Who killed Mary Jo Kopechne?

[Douglas Caddy]

Will Ruha wrote on Facebook today:

Mary Jo Kopechne had access to very sensitive information and phone calls between Smathers and his nefarious associates like Ed Ball of the DuPont fortune in Florida, as well as business partners like his high school classmate Bebe Rebozo and mob attorney Dick Nixon in pre-Castro Cuba. In fact, when Nixon took the OPA job to protect Meyer Lansky's East Coast investment in gas station operations and petrol & tire rationing, Smathers and his father oversaw local OPA regulations that together illicitly made Rebozo a multi-millionaire. Smathers also helped manage LBJ's media assets, allowing him favorable FCC rulings in his monopolistic Texas broadcast operations, which made him a multi-millionaire. Meanwhile he and his aide, Scotty Peek were knee-deep in Bobby Baker’s mob-related business operations involving associates of New Orleans Mafia godfather Carlos Marcellos. Kopechne was extremely perspicacious and diligent in her duties handling Smathers’ calendar and files.

Terribly ambitious and notoriously corrupt, Smathers used Jack Kennedy by pimping for him to befriend him, ever-ready to supply his Addison’ Disease associate with only the most comely young women (many covertly supplied by Lansky and associates), but, as Kopechne noted much to her dismay, the rightwing Florida solon voted against Jack Kennedy's legislative proposals 62% of the time, and incessantly pushed Castro's assassination to JFK, until finally, one evening, Kennedy so forcefully replied in the negative to his alleged good friend, that the normally imperturbable president broke his White House dinner plate with the thrust of his fork downward in emphasizing his anger at Smathers' ceaseless insistence.

Smathers was deeply tied into the CIA's anti-Castro ops, accepted an invitation to be the keynote speaker at CIA agent Bill Buckley's inaugural convention of his newly-formed arch-conservative Young Americans for Freedom, which had recently formed an alliance with anti-Castro paramilitary groups, financed in no small part by JFK assassination co-conspirator Joseph Milteer.

Mary Jo had taken the job of Smathers’ secretary only because she had initially believed him to be a close persona friend of the president. What she discovered, deeply disturbed her. A few days before JFK’s departure to engage in pre-election-year appearances in Florida and Texas, Kennedy stopped by Smathers’ Senate office to complain to him his irritation at having to try to resolve internecine party spats that he felt, as he said, “You and Lyndon should be handling. I don’t want to go.” Smathers grandly made a show of it by grinning broadly and warmly hugging the president. “Nonsense,” he replied, “You have to make these trips, Jack. The people will love you down there. They want to see their president.” Kennedy wasn’t entirely mollified. He was aware of the various plots against him, had chided the Secret Service about his protection, and had been repeatedly warned against these trips that followed his June 11, nationwide civil rights address. But Smathers continued to flatter, cajole, and insist to him the absolute necessity of his taking these trips. Kennedy finally relented. Watching all this was Kopechne, who took the opportunity to ask JFK for an autograph on the photo of him that she kept posted above her desk. Smathers took the opportunity to chide his “friend.” “There, you see, Jack? She’s MY secretary, but you don’t see a portrait of me above her desk. You see how the people love you? You’ve got to go.”

Meanwhile, as Smathers’ was being named in the Senate’s deepening inquiry into the nefarious mob-related business dealings of LBJ’s secretary, Bobby Baker, and an explosive Life magazine article was being prepared to publicly expose all this, Milteer’s Florida anti-Castro assassins awaited the president’s arrival, having Lee Oswald, who had infiltrated their group. picked out as their patsy. Fortunately, undercover police informant, William Somerset, secretly tape-recorded his conversation with Milteer and reported it to Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and precautions were taken to spare Jack’s life in Florida. Bobby already had information on Baker’s links to LBJ financier, Clint Murchison and several Mafia bosses, as well as Johnson’s corruption in bribes and kickbacks. which included the awarding of a $7 billion contract for a fighter plane, the F-111, to General Dynamics, a company based in Texas for whom the father of John Connally’s son-in-law, Bobby Hale, worked, while dispatching his sons to Hollywood to break into the apartment of JFK mistress Judith Campbell only weeks after Marilyn Monroe had been terminated by CIA/mob assassins. A month prior to JFK’s visit to Smathers’ office, Bobby Baker was forced to resign his post, as did Naval Secretary John Connally’s replacement, Texan Fred Korth. Not to pun, but it was all coming to an explosive head, when Kennedy visited Smathers office and for the first time, met Mary Jo Kopechne, who adored him. And as the Milteer plot was exposed, and as Lee Oswald, in Dallas, dispatched a warning (his second within the past month, of a pending assassination attempt against the president), the assassination locale shifted to its secondary back-up site (following Chicago and Tampa): Dallas.

