Chappaquiddick incident
The Chappaquiddick incident occurred on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, United States, sometime around midnight between July 18 and 19, 1969,[5][6] when United States Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off a narrow bridge, causing it to overturn in Poucha Pond. The crash resulted in the death (by suffocation) of his 28-year-old passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, who was trapped inside the vehicle.[7][8][9][10]
Date
July 18–19, 1969
Automobile accident
Negligent operation by Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy's driver's license suspended for 16 months
July 22, 1969, Plymouth, Pennsylvania, U.S.
- July 25, 1969, Superior Court
- April 6, 1970, Dukes County grand jury
- May 18, 1970, Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles
January 1970, Edgartown
Ted Kennedy
- Leaving the scene of an accident causing bodily injury[1][2][3]
- Operation of a motor vehicle too fast for existing conditions
- Failure to exhibit a driving permit[a]
Leaving the scene of an accident causing bodily injury
Kennedy left a party on Chappaquiddick Island, off the eastern end of Martha's Vineyard, at 11:15 p.m. Friday July 18. He later stated that his intent was to immediately take Kopechne to a ferry landing and return to Edgartown, but that he accidentally made a wrong turn onto a dirt road leading to a one-lane bridge. After his car skidded off the bridge into the pond, Kennedy swam free, and maintained that he tried to rescue Kopechne from the submerged car but could not. Kopechne's death could have happened any time between about 11:30 p.m. Friday and 1 a.m. Saturday, as an off-duty deputy sheriff stated he saw a car matching Kennedy's license plate at 12:40 a.m. Kennedy left the scene and did not report the accident to police until after 10 a.m. Saturday. Meanwhile, a diver recovered Kopechne's body from Kennedy's car shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday.
At a court hearing on July 25, Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident and received a two-month suspended jail sentence. In a televised statement that same evening, Kennedy said that his conduct immediately after the accident had "made no sense to me at all" and that he regarded his failure to report the accident immediately as "indefensible". A January 5, 1970, judicial inquest concluded that Kennedy and Kopechne had not intended to take the ferry, and that Kennedy had intentionally turned toward the bridge, operating his vehicle negligently if not recklessly and at too high a speed for the hazard which the bridge posed in the dark. The judge stopped short of recommending charges, and a grand jury convened on April 6, returning no indictments. On May 27, a Registry of Motor Vehicles hearing resulted in Kennedy's driver's license being suspended for sixteen months after the accident.
The Chappaquiddick incident became a national news item and influenced Kennedy's decision not to run for president in 1972 and 1976,[8][9][10] Later it was said to have undermined his chances of ever becoming president.[11] Kennedy ultimately decided to enter the 1980 Democratic presidential primaries, but earned only 37.6% of the vote and lost the nomination to incumbent U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
Arraignment[edit]
Kennedy's court hearing was held before Massachusetts District Court Judge James Boyle on July 25, seven days after the incident. Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident causing bodily injury. His attorneys argued that any jail sentence should be suspended, and the prosecutors agreed by citing his age (37), character and prior reputation.[62] "Considering the unblemished record of the defendant, and insofar as the Commonwealth represents this is not a case where he was really trying to conceal his identity...", Boyle sentenced him to the statutory minimum two months in prison, which he suspended, saying that he "has already been, and will continue to be punished far beyond anything this court can impose."[4]
Despite an Associated Press story published that morning, Boyle was unaware that Kennedy's driving record was, in fact, far from "unblemished".[4] While attending University of Virginia School of Law (1956–1959), he had compiled a record of reckless driving and driving without a license.[63] In one particular incident on March 14, 1958, Kennedy ran a red light, then cut his tail lights and raced to avoid a highway patrol officer. When Kennedy was caught, he was cited for reckless driving, racing to avoid pursuit and driving without a license.[64]
