Mary Jo Kopechne

[John Simkin]

Now, John, if you really are on to something here - and I've seen this Damore rumor before - you must do better than a vague reference here and a tangential link there. That's the stuff of blogs.

You obviously missed this earlier posting. I am amazed so few members picked up on it.

Is there some way for forum members to see Damore's manuscript and/or get the name of the supposed CIA contract agent who he says did the professional hit?

I have asked my informant if I can name Mary Pinchot Meyer's killer on the Forum. I am awaiting his reply.

Hello -

My name is Peter Janney and I am the person John is referring to. I have actually been researching the life and death of Mary Pinchot Meyer for over thirty (30) years now. I am in the midst of producing a full length Hollywood drama called "Lost Light" which deals with Mary's relationship with JFK and her death. I also writing a book on the same subject ("Mary's Mosaic") which I am hard at work at.

I am going to post a much larger reply than I can at the moment in few days or so, but let me say this as an introduction:

Mary Meyer most certainly had a relationship with Tim Leary. I own all of Leo Damore's research on Mary Meyer. Damore was a prodigious researcher, just read his book Senatorial Priveledge and you can see for yourself. Damore even knew what room number Mary stayed in at the Ritz Carlton when she first came to meet Leary in the Spring of 1962. I also have a two hour tape recorded interview with Leary and Damore talking about the Meyer-JFK relationship. There are details on that tape that Leary talks about that he could have never known about if he had not known Mary back in the 1960s. Mary Meyer and JFK did take LSD together at Joe Alsop's house in Georgetown in the early Spring of 1963. I believe this experience was a catalyst for JFK's evolution of his political dispostion toward world peace initiatives. Soon after this experience JFK gave his legendary commencement speech at American University on June 10, 1963. More on that later.

Mary Meyer was not murdered; she was assassinated. I believe I am well on my way to proving this. The assassin's name was William L. Mitchell and he testified at the Crump murder trial as the "jogger" who passed Mary on his way back to Key Bridge. He testified that a black man, allegedly Ray Crump, was following Mary after he passed her. It was a complete frame up, again generated by certain individuals within the CIA.

Leo Damore interviewed "William L.Mitchell" ("Mitchell" told Damore that his name was an alias and that he had several aliases that he used) on March 31, 1993 on the phone for several hours. He allegedley recorrded the call but I could never find the tapes. "Mitchell" confessed to Damore that he had been ordered to take out Mary Meyer. Immediately, after the call, Damore called his attorney. His attorney took five (5) pages of notes on that call and he saved them and has given the notes to me.

Damore told me personally in 1993 that he had interviewed the assassin, but I was too heart broken at the time from a broken engagement to really get into it with him at the time.

I shared my taped interview between Leary and Damore with David Talbot and he credits me for that in his footnote. As much as I respect Jim Eugenio, he is wrong about Leary and Mary Meyer and I believe I have enough evidence to prove that.

Please feel free to post questions and I will try to respond. More later. Thank you.

[Kathleen Collins]

Hello -

My name is Peter Janney and I am the person John is referring to. I have actually been researching the life and death of Mary Pinchot Meyer for over thirty (30) years now. I am in the midst of producing a full length Hollywood drama called "Lost Light" which deals with Mary's relationship with JFK and her death. I also writing a book on the same subject ("Mary's Mosaic") which I am hard at work at.

I am going to post a much larger reply than I can at the moment in few days or so, but let me say this as an introduction:

Mary Meyer most certainly had a relationship with Tim Leary. I own all of Leo Damore's research on Mary Meyer. Damore was a prodigious researcher, just read his book Senatorial Priveledge and you can see for yourself. Damore even knew what room number Mary stayed in at the Ritz Carlton when she first came to meet Leary in the Spring of 1962. I also have a two hour tape recorded interview with Leary and Damore talking about the Meyer-JFK relationship. There are details on that tape that Leary talks about that he could have never known about if he had not known Mary back in the 1960s. Mary Meyer and JFK did take LSD together at Joe Alsop's house in Georgetown in the early Spring of 1963. I believe this experience was a catalyst for JFK's evolution of his political dispostion toward world peace initiatives. Soon after this experience JFK gave his legendary commencement speech at American University on June 10, 1963. More on that later.

