Chappaquiddick

Chappaquiddick

Chappaquiddick Island on Martha's Vineyard. He swam to safety leaving 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker on brother Robert Kennedy's campaign. Her body was found in the submerged car 10 hours later. Sen Kennedy told the police that he was driving Kopechne to the ferry after a party on the island when his car left the unfamiliar road. But his failure to report the accident dogged his subsequent attempts to run for the American presidency. A judge found that there probable cause to believe that Kennedy operated his motor vehicle negligently ... and that such operation appears to have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne."An attempt to explain his actions on national television was much watched but did not dispel doubts. In the 13-minute appearance, he denied "immoral conduct" and said he was not drunk.

Sen Kennedy, who was then 37, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a two-month suspended sentence plus a year's probation. However he was re-elected the following year with 62 per cent of the vote. Chappaquiddick Incident History-The “Chappaquiddick incident” refers to circumstances surrounding the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a chappaquiddick-incident-historyformer campaign worker for the assassinated U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York. On July 18, 1969, Ted Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick, a small island connected via ferry to the town of Edgartown on the adjoining larger island of Martha’s Vineyard. Kopechne’s dead body was discovered inside an overturned car belonging to Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy of Massachusetts under water in a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. After the body was found, Kennedy gave a statement to police saying that on the previous night he had taken a wrong turn and accidentally driven his car off a bridge into the water. He pled guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury, and received a suspended sentence. The incident became a national scandal, and may have affected the Senator’s decision not to run for President in 1972.