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Senatorial Privilege: The Chappaquiddick Cover-Up

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Ted Kennedy, after consuming numerous alcoholic beverages, leaves a private party with a young lady not his wife. His wife, you see, is pregnant and is at home back in Massachussetts.

Sen. Kennedy is driving with a suspended license.

A local peace officer wonders if Kennedy's car is lost after seeing it first go one way and then back up and start going a different way. He approaches it on foot. The car then takes off at a high rate of speed.

Shortly after this, the car drives off of Chappaquiddick Bridge, flips over and lands upside down in 8 feet of water. Sen. Kennedy exits the vehicle. The young woman with him does not.

For the next 9 hours, instead of simply calling the police and rescue workers, Sen. Kennedy desperately goes to work on an alibi.

Kennedy confesses the accident to two people, one of whom is his cousin and lawyer, Joseph Gargan. They press him to report the accident, which he is understandably reluctant to do. The two men press Kennedy so much, he surprises them by shouting that he will report the accident and then dives into the lake and swims the harbor to the hotel where he was staying.

Taking Kennedy at his word, Gargan and the other man remain on the Island. In the morning, Gargan is stunned to find Kennedy chatting with friends and getting ready to head for breakfast.

Not only did Kennedy not report the accident, he also took pains to be seen by a hotel staff member late that night and madee a point of asking the man what time it was.

Two fishermen discovered the upside down car next to the bridge that morning, while Kennedy was still feverishly working on his alibi.

To drink and drive is a crime. To flee the scene of an accident is a crime. To fail to render aid to someone injured in an accident you caused is a crime. While sleeping around on your wife is not a crime, it does display poor judgement and a low moral character.

Senator Kennedy did all these things and because he is a Kennedy, he got away with it. Had you or I gotten drunk and driven off a bridge with someone in the car with us, and we left them to die while we chose not to report the accident and instead tried to invent an alibi, you or I would go to prison. We are not Kennedys.

The key merit of this book is that it demonstrates how in America today someone with power and influence can engage in criminal conduct and not only never be called to account for their crimes, but can even flourish and sit in position of moral authority over others.

I bought this book in July of 2000, after watching an extraordinary 2-hour installment about the story on A&E's "Investigative Reports" (also available on videotape). The author here, Leo Damore, was also part of the television program. Just as the video holds up to repeated viewing, so have I found I've returned more than once to the book. Called 'the most famous traffic fatality in American politics,' it certainly remains that.

'Profile in Courage' this is not. I was 15 the summer of this accident and then had only a teenager's curiosity about it. One more 'Kennedy tragedy,' but this one proves to be one that could have and should have been avoided. I distinctly remember the carried-on-all-networks 'statement' the senator gave days late, stage-managed to nth. And not very believable. What I hadn't remembered was that even without Chappaquiddick, it was hardly a slow news week; it was the same weekend we'd first landed on the moon. According to the book, the latest mishap of the Kennedy family's pushed the moon story to the bottom of page one of "The Boston Globe." I remember the cute neck brace too, which apparently didn't go on for one or two days after the accident, and after many sources in the book had noticed no incapacity in the senator. It would be a pleasure to say 'No one today could get away with the circumvention and manipulation of law enforcement and investigation that was at work here. But don't expect to hear it from someone who sat through nine 1995 months of the Simpson criminal proceedings. If Robert Blake walks too, good luck un-convincing me that the rich and famous get away with it every time.

Damore relies heavily on the recollections of Joseph A. Gargan, a Kennedy insider, and one of the first people the senator confessed the accident to. After nearly two decades Gargan was ready to talk. I find him credible, but it's a messy story and no one comes up smelling like a hero. If nothing else, "Senatorial Privilege" is a study of how much of yourself you can trade away to get close to power and celebrity. Gargan is no enviable figure looking back from late middle-age, and having played sycophantic clean-up man for so much of it.

But I couldn't put this book down, which I bought used, and I recommend it. (From the cellophane over the dust jacket, it was clearly once a library hardcover edition, but it was in fully satisfactory condition.) It's one of the best non-fiction works I've read in recent years. Mary Jo Kopechne would be 63 this year.

There is no Kennedy bashing in this book, just the truth. How can a reporter rely too heavily on witnesses? The facts are plain. He did it, she was alive in the car as was proven in court even though the judge (the best one Kennedy money can buy) would not allow ANY testimony stating the fact she was.

Only a great catch of the prosecution to the use of the word "froth" would make this possible. He lied about it, tried to cover it up, tried to get someone else to take the blame for it.. The Kennedy family bought the silence of the Kopechne family for a mere $100,000 and immediately went into the ignore it and it will go away phase.