Mary Meyer was not murdered; she was assassinated. I believe I am well on my way to proving this. The assassin's name was William L. Mitchell and he testified at the Crump murder trial as the "jogger" who passed Mary on his way back to Key Bridge. He testified that a black man, allegedly Ray Crump, was following Mary after he passed her. It was a complete frame up, again generated by certain individuals within the CIA.

Leo Damore interviewed "William L.Mitchell" ("Mitchell" told Damore that his name was an alias and that he had several aliases that he used) on March 31, 1993 on the phone for several hours. He allegedley recorrded the call but I could never find the tapes. "Mitchell" confessed to Damore that he had been ordered to take out Mary Meyer. Immediately, after the call, Damore called his attorney. His attorney took five (5) pages of notes on that call and he saved them and has given the notes to me.

Damore told me personally in 1993 that he had interviewed the assassin, but I was too heart broken at the time from a broken engagement to really get into it with him at the time.

I shared my taped interview between Leary and Damore with David Talbot and he credits me for that in his footnote. As much as I respect Jim Eugenio, he is wrong about Leary and Mary Meyer and I believe I have enough evidence to prove that.

Please feel free to post questions and I will try to respond. More later. Thank you.

Good luck on Lost Light and Mary's Mosaic. I'm interested in learning what your research has found.

The only frightening thing to me is President Kennedy, already on Cortisone-amphetamine shots, taking LSD. I was never into street drugs, so I never took the hallucinogen and I don't know anyone intimately who has. I don't like this business that Kennedy was tripping away while his country might have needed him. But it's certainly intriguing. I am reading Brothers and haven't got to that point yet. I looked in the index and Marilyn Monroe was not listed. In view of the fact that she socialized with the Kennedys and died mysteriously one Saturday night, I don't know why this was overlooked, while Mary Meyer wasn't. But I guess Mary Meyer is new information, and one tires of MM scenarios.

There was a slim photo book of the Kennedys, John, Jackie and their children. I don't remember the name of it. But it contained a picture of Jackie Kennedy, looking elegant, walking alone on what seems to be the same towpath where Mary met her death. I wonder if Mary believed Oswald did it. I think she'd be very wise about that, and know there was a conspiracy. But apparently, she didn't think this conspiracy would affect her. Unfortunately, she was caught alone in a secluded area, murdered and her death blamed on a black man who was later acquitted.

The problem is, why was she murdered. Did she know who was behind the assassination? I would think the ultra right-wing would love for her story to come out, especially about taking LSD with President Kennedy.

Then you go back 2 years earlier and see Marilyn Monroe murdered, and if it's true she was going to call a press conference Monday and tell about the Kennedy brothers, I would think the ultra right-wing would love that. It seems it only benefits the Kennedys and their left-wing entourage to shut her up. This is distressing.

Kathy

[Kathleen Collins]

Oh but for an independent free press!!! Control the press and you can control the minds of the citizens. (But not all of us, of course).

Dawn

Dawn and the rest of you guys, see yesterday's blog on just that: Freedom of the press. I quoted an article from AP about NASA that warned the information could not be broadcast, rewritten or told in any way, shape or form, without their permission.

The information! Please see it: thecloakofdarkness.blogspot.com

Re Chappaquiddick, there was a woman's purse found in the car with Mary Jo. It belonged to one of the cottage's other female guests.

I feel it was very illegal to not have an autopsy. I still can't believe it. But the parents didn't want it as the story centered around that Mary Jo was pregnant and that's why she was killed. And then there was talk of exhumation. Her parents were destroyed.

When you think back to those days, wasn't it stupid that if an unmarried woman was pregnant it was such a disgrace it could be a motive to kill her?

Kathy

[Kathleen Collins]

Also, there were reports of E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis being seen on Martha's Vineyard. Which is another theory. Kathy

Okay, I'll bite. Hey Kathy, Elvis was seen there, too, and the only reason Bigfoot wasn't caught on film is that he likes the coast of Maine in the Summer.

*******************************************************

Firstly, I don't give a flying f___ about Elvis. My time was/is The Beatles. Secondly, the person who told me about E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis being seen on Martha's Vineyard that weekend is a very highly-respected JFK Researcher. And I believe that the plane crash Ted was in in the mid-sixties, was designed to kill him. Ironically, he was the only one to survive. They killed his brother, Robert, then they destroyed him.

