Posted on 07/21/2008 12:40:57 PM PDT by haole
We should every year remember the true story of Mary Jo's death, and how it revealed the true "character" of one Edward M Kennedy.
We should honor her. She gave her life to save us from a Ted Kennedy presidency.
“Teddy, Teddy, I think I’m pregnant, What shall I do?”.
“Don’t worry Mary Jo, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it”
Gee, what do you supposed fat teddy is doing today? Visting the grave, repenting, praying for her soul,,,,,naw, I’m thinking he’s sitting his fat ass on his yacht chugging back some chivas enjoying the scenery...........when fat teddy finally meets his maker I’m hoping MaryJo is there as well to point him towards the gates of hell...........
I was told by a long time Cape resident that on the Vineyard some of the locals refer to the bridge as “the Kennedy carwash.” Not all are brainwashed in MA once you get out of the 495 Boston belt.
It would be true justice if the Lord chose this day to end Ted Kennedy’s life...
Brilliant idea! We will see what God has planned for fat teddy!
I was 13 years old attending Boy Scout camp on Cape Cod when this happened.
I heard Rush Limbaugh say, “Nuclear power has killed fewer Americans than Ted Kennedy’s car.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047444/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2047450/posts
while many people believe Ted left his mistress to drown, so that he would not get caught driving drunk, the boston globe had a different spin on the incident.
“If she had lived, Mary Jo Kopechne would be 62 years old. Through his tireless work as a legislator, Edward Kennedy would have brought comfort to her in her old age.” —
Charles Pierce in a January 5, 2003 Boston Globe Magazine article.
too bad you killed her instead Teddy
Ted: “Bottom’s Up!”
Two important events happened in the spring and summer of 1969. Man walked on the moon and Mary Jo Kopechne died near Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts. Ironically, the young woman’s death may well have had a bigger impact on the history of America and the world.
In the late 1960s Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D.-Mass.) could have had his party’s presidential nomination for the asking. With the ghosts of two murdered brothers and the attendant sympathy surrounding him, Kennedy had a reasonable expectation of becoming president.
Then came Chappaquiddick and the probable end of any possibility of Teddy Kennedy moving into the White House. Questions about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne remain unanswered.
She and five other women, all in their 20s and unmarried, attended a party in a rented cottage with Teddy and five other men. All the men, except for the 60-year-old chauffeur, were married, but none of their wives was present.
It was some party. Refreshments for the twelve included three half gallons of vodka, four fifths of scotch, two bottles of rum and two cases of beer. Kennedy denied he was under the influence when he and Miss Kopechne left the party together.
He said he took a wrong turn and drove his car into eight feet of water. He got of the car, returned to the party and brought two other men to the scene of the accident. When they were unable to rescue the girl, he told the others he would call the police.
He did not. Instead, he returned to his motel, spoke to an employee there, began making telephone calls to associates and went to sleep. All that time Mary Jo Kopechne remained in the car.
Possibly she could have been saved. The captain of the Edgartown, Massachusetts scuba team believes she may have stayed alive in an air pocket for several hours.
”- Farrar thrust himself through the open window and into the car. Looking up, he found the body of a young woman. Her head was cocked back, her face pressed into the footwell. Both hands gripped the front edge of the back seat to hold herself in conformity with its upholstered contours. It was not the position assumed by a person knocked unconscious by the impact of a crash, Farrar said. "If she had been dead or unconscious, she would have been prone, sinking to the bottom or floating on top. She definitely was holding herself in a position to avail herself of the last remaining air that had to be trapped in the car." - Farrar took hold of the woman's thigh, and as soon as he touched the body he knew she was dead; the flesh in his hand was hard as wood. "Instead of life-saving, I realized I was now evidence-gathering," Farrar said. "Because I was the only person who would be able to observe this situation, it behooved me to pay attention to what I saw underwater to be able to report it."
The next morning the car and the girl’s body were found. When Kennedy finally completed an accident report, he didn’t even know her name, referring to her simply as “Miss Mary ___.”
