40 yrs ago today/yesterday: T. Kennedy leaves Mary Jo K. to die near Chappaquiddick

Little-Acorn

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http://www.examiner.com/x-5919-Norf...t-ChappaquiddickKennedys-story-still-doubtful

40th anniversary of Mary Jo Kopechne’s drowning at Chappaquiddick...Kennedy's story still doubtful

July 17, 6:02 AM

145px-Mary_Jo_Kopechne(1).jpg

Mary Jo Kopechne

Sometime around midnight, on July 18, 1969 Kennedy drove his Oldsmobile 88 off of a small bridge on Chappaquiddick island, into eight feet of chilly water. The vehicle landed upside-down. While Kennedy managed to free himself from the wreck and swim to safety, his passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne was left in the car to drown.

Once he reached shore, Kennedy claims to have made seven or eight attempts to rescue Kopechne, but could not free her.

Kennedy then walked back to the cottage where he and four other men, were partying with several young women known as the “Boiler Room Girls“ who had worked on Robert Kennedy‘s campaign. Though Kennedy passed by a fire station and a private home to return to the cottage, he never stopped to ask for help for the trapped Kopechne.

He returned to the party and according to Kennedy himself, informed his cousin and a friend of the situation. The two men, Joseph Gargan and Paul Markham claim to have returned to the scene of the accident and made several unsuccessful attempts to free Kopechne.

Then Kennedy’s story takes an even stranger turn.

After the failed rescue attempts, Kennedy claims to have jumped back into the water and made the 500-foot swim across the channel back to Edgartown. He then walked back to his hotel and spent the night. He even took the time to change clothes and pay a visit to the front-desk, to complain about a noisy party--no doubt Kennedy's sloppy attempt at securing an alibi.

The next morning, Gargan and Markham around 8:00 a.m., and were supposedly shocked to discover that Kennedy never reported the accident to police. According to Kennedy‘s own testimony, he told them: "about my own thoughts and feelings as I swam across that channel ... that somehow when they arrived in the morning that they were going to say that Mary Jo was still alive"

The two men along with Kennedy went back to Chappaquiddick, where Kennedy spent some time making phone calls, seeking advice from various individuals as to how to proceed.

Meanwhile, two fisherman had discovered the submerged car and notified police. At 8:45a.m. a diver recovered the lifeless body of Mary Jo Kopechne.

It was not until 10a.m., over nine hours after driving-off of the bridge that Ted Kennedy went to the police station in Edgarton to report the accident.


(Full text of this article can be read at the above URL)
 
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Re: 40 yrs ago today/yesterday: T. Kennedy leaves Mary Jo K. to die near Chappaquiddi

And yet we've been conditioned to consider T. Kennedy a hero of the American downtrodden. I've never bought it.
 
Re: 40 yrs ago today/yesterday: T. Kennedy leaves Mary Jo K. to die near Chappaquiddi

Kennedy is the poster child for the difference in standards applied to liberals and conservative politicians.

Trent Lott had his career ruined for wishing Happy Birthday to a guy who once supported segregation.

Kennedy drives drunk, murders a girl, and his punishment"? He feels really bad about it. And for some reason, Kopechne's family won't talk to him any more.
 
Re: 40 yrs ago today/yesterday: T. Kennedy leaves Mary Jo K. to die near Chappaquiddi

Thanks for reminding us, we should never forget this.

I still do not understand how he is a senator after this,
I guess its the big fat D behind his name or perhaps the "kennedy" name
 
Re: 40 yrs ago today/yesterday: T. Kennedy leaves Mary Jo K. to die near Chappaquiddi

Thanks for reminding us, we should never forget this.

I still do not understand how he is a senator after this,
I guess its the big fat D behind his name or perhaps the "kennedy" name

I guess the latter.

Posted by Little Acorn:
Kennedy is the poster child for the difference in standards applied to liberals and conservative politicians.

Such a response is predictable, but wrong. Actually, he is the poster child for the differences in standards between the wealthy and privileged and the rest of us.

Or, do you seriously believe that a staunch Democrat who works swing at the local factory would have gotten away with what Kennedy got away with?
 
Re: 40 yrs ago today/yesterday: T. Kennedy leaves Mary Jo K. to die near Chappaquiddi

I guess the latter.

Posted by Little Acorn:


Such a response is predictable, but wrong. Actually, he is the poster child for the differences in standards between the wealthy and privileged and the rest of us.

Or, do you seriously believe that a staunch Democrat who works swing at the local factory would have gotten away with what Kennedy got away with?

Probably pretty much true. Dems being in power didn't hurt any, but the Kennedy name was most likely the predominating reason. But not just because it was "Kennedy". My theory is that it was largely because he was the last of the three brothers in the power circle of Washington: Bobby had been assassinated about 6 weeks earlier. After the JFK presidential assassination, and now the newer hopes heaped on the younger Bobby being dashed, Teddy was the only icon of this politically powerful family left to hold on to. Much of America would have had trouble embracing the fact that in a drunken stupor, a man who should have been grieving was instead out partying, resulting in the reckless death of a young woman. And all the baggage that goes with that.

