Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick… Is It the Kennedy Curse?
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Hey guys, welcome back to my channel today I have another true crime story for you guys, but it's kind of like Just a tragic event. So as you guys know, I love the Kennedy family I don't know what it is about the Kennedys that fascinates me so much but their entire family history and who they were as people it

intrigues me. I don't know. I'm just fascinated by them. I've done multiple videos about the Kennedys, about JFK's assassination, about the Kennedy family curse. Many of them have died. There's been all these strange accidents and incidences. As you guys probably know, John F. Kennedy was assassinated and so was his brother Bobby. But even before that, their oldest brother died in a plane accident. And when JFK died,

Bobby was supposed to be the next president and when Bobby died Ted Kennedy was supposed to be the next president and he probably would have been if this whole event I'm about to tell you about Hadn't happened. So Chappaquiddick is an event that I actually didn't know that much about I always knew that there was this kind of sketchiness around it But I didn't know exactly how it went down and didn't really have like an opinion formed this whole story did just come out as a movie and I wanted to see the movie before I made this and it was very

very very interesting and well done but it was definitely their side of things because there's a lot of other kind of conspiracy angles to this and a lot of just mystery that doesn't make any sense so I'm gonna go ahead and get started so let's go back to 1969 summer of 1969 Bobby Kennedy had been shot about a year earlier and assassinated and the Kennedy family was still kind of recovering

It was July 18th of 1969. Ted Kennedy and a few other family friends and people who had worked on the campaign decided to host kind of a weekend party getaway for a bunch of people that worked on Robert Kennedy's campaign before he was assassinated. They called these girls the Boiler Room Girls because that's where they were working in campaign headquarters. This is Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts.

the summer playground of rich socialites and politicians. Nearby is the island of Chappaquiddick.

Ted Kennedy's personal driver arrived at the cottage first and dropped off a bunch of drinks for everyone before going to the airport to pick up Ted Kennedy himself and bring him back to the party where he then changed into his swimsuit and then his driver took him to the beach where the rest of the others had already started congregating for the celebration. Probably partied a lot. But then 18 hours later, police found a vehicle registered to Ted Kennedy that had

driven off of the road on this bridge and ended up in pretty shallow water upside down. The car ended up upside down submerged in the fast-flowing current beneath the bridge. When they found the car it took them a while to get into it. I went under several times to see if I could you know take a look in but each time I did the tide sort of took me along so I gave that thought up and I boosted myself up and sat on the car.

and waited for the arrival of other help. But when they finally did open the car, they found a dead woman's body inside. I was in dive gear, ready to go, and proceeded over to that piling there. I went over to that and went into the water from that side. As I approached the rear of the automobile, which would face that way,

I saw two feet in the rear window. Because of the strength of the current, it took him another five minutes to get her out of the car and bring her up to the surface. This woman was named Mary Jo Kapickney, and she was one of the boiler room girls.

Mary Jo was only 28 years old when she died. Now what was so odd about this is that when police found this car and identified it as belonging to Ted Kennedy, Ted was just chilling back at his hotel. He had never reported an accident or being involved in an accident. He was actually just having brunch with some friends. He said that that night he was in the car with Mary Jo because he was driving her to the ferry. But he claims that he accidentally took a wrong turn, got confused, ended up driving down a dirt

dirt road and then somehow drove his car off of a small bridge into the water. Now what's very interesting about Kennedy's statements here is that he said that he made an attempt to save Mary Jo, that he remembers trying to help her, but he can't remember how he got out of the car. Typically when people experience trauma, a car accident, something like this, they

Remember either all of it or none of it. It's very rare to remember this part and that part. That's really weird It's odd that he wouldn't remember how he got out of his car, but he would remember trying to save her that seems like a very Convenient thing to remember but I did try to be a hero so they were like dude

Why did this take you 10 hours to report it then if it was just an accident? He claims that the reason it took him 10 hours to report it is because through the night he was in complete shock and was trying to process the accident. And he claimed that the next morning it just dawned on him that he was in a car accident and then he reported it to the police.