There was a conflict on what time the accident had occurred. A sheriff said he had seen Kennedy’s car hours after Kennedy said the accident occurred. The senator said he based his estimate on the clock of the rented car he was driving. When it was determined the car didn’t have a clock, Kennedy changed his story.
A grand jury investigated, but the results were already decided. Said the district attorney, “I feel sorry for him (Kennedy). What’s all this business about a conflicting statement? That’s nothing! Never mind the press. Never mind being president. Let’s save him.”
Senator Kennedy didn’t want the girl’s body exhumed for an autopsy. Fortunately for him, neither did the judge responsible for making the decision. Described as a “party-line Democrat of limited judicial gifts,” the judge maintained a bust of President Kennedy on display in his chambers.
The jury foreman later complained, “Things might have been different,” if the grand jury had been allowed access to necessary information, “but we couldn’t get our hands on it.”
Another member of the grand jury admitted, “We were dupes and boobs and let ourselves be manipulated. Nobody ever briefed us properly about what we could do.” Bragged the district attorney later, “There’s no question in my mind that the grand jury would have brought an indictment against Ted Kennedy for manslaughter, if I had given them the case.”
The senator gave a televised speech in which he denied any wrongdoing. The speech was so full of contradictions from what was already known that its author, Ted Sorensen tried to distance himself: “To the best of my knowledge there are no misstatements of facts.”
Attorney Melvin Belli was on target when he said, “The irony is, the public’s impression that the JFK autopsy was unsatisfactory, and now Teddy Kennedy’s female companion gets none. The Kennedy family is hiding the actions of those two days. They’ve gone around parading themselves as sponsors of the little people and yet that little person in the back seat of a car goes unexamined to the grave.” The people of Massachusetts continue to keep Kennedy in the Senate, where he has long been a liberal pinup boy. As a member of the Judiciary Committee he’s allowed to pass judgment on lesser mortals like Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.
The truth of what happened at Chappaquiddick 35 years ago will never be known. It died with Mary Jo Kopechne.
That Ted Kennedy was allowed to escape justice when he was clearly guilty of negligent homicide at a minimum and then REWARDED with a life of political royalty in the U.S. Senate says a lot about the people of Massachusetts and liberals in general.
Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick Speech, July 1969
My fellow citizens:
I have requested this opportunity to talk to the people of Massachusetts about the tragedy which happened last Friday evening.
This morning I entered a plea of guilty to the charge of leaving the scene of an accident. Prior to my appearance in court it would have been improper for me to comment on these matters. But tonight I am free to tell you what happened and to say what it means to me.
On the weekend of July 18, I was on Martha's Vineyard Island participating with my nephew, Joe Kennedy -- as for thirty years my family has participated -- in the annual Edgartown Sailing Regatta. Only reasons of health prevented my wife from accompanying me.
On Chappaquiddick Island, off Martha's Vineyard, I attended, on Friday evening, July 18, a cook-out, I had encouraged and helped sponsor for devoted group of Kennedy campaign secretaries. When I left the party, around 11:15 P.M., I was accompanied by one of these girls, Miss Mary Jo Kopechne. Mary J was one of the most devoted members of the staff of Senator Robert Kennedy. She worked for him for four years and was broken up over his death. For this reason, and because she was such a gentle, kind, and idealistic person, all of us tried to help her feel that she still had a home with the Kennedy family.
There is no truth, no truth whatever, to the widely circulated suspicions of immoral conduct that have been leveled at my behavior and hers regarding that evening. There has never been a private relationship between us of any kind. I know of nothing in Mary Jo's conduct on that or nay other occasion -- the same is true of the other girls at that party -- that would lend any substance to such ugly speculation about their character.
Nor was I driving under the influence of liquor.
Little over one mile away, the car that I was driving on the unlit road went off a narrow bridge which had no guard rails and was built on a left angle to the road.
The car overturned in a deep pond and immediately filled with water. I remember thinking as the cold water rushed in around my head that I was for certain drowning. Then water entered my lungs and I actual felt the sensation of drowning. But somehow I struggled to the surface alive.