Wealth, power and privilege have always been components in nearly all civilizations. In ours, it is something that is especially heinous, as our Founding Fathers sought so diligently to minimize, if not prevent, this by-product of social power.

As we are seeing now, power and privilege is not confined to those of historically powerful families. It is to be found in whoever rises to a pedestal, elevated there by an adoring populace. No matter where the origins of the individual, prosperity or poverty, the adulation of the people is what is the truly dangerous ingredient. And with a media, intended to be the watchdog for the public, turning a blind eye, the threat is all the more insidious.
 
Re: 40 yrs ago today/yesterday: T. Kennedy leaves Mary Jo K. to die near Chappaquiddi

Actually, he is the poster child for the differences in standards between the wealthy and privileged and the rest of us.

Already responded too, before you posted it. See the sentence in my post after the one you quoted.
 
Re: 40 yrs ago today/yesterday: T. Kennedy leaves Mary Jo K. to die near Chappaquiddi

"left her to die?" realy becuse she was most likey dead pretty damn fast after the car went in. Should he have handled it better of couse...but fact is nothing would have saved her unless happened in first few min of it happening..if even then.
 
Re: 40 yrs ago today/yesterday: T. Kennedy leaves Mary Jo K. to die near Chappaquiddi

Already responded too, before you posted it. See the sentence in my post after the one you quoted.

Ah, yes, the Trent Lott affair. That was indefensible.

I'll see your Trent Lott, and raise you an Ollie North.
 
Re: 40 yrs ago today/yesterday: T. Kennedy leaves Mary Jo K. to die near Chappaquiddi

"left her to die?" realy becuse she was most likey dead pretty damn fast after the car went in. Should he have handled it better of couse...but fact is nothing would have saved her unless happened in first few min of it happening..if even then.

Funny, police reports indicate she had her face pressed into the back window, likely where the only air left was trapped. It's possible she slowly suffocated to death in the back window of his car.
 
Re: 40 yrs ago today/yesterday: T. Kennedy leaves Mary Jo K. to die near Chappaquiddi

"left her to die?" realy becuse she was most likey dead pretty damn fast after the car went in. Should he have handled it better of couse...but fact is nothing would have saved her unless happened in first few min of it happening..if even then.

I believe PFOS just flunked the entrance exam for Lifeguard School.

Sad, but probably a net plus.
 
Re: 40 yrs ago today/yesterday: T. Kennedy leaves Mary Jo K. to die near Chappaquiddi

"left her to die?" realy becuse she was most likey dead pretty damn fast after the car went in. Should he have handled it better of couse...but fact is nothing would have saved her unless happened in first few min of it happening..if even then.
The elderly adults among us remember that the autopsy results showed that there was no water in her lungs. It was generally accepted that she lived at least an hour after going into the water due to the amount of air trapped with her. If the jerk had reported it right away, she could have been saved...but he wanted to be president.
 
Re: 40 yrs ago today/yesterday: T. Kennedy leaves Mary Jo K. to die near Chappaquiddi

I have a question. If she did not die from the water and instead from lack of air... how did Ted Kennedy get out of the car?

I always assumed he rolled down the window and swam out and up. But if the car was air tight then how the heck did he get out of the car unless he got out before it went in the water. If he got out before it went in the water, did he take the time to shut the door?
 
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Re: 40 yrs ago today/yesterday: T. Kennedy leaves Mary Jo K. to die near Chappaquiddi

Funny, police reports indicate she had her face pressed into the back window, likely where the only air left was trapped. It's possible she slowly suffocated to death in the back window of his car.
first you cant open doors till the water presure is equaled out, so that takes a bit of time...and then the car will fill with water fast. we are talking about a few short min...and add to that the odds that she would not be calm, thus breathing faster....and even if you tried to get that bit of air, all it shows is that she was able to move to the back at some point. If she had in fact been able to get to the back of the car.. you would not be able to open the doors untill much of the car was filled with water in order to get the doors open...unless you could break the windows....( you have to guess all windows are up , or she would have went out one not to the back of the car) that would be the same for anyone to try to swim to the car, you would not be able to open the doors due to presure till water got high enough in the car. and yes you have to break the windows, you cant roll them down for the same reason.

If she was not out of that car in less then 10 min, odds are that she would be dead, or at best able to be saved with compounding brain damage for evry min ....Fact is odds are no matter what he did, she was dead unless he was able to get her out right away when he did...and at that point you also in a panic, and he would be in a time crunch as well to get out of that car as he would run out of air as well very fast.


and just as a side note, Bush's wife laura ran a stop sign and killed someone ( reports suggest it was her ex boyfreind actuly) she was not charged with anything...this was also pre Bush , when she was younger....but shows another case where someone was killed in a car accident and the person who was in the wrong was still not charged with anything.
 
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