Another Version of Events at Chappaquidick

Posted on August 26, 2009 in Strange

I’d heard all kinds of rumors about Chappaquidick over the years. The most common one was that Mary Jo Kopeckne was pregnant so Kennedy deliberately killed her. But the strangest tale, alledgedly one step from the source, was delivered in a private message to me in an IRC chat room many years ago.

This person does not dispute that Kennedy was drunk out of his mind. So were the aides who were having a time with him. According to my source, Mary Jo Kopechne got drunk very fast and left the party early. Kennedy and another female aide got into his car and drove off. A few minutes later, they came back, laughing hard. “Can you believe it?” Kennedy said. “She was so blasted she drove the car off of the bridge.” Everyone had one good laugh and the Senator said he would deal with it in the morning.

What they didn’t know was Mary Jo Kopechne was sleeping in the back seat.

Kennedy was surprised when the police woke him to tell him that they’d found the car with the body of Kopeckne in it, but to protect his aide, he told police that he had driven the car. The name of the other aide was kept out of the report. He was, after all, a United States Senator and senators had big shoulders. Her life would be ruined if the story came out, but he would find a way to move on if they blamed him.

I can’t tell you if this story is true or not. Such tales float around the Net, carried on the lips of conspiracy theorists. But this one is unusual for two reasons: it partly exonerates the-liberal-senator-who-the-reactionaries-could-never-kill. And I only heard it whispered to me once.

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