I made immediate and repeated efforts to save Mary Jo by diving into strong and murky current, but succeeded only in increasing my state of utter exhaustion and alarm. My conduct and conversations during the next several hours, to the extent that I can remember them, make no sense to me at all.
Although my doctors informed me that I suffered a cerebral concussion, as well as shock, I do not seek to escape responsibility for my actions by placing the blame either in the physical, emotional trauma brought on by the accident, or on anyone else. I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the policy immediately.
Instead of looking directly for a telephone after lying exhausted in the grass for an undetermined time, I walked back to the cottage where the party was being held and requested the help of two friends, my cousin, Joseph Gargan and Phil Markham, and directed them to return immediately to the scene with me -- this was sometime after midnight -- in order to undertake a new effort to dive down and locate Miss Kopechne. Their strenuous efforts, undertaken at some risk to their own lives also proved futile.
All kinds of scrambled thoughts -- all of them confused, some of them irrational, many of them which I cannot recall, and some of which I would not have seriously entertained under normal circumstances -- went through my mind during this period. They were reflected in the various inexplicable, inconsistent, and inconclusive things I said and did, including such questions as whether the girl might still be alive somewhere out of that immediate area, whether some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys, whether there was some justifiable reason for me to doubt what has happened and to delay my report, whether somehow the awful weight of this incredible incident might, in some way, pass from my shoulders. I was overcome, I'm frank to say, by a jumble of emotions, grief, fear, doubt, exhaustion, panic, confusion and shock.
Instructing Gargan and Markham not to alarm Mary Jo's friends that night, I had them take me to the ferry crossing. The ferry having shut down for the night, I suddenly jumped into the water and impulsively swam across, nearly drowning once again in the effort, and returned to my hotel about 2 A.M. and collapsed in my room.
I remember going out at one point and saying something to the room clerk.
In the morning, with my mind somewhat more lucid, I made an effort to call a family legal advisor, Burke Marshall, from a public telephone on the Chappaquiddick side of the ferry and belatedly reported the accident to the Martha's Vineyard police.
Today, as I mentioned, I felt morally obligated to plead guilty to the charge of leaving the scene of an accident. No words on my part can possibly express the terrible pain and suffering I feel over this tragic incident. This last week has been an agonizing one for me and for the members of my family, and the grief we feel over the loss of a wonderful friend will remain with us the rest of our lives.
These events, the publicity, innuendo, and whispers which have surrounded them and my admission of guilt this morning raises the question in my mind of whether my standing among the people of my state has been so impaired that I should resign my seat in the United States Senate. 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 duty and should not continue in office.
The people of this State, the State which sent John Quincy Adams, and Daniel Webster, and Charles Sumner, and Henry Cabot Lodge, and John Kennedy to the United States Senate are entitled to representation in that body by men who inspire their utmost confidence. For this reason, I would understand full well why some might think it right for me to resign. For me this will be a difficult decision to make.
It has been seven years since my first election to the Senate. You and I share many memories -- some of them have been glorious, some have been very sad. The opportunity to work with you and serve Massachusetts has made my life worthwhile.
And 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.
It has been written a man does what he must in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles, and dangers, and pressures, and that is the basis of human morality. Whatever may be the sacrifices he faces, if he follows his conscience -- the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow man -- each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of the past courage cannot supply courage itself. For this, each man must look into his own soul.
I pray that I can have the courage to make the right decision. Whatever is decided and whatever the future holds for me, I hope that I shall have been able to put this most recent tragedy behind me and make some further contribution to our state and mankind, whether it be in public or private life.
Thank you and good night.
Ted Kennedy's Driving Record:
- Ted Kennedy had a record of serious traffic violations. Their nature formed a pattern of deliberate and repeated negligent operation. Particularly bothersome was a June, 1958 conviction for "reckless driving."