I was surprised when he ran for the Presidency in 1980. What was that all about? Especially since he was with his wife, whom he immediately divorced when he didn't get the nomination: Carter wouldn't release the delegates. Finally, that TV interview where he was asked about Chappaquiddick and he just stammered. He just stammered. Yes, in a way, he was assassinated at Chappaquiddick.

So I guess you can put your Bigfoot back in your mouth, Wise Guy.

Kathy

[John Simkin]

This article reveals why Mary Jo Kopechne's parents rejected the idea of an autopsy:

The Herald Journal (25th August, 1975)

Gwen Kopechne, whose daughter was killed six years ago when a car driven by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy plunged off a bridge, is quoted as saying Kennedy got bad advice about the accident and then couldn't back out of it to tell the truth.

Mrs. Kopechne is quoted by "New Times" magazine as saying she also believes the Massachusetts Democrat was confused about the mishap when he made his first statements about it.

"He had poor advice, right from the time it happened. I think he got so involved in this lousy advice and then couldn't back out and tell the truth. He got deeper and deeper into it," Mrs. Kopechne is quoted as saying.

According to the interview, the Kopechnes say they believe their daughter, Mary Jo, was sleeping in the back seat of Kennedy's car when it ran off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island.

Mary Jo was a 28-year-old former campaign worker for Kennedy's brother, Robert, and had attended a party with a group of other persons on the small island adjoining Martha's Vineyard, Mass., on the night of July 18, 1969.

Kennedy's sworn statement is that he was returning to his hotel and taking Mary Jo back to hers when he made a wrong

turn and accidentally drove off the bridge. He said he managed somehow to escape from the submerged car but was unable

to rescue the girl.

Joseph Kopechne is quoted by the magazine as saying he and his wife rejected an autopsy later because "we were led to believe that the autopsy was primarily to find out if my daughter was pregnant."

[Dawn Meredith]

This article reveals why Mary Jo Kopechne's parents rejected the idea of an autopsy:

The Herald Journal (25th August, 1975)

Gwen Kopechne, whose daughter was killed six years ago when a car driven by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy plunged off a bridge, is quoted as saying Kennedy got bad advice about the accident and then couldn't back out of it to tell the truth.

Mrs. Kopechne is quoted by "New Times" magazine as saying she also believes the Massachusetts Democrat was confused about the mishap when he made his first statements about it.

"He had poor advice, right from the time it happened. I think he got so involved in this lousy advice and then couldn't back out and tell the truth. He got deeper and deeper into it," Mrs. Kopechne is quoted as saying.

According to the interview, the Kopechnes say they believe their daughter, Mary Jo, was sleeping in the back seat of Kennedy's car when it ran off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island.

__________________________________

For years I had a theory that Mary Jo was asleep in the back seat of the car and that Ted did not know she was in the car until the next day. In the early 80's I met a cop who said he had the inside story on this. I told him I had a theory that did not invlove conspiracy. So I told him my theory and he told me that was exactly what had happened.

Dawn

[John Simkin]

With the death of Edward Kennedy I think this thread will be of interest to visitors. One commentator has pointed out: "The judge ruled that Kennedy was probably guilty of criminal conduct but made no move to indict him. This obvious manipulation of the local judiciary by the state's most powerful family was probably more damaging in the long term than the tragedy itself." Do you agree?

[John Simkin]

Charles Schlund is usually considered a reliable source. However, his article, Chappaquiddick: Ted Kennedy Was Framed By The CIA! (July, 2001), is worth reading:

In the CIA files in the Don Bolles papers was the files on the framing of Ted Kennedy for the death of Marry Joe Kopechne at Chappaquiddick by the CIA. In the CIA files that George Bush had removed from the CIA was Ted Kennedy's file.

After the CIA had assassinated John F. Kennedy and framed Oswald for the assassination and after the CIA had assassinated Robert Kennedy and framed Sirhan Sirhan for the assassination they needed a way of stopping the last Kennedy brother from ever running for the presidency of the United States. They believed that if they killed him it would look like the CIA had assassinated all the brothers so the CIA decided to allow him to live and to discredit him to stop him from being reelected by framing him at Chappaquiddick for the death of Mary Joe Kopechne. By doing this the CIA planned on stopping him from ever becoming president of the United States of America. The following is how the CIA framed Ted Kennedy for the death of Mary Joe Kopechne at Chappaquiddick.

