It was not merely the accident at Chappaquiddick that destroyed Senator Ted Kennedy’s lifelong ambition of becoming President of the United States. It was Mary.
Mary Jo Kopechne.
She was the young woman who died after Kennedy’s car plunged from a narrow bridge on Chappaquiddick Island in July 1969. Kennedy escaped from the submerged vehicle, but he did not report the accident until the following morning.
What happened between the moment the car entered the water and the time the senator informed the authorities became the question that followed him for the rest of his life.
Kennedy remained a political giant. He returned repeatedly to the United States Senate, became one of its most influential members and left an enduring legislative legacy. But the presidency, which had appeared almost a Kennedy family inheritance, slipped beyond his grasp.
