[Drjones]

WHAT did this man do???

I always see quips like "Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my gun" and other things like that.

:confused:

Enlighten me please....

[Art Eatman]

He and some cronies were partying--away from their wives--with some staff-gals at one of the Chappaquiddick Island "palaces". They all got pretty drunk. He was giving a gal a ride home--he sez--and on the way got confused in the fog--he sez--and ran off a curve at a bridge and went into the bay.

Rather than try to save the gal, he left her to drown and swam/waded to the other side and folks finally figured out his problem. He was reported to have been rather incoherent.

Lots of lying, stone-walling and white-washing, after that...

And so, a new title: "The Chappaquiddick Chicken".

Art

[The Reaper]

A little incident called Chappaquiddick.

He drove off a bridge into water. He fled the scene and the girl who was with him drowned when the car sank. Lot's of cover-up etc.

Go here for more info.

http://www.gfsnet.org/msweb/sixties/chappaquiddick.html

Probably cost Ted the presidency.

[Blackhawk]

They don't teach that in American history in our public schools...? I'm shocked, absolutely shocked! :rolleyes:

[Apple a Day]

I am no historian but here's the short version. Everyone feel free to correct my recollection.
Way back when, Ted was ploinking his secretary. They had a little weekend getaway and on the way back Ted, drunk, drove off a bridge into a river- Chappequitick or something similar. Somehow he got out, left his secretary in the car (submerged) and didn't bother reporting anything until the following day. Conspiracy theories abound about how/what actually happened. He got no punishment, being a Kennedy. At the very least TK acted like an irresponsible, selfish, overpriveleged scumbag. :fire:
Hence the reference to his car.
Somebody with a better memory fill in the gaps.

[garrettwc]

The Senator from Mass was DUI one evening and drove his car off a bridge, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechnie.

This occurred in Chappaquidick, which you will also see mentioned from time to time in references.

That's where the phrase came from. If you wish to know more details, do a search on those terms on the internet or in the newspaper archives of your local library.

[JoshM]

Questions

Was Ted convicted of Leaving the scene of an Accident ?

It doesn't say in Reapers link

There is also no mention of a Careless Driving causing Death charge or the U.S. equivalent, it seems pretty cut and dried.

Thanks

[Bottom Gun]

Had he run for the presidency after that, his campaign slogan would have been "A blonde in every pond".

[cold]

Wasn't Mary Jo pregnant, too?

[schild]

Wasn't there also a rumor that Mary Jo was pregnant ?

[Art Eatman]

There was a coroner's jury hearing, but attendance was strictly controlled, IIRC. Again, my recollection is that his testimony was to blame the accident on the fog. He got confused or lost or something. His own behavior thereafter was influenced by an "impact to his head" or some such. Everybody swore that drinking had been minimal. The usual, "I only had one or two..."

I don't believe the pregnancy rumor was ever substanitated.

Teddy was an early candidate for Prez in 1980. This led to bumper stickers, "Sometimes Party Loyalty Demands Too Much". I notice that sentiment no longer applies at all, anywhere, any Democratic candidate.

Art

[Silver Bullet]

Volkswagen used to run ads (60s or 70s) showing their Beetle floating in a pond, the point of which was the car's terrific build quality (fit and finish) and tight tolerances . Harvard Lampoon magazine then came out with a parody of the ad, with the caption "If Ted Kennedy had been driving one of our cars he would be president by now."

[sctman800]

Another slogan that I remember fondly. "Ted will do for you what he did for Mary Jo." Jim.

[WonderNine]

I believe he is also known as "The Swimmer". :D

[gun-fucious]

heres a very extensive website on Uncle Teds wild ride:
http://www.ytedk.com


- Learn why George Killen , the State Police Detective-Lieutenant who investigated the
accident, said that Senator Kennedy "killed that girl the same as if he put a gun to
her head and pulled the trigger."

[Skunkabilly]

Being a liberal means never having to say you're sorry?

[BlackArrow]

That was National Lampoon and it showed a VW floating down the Snake River with the Caption "If Ted Kennedy had owned a VW he'd be President today. The Kennedy's threatened lawsuit and it was gone. I rank it as one of the funniest things I've ever seen. You've got me wondering If I have the copy.......
.......:D Fat boy's at it again!! oink, oink....... pandering pukehead, drunken bum, slimeball, racist, (did I say pukehead?) boy I love fat boy:rolleyes:

[gwalchmai]

WHAT did this man do??? Doc, that's so sad. Investigators found that Mary Jo survived the impact and probably lived for hours in the air pocket. So if Teddy had reported the accident she could have been saved. But it would have hurt his political career. Those Kennedys are big on political careers, you know, and secretaries are pretty easy to come by...


