50 Years After a Woman Mysteriously Drowned in Ted Kennedy's Car, a Letter Claims to Reveal the Truth
[People]
Liz McNeil
PeopleJuly 18, 2019
It’s a mystery that’s lasted for 50 years and lingers still: What happened on the summer night in 1969 when a car driven by Sen. Ted Kennedy plunged off the Dike Bridge into the waters off of Martha’s Vineyard, killing his 28-year-old passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne?
On July 18, 1969, Kopechne, who had worked on Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential bid, attended a reunion party with five of her fellow campaign workers, known as the “Boiler Room girls,†so named for their windowless office.
The party, held at a rental cottage on the island of Chappaquiddick in Massachusetts, was also attended by Ted, Robert’s younger brother, along with five other men, some of whom had also worked on the campaign.
What happened next that night remains unclear, even decades later. And many believe the scandal — beginning with Ted’s 10-hour delay in reporting the deadly accident as well as the lack of an autopsy and his evasiveness about answering the most basic questions about the events surrounding Kopechne’s death — kept him from reaching the White House.
A friend who worked on his 1980 presidential campaign told PEOPLE this of Chappaquiddick: “It hung over him like a permanent cloud. It’s the question everywhere all the time. He knew that.â€
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https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/50-years-woman-mysteriously-drowned-160355147.html