Chappaquiddick - Official Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTzPXc2DW2k
CHAPPAQUIDDICK Official Trailer # 2 (2018) Kate Mara, Kennedy Biography Movie HD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9SCbC6HDEU
What Really Happened During Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick Incident
https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a19687469/ted-kennedy-chappaquiddick-incident-mary-jo-kopechne/
On the night of Friday, July 18, 1969, 37-year-old U.S. Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy of Massachusetts drove his Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge into a pond on the small island of Chappaquiddick, near Martha's Vineyard. Kennedy survived the crash, but his passenger did not, and the tragedy rocked not just the Kennedy family but the nation.
The event is now the subject of Chappaquiddick, a feature film starring Jason Clarke, Kate Mara, and Ed Helms that debuts April 6. Here's the trailer:
SO WHAT REALLY HAPPENED THAT NIGHT?
Kennedy, who had been elected majority whip in the Senate the previous January and was a contender for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination, began the night at a cottage on Chappaquiddick Island hosting a party for the Boiler Room Girls, a group of six women who had worked on his brother Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign the previous year. (Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated on June 5, 1968, shortly after winning the California Democratic primary.)
THE COTTAGE ON CHAPPAQUIDDICK WHERE TED KENNEDY HOSTED A PARTY FOR THE BOILER ROOM GIRLS
Ted, who was married to his first wife, Joan Kennedy, at the time, left the party just after 11 p.m. with one of the women, a 28-year-old named Mary Jo Kopechne. The two got into Kennedy's 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 and drove off.
According to testimony Kennedy would later give, he made a wrong turn onto Dike Road, an unlit dirt road the led to Dike Bridge, which did not have a guardrail.
His car missed the ramp and went off the bridge into Poucha Pond. Kennedy escaped the overturned car and, according to his description, dove down seven or eight times to attempt to rescue Kopechne. After he was unsuccessful, he walked back to the cottage and recruited his cousin Joseph Gargan and his school classmate Paul F. Markham, who had previously served as the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, to return to the accident scene with him
After unsuccessfully attempting to recover Kopechne's body, the three went to the island's ferry slip, where Kennedy swam across to Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard and returned to his room at the Shiretown Inn.
After changing his clothes, he walked outside at 2:25 a.m. and saw innkeeper Russell Peachey, whom he told he'd been awakened by some noise. (Some speculated it was part of an attempt to establish an alibi.)
At 9:45 a.m. the next morning, after Kopechne's body had already been discovered, Kennedy finally reported the incident to Edgartown Police Chief Dominick Arena and admitted that he was the driver of the vehicle.
On July 25, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, was given a two-month suspended sentence, and had his license suspended for a year. That night, he gave a statement that was televised and broadcast nationally in which he said, "I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately."
He denied that he had been driving under the influence of alcohol and said there had not been any immoral conduct between him and Kopechne. He asked his Massachusetts constituents whether he should resign, and on July 30 Kennedy announced he would remain in the Senate and run for reelection.
There has been speculation over the years that Kennedy and his family used their influence to ensure the Senator did not face more severe penalties. In 1979, Ted made his only bid for the presidency, challenging President Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination. He loss was blamed, in part, on the scandal that haunted him.
All in all, Kennedy was elected to eight terms as a U.S. Senator, and served from 1962 until his death in 2009. Only three other senators have served longer.
REPORTERS QUESTION TED KENNEDY (CENTER, WITH NECK BRACE) AND HIS WIFE JOAN KENNEDY (LEFT, IN WHITE COAT AND DARK GLASSES) AFTER THE FUNERAL OF MARY JO KOPECHNE ON JULY 22, 1969.
What Really Happened during the Chappaquiddick Incident When Ted Kennedy was Blamed for a Death
https://historycollection.co/what-really-happened-during-the-chappaquiddick-incident-when-ted-kennedy-was-blamed-for-a-death/
Senator Ted Kennedy, the youngest brother of assassinated president John F. Kennedy and slain presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy had his own eye on the presidency before the fatal Chappaquiddick incident on July 18, 1969. The episode saw Senator Kennedy drive his car off of a bridge into a pond. His passenger, a young campaign staffer, named Mary Jo Kopechne, was not able to free herself from the sinking car. Kennedy left her behind to go get help, bringing only two hand-chosen close friends. After they were unable to retrieve her, they left without ever notifying anyone else. Kopechne’s body was found the next day.
Mary Jo Kopechne and Robert F. Kennedy. Photo by ANL/REX/Shutterstock/People.
Robert F. Kennedy’s doomed presidential campaign was staffed by countless energetic, unmarried young women affectionately called the “boiler room girls.” These talented women, who counted Mary Jo Kopechne among their numbers, were capable young political minds who wrote speeches, whipped support among national Democratic delegates, and staged campaign events. Needless to say, these staffers were absolutely devastated by the assassination of their employer and political icon. Many of them were supposedly questioning their roles in politics after the killing.
The party on Chappaquiddick Island on the night of January 18th was thrown for these women, these “boiler room girls” to honor their hard work for Robert F. Kennedy and to try to persuade them to stay involved with politics. Ted Kennedy was already eyeing a run at the presidency at this point, and no doubt wanted to keep the talented young staffers from his brother’s campaign around to work on his. Unfortunately for Kennedy, the media seized on the fact that the party was full of unmarried women and married political men, not that they were his brother’s campaign workers who just happened to be single. It was still traditional in the 1960s for working women to be unmarried, only leaving their careers when they “settled down” in a marriage.
The media was very quick to seize upon the narrative of the women at the party being all young and unmarried, despite their status as campaign workers. While the conventions of the era were for working women to be single, the media wasn’t exactly fair in its coverage of women at the time. The first headline of Kopechne’s death referred to her only as “a blonde,” a truly awful title for a college-educated woman who was herself an educator and a speech-writer to a talented presidential candidate. While it was slightly unusual that so many of the campaign staffers were women, their being unmarried didn’t seem noteworthy. Even today, campaign workers are often unmarried due to the itinerant and demanding nature of campaign work.
What was unusual was the amount of booze transported to the island for a supposedly quiet campaign party, reportedly a large stash of beer, rum, and other hard liquors. Kopechne’s blood alcohol result, after her body was found, was 0.09, indicating that she had a great deal of alcohol in her system at the time of her death. Given that one of Kennedy’s first calls was to his long-term girlfriend, instead of his wife Joan, Kennedy was no stranger to affairs. His propensity for cheating combined with the unmarried women at the party, the amount of liquor, and the reported rowdiness of the night created an extremely damaging picture for the Senator.