When it happened, a number of those in Smathers’ office, wept. But not Mary Jo. Peck and others noted that she simply stared out into space, deeply contemplative, “as though she saw things the rest of us, didn’t.” Shortly after, Mary Jo Kopechne resigned her position with Smathers and went to work for Robert Kennedy. In short order, her ex-roommate, Nancy Carole Tyler, former secretary to Bobby Baker, was terminated. Mary Jo did intelligence work for RFK in his ’68 campaign to attain the presidency and thus bring to justice his brothers’ assassins. Then, he was terminated. The following year, having her first opportunity to speak privately with Ted Kennedy about all this, she and the 1972 Democratic presidential front-runner encountered Nixon’s hit team. She, along with a Ted Kennedy presidency, was terminated.

[Joe Bauer]

Truths 99% of Americans will never know about or care to know about.

Too heavy to face and deal with.

 

[Guest]

It always made most sense to me that he got out of the car drunk after seeing the cop and told her to drive on, she then drove off the bridge, with him not knowing, which would explain his morning demeanour before seeing Markham & co. 
 

However, the Nixon quote about Teddy walking into a bear trap always made me wonder. 
 

The recent film and the portrayal of Teddy and Joe Snr didn’t do the family reputation any good at all. 

[Andrew Prutsok]

I'll never forget this National Lampoon cartoon from my youth. 1980, I suppose.

 

[Ron Ecker]

On 12/22/2020 at 5:03 PM, Chris Barnard said:

It always made most sense to me that he got out of the car drunk after seeing the cop and told her to drive on, she then drove off the bridge, with him not knowing, which would explain his morning demeanour before seeing Markham & co. 

It makes sense to me that Ted wasn't even in the car when it went off the bridge. For one thing, he didn't drown.

 

 

[David Andrews]

The unaccounted for thing in the car accident is that both passenger-side doors on the Oldsmobile were caved in, with the concavities running vertically.  Plus the passenger side mirror was torn off and hanging.  Cops who looked at the car couldn't account for this damage, since the car had landed in the water on its roof, after overturning in its flight off the bridge.  Researchers have speculated that the car had earlier skidded off the road sideways and smashed into a pair of tree trunks, or else into a piece of heavy construction equipment known to have been parked on the roadside leading to the bridge. 

I'll try to find one of the sources for these theories and post it later.  But you can see the damage in photos of the car retrieved from the water.

Both doors knocked out of alignment by the impact.  Looks like scrape damage to the tops of the front and rear fenders on that side, as well.  Some suspect Kopechne was knocked out in this crash, thought to be dead, and then the car driven off the bridge or sent off using the old brick-on-the-gas-pedal dodge.  The side impact is suggested as the cause for the blood found in her nose and mouth.

Edited December 26, 2020 by David Andrews

[Allen Lowe]

On 12/22/2020 at 11:59 AM, Douglas Caddy said:

Will Ruha wrote on Facebook today:

Mary Jo Kopechne had access to very sensitive information and phone calls between Smathers and his nefarious associates like Ed Ball of the DuPont fortune in Florida, as well as business partners like his high school classmate Bebe Rebozo and mob attorney Dick Nixon in pre-Castro Cuba. In fact, when Nixon took the OPA job to protect Meyer Lansky's East Coast investment in gas station operations and petrol & tire rationing, Smathers and his father oversaw local OPA regulations that together illicitly made Rebozo a multi-millionaire. Smathers also helped manage LBJ's media assets, allowing him favorable FCC rulings in his monopolistic Texas broadcast operations, which made him a multi-millionaire. Meanwhile he and his aide, Scotty Peek were knee-deep in Bobby Baker’s mob-related business operations involving associates of New Orleans Mafia godfather Carlos Marcellos. Kopechne was extremely perspicacious and diligent in her duties handling Smathers’ calendar and files.

