Mary Jo Kopechne (July 26, 1940 – July 18, 1969) was an American teacher, secretary and political campaign specialist who died in a car accident on Chappaquiddick Island while being driven by United States Senator Ted Kennedy.
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. It was the fourth such reunion of the Robert Kennedy campaign workers.[10]
Kopechne left the party at 11:15 p.m. with Robert’s brother Ted Kennedy, after he — according to his own account — offered to drive her to catch the last ferry back to Edgartown, where she was staying. A half-mile down Dyke Road, Kennedy drove off the side of the Dyke Bridge, and the 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 overturned into Poucha Pond. Kennedy extricated himself from the submerged car but Kopechne died, being left to slowly suffocate in six feet of water.
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. 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.
Says George Killen, the State Police Detective-Lieutenant who investigated the accident, “Senator Kennedy killed that girl the same as if he put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger.”
The Manchester Union Leader reported that Senator Kennedy had charged 17 long distance telephone calls to his credit card during the hours he claimed to be “in shock” after the accident. Not one of those calls were to the police or any rescue organizations.
Senator Kennedy’s driver’s license had expired on February 22, 1969 (nearly 5 months before the accident) and had not been renewed. – Although driving with an expired license was only a misdemeanor, it did provide the evidence of negligence needed to prove a manslaughter charge in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. – The license problem was “fixed” by officials at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, under the direction of Registrar Richard McLaughlin, before the legal proceedings began.
Over the course of the past four decades, the media elite have touted Kennedy as a “liberal lion,” spending far more time celebrating his ideological agenda than reminding people of his behavior that night in 1969. Had this been any Republican the media would have descended upon him like a hungry wolf.
I pray that Miss Kopechne is in Heaven, a place where she will never be bothered by Submarine Commander Kennedy ever again.
Mary Jo Kopechne, Chappaquiddick, Ted Kennedy, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, Boiler Room Girls, Poucha Pond
