Chappaquiddick: Suspicions Renewed

Monday, May. 11, 1970
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FACED with a brutal truth, the mind can rebel and seek escape in fantasy. As Senator Edward Kennedy explained at the January inquest into the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, his mind did just that on the morning following the tragedy at Chappaquiddick last July. It tried to believe that somehow Mary Jo had survived the plunge into Poucha Pond. Said Kennedy: "I willed that she remained alive."

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Later in the inquest, Kennedy tried to explain one of the most incomprehensible aspects of the Kopechne case —why he failed to summon help immediately after he, his cousin Joseph Gargan and friend Paul Markham had failed to rescue Mary Jo. Said the Senator: "I was completely convinced . . . that no further help and assistance would do Mary Jo any more good. I realized that she must be drowned and still in the car at this time, and it appeared the question in my mind was what should be done about the accident."

Precisely what he did—and did not do —about the accident might have been cleared up by the long-delayed publication of the inquest record. Instead, the 763-page transcript only rekindled suspicions that have surrounded the case from the outset. The report of Justice James Boyle, the crusty Vineyarder who presided over the inquest, concluded that "negligence" on Kennedy's part "appears" to have contributed to the accident. Kennedy admitted traveling at 20 m.p.h. over treacherous Dike Bridge; Boyle termed that speed excessive. Worse, from Kennedy's viewpoint, was Boyle's official finding challenging Kennedy's story that he and Mary Jo left a party to go to the ferry that would take them from Chappaquiddick to their separate lodgings in Edgartown. A paved road bearing left led to the ferry. A dirt road going right led to Dike Bridge and a deserted beach. Said Boyle: "I infer that Kennedy and Kopechne did not intend to return to Edgartown at that time; that Kennedy did not intend to drive to the ferry slip and his turn onto Dike Road was intentional."

Boyle drew his inferences from several new points established at the inquest. One was that Kennedy visited the island a few hours before the party, which was attended by the six "boiler-room girls" from Bobby Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign and five of Ted's men friends. The testimony made it clear that Kennedy that day crossed Dike Bridge twice and traveled the ferry road three times; the implication was that he was not unfamiliar with the geography.

Boyle was disturbed as well by the fact that Kennedy told only his chauffeur, Jack Crimmins, that he was leaving the party with Mary Jo, while the young woman herself told no one. Also, Mary Jo left her purse behind when she departed with Kennedy and failed to ask her roommate for the key to their motel room.