Bizarre Ted Kennedy Car Crash Mystery Still Raises Questions Almost 50 Years Later
Mar. 29 2018, Published 9:59 a.m. ET
Mystery and rumors continue to swirl around the night 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne drowned to death after getting in a car accident with Ted Kennedy the evening of July 18, 1969. Now Chappaquiddick, a new movie opening April 6, takes a deeper look into the events surrounding the terrible events off Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. Click through RadarOnline.com’s gallery to find out more.
On that tragic summer evening nearly 50 years ago, Senator Kennedy’s car landed upside down in water after it flipped off a wooden bridge on Chappaquiddick Island.
Kennedy’s passenger, Kopechne, drowned to death after she was trapped inside the submerged vehicle. The politician managed to escape the wreck unharmed.
Bizarrely, Kennedy waited 10 hours to report the wreck, a delay that continues to raise eyebrows to this day.
Kennedy was 77 when he died from brain cancer in 2009. The brother of John F. Kennedy could never fully escape the lingering questions many had about Kopechne’s death.
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Kopechne had traveled to Martha’s Vineyard so she could attend a reunion for those who had worked on a political campaign for Kennedy’s U.S. Senator brother Bobby, who was assassinated in 1968.
The night she died, Kopechne had asked Kennedy for a ride to her motel following a dinner and cocktail party he hosted for her and other former campaign volunteers.
Kennedy agreed to give Kopechne a lift, but instead of turning left toward their ferry, he took a right on a dark dirt road and plunged over the bridge, which he claimed he didn’t see.
After fleeing the scene, Kennedy reportedly made a flurry of phone calls using his credit card, but he waited 10 hours to contact police about the deadly accident.
Kennedy was eventually charged with leaving the scene of an accident. However, the politician ended up receiving only a two-month suspended sentence and he served one year’s probation.
Kennedy never could escape rumors and theories concerning Kopechne’s death, which likely cost him the chance to become president like his famous sibling.
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