Kennedy's wife Joan was pregnant at the time of the Chappaquiddick incident. She was confined to bed because of two previous miscarriages, but she attended Kopechne's funeral and stood beside her husband in court.[65] Soon after, she suffered a third miscarriage,[66] which she blamed on the Chappaquiddick incident.[67]
Grand jury investigation[edit]
On April 6, 1970, a Dukes County grand jury assembled in special session to investigate Kopechne's death. Judge Wilfred Paquet instructed the members of the grand jury that they could consider only matters brought to their attention by the superior court, the district attorney or their personal knowledge.[95] He cited the orders of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and told the grand jury that it could not see the evidence or Boyle's report from the inquest, which were still impounded.[95] Dinis had attended the inquest and seen Boyle's report, and he told the grand jury that there was not enough evidence to indict Kennedy on potential charges of manslaughter, perjury, or driving to endanger.[95] The grand jury called four witnesses who had not testified at the inquest; they testified for a total of twenty minutes, but no indictments were issued.[95]
Motor Vehicles investigation[edit]
On July 23, 1969, the registrar of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles informed Kennedy that his license would be suspended until there was a statutory hearing concerning the accident.[96] The suspension was required by Massachusetts law for any fatal motor vehicle accident if there were no witnesses. The in camera hearing was held May 18, 1970, and found that "operation was too fast for existing conditions." On May 27, the registrar informed Kennedy in a letter that "I am unable to find that the fatal accident in which a motor vehicle operated by you was involved, was without serious fault on your part" and so his driver's license was suspended for a further six months.[97]
Fringe theories[edit]
Journalist Jack Olsen wrote the first investigative book on the case, The Bridge at Chappaquiddick, in 1970, attempting to solve the unanswered questions of the incident. Lieutenant Bernie Flynn, a state police detective assigned to the Cape Cod district attorney's office, was a Kennedy admirer who came up with a theory which he couldn't prove: that Kennedy got out of the car and Kopechne drove herself off the bridge. "Ted Kennedy didn't want to admit being drunk with a broad in a car late at night. When he saw 'Huck' Look, he got scared. He thought a cop was coming after him." Flynn claimed to have told this theory to Olsen, who didn't seem to be very impressed.[98] Although Olsen denied having ever talked to Flynn, he related this theory in his book.[99] Kopechne was 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m), a foot shorter than Kennedy, and Olsen argued that she might possibly not have seen the bridge as she drove Kennedy's car over unfamiliar roads at night, with no external lighting, and after she had consumed several alcoholic drinks. He wrote that Kopechne normally drove a Volkswagen Beetle, which was much smaller, lighter and easier to handle than Kennedy's larger Oldsmobile.[100]
A BBC Inside Story episode titled "Chappaquiddick", broadcast on July 20, 1994 (the 25th anniversary of the incident), repeated Flynn's theory. The episode argued that the explanation would account for Kennedy's lack of concern the next morning, as he was unaware of the accident, and for the forensic evidence of the injuries to Kopechne being inconsistent with her sitting in the passenger seat.[101]
Fourth-generation Chappaquiddick resident Bill Pinney, in his 2017 book Chappaquiddick Speaks, presents a theory that Kopechne was seriously injured in an earlier crash, and then the bridge accident was faked.[102] The book laments how the incident robbed Chappaquiddick of its traditional peace and privacy, attracting large tourist groups wanting to view the sites connected with the tragedy.
Media[edit]
The incident is fictionalized in Joyce Carol Oates' novella Black Water (1992).
It is the central subject of John Curran's film Chappaquiddick (2017).
In 2019, the incident was featured in a season of Fox Nation's Scandalous.[124][125][126]
The 2019 series For All Mankind depicts an alternate timeline where Kennedy cancels his Chappaquiddick party after Soviets land on the Moon before the U.S., thus avoiding Kopechne's death; Kennedy eventually wins the 1972 Presidential election and is later accused of having an extramarital affair with Kopechne, who is working as a White House aide.[127][128]
