Mary Jo Kopechne Totally Explained

Everything about Mary Jo Kopechne totally explained

Mary Jo Kopechne (July 26 1940 – July 18 1969) was an American teacher, secretary and administrator, notable for her death in a car accident on Chappaquiddick Island in a car driven by Senator Ted Kennedy.

Life

Kopechne, born in Forty Fort, Pennsylvania, was the only child of insurance salesman Joseph Kopechne and his wife Gwen. Upon graduation from Caldwell College for women in New Jersey, Kopechne moved to Birmingham, Alabama to teach at the Mission of St. Jude school. She then moved to Washington, D.C. to work as secretary to Florida Senator George Smathers before subsequently becoming secretary to New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy following his election in 1964. At the time of her death, she was working for Matt Reese Associates, a Washington D.C. firm that helped establish campaign headquarters for politicians. She had taken that position in December 1968 after Kennedy's death from an assassin's bullet the previous June.

Death

On July 18 1969, Kopechne attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island, off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, held in honor of the "Boiler Room Girls." This affectionate name was given to the six young women who had been vital to the late Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign and who had subsequently closed up his files and campaign office after his assassination.
   Besides Kopechne, the other women, all single, were Susan Tannenbaum, Maryellen Lyons, Ann Lyons, Rosemary (Cricket) Keough, and Esther Newberg. The men in attendance, all married but present without their wives, were Ted Kennedy, Joe Gargan, U.S. Attorney Paul Markham, Charles Tretter, Raymond La Rosa, and John Crimmins. The festivity was held at Lawrence Cottage, rented for the occasion by Gargan, Kennedy's cousin and lawyer. The 12 attendees gathered at the cottage after two Kennedy boats raced in the Edgartown Regatta earlier in the day.
   Kopechne left the party at 11:15 p.m. with Kennedy after he allegedly offered to drive her back to the Katama Shores Motor Inn in Edgartown where she was staying. (According to Kennedy, they left the party at 11:15 p.m. to catch the last ferry of the night -- at midnight. According to Kennedy, on his way to the ferry crossing back to Edgartown, he accidentally turned right onto Dike Road - a dirt road - instead of bearing left on Main Street which was a paved road. After proceeding one-half mile, he descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge set obliquely to the unlit road. Kennedy drove the 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 belonging to his mother, Rose Kennedy, off the side of Dike Bridge, and the car overturned into Poucha Pond. A Reader's Digest investigation estimated that the car was travelling at about 35 miles per hour when it left the bridge.
   Kennedy extricated himself from the submerged car but Kopechne died. Since her parents' lawyer, Joseph Flanagan, filed a petition barring an autopsy, the cause of death was never medically confirmed. When the car was recovered, all the doors were locked and three of the windows were either open or smashed in.
   Kennedy said that he dived down several times attempting to free her and, after exhausting himself, rested for 20 minutes, then walked back to the Lawrence Cottage where the party had been held. At the Lawrence Cottage, Kennedy summoned his cousin, Joe Gargan, and another friend, Paul Markham, to return to the scene of the accident. Kennedy sat in the back of a white Plymouth Valiant rental car that Kopechne had used that day. Though there was a working telephone at this location, the group waited 10 hours before they contacted the police. Kennedy then returned to the submerged car with Gargan and Markham who then resumed trying to reach her. The group claimed that the tidal current prevented them from reaching her for fear of being swept out to sea. However tidal records indicated that the tide was running in the opposite direction at the time of the supposed attempted rescue.

Aftermath

On television Kennedy later said he wasn't driving under the influence of alcohol. This has been widely disputed by many reports. He explained he was in a state of shock when he emerged from the creek and confused by "a jumble of emotions," and that his conduct in not reporting the accident was "inexcusable." He said he gave up hope and remembers little of how he got back to his hotel in Edgartown, except that he swam the narrow channel because there were no night ferries, and nearly drowned in the process.
Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. He received a two month suspended sentence and one year probation. Questions remain about his attempts to save Kopechne and the possibility of interference in the investigation and the trial by his family and friends. Kopechne's death severely damaged Kennedy's reputation and is regarded as a major reason that he was never able to mount a successful campaign for President of the United States.
A funeral for Kopechne was held on July 22 1969, at St. Vincent's Roman Catholic Church in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, attended by Kennedy. She is buried in the parish cemetery on the side of Larksville Mountain.

Bobby Baker scandal

During her tenure as Senator Smathers' secretary, Kopechne shared an apartment with Nancy Carole Tyler, secretary to Bobby Baker, an aide to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. An emerging scandal involving Baker's corrupt activities prompted President John F. Kennedy to privately offer Senator George Smathers the second spot on the 1964 presidential ticket, and plan to drop Johnson as his running mate. The roommates, Kopechne and Tyler, allegedly leaked the President's plans to the press. In her book, Kennedy and Johnson, former JFK assistant Evelyn Lincoln writes that the president was also considering Governor Terry Sanford of North Carolina.
Some conspiracy theorists have claimed a link between the Bobby Baker scandal and the 1963 JFK assassination. Tyler died in a plane crash in May 1965. Kopechne went on to become secretary to Senator Robert F. Kennedy until he was assassinated in June 1968 during his run for the presidency.

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