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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| Name | Mary Jo Kopechne |
| Address |
, Massachusetts , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
July 26, 1940
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| Died | July 18, 1969
(28 years)
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| Contributor | Chronicler |
| Last Modifed | RBH
Mar 20, 2017 11:57pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | Mary Jo Kopechne (July 26, 1940 – July 18, 1969) born in Forty Fort, Pennsylvania, was the only child of insurance salesman Joseph Kopechne and his wife Gwen. Upon graduation from Caldwell College for women, Kopechne moved to Washington D.C. initially to work as secretary to U.S. Senator George Smathers and subsequently as secretary to Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Kopechne died in Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts when a car driven by Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy, in which she was the passenger, went off a bridge and overturned into a pond. Earlier that evening, the two had been attending a party along with other Kennedy aides and several women who had served as "boiler room" girls in the 1968 Presidential campaign of Senator Robert Kennedy. Kennedy managed to escape from the submerged car, but he left the scene and inexplicably did not report the incident or Kopechne's whereabouts. The next day authorities discovered Kennedy's car and recovered Kopechne's body. Though Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury, several details of Mary Jo Kopechne's death remain a mystery.
On July 18, 1969, Kopechne attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island, off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, held in honor of the "Boiler Room Girls." This affectionate name was given to the six young women who had been vital to the former Robert Kennedy presidential campaign and who had subsequently closed up his files and campaign office after his assassination. Besides Kopechne, the other women, all single, were Susan Tannenbaum, Maryellen Lyons, Ann Lyons, Rosemary (Cricket) Keough, and Esther Newburgh. The men in attendance, all married but partying without their wives, were Ted Kennedy, Joe Gargan, U.S. Attorney Paul Markham, Charles Tretter, Raymond La Rosa, and John Crimmins. The festivity was held at Lawrence Cottage, rented for the occasion by Gargan, Kennedy's cousin and lawyer. The twelve attendees gathered at the cottage after two Kennedy boats raced in the Edgartown Regatta earlier in the day.
Kopechne left the party at 11:15 pm with Ted Kennedy after he offered to drive her back to the Katama Shores Motor Inn in Edgartown where she was staying. On his way to the ferry crossing back to Edgartown, Kennedy reported he accidentally turned right onto Dike Road instead of bearing left on Main Street. After proceeding one-half mile, he descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge set obliquely to the unlit road. Kennedy drove his 1967 Oldsmobile Delta 88 off the side of Dike (or Dyke) Bridge, and the car overturned into Poucha Pond.
Kennedy was able to extricate himself from the submerged car but Kopechne died. Undertaker Eugene Frieh told reporters that death "was due to suffocation rather than drowning," and diver John Farrar, who removed Kopechne from the car, claimed she was "too buoyant to be full of water." Since her parents' lawyer, Joseph Flanagan, filed a petition barring an autopsy, the cause of death was never medically confirmed. When the car was recovered, all the doors were locked and three of the windows were either open or smashed in. Investigators pondered how Kennedy, a large-framed, 6 foot 2 inch (1.88 m) man managed to get out of the car, but Kopechne, slender, 5 foot 2 inches (1.57 m) tall, was not able to do the same.
Kennedy claims he dove down several times attempting to free her. After exhausting himself, he rested for twenty minutes, then walked back to the Lawrence Cottage where the party had been held. At the Lawrence Cottage, aka: "The Party House", Kennedy asked for his cousin, Joe Gargan, and sat in the back of Kopechne's rental car, a white Dodge Valiant. Though there was a working telephone at this location, none of the group phoned for police or rescue help. Kennedy then returned to the submerged car with Gargan and Paul Markham who then resumed trying to reach her. The group claimed that the tidal current prevented them from reaching her.
Kennedy did not report the accident to authorities; they located him after the car and Kopechne's body were discovered by a science teacher and a 15 year old boy the following morning. He had, in the meantime, discussed the accident with several people, including his attorney and Kopechne's parents, who say he omitted to tell them the fact that he had been driving the car.
On television Kennedy later said he was not driving under the influence of alcohol. He explained he was in a state of shock when he emerged from the creek and confused by "a jumble of emotions," and that his conduct in not reporting the accident was "inexcusable." He said he gave up hope and remembers little of how he got back to his hotel in Edgartown, except that he swam the narrow channel because there were no night ferries, and nearly drowned in the process.
Kennedy was charged and tried for failing to report an accident involving injury. He received a suspended sentence. Questions remain about his attempts to save Kopechne and the possibility of interference in the investigation and the trial by his family and friends. Kopechne's death severely damaged Kennedy's reputation and is regarded as the major reason he was never able to mount a successful campaign for President of the United States.
A funeral Mass for Kopechne was held on July 22, 1969 at St. Vincent's Roman Catholic Church in Plymouth, Pennsylvania. She is buried in the parish cemetery on the side of Larksville Mountain.
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