Terribly ambitious and notoriously corrupt, Smathers used Jack Kennedy by pimping for him to befriend him, ever-ready to supply his Addison’ Disease associate with only the most comely young women (many covertly supplied by Lansky and associates), but, as Kopechne noted much to her dismay, the rightwing Florida solon voted against Jack Kennedy's legislative proposals 62% of the time, and incessantly pushed Castro's assassination to JFK, until finally, one evening, Kennedy so forcefully replied in the negative to his alleged good friend, that the normally imperturbable president broke his White House dinner plate with the thrust of his fork downward in emphasizing his anger at Smathers' ceaseless insistence.

Smathers was deeply tied into the CIA's anti-Castro ops, accepted an invitation to be the keynote speaker at CIA agent Bill Buckley's inaugural convention of his newly-formed arch-conservative Young Americans for Freedom, which had recently formed an alliance with anti-Castro paramilitary groups, financed in no small part by JFK assassination co-conspirator Joseph Milteer.

Mary Jo had taken the job of Smathers’ secretary only because she had initially believed him to be a close persona friend of the president. What she discovered, deeply disturbed her. A few days before JFK’s departure to engage in pre-election-year appearances in Florida and Texas, Kennedy stopped by Smathers’ Senate office to complain to him his irritation at having to try to resolve internecine party spats that he felt, as he said, “You and Lyndon should be handling. I don’t want to go.” Smathers grandly made a show of it by grinning broadly and warmly hugging the president. “Nonsense,” he replied, “You have to make these trips, Jack. The people will love you down there. They want to see their president.” Kennedy wasn’t entirely mollified. He was aware of the various plots against him, had chided the Secret Service about his protection, and had been repeatedly warned against these trips that followed his June 11, nationwide civil rights address. But Smathers continued to flatter, cajole, and insist to him the absolute necessity of his taking these trips. Kennedy finally relented. Watching all this was Kopechne, who took the opportunity to ask JFK for an autograph on the photo of him that she kept posted above her desk. Smathers took the opportunity to chide his “friend.” “There, you see, Jack? She’s MY secretary, but you don’t see a portrait of me above her desk. You see how the people love you? You’ve got to go.”

Meanwhile, as Smathers’ was being named in the Senate’s deepening inquiry into the nefarious mob-related business dealings of LBJ’s secretary, Bobby Baker, and an explosive Life magazine article was being prepared to publicly expose all this, Milteer’s Florida anti-Castro assassins awaited the president’s arrival, having Lee Oswald, who had infiltrated their group. picked out as their patsy. Fortunately, undercover police informant, William Somerset, secretly tape-recorded his conversation with Milteer and reported it to Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and precautions were taken to spare Jack’s life in Florida. Bobby already had information on Baker’s links to LBJ financier, Clint Murchison and several Mafia bosses, as well as Johnson’s corruption in bribes and kickbacks. which included the awarding of a $7 billion contract for a fighter plane, the F-111, to General Dynamics, a company based in Texas for whom the father of John Connally’s son-in-law, Bobby Hale, worked, while dispatching his sons to Hollywood to break into the apartment of JFK mistress Judith Campbell only weeks after Marilyn Monroe had been terminated by CIA/mob assassins. A month prior to JFK’s visit to Smathers’ office, Bobby Baker was forced to resign his post, as did Naval Secretary John Connally’s replacement, Texan Fred Korth. Not to pun, but it was all coming to an explosive head, when Kennedy visited Smathers office and for the first time, met Mary Jo Kopechne, who adored him. And as the Milteer plot was exposed, and as Lee Oswald, in Dallas, dispatched a warning (his second within the past month, of a pending assassination attempt against the president), the assassination locale shifted to its secondary back-up site (following Chicago and Tampa): Dallas.