- On March 14, 1958, Deputy Sheriff Thomas Whitten had been on routine highway patrol outside Charlottesville, Virginia, when an Oldsmobile convertible ran a red light, sped off, then cut its tail lights to elude pursuit. A license check revealed the car belonged to Edward M. Kennedy, a 26-year-old law student attending the University of Virginia. Kennedy had previously been fined $15 for speeding in March 1957. - Whitten was on patrol at the same intersection a week later, he testified, "And here comes the same car. And to my surprise, he did exactly the same thing. He raced through the same red light, cut his lights when he got to the corner and made the right turn." Whitten gave chase. He found the car in a driveway, apparently unoccupied. Looking inside, he discovered the driver, Teddy Kennedy, stretched out on the front seat and hiding. Whitten issued a ticket for "reckless driving; racing with an officer to avoid arrest; and operating a motor vehicle without an operator's license (Mass. registration.)" - Kennedy's attorneys were able to win numerous postponements, but eventually he was convicted on all charges and paid a $35 fine. Court officials never filed the mandatory notice of the case in the public docket, however, and Kennedy's name had not appeared on any arrest blotter. Instead, a local reporter discovered the case when he spotted 5 warrants in Kennedy's name in a court cash drawer.
- Three weeks after his trial, Ted Kennedy was caught speeding again, and still operating without a valid license.
- In December 1959, Kennedy was stopped again for running a red light and fined $10 and costs. In Whitten's view, "That boy had a heavy foot and a mental block against the color red. He was a careless, reckless driver who didn't seem to have any regard for speed limits or traffic ordinances."
________________________________________ - The offenses in Virginia had occurred on Ted Kennedy's Massachusetts driver's license, but mysteriously neither the Registry of Motor Vehicles nor the office of probation in Cambridge had any record of the out-of-state convictions. Had it been revealed at the inquest, the Senator's history of negligence and reckless driving would have been further evidence to support a charge of manslaughter in the Chappaquiddick accident.
~ Senatorial Privilege by Leo Damore
________________________________________ Manslaughter in Massachusetts :
"Any person who wantonly or in a reckless or grossly negligent manner did that which resulted in the death of a human being was guilty of manslaughter, although he did not contemplate such a result." In other words, negligence in exposing another to injury by doing an act, supplied all the intention the law required to make a defendant responsible for the consequences.
- "It's automatic in Massachusetts when a person is killed in an accident for the prosecutor to bring an action for criminal manslaughter."
~ Joseph Gargan
- Less than a week after the accident at Chappaquiddick, the Oregonian (Portland, Oregon ~ 7-24-69 ) reported an accident in Salem, Oregon, in which a car crashed through the chain on a ferry while crossing the Willamette River. A passenger riding in the car had drowned, but the driver escaped from the car and swam to shore. The driver was charged with negligent homicide.
The first Moon landing was on July 20th, 1969. I saved my parent’s Boston Globe newspapers for the Moon landing and also have the Teddy “I should have drove a Volkswagon” Kennedy story.
Excellent post.......
A still shot from what is undoubtedly not Ted Kennedy's favorite movie, Ghost Story.
Mary Jo suffocated, she did not drown, she did not die on impact. She suffocated while the drunken teddy was worried about how the accident would affect him. If he had simply called for help, Mary Jo would have survived the accident.
I read this book when I was a college kid http://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Bare-Last-Kennedy-Clan/dp/0882791095
It lays out the entire scandal.
Shame on Ted Kennedy, shame on the Massachusetts judicial system, and shame on Massachusetts voters for keeping him in office all these years.
criminal manslaughter
Steve Smith, the Kennedy family fixer, was passing out money like cookies on the 22nd.
Thanks for finding the ad. I was having a hard time finding a legible example. (It was of course a spoof ad from National Lampoon. VW sued for using its trademark).
Rush is wrong on this one. At least three Americans have died in nuclear reactor accidents. One was in Arco, Idaho in 1961. Their bodies were so radioactive they had to be buried in lead-lined coffins.
Nice Rush quote.
