Customer Reviews

Death at Chappaquiddick

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Since the only other review of this book doesn't make any sense, I thought it necessary to write a coherent one. This book is truly incredible. It proves Ted Kennedy's guilt with clarity and integrity. The facts are simply undeniable - if it weren't for Ted, Mary Jo would be alive today. The Kennedy family has long been America's sweethearts. It is high time that they are revealed as murders, philanderers, cheaters, liars and losers. Sorry, but this is coming from an Irish Catholic who is ashamed to admit that the Kennedys claim some ties to the land of her origin! They are all bad but Ted Kennedy is the worst. He should be behind bars- this book will tell you why. Read it - it's a well done piece of detective work and it will hold your interest. It may also make your blood boil - but that's not the authors' fault! DOWN WITH THE KENNEDYS!

One has to feel amazed, reading this book, at how PROUD the people of Massachusetts must be of their esteemed senior US senator. First, he was eminently generous to host a party for six young women who had all toiled so hard to assist with his family's politics. You have to know that lower-level campaign workers of their age rarely receive attention from the more powerful folks in the political apparatus. The girls must have been utterly thrilled, to have been asked to a cook-out and get to mingle with all of those seasoned, powerful men. Edward Kennedy was extremely magnanimous, stooping in that fashion to reward the "little people."

Also, the kindness he extended to Ms Kopechne, in offering to drive her back to the mainland after she began feeling tired, was just stupendous. For a busy, powerful man of this nature to offer such a favor to an attractive young woman is simply heart-warming -- it's just not the sort of thing that your typical rich, connected and powerful male will do for a pretty young girl.

And then: Tragedy, a horrible, ghastly accident wherein the senator, unfamiliar with the route, drove his car off a bridge. It could have happened to anyone. But then he redeemed himself in the eyes of his family, of her family, his constituency (the citizens of Massachusetts), and the Almighty, by exerting a superhumanly heroic effort to save her from drowning in the car. Diving repeatedly into the dangerously swift current, heedless of his own life and limb -- what a man! -- he just could not extract her from that watery tomb.

But the senator then did not let anyone down. He immediately assumed full and complete responsibility, proactively contacting authorities and providing a comprehensive, extremely detailed account of the tragedy that answered all possible questions and completely cleared the air. He made his Massachusetts supporters very, very proud of him, and they immediately decided he can be their senator for the rest of his life.

Suffering terrible pain (causing him to need a neck brace), the senator then attended the girl's funeral and comforted her parents -- a godlike gesture from a godlike politician. Edward Kennedy, ambassador of goodness, healer of wounds, dryer of tears, comforter of parents whose daughter gets accidentally drowned and just happens, as fate would have it, not to be clad in any below-the-waist undergarments at the time that older, married man was driving her home.

We all should salute the voters of Massachusetts for their superb choice in senators. If we considered the people of Massachusetts a sort of "holy spirit," then we may rightfully call that state's two divine senators the "father" and the "son." World without end, Amen.

Complete and intelligently written, I recommend it. But on page 233, the author answers the question on why Senator Kennedy waited so long to notify the authorities with "Panic, and the inability to face crisis." In fact, the Senator was calmly facing the crisis and thinking clearly. In my opinion, his problem was not the dead girl, it was that he had had sexual relations with her, and an autopsy would reveal this. He needed to get the body off the island and out of Massachusetts as quickly as possible. This would take some time to arrange. Also, he needed to buy time while the Kennedy machinery rolled into action to smother the inevitable bad publicity. Lastly, the longer she stayed in the water the less likely the coroner or mortician would notice anything suspicious, such as grass stains on her clothes for example. In short, the crisis was the sexual aspect, not the accidental death. He made 17 long distance telephone calls; that's what it took. Satisfied with the result, he arose early the next day, ate a hearty breakfast, and chatted about the yacht race. He was confident that everything was taken care of, and it was. He was way ahead of his two lawyers/confidants, and all three of them were way ahead of local law enforcement. There was of course the problem with Miss Kopechne remaining alive in the air pocket. In fact the Senator may have considered this while standing at the edge of the pond and looking at his submerged vehicle, but he could not take the chance on calling the authorities only to find her dead before things were properly arranged. This is why he waited until the last moment, and pretended to be confused. He did not panic.

I believe the authors rightly discounted the "third person" theory. This unlikely scenario was put forward to explain why the Senator did not save Ms. Kopechne. It hypothesizes that he did not know she was sleeping in the back of the car, and therefore did not know she was trapped. With the exhumation and autopsy blocked, it was time to make the Senator look less cowardly, and this was one way to do it.

A real tragedy this, almost Shakespearean.

The people in Massachusetts who overlook the real Teddy are every bit as guilty as the jury who knowingly set O.J. Simpson free. Teddy has neither conscience nor soul. On a warm July night in 1969, Teddy had been drinking heavily, demanded the car keys from his chauffeur, and took Mary Jo for a one-way ride. He drove off a bridge he shouldn't have been on, but managed to escape. Mary Jo was not so fortunate. Ten hours later, he essentially blamed her death on Gargan and Markham. Teddy didn't even have a valid driver's license, but voila!...the next morning it WAS valid. Teddy's reputation for over four decades has been well-chronicled: an academic fraud, a philanderer, a cheat, a drunk, a liar, a charlatan, and a political hack. As recently as 1987, he was caught flagrante dilecto with a woman half his age in a taxpayer-funded building. Yet voters in the great Commonwealth of Massachussets continue to reward this elitist monster. The jury in the Simpson trial acquiesced to intellectual dishonesty. Massachussets voters are doing precisely the same every time they cast a vote for Teddy.