Had you never heard of Nixon, Clinton, and Teddy starting a new law firm called "Trickem, Dickem, and Dunkem"?

[Sodbuster]

pandering pukehead, drunken bum, slimeball, racist, (did I say pukehead?)
And those are his good qualities.

[Wildalaska]

Fat irrelevant has been from a family that transformed bootleg liquor and mob connections into a political dynasty replete with idiots.

Blame the voters of Mass for this nincompoop..

Wildalways hated KennedysAlask

[Skunkabilly]

Can't blame him for the bootleg liquor though! :D

Dooley, slippin up a holler, Dooley, tryin' to make a dollar,
Dooley, gimme a swaller and I'll pay ya back some day!

Ahh, Bluegrass music about making bootleg alcohol and hiding from ATF agents!

[sm]

Wild:
I'm glad you mentioned the bootleg whiskey and mob connections, of this...this...you know...'family'.

[Hkmp5sd]

At least Mary Jo Kopechne did not die in vain. Her death did keep Ted Kennedy out of the Whitehouse. Unfortunately, it didn't put him in the state prison.

[NewShooter78]

In high school I had a trig. teacher that would almost literaly explode at the mention of Chappaquidick. He had the most volitile disgust for Ted Kennedy. This teacher was well in his 60's so he got to live through the events, not just read about them too. It was the one way we students could always get out of a lesson for the day. Either that or get him to talk about the Korean War. He always had the funniest war stories.

[foghornl]

R U talking about Ted "where are my pants?" Kennedy...?

Ted "Where is my car? and my pregnant secretary/intern?" Kennedy...?

Ted "Joan is a mean-spirited bi*** that doesn't like me porking other women" Kennedy...?

Ted "I have heavily armed private security guards, but no guns for you" Kennedy...?

I have some comments on other Kennedys, too but I'll pass for now


:cuss: :cuss: :cuss: :cuss: :cuss:

[Double Naught Spy]

I've actually been to the bridge location where he went off the road into the water. Holy cow.

As for NOT teaching it in history class, no cover-up is there at all. Firstly, when I was in school, it was a little closer to recent events than history. Secondly, he was just a senator and most history books didn't contain much information on any current senators. Besides, this really isn't the kind of information that you would normally find in typical history books. The fact that the event happened is just not that specifically important to history except that he didn't go to jail for it. Heck, all we learned about John F. and the sinking of his PT boat was basically that it happened, he survived and later became President...and that was a hero story!

By highschool in the early 80s, I had already learned about the events of John and Ted through other sources. Things like junior high and highschool classes are really more of survey classes as opposed to directly specific topic classes. Contrary to opinion, education isn't just what the teacher tells you to read. You have to do some learning on your own.

In a college poli sci class, the Ted Kennedy incident was discussed in some detail, but not in history. Why? Because it still remained something of a current event that was ongoing. The death happened in the past, but the rammications were current and still are. That little drunken drive has effectively kept Kennedy from being President and will continue to do so. The poli sci lecture was rather cool in that it covered a variety of screwups by political figures that effectively ruined or limited careers.

There is a lot of public information available out there, even if it isn't something taught in your history class. With the internet these days, you can get a jump start on such information research with just a few keystrokes and then check sources cited, sometimes for more detail or verification of the internet reports.

[stevesmith7]

Anyone else see the Boston Globe story that said someething like:

If Mary Jo were alive she'd be 62 and her life would be far better
because of all the great things Ted has done for seniors.

Too bad he killed her instead.

[M1911]

I've actually been to the bridge location where he went off the road into the water. Holy cow.I have too. And the road is straight there. You'd really have to be trying to drive off it -- or just be totally hammered. Seeing as the accident occurred after 8 AM and it was Teddie at the wheel, he must have been totally hammered.

Unfortunately, Mary Jo is not the only casualty of the Kennedys. When ex-congressman Joe Kennedy was younger, he rolled a cheap, paralyzing a young woman riding in the back. William Kennedy Smith raped a woman and got away with it. Michael Skakel almost got away with killing a young girl. Michael Kennedy got away with statutory rape -- he had an affair with his sons' babysitter starting when she was 14. His wife got peeved when she came home one day and found them in the marital bed. When she was 16, she went on a rafting trip with Michael and other Kennedys. Apparently, they had no problem with the fact that this married 30-something was sharing a tent with a 16-year-old girl. The babysitter didn't want to testify against Michael and the rest of the family wasn't talking, so the DA couldn't do anything.