Here we have a murderer in congress for all these years that has gotten a pass and all who deal with him over the years also have blood on thier hands. It won’t be long now! Mary Jo is at the gate waiting for this mess to show up, and he knows it!
Rush's bromide refers to the safety record of commercial, civilian nuclear energy in this country. The only fatalities I know of there were non-nuclear related, such as the one accident a few years ago in Virginia (I think) where some maintenance workers walked into a live steam leak (basically cuts you in half). There have been some electrical accidents as well. But those were not unique to the nuclear aspects of the plant.
for years I had a bumper sticker on the rear of my pickup truck that read, “Ted Kennedy’s car has killed more people than my gun”.
And he was such a gentleman when they got to that bridge it took him 9 hours to open the car door for her.
I know how this forum tries to stay above the personal attacks at certain times, but when that POS Teddy dies, it will be hard for me not to do to him what the left did to Tony Snow and Jesse Helms.
This reprobate got 4 decades that his COWARDICE denied Mary Jo.
That was at SL-1 but it was military. How about “United States Civilian Nuclear power has killed fewer Americans than Ted Kennedy’s car.”
I saw show on A&E or Discovery a couple of years ago that concluded Teddy wasn’t in the car. They stopped after going past a local cop and Teddy got out and swam a mile or so back to his hotel. Mary Jo drove back and went off the bridge as she was not familiar with the area and was used to driving her VW.
The doors were closed on the car. Teddy could not have gotten out then slammed the door hard enough to close it while under water. The windows were closed. Had he been in the car he would have died. People at his hotel reported Teddy was having breakfast the next morning when 2 men came in, spoke to him and then they all left in a hurry. They said Teddy was relaxed until they came in.
I know this is just a theory but it does a good job of explaining the physical evidence.
Will there be a big touch football game tonight to celebrate?
ditto
It's all clipped, copied and plagiarized. But, I'll be posting it every year as long as I still have a computer and the ability to use it.
I saw show on A&E or Discovery a couple of years ago that concluded Teddy wasn’t in the car. They stopped after going past a local cop and Teddy got out and swam a mile or so back to his hotel. Mary Jo drove back and went off the bridge as she was not familiar with the area and was used to driving her VW.
The doors were closed on the car. Teddy could not have gotten out then slammed the door hard enough to close it while under water. The windows were closed. Had he been in the car he would have died. People at his hotel reported Teddy was having breakfast the next morning when 2 men came in, spoke to him and then they all left in a hurry. They said Teddy was relaxed until they came in.
I know this is just a theory but it does a good job of explaining the physical evidence.
I have heard that explanation also. It does make sense. If true, why didn’t he just tell the truth? I guess a lie is better than the truth for rich, priveleged, Democrats.
This from the Oliver Stone movie.....
Walking together on a secluded beach, Ted Kennedy tells Mary Jo he can’t make love to her because, “I’m married, and it would be morally wrong.”
A distraught, drunken and humiliated Mary Jo runs alone to Ted’s parked car, starts the engine, and roars down a dark and unfamiliar road, only moments away from her tragic, accidental death.....
Maybe not, but enough are to keep electing him. Sad.
july18 or most probably 19th when she died, but i always remember it being tied to the first moon landing ( the 21st ), since it gave cover for the news networks to ignore the kennedy crime.
According to Howie Carr...a local columnist and talk host who's studied the Kennedys for years....Teddy was caught behind the wheel at least twice during the period of suspension.
Add to that the fact that Teddy named one of his dogs "Splash" and you have the profile of a pure sociopath.
That theory is a bunch of crapola.
I always think of Night of the Hunter. When I see that lady sitting in the car under water, I think of Teddy and Mary Jo.
Besides the SL-1 incident, there have been criticality accidents associated with nuclear technology development. There were a couple in the Manhattan Project. There was one a few years ago in Japan. There have been a couple of fatalities associated with commercial irradiators that use radioactive sources or accelerators. In general, these are exceedingly rare accidents, especially compared with risks we accept on a daily basis (driving cars, climbing ladders, etc.) that have higher fatality rates.
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