"During the evening of July 18, 1969, Sen. Edward Kennedy attended a private party on Chappaquiddick Island. He left the party with Mary Jo Kopechne some time between 11:15 p.m. and 12:45 a.m. on July 19, 1969. They drove toward an isolated beach, but never made it because Sen. Kennedy's car went off the Dyke Bridge into Poucha Pond. He emerged alive and took almost ten hours to report the accident. Mary Jo did not escape from his submerged car and died sometime during the night. Her death has been the only certainty in the tragedy. Everything else has been shrouded in contradiction, controversy and denials."

After this opening paragraph, the authors of DEATH AT CHAPPAQUIDDICK clearly state what they set out to do: write a complete account of the incident at Chappaquiddick. "The facts draw their own conclusion. Chappaquiddick is the Senator's own doing... It is a very serious issue that shows how a potential President of the United States reacted during his time of crisis. For this reason, Chappaquiddick cannot be ignored."

I opened this book at 8:00 p.m. and finished it at 11:00 p.m. Could NOT put it down. It's only 217 pages long, but it absolutely, positively devastates any defense, or remorse, offered or expressed by Ted Kennedy about his actions that night.

I found it particularly damning that 17 telephone calls were placed, all billed to Sen. Kennedy's credit card, either by Ted Kennedy or his associates. Five of these were placed just after the accident, before Kennedy left Chappaquiddick for his hotel in Edgartown. The first to the family compound in Hyannis Port -- a call lasting 21 minutes. Ted Sorensen, a Kennedy advisor, and Kennedy's attorney, Burke Marshall, were also telephoned before he left the island. Yet, he could not summon appropriate help for the woman trapped in that car.

As the authors put it, "these five calls do not indicate shock. They indicate a desperate man trying to get advice and give warning about political firestorm approaching. One must figure that each person he spoke with either called other Kennedy loyalists or made plans to aid the Senator. None of them tried to aid Mary Jo. Even a long distance, anonymous call to the Edgartown police could possibly have saved her life."

It also was a revelation to find out that there was a volunteer firehouse just across the way from the cottage where the party was going on, where Kennedy returned after the accident. A firehouse! Potential help for the woman trapped in the car was right there, but she was ignored in the rush to protect Ted Kennedy's reputation and political future.

The authors investigate every angle of Kennedy's timeline of events. They include the text of Kennedy's television speech about the accident; Kennedy's testimony at inquest; the Court's decision against the exhumation of the body for an autopsy. The behavior of the police and prosecuting authorities toward Kennedy is explored. If you have an interest in what happened at Chappaquiddick or in the character of Ted Kennedy (and, it must be said, the people who surrounded him, including the police, the prosecuting authorities, and others) you cannot ignore this book.

I have known about this book for many years. I was reminded of it's existance watching the senior senator from Mass. vilifying ther presidents' nominees for the court.Truly a fascinating read.All of the confusing, conflicting details known about the events make perfect sense, if not perfect justice.
I can only say that Uncle Keg has a point when he decries a legal system that is different for the rich and powerful. As this concise little book documents nobody can expound this point with more personal certainty than can EMK.

This book is definitely slanted (of course it is - if the authors thought everything was on the up and up there would be no story to tell and no book to publish), but it does a nice job of concisely walking through the facts, inconsistencies and hypocrisies surrounding the event. You can read it in one sitting and walk away with a bit more "cocktail party knowledge" on the event. It was an enjoyable read with a few interesting maps and photos. The fact that it was written a few years after the event adds to the completeness of the book. It is worth the read.

The book is a bit dated. However, that also means that the information and viewpoint is closer to the event. I didn't find it to be juat a "witch hunt" on Teddy - but there is no doubt that this book opens up many questions about Ted Kennedy that will more than likely not have any better answers than this book offers. The two people who really knew the entire story of what really happend are both dead now - This leaves no political motive to read this, although there may have been motives to write it - just a sad episode in American history.

This was such a major episode in the shaping of Teddy's political and personal life, that it should not be swept under the rug as a minor episode that didn't matter. A young lady's life was lost and Kennedy's explanations of what happend and what appears to be special treatment beasue of who he was, is a lesson in how American justice can be manipulated.

No matter if you are a democrat, republican, independent, or history buff, you should take the time to read this book. I read the book so that the life of an unknown young lady, Mary Jo, could have value to those who never had the chance to know her. There are lessons to be learned, no matter your view on the Kennedys.

Someone looking for a full view of what took place should also read other books on the subject. This book is not an exhaustive historical analysis of the events.

This is the first book I've read about Chappaquiddick. The authors did a good job of research and of explaining why alternate theories make less sense than their hypothesis. The book convinced me that Kennedy's version of the event is not close to being credible.

The book would have been even more credible if the authors had stuck to the research and avoided a lot of anti-Kennedy and anti-Democratic Party remarks. That gave me the feeling that authors might have chosen to overlook facts that did not fit with their anti-Kennedy feelings and opinions.

Book was very factual. I do not recall the road to the "On Time" ferry having a 90 degree turn to the dock. It was more like an arc. The bridge road was at 100-115 degree right turn. The DA, my next door neighbor, needs further examination. The author should not assume she drowned. An autopsy would have painted a far different picture. Money buys many things.