XPost: alt.fan.barbra.streisand, alt.fan.j-garofalo, alt.fan.julia-roberts   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats   
   From: Dr.Goldblatt@G00GLE.0RG   
      
   Revisiting Chappaquiddick After 35 Years!!!!!!!!!!!   
      
      
   Thirty-five years after the night of July 18, 1969, when Ted Kennedy   
   drove his Oldsmobile sedan off the side of a wooden bridge on   
   Chappaquiddick Island on Martha's Vineyard, Mass., and left for dead   
   Mary Jo Kopechne, the 28-year-old former secretary of his brother   
   Robert F. Kennedy, in his submerged car, unanswered questions linger   
   over the events of that fatal evening. Kennedy escaped the wreckage   
   with a concussion and waited nine hours before reporting the incident   
   to the police shortly after a young boy noticed the sunken car.   
      
   Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an   
   accident, but no other charges were filed against the Massachusetts   
   senator. Edgartown Police Chief Dominick J. Arena said that an   
   examination of the evidence, shortly after the incident, showed that   
   Kennedy could not be held legally responsible for Kopechne's death.   
      
   Leo Damore, author of the best-selling 1988 book Senatorial Privilege:   
   The Chappaquiddick Cover-Up described Chappaquiddick as the most   
   famous traffic fatality in the history of American politics. . . . The   
   mysteries of the case continue to haunt Sen. Edward Kennedy's   
   [D.-Mass.] career. For many, Chappaquiddick stands as the single   
   obstacle in his path to the Presidency.   
      
   HUMAN EVENTS covered the aftermath of the fatal drowning in the weeks   
   that followed the incident and concluded at the time that the   
   available evidence, in fact, suggests that Teddy, aside from his own   
   statement that he dove repeatedly into the waters to retrieve Mary Jo   
   Kopechne, did nothing else during this  mysterious nine-hour interval   
   to see that she received help. . . .   
      
   "While Kennedy has said he was 'exhausted and in a state of shock'   
   after the accident, local officials found that he was not too shocked   
   or exhausted to immediately call for his lawyer, Paul Markham, when he   
   returned to the party at the Chappaquiddick cottage after the   
   accident. The receptionist at his motel in Edgartown has also claimed   
   the senator appeared 'natural' when he borrowed a dime from her to   
   make a phone call two and half hours before he reported the accident   
   to the police.   
      
   The facts relating to the incident are as follows:   
      
   Kennedy participated in the 46th Edgartown Yacht Club Regatta Friday   
   afternoon, July 18, finishing a dismal ninth place in the contest.   
      
   Kennedy's cousin Joe Gargan, a Boston lawyer, arranged a party on   
   Chappaquiddick with his friends that included a group of young women,   
   primarily friends and Kennedy-family political staffers, who joined   
   Kennedy, Gargan and the entourage for cocktails at a cottage on   
   Chappaquiddick Island. A USMC veteran and lifelong townsman, John   
   Sylvia, recounted the Shiretown cocktail party as one where there was   
   yelling, music, and general sounds of hell raising.   
      
   Around 11:15 p.m. on the evening of July 18, Kennedy left the party   
   with Kopechne and, Kennedy claims, decided to take her back to the   
   ferry and to Kopechne's motel about three miles south of Edgartown.   
      
   Sometime after 11:15 p.m. Friday, Kennedy drove his Oldsmobile sedan   
   off Dike bridge and into Poucha Pond where Kopechne drowned.   
      
   Kennedy's explanation of his actions immediately after the incident is   
   strange to say the least. He couldn't remember any details of the   
   accident. Kennedy claimed he was in a state of shock, but made 17   
   phone calls although not a single call to reach police, fire, Coast   
   Guard officials or nearby residents to summon help to assist in the   
   rescue of Miss Kopechne.   
      
   Kennedy also claimed he was confused and turned the wrong way on the   
   dirt road toward Dike bridge despite the fact that he had been on this   
   stretch of road several times and was in fact on it earlier that day.   
      
   Shortly after the accident, Kennedy addressed the nation in a   
   televised broadcast after spending several days in seclusion at the   
   Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port and admitted that his actions were   
   indefensible.   
      
   One troubling aspect is how the authorities handled the case,   
   including the inquest into Kopechne's death, subsequent investigation   
   and release of information pertaining to the case. The assistant DA   
   Jimmy Smith, according to author Damore, avoided prosecuting Kennedy.   
      
   As HUMAN EVENTS pointed out in the issue of Aug. 2, 1969, The   
   inconsistencies and the unanswered questions proliferate;not only   
   because of Sen. Kennedy but because of the police investigation into   
   the incident. Why, for instance, did Police Chief Arena fail to   
   interrogate Kennedy when the senator handed Arena his prepared   
   statement some nine hours after the fatal accident? Why was it that   
   neither Arena nor County Prosecutor Walter Steele has questioned any   
   of the party participants, at least one of whom has given statements   
   to reporters? Why is it that Dr. Donald R. Mills, the medical   
   examiner, was so reluctant to reveal the exact alcoholic content of   
   Miss Kopechne's blood?   
      
   For that matter, why did the family refuse an autopsy?   
      
   In terms of a settlement, the Kopechnes eventually received $140,904   
   ($90,904 from Kennedy and $50,000 from his insurance coverage).   
      
   Since the fatal accident 35 years ago, Kennedy has claimed that he has   
   told the full story of what happened that night, but reporters and   
   authors have raised numerous questions over the years that suggest   
   otherwise.   
      
   HUMAN EVENTS intern Joseph Calandra, Jr., with the National Journalism   
   Center, worked on the preparation of this story.   
      
   What isn't stated in this article was the fact that one of the divers   
   that recovered the body claimed that this girl was alive in the back   
   seat of the car for quite some time (in an air bubble) while the car   
   slowly filled with water. If Kennedy had had the moral courage to   
   actually rescue this girl instead of worrying about his political   
   career he would probably have been proclaimed a hero-instead he picked   
   the coward's way out.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)