Chappaquiddick: Suspicions Renewed

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."

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...