This book is a must read for America to see how the Kennedy family manipulates the truth and the facts to wiggle out of the responibilty for their CONTINUING list of transgressions. Leo Damore presents it all in a consice edition that will outrage any normal law abiding citizen. It is sickening to read how Teddy is instantly more concerned about saving his political career than the life of the girl (the one without the panties) trapped inside his car.... and he got away with it. again.

As far as the murky facts surrounding Ted Kennedy's 1969 accident at Chappaquidick are concerned, Leo Damore's book Senatorial Priviledge is probably the best collection of what few things can definitely be said to be true. While the book will disappoint those looking for a definite, unimpeachable case against Ted Kennedy, it does do a good job of laying out the bare facts of the case and, for all but the most partisan of readers, it will be hard to avoid the conclusion that Ted Kennedy managed to cheat justice. While the portrait of Kennedy that emerges will not satisfy those looking for a cold-blooded murderer in the Senatorial cloakroom, it's still a disturbing portrait of an irresponsible, immature man who -- for whatever reason -- has been allowed to grow into an adult without learning how to take responsibility for his actions, no matter what the consequences. If the book does have any truly serious flaw, it is that once again Chappaquidick's true victim, Mary Jo Kopechne, is reduced to a cipher, almost an after thought. Beyond the fact that she died in Kennedy's car, very little is revealed about who Kopechne was or who she might have been had she lived. Despite the book's honorable intentions (most of which it achieves), Mary Jo Kopechne's tragedy is once again allowed to be overshadowed by the Kennedys' crimes.

Leo Damore obviously went to great lengths to thoroughly research and write this fascinating book. After the accident, Teddy went from one lie to the next, and Damore nails him. If you want to find out why the Senator from Massachusettes should be the inmate from Massachusettes, read this book!

Leo Damore presents an interesting, thorough study of the
weeks, months, and years following the famed Chappaquiddick incident in 1969.
Damore's position is that Kennedy was responsible for the
death of young Mary Jo Kopechne and because of his stature
as Massachusetts Senator was able to avoid justice. Damore
presents an analysis of the mass of evidence and presents
several possible conclusions, including the controversial idea that Kennedy
was not driving the vehicle in question at the time, despite
his confession to the contrary, and that he instead had been
dropped off minutes earlier after being spotted in the parked car
with Ms. Kopechne by local police.
Senatorial Privilege is the most definitive book on the
subject.

I followed the trial and read the book years later and I still wonder how any Massachusetts voter who is a critical thinker could keep reelecting Kennedy.

I recall that a State Trooper named Flynn who was involved in the investigation was feeding the Kennedy camp inside information and eventually went to work for the Senator.

I also remember that one of the charges of which he was found guilty called for a mandatory two year prison term that was suspended by the judge.It is stated in the book that a "mandatory sentence may not be suspended."

Isn't one of the Democratic mantras "Equal justice for all

This book presents the known facts about the Chappaquiddick incident, at least the facts that the non-participants can present. I thought that much of the book also turned on what Joseph Gargan had told Damore years after the incident. Gargan was one of the 6 married men who along with Kennedy hosted the 6 single women at a secluded cabin. Gargan was also the Senator's cousin and a criminal lawyer.

The women were the "Boiler Room Girls" who had worked on Bobby Kennedy's campaign a year earlier. Mary Jo was one of them.

It was Gargan and Paul Markham, another party attendee and a former state attorney, who returned to the wreck with the Senator and dove in the water, vainly attempting a rescue. The Senator, according to Gargan's account, stayed on the bridge and complained of his ill luck. No one called the authorities, although there was a house with a phone and people in it some 400 feet from the bridge.

However, I still came away with many questions, which the book helps frame: Exactly how much booze was consumed by Kennedy and Kopechne that evening? When did they leave the party, and where did they go before the accident? When did the car hit the water, and when and exactly how did Mary Jo die? Just exactly what was the Senator's chronology between 7 pm that night, and about 10 am the next morning?

This long book answers some questions, but leaves many more in place. I do wish that it had been a bit more concise.

Leo Damore obviously went to great lengths to thoroughly research and write this fascinating book. After the accident, Teddy went from one lie to the next, and Damore nails him. If you want to find out why the Senator from Massachusettes should be the inmate from Massachusettes, read this book!

This was a great book detailing the truths of what happened that night. The information is well researched and it is a shame that teddy wasn't arrested after the publication of this book. Everyone should read this book!