I no longer remember all of the details because of the constant electronic torture of me which is still being used against me to limit my freedom of speech and damage my memory and ability to write using electronic torture and sleep deprivation. The following is what I still can remember while I'm being kept disabled and in a electronically drugged state. Ted Kennedy and the other couple were at the cabin and Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne were getting ready to leave. The CIA had drugged one of the bottles that they were drinking from. I do not remember all the details but I do remember that the bottle had a drug put into it which would result in Ted Kennedy and Mary Joe Kopechne becoming unconscious after drinking from drinks poured from the bottle. I remember that just before they left they all drank a drink

that had been poured from the bottle. I believe it was a toast.

Ted Kennedy and the May Joe Kopechne left and started back with Ted driving. On the road on the way back was barricades and a detour sign that the CIA had put into place directing Ted down the road they needed him on to conduct their planed murder of Mary Joe. The CIA had positioned one car ahead of Ted's car and another car was behind him. As soon as Ted entered the detour the CIA moved the barricades to block off where he had turned down so no else could come down the road until after they had taken over Ted and his car. Ted was monitored the entire time by the CIA. Mary Joe had passed out from the drug and Ted was starting to pass out. The CIA car in front of Ted's car slowed down so they could use their car to stop Ted's car from crashing as Ted passed out. This worked fine and they were able to stop Ted's car. After they got the car stopped they took Mary Joe and placed her in the back seat and took Ted to the other car. Then two CIA operatives replaced Ted and Mary Joe with the man in the driver seat and a women operative replacing Mary Joe in the front seat. Then all three cars proceeded to the bridge and as they drove they called back by radio and the gave the orders in code to remove the barricades.

The constable for that area was one of the CIA operatives in charge of the operation. I still see him on TV saying how Ted got away with murder. This constable was the person that set up the car to go off the bridge which resulted in the death of Mary Joe. He first prepared everything to make it look like Ted and her were having an affair and that was why they turned down that road. They were not having an affair. When they got to the bridge they set up the car to send it off the bridge with Mary Joe still in the car.

The drug they had used was a special drug that would not show up in the autopsy report because she would never be tested for that drug. They had also planned on her stomach being full of water after the crash. After rigging the gas pedal and steering and sending the car off the bridge the car would not sink and floated nose down in the water and was starting to float away. They got a rope on the car and held it in place and one of them had to swim out to the car and open the door to get it to sink It took the CIA 20 to 30 minutes to make the car sink where they needed it to rest on the bottom.

They then prepared Ted Kennedy for the water. They put a injury on him but I do not remember in detail what the injury was but it was to make it look like that he was in the crash and was driving the car that killed Mary Joe. They then took Ted Kennedy's body out into the water on the side of the bridge and propped him up with one of the CIA operatives holding him from behind. Another CIA agent then injected him in the neck with the antidote to the drug they had used on him. Ted Kennedy then slowly showed signs of recovering. The antidote was mixed with another drug to make Ted Kennedy confused and disorientated. They then got out of the water and watched to make sure Ted didn't drown before he recovered enough to get out of the water.

Ted Kennedy stumbled out of the water and tried to figure out what had happened. He finally figured out that the car was under water in the pond and he had no ideal of what happened. It took him some time to recover enough to leave to search for help and he was still badly disorientated from the drugs they used on him. He was not drunk and had only had one or two drinks and Mary Joe had only one drink and if I remember correctly she did not drink all of it.

The CIA monitored and filmed all of this. As soon as Ted Kennedy left to try to find help the CIA moved in and cleaned up all the evidence to make sure it looked like an accident.

The next events are all history. They asked Ted Kennedy what happened and he replied that he did not know and that Mary Joe must of been driving the car. He didn't know because he was not driving and was unconscious. The press and others then attacked him and set it up to make it look like he was lying to get out of the death of Mary Joe. At that time Ted Kennedy was forced to take full responsibility with him not having any memory of the accident. The papers and others then printed stories of how she was pregnant which she wasn't and of how Ted was drunk which he wasn't and of how the Kennedy's were buying their way out of what had happened which they weren't.

The investigation into the crash was not real it was only the framing of Ted Kennedy for the death of Mary Joe Kopechne.

The CIA assumed that by framing Ted Kennedy that they had assured that Ted Kennedy would no longer be electable and that they could force him out of the public eye and out of their hair. To the amazement of the CIA it did not work and Ted was repeatedly reelected to public office.

Ted Kennedy was now back fighting for Human Rights, Civil Rights and the American people as his brothers had before him. The CIA was now desperate to remove him from the public eye but it was not acceptable to assassinate him because they believed that it may interfere with the on going cover-up of the assassinations of his brothers. If all three brothers died in public office no reasonable person would believe that it was not the CIA that did it. They needed another way of disabling him to remove him as a threat to their empire. The director of the CIA George Bush in 1976 came up with the way of doing this. The new remote controlled electronic torture devices that the CIA had designed were now in service and when used with a bugging device built into them they could be used to remove targeted people under the protection of a warrant in an investigation and under the color of law.

The Next operation we had was the framing of Ted Kennedy as being a drug dealer to authorize the use of these new electronic bugging and torture devices to disable him. We even had the file on the briefing to the federal Judge for the warrant to be used against him. The following was in the briefing to the judge. Your honor what is so unbelievable that Ted Kennedy is involved in the drug trade, after all his father was a boot legger.

The CIA had failed in removing Ted Kennedy as a Senator from Massachusetts. Even after they discredited him before the people by framing him at Chappaquiddick for the death of Mary Joe Kopechne and even after they attacked him repeatedly in the press and news, he was still repeatedly reelected to the Senate by the people of Massachusetts. The CIA did not like this at all and the CIA still felt that Ted Kennedy was a great threat to their assassinations, drug running and other illegal operations. They then started on a new way of controlling Ted Kennedy. This new mode of control was to be by the use of electronic stimulation of his mind and body by the CIA to remove him as a threat to their covert operations within the government. They first placed him under constant surveillance and monitored his phones, mail and they even bugged his cars and everything else they could monitor. All information at this time was being illegally collected and that made it unusable in the News Papers or in the courts. They decided that the best way of authorizing the legal bugging of Ted Kennedy would be to frame him as being a drug trafficker. To do this they first needed evidence to present to one of the corrupt judges that they controlled to obtain a warrant to monitor Ted Kennedy. They collected his garbage and even followed him when he went on week end outings in boats and other places.

They took sandwich bags from his garbage and from his boating trips and checked these sandwich bags for his fingerprints. In time they obtained some plastic sandwich bags with Ted Kennedy's finger prints on the bags. They then proceeded to clean the inside of these bags and then placed drugs into the cleaned bags. These plastic bags now filled with drugs were then given to a drug dealer that the DEA controlled and the bags were then busted in a drug bust with Ted Kennedy's finger prints on the bags.

The CIA had also designed a way of removing finger prints using a special tape that they had developed and then reinstalling these finger prints on other things as needed to target innocent targeted people. I believe that this process was also used in the framing of Ted Kennedy but I do not remember enough of this part of the files to be 100% certain.

Now there was usable evidence for a real warrant and the DEA could now takeover the operations from the CIA against Ted Kennedy and do these covert operations under the cover of a warrant in an investigation and under the protection of the law. They then continued to frame Ted Kennedy as being involved in the drug trade to further authorize the bugging and control of and over him by the CIA using their covert operation the DEA to gather the need evidence to frame Ted Kennedy as being involved in the drug trade.

In the CIA and the DEA files we had where the orders from George Bush for the bugging of Ted Kennedy using the new CIA control, torture and monitoring devices. They had determined that it was impossible to keep Ted Kennedy sick and disabled by just using the devices in his clothing. He had to many clothes and was always buying new clothes. The CIA and DEA researched if he wore any jewelry that he never took off that they could install the devices in or

if there was any other way of controlling and bugging him without injecting Ted Kennedy with implants.

When I was reading the files George Bush had stated in them that he was paranoid that if they got caught using implants in Senators and Congressmen that the American People would no longer trust them and that the operation may backfire but to the best of my memory he did approve the use of the implants against Ted Kennedy which resulted in Ted Kennedy suffering horribly with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This illness was an auto immune response from the bugging devices and was designed to so involve the targeted person in their own suffering and misery that they would no longer be of a threat to the CIA, DEA or others that were protected and above all laws.

Ted Kennedy's Chronic fatigue Syndrome went away in 1991 or 1992 because of my work with the FBI against the DEA and CIA. I am uncertain if Ted Kennedy was injected with electronic implants or if they used electronic devices in his clothing and jewelry to keep him sick, disabled and under their control all of those years as they monitored, tortured and controlled him. My direct information on Ted Kennedy ended in 1977.

[David Andrews]

Somebody help me here. During the 1990s, I read a book on Chappaquiddick that showed photos of the front and rear passenger-side doors of the death car. The book's point was that there were vertical dents in each door, consistent not with the car striking something at the bottom of the shallow water or on the bridge, but closer to damage sustained had the car skidded into a stand of trees near the bridge. The argument was that this skid happened due to the car being forced to a stop before the accident.

I've searched Amazon and can't trace the book. The photos were intriguing. Anybody remember?

Edited August 31, 2009 by David Andrews

[Gene Kelly]

Several facts about Chappaquiddick have caught my interest:

1. At the time of the incident, Mary Jo Kopechne had been unofficially engaged to be married to a career foreign service officer (his name is never mentioned in any of the accounts...is this evidence of a CIA 'guardian')

2. A rope was found attached to a stick which held the Oldsmobile throttle wide open also caught the driver’s rear view mirror and tore it loose so that it was hanging by the rear bolt.

3. Frank Sturgis and E. Howard Hunt were allegedly on Martha’s Vineyard at the time for a Regatta (no source).

4. The contents of Howard Hunt's White House safe, and John Dean's remark, “These should never see the light of day.” They are of a very, very, very secretive nature.” L. Pat Gray subsequently burned the Hunt files, was betrayed by Nixon, and resigned as FBI Director for that act. Is that what Watergate is really about?

5. Anthony Ulasewicz said he was ordered by the Plumbers to fly immediately to Chappaquiddick and dig up dirt on Ted. A sinister implication is that, according to his testimony, he arrived early on the morning of the "accident", before the whole incident had been made public... unusually quick timing.

6. In March 1973, John Dean said to Nixon, “If Kennedy knew the bear trap he was walking into…” It would seem that John Dean was aware of the trap set for Ted Kennedy after the fact.

7. Charles Colson (on later released tapes) informs the President that anti-Kennedy efforts did indeed extend beyond surveillance: “I did things out of Boston. We did some blackmail and … my God, uh, uh, uh; I’ll go to my grave before I ever disclose it".

8. Mary Jo lived for 1-2 hours in the submerged car on a pocket of air trapped above. The diver who recovered her body, John Farrar, described proof not only that Mary Jo was alive and breathing, but also that she was trying desperately but unsuccessfully to get out. The doctor claimed she had died of suffocation rather than from drowning. But there was no autopsy.

9. The coincidental (and suggestive0 connection of Mary Jo to George Smathers, Bobby Baker, LBJ et al

10. The subsequent "silence" of his friends - Paul Markham and Joe Gargan, and his driver John Crimmins. Also, the 5 other young women present at the barbecue - for 40 years

[John Simkin]

BBC 2 will be showing tonight a documentary on the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

[David Andrews]

2. A rope was found attached to a stick which held the Oldsmobile throttle wide open also caught the driver’s rear view mirror and tore it loose so that it was hanging by the rear bolt.

>

>

Curious to know whether this rope and stick were logged into any police evidence report, and in any way discussed at the inquest. The rope was probably used to secure the position of the steering wheel by lashing it to the mirror - an old street trick for sinking a car. If it was indeed tied to the stick - perhaps this was some lowlife's bright idea about how to dive in and retrieve all the evidence in one wet grab.

Re: Colson - I have read some things about his current ministry being involved in intel dealings or natural resources procurement in underdeveloped countries under the NWO. When I can again find the things I've read, I'll post them, or the links. Check around yourselves, if interested.

* * *

Again, does anyone remember this Chappaquiddick book from the 1990s? It was an examination of the Oldsmobile that showed that the passenger side (if I remember right) doors each had a vertical dent in them not possible to have been made by hitting the water bottom. Two parallel dents photographed, with the author's contention being that the Olds was forced off-road before the sinking, and in that action it collided with a stand of slender trees. Does anybody remember the title/author of this book? I can't find it on Amazon.

Edited September 24, 2009 by David Andrews

[John Simkin]

BBC 2 will be showing tonight a documentary on the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

Sorry for the delay in commenting on this documentary. The documentary included a filmed interview with Rosemary Keough, the only person at the party who has broken their vow of silence. However, her testimony was only concerned about the moral behaviour of the women at the party. She denied that Mary Jo Kopechne or any of the other women were sexually involved with the Kennedys. However, she refused to say anything about the party. This vow of silence is one of the most interesting aspects of the case. Why, after all these years, are these people still not talking about what happened at the party?

The documentary also included an interview with Kennedy’s close friend, Dun Gifford. He was also unwilling to talk in any detail about Chappaquiddick. However, using the testimony of Kennedy family pilot, Wilfred Rock, Gifford reluctantly agreed that he and Kennedy had lied about the timing of events that night. It has always been clear that the car went into the water at a different time than the one put forward by Kennedy.

There is one major problem with the timings provided by Kennedy. At about 12.45 Kennedy's stationary car was seen at the intersection on Dike Road near the bridge by Christopher ‘Huck' Look, deputy sheriff and part-time police officer. Look claims that a man was driving and that two other people were in the car. Look approached the car on foot but when the driver saw his police uniform the car then sped off down Dike Road . The car had a Massachusetts registration letter L. It also had a 7 at the beginning and at the end. Only eight other cars of this type had this number plate. They were all later checked out. Kennedy's car was the only one with that number plate that was on the island that night.

Christopher ‘Huck' Look appears to be a convincing witness. There seems to be no reason why he should lie about what he saw on the morning of the 19th July, 1969. Therefore we have the situation where Edward Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne left the Lawrence Cottage at around 11.15 p.m. For some reason Kennedy returns to the cottage at 12.20 a.m. However, it is not to report the accident as at this stage the car has not yet had the accident on Dike Bridge.

The most interesting aspect of the documentary concerned the re-enactment of the car accident that killed Mary Jo Kopechne. Car accident investigators unanimously agreed that Edward Kennedy’s testimony was clearly false. In fact, they argued persuasively that Kennedy would have been unable to escape from the car if it had crashed into the water in that way. They concluded that Kopechne was driving the car when it went off the bridge and that she was alone as no one else could have escaped from the vehicle.

Jim Arena, the Edgartown Chief of Police, claimed on camera that his investigation showed that Kennedy was not in the car when it went into the water. Lieutenant George Killen has already gone on record as saying something similar. He interviewed two friends of Kennedy, Ross Richards and Stan Moore, who met with him in his hotel just before 8 o'clock. They reported that he appeared to be acting in a relaxed way and did not appear to be under any stress. Soon afterwards, Paul Markham and Joe Gargan arrived at the hotel. According to Richards they were “soaking wet”. It was while talking to Markham and Gargan that Kennedy became visibly upset. Killen, who interviewed all those people who had contact with Kennedy that morning in the hotel, became convinced that it was at this stage that Kennedy first discovered that Mary Jo Kopechne was dead. Ross Richards also agreed with this analysis.

The solution to this puzzle in the documentary was very unconvincing. They used the theory of Lieutenant Bernie Flynn. He said: “Ted Kennedy wasn't in the car when it went off the bridge. He would never have gotten out alive.” Flynn was convinced that Kennedy had intended to have sex with Mary Jo in the car. He was drunk (evidence suppressed in court showed that Kennedy had consumed a great deal of alcohol that day). When Look approached Kennedy's car, he feared he would be arrested. Therefore he sped off into the darkness. Afraid that Look would catch him up he gets out of the car and persuades Mary Jo to drive off (she herself has consumed a fair amount of alcohol. Kennedy then walks back to the cottage. When Mary Jo does not return Kennedy becomes convinced she has had an accident. Kennedy then goes back to his hotel leaving Markham and Gargan to search for Mary Jo. It is not until the next morning they discover what has happened. They then go to Kennedy's hotel to tell him the news. This fits Lieutenant George Killen idea that Kennedy did not know about the accident until the morning meeting with Markham and Gargan.

I agree with part of Flynn’s theory. Especially, the part that claims that Kennedy did not find out about the accident until the following morning. However, if he had left the car because he was drunk, why didn’t admit to doing this when interviewed by the police? It would have been far less hurtful to his career than to admit that he left the scene of the accident without reporting it, therefore guaranteeing her death.

My own theory of what happened that night at Chappaquiddick includes the following:

Mary Jo Kopechne worked as a secretary for George Smathers in 1963. She also shared an apartment with Nancy Carole Tyler, who worked for Bobby Baker. As a result, I suspect she had important information about the assassination of JFK. Like Grant Stockdale (Smathers’ business partner) she probably passed this information onto Robert and Edward Kennedy. However, for some reason, Robert did not do anything with this information and publicly claimed he agreed with the Warren Commission. Maybe the Kennedys told Mary Jo that they were biding their time. As I have said before, I think that the real motive was that they were trying to protect the reputation of the Kennedys. Robert no doubt thought that if he remained quiet he would become president in 1968. After gaining power he would then be in a safe position to reveal details about Operation Freedom. What we do know is that Mary Jo becomes Robert’s secretary after the assassination of JFK. Maybe this was done to keep an eye on her. He does not want her to talk about what she knows.

Robert Kennedy looks like he is going to become president until he is murdered on 4th June, 1968. Mary Jo now sees no reason for holding back this information. Edward Kennedy disagrees. Why? What do these people have on the Kennedys? Is Edward still playing the long game? He still believes the best way of becoming president is not to reveal this information. Does he tell the people responsible for the assassinations that he has taken out an insurance policy. That all the information the Kennedys have will be published if he is also murdered. Maybe a deal is done. Edward Kennedy will be allowed to become president in 1972 if he keeps quiet about what he knows about the deaths of his two brothers. In this way the reputations of his two brothers will remain untarnished.

If that is the case, Mary Jo has to be kept from talking. Edward is told to arrange a meeting with Mary Jo. Edward believes the idea is for Mary Jo to be frightened into not talking. However, the conspirators see it as an opportunity to prevent Edward from ever becoming president.

Edward leaves the party with Mary Jo and takes her by car to a place where she is to be “frightened”. Edward is then taken by boat to his hotel in Edgartown.

The conspirators then murder Mary Jo (drugged and then drowned). The car is driven at speed towards Dyke Road Bridge to provide the tyre markings that will implicate Kennedy in her death. Mary Jo is then placed in the passenger seat and the car which is then pushed off the Dyke Road Bridge.

This helps to explain Edward’s behaviour following the accident. In fact he does not know that Mary Jo is dead until he arrives back on Chappaquiddick Island the next morning. Edward Kennedy is allowed to live but will now never become president. Edward cannot tell now what he knows without disclosing his own role in the cover-up of JFK’s assassination and the death of Mary Jo. The best option for Edward is to go along with the story that he was driving the car.

[John Simkin]

http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/article...iddick_coverup/

Les Leland says it’s just a coincidence that his book about Chappaquiddick is coming out so soon after Senator Ted Kennedy’s death. “I’ve been working on it for six years,’’ says Leland, who was the foreman of the grand jury that looked into the tragedy. “I’ve lived for 40 years with the innuendos about what really happened.’’ In the book, called “Left to Die,’’ Leland says he was a naive, 29-year-old pharmacist when he found himself at the center of a national news story. He details the events of July 19, 1969, when Kennedy drove his car off Dike Bridge on Martha’s Vineyard and left without recovering his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, who was found dead inside the car the next morning. Leland alleges that the grand jury attempted to investigate the accident, but was “stymied’’ by a DA and judge unwilling to cross the Kennedys. Leland also writes about the death threats that left him terrified and intimidated. (He was eventually given 24-hour police protection.) “It was all a coverup,’’ Leland said yesterday. “The rich and powerful can change the outcome of justice, and they did in this case.’’ In his memoir “True Compass,’’ Kennedy admits that he made “terrible decisions’’ in the minutes and hours after the accident. Leland, who has lived on the island since 1963, said he wrote his book (with J.B. Shaffer) to dispel the notion that he wasn’t interested in the truth. “I’m tired of people saying the grand jury was bought off,’’ he said.

[David Andrews]

"The conspirators then murder Mary Jo (drugged and then drowned). The car is driven at speed towards Dyke Road Bridge to provide the tyre markings that will implicate Kennedy in her death. Mary Jo is then placed in the passenger seat and the car which is then pushed off the Dyke Road Bridge."

How do these ideas jibe (or not) with the official finding that MJK survived for some time underwater, in an air pocket created in the rear seat footwell?

Edited November 13, 2009 by David Andrews