So obviously when something like this happens, it's everywhere on the news. If it was something that involved the Kennedys, it was the...

the biggest news in the world. My dad even remembers it and he was really young. He must have been like seven or eight and he remembers the whole thing happening and like being concerned about the accident and watching his mom being like really invested in what everything was going on. So few days after Ted gave his statement, which was extremely vague, there were no followups from him, no more information, no more statements. And this really pissed off a lot of people, you know, people who voted for Ted, they're like,

you know, can you at least give us some answers? Pissed off the press. Cause they're like, what the hell? Now we have no leads. Like we've, there's just no answers about what happened. This girl died and it was all like food, you know, hush that shit up. And possibly one of the weirdest things about this is that after this happened, there were no more actions taken by the police. They basically just let it go. And that's what happens when you have a lot of money and a lot of power and you are part of the Kennedy family. So obviously people were wondering, you know, Ted,

Why'd this take you 10 hours? That's really weird. And they were also asking, why were you out with this 28 year old girl who's single when you're married at that

late at night by yourself. They were also wondering if he was drinking. I mean, he just drove straight off a bridge. Seems like something that could possibly happen while under the influence. But if Ted Kennedy was caught drinking and driving, that would be the end of any chance that he had of becoming president. And the pressure was on dude, like the Kennedy family, once they lost John Kennedy and then Bobby Kennedy, I mean, he was the last

hope of the political dynasty continuing he was the one that was supposed to be president and i don't think he even really wanted to be part of it or to be president and it wasn't until four days after the accident happened that ted showed his face in public he didn't make any statements but he

He went to the funeral and he was wearing this neck brace that my dad says he can remember seeing him wear and thinking like oh damn that must have been a bad accident. But the thing about the neck brace is it first of all it looks fake like it totally looks fake and there were reporters reporting that he was craning his head around in his neck brace at the funeral like looking around and

It just looked really really out of place and odd and people had seen him without it before as soon as the as soon as the funeral ended Ted didn't make a single statement and went back into hiding in the Kennedy home So obviously there's kind of a lot of pressure from the public on the police to do something about this I mean can people really get away with drunk driving or you know, whatever he had done and

Just because they're rich and famous or their president or their famous family like how does that work? So eventually the courts contacted him about making some type of deal and you know This is really how it goes for the really really wealthy privileged people of the world or famous people, you know There's a different set of rules for them. He even had a doctor chances are in the movie they portrayed it like the doctor just made everything up and

but this doctor diagnosed him with a concussion and shock and pretty much everything he needed to be diagnosed with in order to make it look not as weird that he just left the scene. I mean, if you are rich and powerful, you can make a doctor say just about anything about you. He pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after knowing that someone was injured in it.

This was the least serious charge they could give him for this entire situation. And the reason he decided to do this plea is that if they went to court over all this, he would have to like show evidence in court and it could probably not go so well for him. So doing the plea agreement was the smartest option.

But that is just where the lies begin, my friends. Ted Kennedy decided to have a big televised statement to America, hoping to gain back his voters' sympathy and get re-elected. Today, as I mentioned, I felt morally obligated to plead guilty to the charge of leaving scene of an accident. No words on my part can possibly express terrible pain and suffering.

I feel over this tragic incident. This last week has been an agonizing one for me and for the members of

of my family and the grief we feel over the loss of a wonderful friend who will remain with us the rest of our lives. These events of publicity, innuendo, and whispers which have surrounded them in my admission of guilt this morning raises the question in my mind of whether my standing among the people of my state has been so impaired that I should resign my seat in the United States Senate. If at any time citizens of Massachusetts

should lack confidence in their senator's character or his ability, with or without justification, he could not, in my opinion, adequately perform his duties and should not continue in office. And so I ask you tonight, people of Massachusetts, to think this through with me. Facing this decision, I seek your advice and opinion. I seek your prayers. This is a decision that I will have finally to make.

However, when he did this TV interview, he added a completely new part of the story that he had never said before and had never told police. He said that he had made a second attempt to save her and that he even brought some of his friends back

back to the scene to help, which has been kind of like debated. I'm not sure if that actually happened, but it seems like it. It was probably Joey Gargan who he brought to the scene and Joey, who was very, very close with Ted and the whole Kennedy family has never spoken to Ted since this happened.

Now that to me says a lot. What's also really suspicious about this whole case is there was never an autopsy done. Suspicions of a cover-up were further increased by the fact that there had been no autopsy on the body of Mary Jo Kopechny. After all, it was a procedure that should have followed automatically in any case where the circumstances of a death were unclear. Even the doctor responsible was unable to provide a coherent explanation. Did you request an autopsy?