And don't forget the countless waitresses around DC that Teddie and Chris Dodd assaulted.

M1911

[Tamara]

Ah, Teddy Kennedy: "The Evel Knievel of Chappaquidick"!

PJ skewers the clan pretty good in a book review of the latest tell-all Kennedy expose: "Two were shot, but under the most romantic circumstances and not, as might have been hoped, after due process of law."

[Russ]

He left the scene of an accident because he was likely drunk and a girl (staffer) in his car drowned. If it were anyone else, we would have gotten put in jail for manslaughter at a minimum.

Nowdays, you would go down for 2nd degree murder. Why this guy is tolerated in the government yet alone normal society is repugnant to me.

He should still be reporting to his parole officer after his 15 to 25 year stint in prison IMHO. He is a disgrace and why the people in MA vote for him is a mystery to me.

You got money, you don't really have to obey the rules. Just look at O.J.

Supposedly Ted is a psuedo-religious guy. IF so, hell awaits him and he knows it.

[OF]

That little drunken drive has effectively kept Kennedy from being President and will continue to do so.So maybe Mary Jo's life wasn't lost in vain, after all?

- Gabe

[Viking6]

There was a book about the Kennedys titled (I think) Reckless Youth, written by some Brit. It gives wonderful details about Papa Joe as well as his sons. Next time you're in the library, pick it up and thumb through the index for tidbits.

[gun-fucious]

http://www.ytedk.com/chapter2.htm

"On July 18, 1969, at approximately 11:15 PM in Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, I was driving my car on Main Street on my way to get the ferry back to Edgartown. I was unfamiliar with the road and turned right onto Dike Road, instead of bearing hard left on Main Street. After proceeding for approximately one-half mile on Dike Road I descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge. The car went off the side of the bridge. There was one passenger with me, one Miss Mary ________( There was a blank space here because Kennedy was not sure of the spelling of the dead girl's last name, and instead offered a rough phonetic approximation ), a former secretary of my brother Sen. Robert Kennedy. The car turned over and sank into the water and landed with the roof resting on the bottom. I attempted to open the door and the window of the car but have no recollection of how I got out of the car. I came to the surface and then repeatedly dove down to the car in an attempt to see if the passenger was still in the car. I was unsuccessful in the attempt. I was exhausted and in a state of shock. I recall walking back to where my friends were eating. There was a car parked in front of the cottage and I climbed into the back seat. I then asked for someone to bring me back to Edgartown. I remember walking around for a period of time and then going back to my hotel room. When I fully realized what had happened this morning, I immediately contacted the police."

http://www.ytedk.com/dia2.gif

[Politically Incorrect]

My sig used to say, Ted Kennedy said it best when he said, "Don't worry, I'll drive you home!"

[jmbg29]

Ok, I HAVE to know about Ted Kennedy...He is the famous uncle of little JFK Jr. who, when asked by his wife if she should take a shower before leaving on a flight with John-John as the pilot, was told "Don't bother, we'll just wash up on the beach."

[M1911]

jmbg29: Doh! How could I have forgotten about John-John. Add 2 more women to the Kennedy body count.

Also, the bridge there now is relatively new. I suppose the alignment may have been changed when it was rebuilt, but now there is no curve before the bridge -- the road leads straight across the bridge so it would be pretty hard to drive off of it.

[Strings]

Teddy, the red nosed senator,
had a very shiney car.
And if you ev-er saw it,
you were prob-ly near a bar.
All of the oth-er senators,
wondered where he got his dames.
They always thought he was too drunk,
to join in any back room games.

Then one fog-gy Christmas Eve,
Santa came to say:
"Teddy with your nose so red,
won't you help me guide my sled?"

That's how the po-lice found him,
wrapped around a maple tree.
Teddy, the red nosed senator:
he's a drunken SOB!

A bit lax on the details, but still one of my favorites!

[gburner]

There once was a young man named Teddy
Ran poor Mary Jo off a jetty.
Said Ted, "I love women,
But this one ain't swimmin',
Call dad, get my alibi ready!"

Two points...the only fog present that night was caused by all the Dewars and water he consumed.

He is currently the proud owner of a golden retriever named 'Splash'.

[JoeSF]

If Ted Kennedy was in a different party you would know all about him from school.