Death at Chappaquiddick

Death at Chappaquiddick

<p>I still feel a lot of bitterness. It's been a long time, but to me it was just yesterday. I'll never forgive him. I don't believe the truth has been told. I don't know the truth. None of us knows the truth. It's still a mystery . . . . There was just too<br />much deception, too much double talk and cover up.<br />-- Joseph Kopechne, Women's News Service</p><p>This then is the real horror of the case. Mary Jo in the<br />bottom of that upside-down car, wedged in, clawing, clutching and straining for<br />air and for life in the total blackness at the bottom of Poucha Pond with water<br />creeping higher and higher. Completely terrified, she waited for help from<br />Senator Kennedy - who was on the phone seeking help not for Mary Jo, but for<br />Senator Kennedy.</p><p>From Death at Chappaquiddick</p><p><br />On July 19, 1969, Senator Edward Kennedy drove off a bridge on<br />Chappaquiddick Island, leading to the death of his young female companion and,<br />the authors contend, an extensive cover up to protect Kennedy's political<br />ambitions.<br />The Tedrow recreates the unexplained events of that fateful night, examine<br />the self-admitted panic of a U. S. senator, and point by point puncture<br />Kennedy's sieve-like account of the tragedy.<br />The authors' exhaustive investigation produces solid answers to curious<br />questions. Most damning of all, they present evidence that Kennedy fled the<br />scene in panic, then spent hours telephoning cronies seeking political<br />protection while a helpless Mary Jo Kapechne slowly suffocated in a pocket of<br />air inside the submerged auto.<br />Richard L. Tedrow served for 17 years as Chief Commissioner of the U. S.<br />Court of Military Appeal and is the author of the standard reference for U. S.<br />military court martials. Thomas Tedrow is a freelance writer in Houston, Texas.