BBC's Chappaquiddick documentary
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Not wishing to reawaken the slanging match that dogged Ted Kennedy's passing on this board, but yesterday's 10-year-old documentary Inside Story about this event was an eye opener.
As you know, in 1969 Kennedy was leaving a party in Maine in a car with a girl, Mary Jo Kopechne, in the passenger seat; he drove off a bridge and it hit the water, he escaped but the girl drowned, he didn't alert the police until the next morning.
The doc showed that this was no big bridge in the Florida Keys mold, more like the rickety wooden one in TMWTGG (though not broken in the middle) stuck out in the deserted middle of nowhere. No other cars would have been passing that night.
Anyway, you can catch the doc on BBC iplayer but the main new theory that emerged was that
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick_incident#Alternative_theory
As you know, in 1969 Kennedy was leaving a party in Maine in a car with a girl, Mary Jo Kopechne, in the passenger seat; he drove off a bridge and it hit the water, he escaped but the girl drowned, he didn't alert the police until the next morning.
The doc showed that this was no big bridge in the Florida Keys mold, more like the rickety wooden one in TMWTGG (though not broken in the middle) stuck out in the deserted middle of nowhere. No other cars would have been passing that night.
Anyway, you can catch the doc on BBC iplayer but the main new theory that emerged was that
Kennedy wasn't even driving the car. He was at a party, he left with the girl for some backseat hanky panky down the road. Then a police car stumbled in on them. Not wishing to be caught in a car over the limit and in an adulterous situation, Kennedy drove off at high speed. He then got out, and instructed the girl to drive on and fast. This she did, but not knowing her way around and it being dark and in charge of a big, unfamiliar car, Mary Jo took the wrong turning, went across the bridge too fast and went off it.
This accounts for Kennedy not reporting it nor even calling his lawyer til the next day: he simply didn't know about it and next morning was all casual, dressed to go sailing. Then his pals told him what had happened, he want ballistic, and the story was cooked up to make it look a bit less sordid than the reality, later making out that he and his pals had tried to save her.
This accounts for Kennedy not reporting it nor even calling his lawyer til the next day: he simply didn't know about it and next morning was all casual, dressed to go sailing. Then his pals told him what had happened, he want ballistic, and the story was cooked up to make it look a bit less sordid than the reality, later making out that he and his pals had tried to save her.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick_incident#Alternative_theory
"This is where we leave you Mr Bond."
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Comments
The BBC's explanation sounds a lot better than leaving yourself open to the charge that you abandoned a woman to drown to death while you saved yourself after you drove off a bridge because you had been drinking to much. (I'm not saying that I know he had been drinking or that he didn't try to help her I'm just pointing out that it is a very popular theory of the events.)
If their theory is true than it just goes to show that honesty is the best policy. I think his reputation would have been a lot better off had he offered up their explanation.
Only Kennedy, Mary Jo and God know the whole story.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM