FBI and Chappaquiddick Options

[John Simkin]

In his autobiography, The Bureau: My Thirty Years in Hoover's FBI, William Sullivan, Deputy Director of the FBI under Hoover, claims that the FBI was involved in investigating Chappaquiddick:

Hoover was as fond of Ted Kennedy as he had been of his brothers. It was the FBI which circulated the story that Teddy Kennedy was a poor student and had cheated on an exam. By rights the FBI should have had nothing to do with the Chappaquiddick affair, but the Boston office was put on the case right away. Although Hoover was delighted to cooperate, the order did not originate with him. It came from the White House.

Everything that came in on Kennedy and on Mary Jo Kopechne, the unfortunate young woman who drowned in his car, was funnelled to the White House. Hoover even assigned our local agent to dig into the affair. The White House asked Hoover to make the assignment and Hoover jumped through the hoop to do it.

This possibly explains why Edward Kennedy never made a serious attempt to become president. The Republicans were aware of what really happened at Chappaquiddick.

[Pat Speer]

John, it's a misnomer that Teddy never tried to run for President. He gave it his all against Carter in 1980, but came up short. His handling of Chappaquiddick raised too many questions about his character. Even people in Mass. preferred him as a Senator. If he cares to write a true tell-all, it will be one of the most interesting books in recent history.

While I haven't read everything there is to read about Chappaquiddick, it's clear he made some mistakes. After one look at that bridge, however, I gained some sympathy for the man. The bridge was scarcely wider than the car, had no rails, no lights and was at an angle to the dirt road to the beach. It was clearly a hazard. A lot of drivers, drunk or sober, would fail to negotiate that turn.

This post has been edited by Pat Speer: Dec 3 2005, 03:06 AM

[Lynne Foster]

According to Richard Nixon, the truth about Chappaquidick has never been told.

I think he is right, but that is only because he probably did not get the opportunity to read this.

[Mel Ayton]

Pat,
I agree - you may be interested on my 'take' on the accident.

http://crimemagazine.com/05/tedkennedy,1017-5.htm

[John Simkin]

According to Richard Nixon, the truth about Chappaquidick has never been told.

I think he is right, but that is only because he probably did not get the opportunity to read this.

Lynne, your friend Mat Wilson is indeed right about Watergate. The true story goes something like this:

Nixon was involved in a variety of different dirty tricks against his opponents. The less serious were part of Operation Gemstone. The really serious stuff that involved political assassinations was called Operation Sandwedge. At the sametime Richard Nixon was trying to undermine the power base of the CIA (the Huston Plan).

After Watergate Nixon tried to pressurize the CIA to help him cover it up. He used his knowledge about the assassination of JFK to put pressure on Richard Helms to comply with his orders. Helms responded by using his people to leak information to Bob Woodward (Deep Throat) exposing Operation Gemstone. When Nixon threatened to expose Helms and the CIA, he responded by threatening to expose details of Operation Sandwedge. Nixon took the deal was offered to him by Richard Ober, he resigned over Watergate and his involvement in destroying the political careers of George Wallace and Edward Kennedy remained a secret. So did the CIA's involvement in the assassination of JFK.

[Tim Gratz]

John turns a drunken accident into a conspiracy! I think Pat is probably correct. Sen. Kennedy's womanizing and his drinking destroyed his career. Sometimes (but not always) the simplest answers are closest to the truth!

[Pat Speer]

John turns a drunken accident into a conspiracy! I think Pat is probably correct. Sen. Kennedy's womanizing and his drinking destroyed his career. Sometimes (but not always) the simplest answers are closest to the truth!

I'm not sure if you can rightly call having a 40-year reign as a powerful Senator having your career destroyed.
That's like saying Byrd's career was destroyed by his Klan ties, or Bush's career was destroyed by his Nazi ties.
I was glad to see that Mel's article was fair to Mary Jo, the forgotten victim. There is NO evidence she was morally loose. There is also NO real evidence that Kennedy's drinking caused the accident. It could very well be that things happened pretty much as Kennedy claimed. He took a wrong turn and wham he was in the water... It was his delay in reporting the accident that caused the doubts about his character to linger on... It's interesting that those who smell a rat with the Kennedy accident see nothing mysterious about Laura Bush' killing of her young beau, and those who smell a rat with Laura are frequently quite forgiving of Kennedy. Accidents happen... even to good people.

This post has been edited by Pat Speer: Dec 6 2005, 09:20 AM

[John Geraghty]

Pat,
I have never heard this story about Laura Bush, can you elaborate or give me a link on it?
Cheers
John

[Pat Speer]

Pat,
I have never heard this story about Laura Bush, can you elaborate or give me a link on it?
Cheers
John

Here's a credible overview of the story:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/laura.asp
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Politics (Laura)

[Tim Gratz]

As usual, Pat adds the "voice of reason".

The accident may very well have been just that, and not related to Kennedy's drinking (although wanting to work off the effects of alcohol could certainly explain his delay in reporting the accident, which delay may very well have cost Mary Jo her life). It is hard to believe, however, that Sen. kennedy did not have "womanizing" on his mind.