quote:

"On July 18, 1969, at approximately 11:15 PM in Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vinyard, Massachusetts, Martha's Vinyard. Now I know the true "reason" behind Margret and Marcella's hints to me as a young girl. I was driving my car on Main Street on my way to get the ferry back to Edgartown. Hummm ... clue. I was unfamiliar with the road and turned right onto Dike Road, Clue.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. Hummm... sounds ... like these are dirt roads arn't they? (anyone) The car went off the side of the bridge. There was one passenger with me, one Miss Mary ( Kennedy was not sure of the spelling of the dead girl's last name, and offered a rough phonetic approximation ), a former secretary of my brother Sen. Robert Kennedy. Well what is HER NAME? (anyone)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 recolection of how I got out of the car. You remember .. you had to think to save yourself. 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. Ohhhh NOW YOU REMEMBER????? I was unsuccessful in the attempt. I was exhausted and in a state of shock. Survival of the Fittest! Saves Lives. I recall walking back to where my friends were eating. OOpppss .... I lost my mind on this one. Your walking? There was a car parked in front of the cottage and I climbed into the back seat. Guilty. I then asked for someone to bring me back to Edgartown. Guilty. I remember walking around for a period of time and then going back to my hotel room. Feeling Guilty. When I fully realized what had happened this morning, Ohhh please ... you had it as realization before you made up the "bridge" and missed hard left on Main Street BS. I immediately contacted the police." Yes, to let them know you was getting the Ferry out of town.

quote:

My fellow citizens:
I have requested this opportunity to talk to you, the people of Massachusetts, about the tragedy which happened last Friday evening.

quote:

On the weekend of July 18th, I was on Martha's Vinyard Island participating with my nephew, Joe Kennedy, as for 30 years my family has participated in the annual Edgartown Sailing Regatta. Only reasons of health prevented my wife from accompanying me.

quote:

On Chappaquiddick Island off Martha's Vinyars, I attended on Friday evening, July 18th, a cookout I had encouraged and helped sponsor for a devoted group of Kennedy campaign secretaries. When I left the party around 11:15 PM, I was accompanied by one of these girls, Miss Mary Jo Kopechne. Mary Jo was one of the most devoted members of the staff of Senator Robert Kennedy. She worked for him for four years and was broken up over his death. For this reason and because she was such a gentle, kind and idealistic person, all of us tried to help her feel that she still had a home with the Kennedy family.

quote:

There is no truth whatever to the widely circulated suspicions of immoral conduct that have been leveled at my behavior and hers regarding that evening. There has never been a private relationship between us of any kind. I know of nothing in Mary Jo's conduct on that or any other occasion - and the same is true of the other girls at the party - that would lend any substance to such ugly speculation about their character. Nor was I driving under the influence of liquor.

quote:

Little over a mile away the car that I was driving on an unlit road went off a narrow bridge which had no guard rails and was built on a left angle to the road. The car overturned into a deep pond and immediately filled with water. I remember thinking as the cold water rushed in around my head, that I was for certain drowning; then water entered my lungs and I actually felt a sensation of drowning; but somehow I struggled to the surface alive. I made immediate and repeated efforts to save Mary Jo by diving into the strong and murkey current, but succeeded only in increasing my state of utter exhaustion and alarm.

quote:

I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately. Instead of looking directly for a telephone after lying exhausted on the grass for an undetermined time, I walked back to the cottage where the party was being held, requested the help of two friends, Joe Gargan and Paul Markham, and directed them to return immediately to the scene with me ( it then being sometime after midnight ) in order to undertake a new effort to dive down and locate Miss Kopechne. Their strenuous efforts, undertaken at some risk to their own lives, also proved futile.

quote:

Instructing Gargan and Markham not to alarm Mary Jo's friends that night, I had them take me to the ferry crossing. 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, returning to my hotel around 2 AM and collapsed in my room. I remember going out at one point and saying something to the room clerk. In the morning with my mind somewhat lucid, I made an effort to call a family legal advisor, Burke Marshall, from a public telephone on the Chappaquiddick side of the ferry, and then belatedly reported the accident to the Martha's Vinyard police.

quote:

- Kennedy put aside the prepared text. He folded his hands, looked directly into the camera and appeared to continue the speech extemporaneously. However, large cue cards picking up the text of the speech were held up out of camera range. The Senator continued:

quote:

These events and the publicity and inuendo and whispers which have surrounded them, and my admission of guilt this morning, raises raises the question in my mind of whether my standing among the people of my state has been so impaired that I should resign my seat in the United States Senate. If at any time the citizens of Massachusetts should lack confidence in their Senator's character or his ability, with or without justification, he could not, in my opinion, adequately perform his duties, and should not continue in office.

quote:

"A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis for all human morality. And whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience - the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men - each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul."

quote:

Originally posted by BabyEagle4U:

"Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth." -- Disraeli

quote:

It was not the position assumed by a person knocked unconscious by the impact of a crash, Farrar said. "If she had been dead or unconscious, she would have been prone, sinking to the bottom or floating on top. She definitely was holding herself in a position to avail herself of the last remaining air that had to be trapped in the car."

quote:

The maneuver was complicated by the victim's hunched posture and outstretched arms made inflexible by rigor mortis.

quote:

- Senator Kennedy was still on the phone at the Chappaquiddick landing when Markham observed a tow truck's flashing lights aboard the ferry and headed for Chappaquiddick. He went inside the ferryhouse to bring the vehicle to Ted's attention, an indication that the accident car had been discovered at Dike Bridge.
- Gargan expressed his belief that it was now essential to report the accident. "You've got to do what I've been saying all along. Get your *** over there and report it as fast as you can."

quote:

- On August 13, based on a tip from a telephone company employee, The Manchester Union Leader reported that Senator Kennedy had charged 17 long distance telephone calls to his credit card during the hours he claimed to be "in shock" after the accident.

quote:

- Bettencourt confronted Kennedy. "Senator, do you know there's a girl found dead in your car?" he said. "Do you need a ride down to the bridge?"
- "No," Kennedy said. "I'm going on over to town."

quote:

- Senator Ted Kennedy, accompanied by his wife Joan, flew aboard a private, family-owned DC-3 to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania to attend the funeral of Mary Jo Kopechne.

- Although Kennedy had shown no apparent discomfort the day after the accident, and despite the fact that a battery of tests had found no physical evidence of a neck injury, the Senator arrived at the funeral wearing a cervical collar.
- Teddy wore a dark blue suit, with a black tie loosely knotted about a dress shirt opened to accommodate the neck brace.

quote:

- Sylvia Malm was spending the summer in the "Dike House" with her family. The house was only 150 yards from the scene of the accident ( see photo below ). Her daughter had been reading under an open window facing the bridge until about 11:45 PM, but did not recall hearing anything unusual.

- When the family went to bed, Mrs. Malm had left a light burning all night at the back door of the house. The light was visible from Dike Bridge. Sometime after midnight, Mrs. Malm heard a car "going faster than usual" on Dike Road, but nothing else.

- The Reverend and Mrs. David Smith lived in the house across the street. They were certain that they had left a light on in one of the bedrooms that was also visible from the road.