled over just up the road from the cottage where they engaged in whatever. At some point, a police car came up, Ted panicked and took off like a bat. He drove too fast and furious and went off the bridge. He tried to get her out but couldnt. He went back to the cottage and told the guys what happened and asked them to help with the cover up. They did. They all did.

Take your pick or anything in between.


Worst case

Anonymous said...

I am glad to come across this blog, and I think some heads put together can make progress on the understanding of this tragedy.
There are a few sources unknown to the people on this blog. The Edward M Kennedy Institute, a think tank dedicated mostly to EMK’s Senate career, used a Steve Knott to interview Charles Tretter and Dun Gifford. The interviews were promised to remain unpublished for a long time, but they are widely available. Check them out!
Most interesting: Rosemary Keough’s purse could not have been mistaken for Mary Jo’s. It was large and “psychedelic,” according to Tretter. It places Keough in the car, as Pinney believes. Tretter admits they were out walking for 2 1/2 hours. Where?
Mary Jo was found dressed, but with no panties. But, although blood was “all the way down the back” of the blouse, there was none on the bra strap.
Dun Gifford admits that everybody knew that EMK and MJ were going out at about 11 for sex.
Bill Pinney’s book is amazing, but careful examination reveals he got somethings wrong. The emergency brake release on the Olds was next to the door, making a launch with a comatose MJ at the wheel much easier than he imagined.
His “reluctant witness” saw the Olds at Cemetary Road AND three men at the ferry crossing at 1:30. He speculates Silva was this “reluctant witness,” yet his explanation for how Silva (his guess) could be at the ferry at 1:30 is crazy. He was a caretaker for several cottages, and Pinney thinks he was out at 1:30 checking on cottages. Caretakers just don’t do that, and even if they did, the cottages are in easy view of the ferry landing.
The entire island is clearly shown in Google Earth. Look at it, it clears up a lot of questions about the whole event.
Dun Gifford knew that MJ died at Dike Bridge by about 7:30 on the morning of the 19th, at the LATEST. He flew over the site at about 9:00 to check it out, probably to see personally if it was feasible to get her out before authorities did.
Yet, the hearse didn’t even get to Edgartown to the funeral home mortuary until 10:00 at the earliest. Who identified the body? We don’t know. In other words, Gifford was plotting to remove the body before she was even identified.
It would have only taken two to launch the Olds on its own into Pocha Inlet. I believe EMK was either too drunk, or not there. This explains a lot.
I could write a lot more, and I have.

Michael Meade said...

The cottages aren’t * in view of the ferry landing

Michael Meade said...

Phone records and witness have EMK at the cottage from 11:30 until 12:30 the night of the incident.

Anonymous said...

As Rosemary Keough in a couple occasion said Mary Jo “just happened to be in the wrong car at the wrong time with the wrong people”. It’s possible that doing so she “wished to confirm that Mary Jo was an unwilling, unintended, and unobserved passenger who happened to be sleeping off too much to drink in the rear seat when Kennedy’s car plunged info Poucha Pond”. Interesting to read “Chappaquiddick Tragedy” by Donald Frederick Nelson

mbowers said...

Kennedy took the fall. I think he wasnt even involved in the incident. there were people from the party dancing down the street from the cottage also seen by Look.Maybee Rosemary and Mary-jo went to round them up, and didnt want to be caught drinking and driving in a Kennedy car, so sped down the road to Dyke bridge.Rosemarys purse was in the car, and mary Jo was mistaken for her.I think Kennedy knew he didnt want the Presidency for a variety of reasons.So he took the fall.

Anonymous said...

My boss was a roommate of Mary Jo Kopechne in Georgetown a year or so before Chappaquiddick so she had credible opinions on the tragedy. She believed that Kopechne did “pass out” in the back of the car unbeknownst to Kennedy. My boss said that was totally in keeping with the Mary Jo she knew. Just as the Boiler Room Girls stated, my boss corroborated the fact that Mary Jo was NOT a party girl and I quote ‘could not hold her liquor’ She doubted that EMK & MJK were planning on a tryst either as that was also not Mary Jo’s style. My boss always thought that Kennedy was drunk with another woman and MJ was a tragic albeit unintentional victim. This theory makes the cover-up & delay in reporting it less egregious if he initially thought it was just a drunken car accident where he & his companion escaped (not knowing there was another passenger in the car). For my boss to support this (pro-Kennedy) version of events when her friend’s life was brutally ended leads me to believe this theory.

Louis Burch said...

i totally agree with Flynn's theory... Why police never dug deeper into Look's sighting is beyond me.. Even Arena didnt think Kennedy was driving... Kennedy was able to move on because he knew he wasnt directly at fault for MJ death... She was driving... nobody was in the passenger seat... they would have shown major injuries... Flynn's theory is spot on!1

Buck Murray said...

Read , " Kennedy's Second Passenger Revealed by Donald Frederick Nelson . After you read this book you will see how it was entitly plausable for Kennedy and Keough not to know that Mary Jo was passed out in the back seat . Gargan , Teddy's cousin , was going to take responsibility for the the Olds going off the bridge till he later learned that it contained a body . You'll see how Teddy's demeanor changed on Sat. morning when he found out that Mary Jo was dead in his car . He was laughing and socializing with fellow guests at the Shiretown Inn until Gargan and Markham found him about 7 am and gave him the grim news . About 10 different people saw the change come over him , he tensed up , ignored fellow friends , and was on a public phone for and hour , commpletely in a sense of desperation and panic ..... a new story had to be concocted to save his political aspirations , and it was , 90% lies !