Back to Chappaquiddick

Six months ago, a black Oldsmobile 88 sedan owned by Edward Kennedy plunged off a narrow wooden bridge on the island of Chappaquiddick. The car overturned in a tidal pond and Mary Jo Kopechne died.

It was the most publicized automobile accident in history; yet those are virtually the only facts about it that are beyond dispute. Except, perhaps, that Chappaquiddick has shadowed Kennedy's political career and capsized his presidential hopes--at least for 1972. This week in the red-brick Dukes County courthouse in Edgartown, Mass., Justice James A. Boyle will sit to hear "the case of Mary Jo Kopechne, No. 15220," in a closed inquest aimed at sorting out some of the bewilderment of the night of July 18-19.

The inquest may or may not solve the basic mysteries of the case--not all of the unanswered questions are legally relevant. If Kennedy is exonerated of any suspicion of guilt, the inquest and transcript will become public. Kennedy has promised his own report on the case if the judge's decision does not fully explain the incident. But there is also the possibility that Kennedy might face a grand jury. Although Massachusetts has no criminal-negligence law, Boyle is charged with finding out "when, where and by what means the person deceased came to her death," and whether an "unlawful act or negligence" contributed to that death. Among other things, Boyle will question guests at the Chappaquiddick cookout about whether drunken driving was involved. If Boyle decides that there might have been an unlawful act, the record of the inquest can remain secret unless a grand jury hears the case.

When and Why? Originally, an inquest open to the press was to have begun Sept. 3 in Edgartown. But Kennedy's lawyers successfully petitioned the Massachusetts Supreme Court to have the hearing held in secret. Kennedy feared that the inquest would be conducted in effect as an adversary proceeding, with his lawyers denied the right of crossexamination.

Judge Boyle announced none of his ground rules for the inquest beforehand. He will probably call the eleven guests from the cookout first and then the local witnesses. Attorneys Joseph Gargan and Paul Markham, the two men other than Kennedy who know the most about what happened on the night of the accident, might unravel some of the contradictions: When did the accident occur? How did Kennedy return to Edgartown? Why wasn't the accident reported immediately? Kennedy, who prepared for his ordeal with a skiing vacation in Colorado, will be his own most important witness.

For all the considerable lacunae of the case, the speculation about Edward Kennedy's odd, harrowing night revolves about two central questions: Could he have saved Mary Jo's life by seeking help swiftly, as Diver John Farrar, who recovered Mary Jo's body, claims? Was Kennedy trying for nine or ten hours to elude responsibility for her death? Public interest in the case has sometimes been morbid or even prurient but, as Kennedy knows, much of the curiosity is not only understandable but legitimate. Eventually, he will have to satisfy it.

The Olsen Theory. One writer has raised an intriguing doubt that Kennedy was even in the car when it sank in Poucha Pond. Jack Olsen, who is a senior editor of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, argues in The Bridge at Chappaquiddick that the Senator stopped the car on the dirt road leading to the bridge and got out. His motive, says Olsen, was to avoid being recognized--alone with a young woman late at night--by Deputy Sheriff Christopher Look, who had spotted the car a moment earlier at the intersection of the dirt road and the paved road leading to the Edgartown ferry. "It would have been a very logical step," writes Olsen, "for Kennedy to stop the car between the high walls of underbrush and tell Mary Jo to circle back and pick him up in a few minutes if the policeman did not give chase." According to Olsen's theory, Mary Jo, a foot shorter than Kennedy and barely able to see over the steering wheel, continued down the dirt road, unable to see that the humpbacked Dike Bridge veered to the left as she approached. Kennedy, speculates Olsen, returned on foot to the cottage. According to Olsen's conclusion, Kennedy did not learn of Mary Jo's death until morning. Unanswered is the question why Kennedy would have gone on television to speak of "some awful curse" afflicting the Kennedys if he had not even been near the car when Mary Jo died.

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