Actually, not in those exact words. Not in those exact words, no. Could you tell me the exact words, Doctor? I stated to the district attorneys... If the district attorney advised it...

under the particular circumstances that I would like an autopsy. Could you restate that, please? I'm sorry. I sent word to the district attorney's office the particular circumstances of the case and asked if, under these circumstances, if they fall in autopsy should be done, I would like to have it done.

This blows my mind honestly, like I can't believe that they didn't do an autopsy. Maybe it's possible she didn't even die from drowning. I mean there's a lot of people who think she suffocated. The water was shallow enough that she could like somewhat stand and if you see the movie she had her head above water for a good amount of time at least that's what they think. It's very possible she ran out of the air that she did have and just couldn't get out.

I recently sat down with Georgetta Petoskey, Mary Jo's cousin and close confidant and the author of the book Our Mary Jo. I know you have a lot of questions about Ted Kennedy's role in all of this and just what they were even doing in that car together in the first place, right? There's a suggestion that she didn't drown, that she suffocated and that she was alive for a long time in that car. I wonder what you think about that. That's one of the hardest things we had to accept.

Her parents in particular thought that she had died instantly. And a few years after she died, they went up there and spoke with John Ferrer, the scuba diver, and he told them she could have lived up to three hours in the air bubble in the car, and it was like they had lost her all over again.

Her father in particular just grieved for her. It was awful. It was awful. I can imagine. Just bizarre to me that they didn't do an autopsy. That seems like some strings were pulled for sure. And even the doctors couldn't even come up with a good excuse for why they didn't do an autopsy. Edmund Denise from the DA's office decided that there needed to be more investigation into Mary Jo Kapitney's body.

And six months later after the investigation, Ted Kennedy and a few others went to the court to give their final statements.

Kennedy again said that around 11:15 he was tired and so was Mary Jo so he and her decided to take a ride on the ferry. He basically ran through the whole story, should have made a right turn but he made a left, ended up on a different road and then accidentally drove off the bridge. And the judge basically did nothing. He concluded that Ted really probably did make the mistake because it was dark out and he didn't see where he was going. It was an unfamiliar area for him.

And the judge was unable to resolve any other questions, unanswered questions that people have. So the whole thing was closed and everyone moved on. They never put Ted Kennedy under any type of scrutiny or pressure to give the answers that he wasn't giving. And they let him testify in court first, meaning he basically got to give a little speech, another little statement, just like he had been doing before, and then didn't have to say anything back.

Throughout the trial when people were asking all the good questions and you know He didn't have to address any of that because he went before anything was asked. Ted wasn't done there He started to change his story once again He said that he tried several times to save Mary Jo but after failing to do so alone He decided to walk nearly a mile back to the cottage where all his friends were and this is kind of weird because it wasn't that late at night and chances are if

You saw Ted Kennedy walking alone at night. I mean, people would have seen them out of his house. He passed a ton of houses on the way back. It's just very unusual that no one just saw Ted Kennedy walking soaking wet.

back to this cottage. He even passed a fire station, which he easily could have gotten help from. And the saddest thing about all of this is that if it's true that Mary Jo, like the car wasn't completely filled with water because it wasn't that deep. If it wasn't completely filled with water and there was like an area where she was still breathing and she was just suffocating, the fact that Ted never told anyone because he was afraid of getting in trouble means he could have saved her life. Again, he went back to the house,

got some of his friends, told them what happened and said they needed to come with him to try to help. Apparently they all drove back to the scene together and tried to make a rescue attempt, but they weren't unable to open

Apparently they tried to save her for another 45 minutes, but were unsuccessful. They finally gave up and drove Kennedy back to the ferry landing so he could get back to his hotel. And they told him, you better report this. According to Kennedy's new timeline with all of this, it would have taken at least two hours and 40 minutes total to do everything that he said he did. But the hotel manager actually testified that he spoke with Kennedy in his office around 2.25 a.m. Therefore, his timeline is only credible if

the accident happened before 11:45. And not only that, there's a witness. There was a deputy sheriff named Hack Look and he claimed to have seen the car that was identified as Kennedy's with two people in it around 12:45. And this completely goes against Ted's story. Now this may not seem like a huge deal but it really is because if all of that's true and the witness was right, then

That means there would be no time for Kennedy to have brought his other two friends to help the situation and made this second attempt to save her. So they had pretty much discovered that that was a big lie at that point. Now, amazing, causing someone's death and then trying to act like you were this big hero who tried multiple times to save her.

