From Arena’s office, with both inspectors present, Teddy called his Senate office. Markham explained that Marshall was “a Kennedy-family lawyer.” Even though the statement had been dictated in privacy to a licensed Massachusetts attorney—and a former federal prosecutor at that—Teddy said he did not want it to become “part of the record” until he’d cleared it with Marshall. At four P.M. Saturday, Mary Jo Kopechne’s father said, “We still don’t have any real details of what happened.”, But hadn’t Teddy given them a full report when he’d called from the police station that morning? Apparently without any curiosity about the circumstances, Esther Newberg and her friends scrunched together on couches and the floor and settled in for the night. He saw Jack Crimmins standing outside it, as if on guard.

The ferry having shut down for the night, I suddenly jumped into the water and impulsively swam across, nearly drowning once again in the effort, and returned to my hotel about two A.M. and collapsed in my room. The Kopechnes needed to hear from Bobby’s widow. By early afternoon, he and Joey Gargan had arranged to have the five surviving women from the party taken to the mainland, under strict instructions not to speak to anyone until further notice. He said he planned to return to Edgartown, and he went back to the pay phone. Today, a person is judged to be legally intoxicated and unfit to operate a motor vehicle in most states when the blood-alcohol level reaches .10 percent.

Ignoring the Richardses and Stan Moore, he said to Teddy, in a voice that sounded surprisingly stern, if not threatening, “I’d like to see you right now.

The registration, Teddy said, was undoubtedly still in the car’s glove compartment. In his distress, he was so much still a Kennedy child that he had chosen to speak not from his own home but from his parents’, from the house that had once echoed with the laughter of Joe junior, Jack and Bobby, and Teddy himself. They had to be persuaded that his grief, suffering, and sense of loss were almost as great as their own. puppets, are created, but at the level of truth to human nature and They’ll make a big thing out of it.”, Riding the ferry back to Chappaquiddick, the chief found himself bewildered by many aspects of what he’d just learned. “Today, as I mentioned, I felt morally obligated to plead guilty to the charge of leaving the scene of an accident. Two others, Maryellen and Nance Lyons, would arrive the next day. Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

indeed, if they did but know it–and who does?

“And so I ask you tonight, people of Massachusetts, to think this through with me. Elbows on the table, he rested his chin on clasped hands and stared straight down at the floor. Outside of Washington, and certainly in Boston, no lawyer had stronger and deeper ties to the highest levels of the business and political establishments in Massachusetts than did Ed Hanify. How much frailer he looked, how much closer to death than he had been in November of 1963, when Teddy entered this room to try to tell him Jack was dead. “I could see he was trying to tell us about the accident,” but “he was still sobbing, was still so broken up he still couldn’t talk.”.

And so, on Sunday, it was Joan’s turn to call them.

But it was not that comment on which the press initially focused.

Girls from Washington, spending the regatta weekend with the senator. From her suburban Washington home, Newberg granted a series of newspaper interviews. Please continue to respect all commenters and create constructive debates. In preparation for writing a book about the rise and fall of Teddy Kennedy, I conducted many interviews with people whose lives have intersected his at different points.

After one crossing, at about 9:45 A.M., it occurred to the ferry captain that Teddy still might not know the full extent of what had been discovered at the bridge.

She was returning to take a ferry back to the mainland when the accident occurred.”.

The chairman was also a licensed pilot with his own plane. There were, in fact, three occupied houses Teddy would have had to walk past before reaching the cottage where the party was taking place. Indeed, even after Trump’s tweet Thursday, outlets were quick to point out that he doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally change the election.

A Trump loss may spur some viewers to consume the news in the immediate term, much like sports fans devour highlights of their favorite team’s triumphs, but will they stick for the duration of a Biden presidency?

It was never determined just who these two men were or who dispatched them on their mission, but apparently they did their job well, for Mrs. Kopechne said, “We’re following their advice,” and the parents’ new position would prove unshakable. Chappaquiddick was accessible from Edgartown only by a “ferry,” which was really a small, flat barge with room for no more than two cars and 20 people.

And, because Teddy had told him there were no other victims in the water, that any other passengers had escaped. Most of the reporters had already been to Chappaquiddick.

It was not, however, quite so simple, for two inspectors from the Registry of Motor Vehicles had now arrived. But one lesson of the Trump presidency is that the infrastructure of our democracy is far more fragile than many may have realized. How much could he bear? Steve Smith had determined that Edward Hanify, who seemed by temperament, experience, and personal connections better suited to the task than even Burke Marshall, would direct the legal defense.

With this shift in the Kopechnes’ attitude, Hanify and Smith came to recognize that the risk of saying nothing now outweighed the considerable risk of making a public statement, which would only raise more questions than it answered. The notion that America is immune, by virtue of our institutions or simply by virtue, from the strongmen that other nations have suffered under has never been true. In almost all cases, those who talked to me conveyed a combination of sympathy, admiration, and respect.). But Teddy, in addition to having misplaced his watch and his wallet, had left his key inside his room, locking himself out. As he left the courthouse, reporters were shouting questions so loudly that a number failed to hear the one statement Teddy made.
But let’s talk about other ways to use this important journalistic tool.”, Fact-checking isn’t the only facet of coverage elevated in the last four years. His party has enabled him, collaborating with him or looking the other way as he solicited political favors from foreign leaders; fired investigators, watchdogs, and anyone else who might hold him accountable; unleashed secret police on American citizens; and committed a host of other previously unthinkable transgressions. “A clear case of death by drowning.

In the event of suggestive speculation in the press, any call from Joan would reassure them about the essential innocence of Teddy’s brief encounter with their daughter. Recognizing him and wanting to treat him with appropriate deference and respect, she directed him to the chief’s office, from which he could make his calls in privacy.

After two major strokes, it was not clear how much his father understood.

This report produced by Zachary Goelman.

He is our last living link to the Kennedys of In the meantime, he ordered that neither Teddy himself nor anyone on his staff, nor anyone who had been present at the party—a party to which Teddy had omitted any reference in his statement—speak either publicly or privately about any aspect of the accident.
[He] has no one but ghosts at his side, and they count more against than for him, eclipse him with bright images from the past….

“I think we have finally come to the end of Camelot,” said a Senate colleague who was also a friend. All rights reserved. Edward M. Kennedy is returning to Washington to resume his duties as United States Senator and assistant majority leader. To his astonishment, the chief quickly learned that plate L78 207 had been issued to one Edward M. Kennedy, Room 2400, J.F.K. Whatever else he may be, Teddy remains