When it happened, a number of those in Smathers’ office, wept. But not Mary Jo. Peck and others noted that she simply stared out into space, deeply contemplative, “as though she saw things the rest of us, didn’t.” Shortly after, Mary Jo Kopechne resigned her position with Smathers and went to work for Robert Kennedy. In short order, her ex-roommate, Nancy Carole Tyler, former secretary to Bobby Baker, was terminated. Mary Jo did intelligence work for RFK in his ’68 campaign to attain the presidency and thus bring to justice his brothers’ assassins. Then, he was terminated. The following year, having her first opportunity to speak privately with Ted Kennedy about all this, she and the 1972 Democratic presidential front-runner encountered Nixon’s hit team. She, along with a Ted Kennedy presidency, was terminated.

where is the documentation that Kopechne, who was a secretary, had access or knew any of this? This is all bizarre speculation, the craziest being that she "stared out in space....as though she saw things the rest of didn't." What intelligence work did she do for RFK? Was it undercover, with informants?  What did she know about Smathers and his phone calls, and how do we know she knew this? Did she tell anyone? Did anyone tell us she told them?  What is the source for Smathers' commentary to JFK about the trip to Dallas, the picture on Mary Jo's desk?  Where is the evidence tying Smathers to Bobby Baker and/or Marcello?  These are just a few of the questions I have.

Edited December 26, 2020 by Allen Lowe

[Ron Bulman]

12 hours ago, Ron Ecker said:

It makes sense to me that Ted wasn't even in the car when it went off the bridge. For one thing, he didn't drown.

 

 

Didn't Nixon say Teddy Walked into a bear trap? 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Ron Bulman said:

Didn't Nixon say Teddy Walked into a bear trap? 

He said something like; if only Teddy knew the bear trap he was walking into at Chappaquiddick. It's a very intriguing comment. 

[S.T. Patrick]

I think Don Jeffries had some very compelling takes on Chappaquiddick. It's worth a listen. 

https://midnightwriternews.com/mwn-episode-083-donald-jeffries-on-ted-kennedy-and-chappaquiddick/

 

[Allen Lowe]

evidence please; that Teddy wasn't in the car. Among other allegations.

[Guest]

18 hours ago, Allen Lowe said:

evidence please; that Teddy wasn't in the car. Among other allegations.

One of the most compelling things is witness statements from the morning in the Edgartown hotel, right before Markham & Gargan turn up. You have to come to one of 3 conclusions in regard to that evidence. 

1) He had no knowledge that Mary Jo was at the bottom of the pond trapped in a car. 
2) He was on some kind of drug that meant he had no memory of the event but, he still was physically competent enough to get out of the car and survive and swim the channel at Edgartown (which wouldn't be likely if intoxicated to that level on booze). 
3) He is one of the few people who can commit their first murder or witness the death of someone in their company and produce a Hollywood performance in acting in the hotel at breakfast, being completely at ease, talking and joking with guests, appearing normal. 

This has been written about a fair bit and there is plenty that is inexplicable. We'd all love to know though.

[David Andrews]

I've found Bill Pinney's book to be very useful on Chappaquiddick, especially since it reviews the postulates and conclusions of many other books and arrives at its own timeline and rationale for the events that night.  It also explains Teddy's journey across the water to Edgartown and his demeanor at the motel.  And it discusses the vertical impact damage to the car that I posted about above.  Well worth a read.  Contains photos and document reproductions.

https://www.amazon.com/Chappaquiddick-Speaks-Bill-Pinney-ebook/dp/B0779KYW9F

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by David Andrews

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, David Andrews said:

I've found Bill Pinney's book to be very useful on Chappaquiddick, especially since it reviews the postulates and conclusions of many other books and arrives at a timeline and rationale for the events that night.  It also explains Teddy's journey across the water to Edgartown and his demeanor at the motel.  And it discusses the vertical impact damage to the car that I posted about above.  Well worth a read.

https://www.amazon.com/Chappaquiddick-Speaks-Bill-Pinney/dp/154811295X

 

Thanks David, i'll add it to my list. 

[David Andrews]

1 minute ago, Chris Barnard said:

Thanks David, i'll add it to my list. 

Look for a Kindle or EPUB version, I think the print run ran out.