How about being a hero by calling the police and getting someone with tools to come get her out? Ted also said that he was able to keep track of what time it was because there was a clock in his car. Now that was another straight up lie. There was no clock in his car. So obviously since then people have tried to figure

would really happen. There have been tons of mock setups, you know, recreations of the scene. And some of these experiments have shown major flaws in Kennedy's story. You remember Ted said that he was able to get out of the car easily, but he doesn't remember exactly how he got out. But when they tested it with actual trained scuba divers with goggles and everything, it took them several minutes to get out of the car.

And not only that, but there's actually a lot of people that believe that Ted wasn't driving the car, that maybe he was too intoxicated and asked Mary Jo to drive for him and she was the one who crashed.

and not to mention the morning that the accident happened he was just chilling like he had no reaction to everything that had happened to him the night before and he actually went to the scene he went rushing to the scene of the crime the crash and once he got there he realized how bad it was and was like i need to get the out of here that's where he called his lawyer and his political aides to help him

Cook up a nice excuse for all of this and get him out of trouble or as some people would refer to as a fixer Another strange thing that happened was that morning plane was called to pick Kennedy up and the plane actually flew over the side of the accident Before Kennedy had even gotten to the accident if he didn't know that this had happened and he had forgotten and hadn't reported to the police because he forgot about it Why did he also call a plane to get him the hell out of there?

So there's a couple different theories of what could have happened There's obviously the theory that it was just Ted driving and he was drunk and he drove off There's also a theory that Mary Jo was driving that he was drunk and he wanted her to get in trouble if anyone were to get a dy It would be better if it was her and then there's a theory that he wasn't in the car at all

because that would explain like how he got out and she wasn't able to, because it's not like he would have gotten out of a door and then shut it. It just doesn't make any sense. So maybe he was never in the car to begin with. The time that Ted said he left the party, it would have been an hour after the cop claims to have seen them. And at that point the car was only 400 yards from the cottage that everyone was partying at. So the sheriff started walking towards their car asking if they needed help and they think

They think that this is when Kennedy panicked that he was worried He'd get caught driving drunk or being with a young girl at night when he's married They believe that he got the hell out of there real fast drove away got out of the car and told Mary Jo to drive instead to like take over he needed to get away from the car so that it wouldn't be Suspicious and maybe because it was an unfamiliar area. It was dark

And she was in such a stressful situation altogether that she just drove off the road because of the forward momentum. When a car is going into water, the passengers are going to go in a different direction, but the car also will flip on its side, which would cause the bodies to go to the right side and get injured. So if she really was the passenger, she would have been on the right side and would have

way more injured. I mean the glass from the window definitely would have shown cuts on her body. And her body was found in really good condition. No broken teeth, bruises, scratches, anything. People think that because she was in such good condition, chances are she was in the driver's seat when it happened. So if the crash happened and Ted didn't even know about it,

that could explain his, you know, relaxed attitude about everything and his just weird behavior and not reporting it. Maybe he didn't know the crash actually happened, but his legal team likely looked over everything and

Him taking the guilty plea, even if he wasn't driving and just taking that minor charge, he was able to dodge a much more serious investigation that would have looked into everything that went on that night. To keep everything secret, it was good for him to claim responsibility in a weird way. Even possible, he was hooking up with Mary Jo in that car when the police came up upon them.

and then he wanted to get out of there because not only was he drunk, he was also cheating. I mean, who really knows? Mary Jo knows and she's gone. He still tried to become president.

unsuccessfully however he stayed in politics until his death I believe he passed away in 2009 word more Kennedy a giant of American politics and the Democratic Party and the patriarch of the Kennedy clan has died he was 77 years old it happened just before midnight East Coast time at his home in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod I think that's why they waited to make the movie I think if they had

had tried to produce this movie while he was still alive, he and his team would have squashed the whole thing. In terms of the movie, there's some discussion now that there was an effort to suppress it, that some supporters of the family didn't want it to come out. Does that surprise you? Well, yeah, there's always been a lot of suppression of books and stories. It just, to this day, bothers me so much that Ted

Kind of portrayed himself as a hero that I tried to save her and blah blah blah and it's just kind of disgusting thinking that There could have been so many lies involved in this poor girl like oh my god first of all She was gorgeous. It's just a really really sad and unfortunate thing that happened So I would love to hear from you guys Do you think this could be connected to the Kennedy curse? Maybe this event is what kept him from ever becoming president. I

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.