Posted on 03/29/2018 7:42:17 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
Mary Jo Kopechne had been dead for several months when her parents began to have serious questions about what really happened the night of July 18, 1969.
At first, Gwen and Joe Kopechne had believed Senator Ted Kennedy’s account of that evening. “They trusted him,” says Mary Jo’s aunt, Georgetta Potoski, 75. “They loved the Kennedys. But later on, they started to question what happened.”
Ted Kennedy could never escape the unanswered questions about his 10-hour delay in reporting the accident to Edgartown police.
“The longer it went on, more and more inconsistencies were discovered and he wasn’t telling Gwen and Joe anything,” says Potoski ,the sister of Gwen Kopechne. “Gwen and Joe never had the last hours of their daughter’s life explained to them.”
Now, 49 years after Mary Jo’s death, a new movie Chappaquiddick explores what happened that night and in the week that followed, when Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident.
Potoski and her son William Nelson, 46, hope the film may prompt someone to come forward with new information— and give them the answers they never got from Senator Kennedy. “The truth has never really come out,” says Nelson. “The story has never been put to rest.”
The film has not been well-received by the Kennedy camp.
Still, Potoski and her family hope that Mary Jo’s story being told on screen will result in more people learning that she was much more than just a “blonde secretary,” as she was often referred to at the time.
Potoski and Nelson have written a book, Our Mary Jo, about her life and have also launched a scholarship in her name at Potoski’s alma mater, Misericordia College (now Misericordia University), to be given out for the first time this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at people.com ...
Good point.
Sorry, but that “theory” makes no sense at all if you were actually familiar with Chappaquiddick Island — there was no place for them to be “parked” between the party house and the fatal bridge, and there was no way to drive the car “into town” at that hour of the night (the tiny ferry had ceased operation for the day). The only plausible reason that car was being driven at that hour was to go the isolated beach beyond the bridge. We can’t “prove” it but if you read up on the case it is clear that Teddy was driving her to the isolated beach for his hanky-panky. All the “wrong turn” b.s. that he put out was just that, b.s. And the idea that he was not driving the car makes no sense when he acknowledged he was driving the car (which he tried to avoid having to say and which he never would have said if he’d felt he had any other option).
Statute of limitations issue is irrelevant when the perp is dead.
Marvin,
I contend that he wasn’t in the car, but let’s say he was. The other possibility is that he blacked out, and forgot what had happened, but then again, he was with two other guys. Why didn’t they report the accident or ask for help.
His first statement was that he was that he drove the car, but he doesn’t say anything about going back to the party.
Either way how did get back to the motel? He probably swam. That was probably the only thing truthful.
Interesting, I hadn’t seen that one before! I don’t think Mary Jo’s mother really would have wanted the true details of the party weekend to emerge in those days. There was no honest and reputable reason for a group of unmarried young women to be in a party house for the weekend with older married pols such as Ted Kennedy. It was a kind of “stag party” for Ted and friends to sow some wild oats, period. There was no reason for Teddy to be driving that car near midnight with Mary Jo as the sole passenger except to get to the isolated beach beyond the bridge where he crashed into the water. He was taking her for some hot times together on the beach, at midnight.
Even though it was the ‘60s, it would have not enhanced Mary Jo’s reputation in any “respectable” circles for the full facts to come out.
Still, if there had actually been any competent and unbiased journalists around the real story would have emerged sooner....
I think he was on the way to the beach for hanky panky until they passed Officer Look. They “sped” off. I think Kennedy got out of the car, and told her to drive to the ferry, that he’d meet her there, or maybe he walked down to the beach to meet her there. He was drunk on his butt. He probably passed out, then swam back to the motel.
He probably blacked out, and had no recollection at all about anything until he two buddies confronted him at the motel the next morning.
No way, no how he was in that car. If she couldn’t get out, how did he?
Why would he ever ever ever ever “admit” to being the driver if he’d had any alternative plausible story? The last thing on earth he wanted, once the accident fatality happened, was to be associated with it in any way. If he’d been able to pretend that he wasn’t the driver he would have done so. He tried a couple of options (trying to establish a fake alibi, trying to get his cousin to lie for him) in that direction, briefly, but realized there was no getting away with such a cover story.
I agree that it does seem incredible that he would have been able to get out of that upside down car, at night, in water, but why would he ever claim to be the driver if he could have plausibly maintained that he was never even there?? He would have had it made if he thought he could get the police and coroner to report that Mary Jo had been alone or that someone other than Teddy had been involved. He saw no such option and so “came clean” (to a very limited extent) that he was the driver. I can’t see him ever doing that if he could have maintained any plausible denial.
good point!!!
I was only a kid in those days, but why would not even a publication like National Review take it on? Was it just too dirty for Wm. F. Buckley to want to touch?
“-——told MJ to drive the car into town and meet him at the hotel.”
It was too late to drive into town.
.
Maybe the car landed on its side, with the driver's side up, and he was able to get out before it rolled completely over. I can completely envision him standing on Mary Jo's body to get out of the car, leaving her there when it rolled over on its top, slamming the driver's side door closed ...
bookmark
Besides Mobsters being quoted as saying that Joe Kennedy was the biggest crook that they ever meant, the JFK Administration attacks on organized crime and criminal activities of union bosses, perhaps IF Oswald did NOT shoot JFK than the mob did, and the mob also shot RFK as retribution for these attacks on their organizations during the JFK admin. Maybe the Teddy incident had something to do with another attempt or perhaps a Serious warning not to interfere with them any longer (something along the lines of Mario Puzzo’s horse head in the bed).
All conjecture on my part. I honestly believe that Oswald did in fact assassinate JFK and Sirhan Sirhan acting independently assassinated RFK. But if you want a conspiracy theory mine is that JFK sought to knock out the competition from the Kennedy family’s crime activities.
I recommend watching this documentary for a fairly objective view and conclusion of what happened at Chappaquiddick..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEOd7AOR6ic
Not sure your point with the photo. The dirt road goes to the beach.
I think he got out of the car, because he was drunk and didn’t want officer Look to catch him. He may have told her to drive down to the beach, and that he’d meet her. She was going according to tests that the car was going 36-38 MPH. Pretty fast. Big car. She drove a beetle.
The guy was so drunk he probably didn’t notice the car in the water when he walked down to the beach. What did he do? He probably thought that she didn’t show. I suspect he swam home. Who knows. If he blacked out, he remember nothing.
He made up two stories. He may have recalled that he was driving at one point. If he blacked out and did not have any recollection of the accident he would be purely speculating.
I think he may have actually thought he was driving, got out of the car, dove to try and save her, and then swam home. Don’t know.
Do know, that the guy is an alcoholic and blacked out any memory of the event.
Don’t think he was in the car.
Mr. Buckley was “former” CIA—hint, hint—they did no investigative reporting on the Swamp.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.