Ted Kennedy, a “cursed” politician, surrounded and haunted by death

In 1963, dos reply They ended the presidency and life of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Almost five years later, three shots They ended the aspirations to office and the existence of his brother Robert Francis Kennedy. And in July 1969, the prospects that the youngest of the trio, Edward Moore Kennedy, known to everyone as Ted, arrived at the Oval Office, they ended up at the bottom of a pond. But in this case it was not a Kennedy that died, but rather an enthusiast of them: Mary Jo Kopechne.

Kopechne’s death would be another misfortune that gave him a tragic aura to the Kennedy Dynasty (started by patriarch Joe and his wife Rose, who buried many of them by living 104 years). But, as we will see, strictly speaking it was another example of men protected by the system in which they were elevated.

Ted Kennedy was a perennial senator for the state of Massachusetts from 1962 until his death in 2009. After being district attorney in Massachusetts, Ted had filled the place in the Capitol that JFK vacated. The biography Ted Kennedy. A Lifeby John A. Farrell, tells how he lived for years with the idea of ​​death as something close. In 1964, an airplane he was traveling in crashed, dying the pilot and one of Ted’s trusted men. Other brothers of his had perished in plane accidents.

After Robert’s murder, which for some of his eleven children remains unclear, Ted broke down. At 36 years old, he was offered to go to the 1968 Democratic primaries as vice president. “The door is closed,” he replied. They doubled down and directly proposed him to lead the ballot. Ted was convinced that would put him in the line of mortal succession. Years later, two people entered Congress with that intention, but were arrested.

Depressed, addicted to work and drink, drove cars recklessly and, like Bobby and JFK, was a serial cheater. But he began to explore the possibility of running for president in 1972. In 1969, his candidacy was taken for granted. But then another death was added.

On July 17, boiler room girls, six women who had worked on Ted’s campaign, were invited to a party on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, a recreation place for the upper classes. Mary Jo Kopechne was the oldest, a week shy of turning 29. After helping Bobby’s family after his murder, she had begun to be political consultant of Matt Reese, an operator who had collaborated in the JFK primaries. She was devoted to the Kennedys to the point of having visited the family’s ancestral home in Ireland.

The women only knew that they were expecting regattas and the presence of Ted, who arrived on the 18th, joining colleagues and friends. They relocated to another smaller island, Chappaquiddick. Kennedy was tired. He finished ninth sailing among thirty-one sailboats. During the competition, he had a beer. When he went ashore, he had three rum and Coca. In the following hours, night included, I would drink two or three more.

The party was not very interesting. The girls weren’t particularly excited about Ted’s five companions. They were all older and, except for one, they were married. Nothing could be further from a night out: they wiped away tears when they were talking to Teddy about Bobby.

Around midnight, Kopechne decided to return to his hotel and got into Kennedy’s car. Witnesses saw his Oldsmobile pass by at high speed. Upon reaching the Poucha pond, Kennedy he faced the bridge wrong, at that time without railings, and the car fell into the water, upside down. Mary Jo ended up with her head in the back. The window on her side had been shattered. In the dark waters, Kennedy oriented himself by feeling the steering wheel, and managed to get out.

As he broke the surface, he called out Mary Jo’s name. Nothing. She tried to submerge herself, but the current always pushed her out. He had hit his head and within her, confusion and ideas of a family curse floated among the rum. There were several attempts by myself and others to psychologically justify his cowardly behavior.

Jogging, Kennedy returned to the party. He said nothing. He sat in the back of a Valiant and asked one of his friends to call two lawyers present. They returned to the bridge.

Mary Jo Kopechne had already been underwater for half an hour. The Valiant’s lights focused on the sector. Two of them submerged. One got to the Oldsmobile but couldn’t see her. Outside, Ted went from asking about Mary Jo to exclaiming, “Oh, God. What I am going to do?”. He began to scheme ways to avoid being implicated.. The lawyers did not want to risk losing their license plates and insisted that he file a police report.

It took nine hours. Enough for the alcohol to be absorbed by your body.

Ted showered and rejoined the party. like nothing. Mary Jo’s body was found the next morning. It was estimated that she would have had a small chance of being saved if Kennedy acted faster. Before the Police, he didn’t even know how to spell her last name. There was no autopsywhich would fuel suspicions that the episode had been concocted to hide sex and murder.

Ted’s wife, Joan, was in a delicate pregnancy and feared she would suffer a second miscarriage. But on July 22 she accompanied him to Kopechne’s funeral, afraid of giving a bad image if she was absent. On the 25th, in a nine-minute proceeding before the judge, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident, but denied any sexual intent. He was sentenced to two months in prison suspended and one year of probation. A few days later he was back in the Senate. In November, he would get his driver’s license back. Further investigations came to nothing, except for new driving suspensions.

On August 25, while camping with his two sons and his nephew John Jr. (the also late John John, who would be a worse airplane pilot than Ted was a motorist), Joan lost a pregnancy again.

Los Kennedy’s presidential plans for 1972 fell apart, as in 1976. In 1980 he went to the internal competition, always carrying the weight of his behavior (if he were president, how would he react in a critical situation?), and lost against Jimmy Carter. He never tried it again.

A link with our region, told in the 2021 book The Kennedys in the World. How Jack, Bobby, and Ted Remade America’s Empirede Lawrence J. Haas. In 1986, Ted Kennedy visited Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Perucelebrating restored democracies.

He also passed through Chile. Dictator Augusto Pinochet refused to receive it because Kennedy had promoted an amendment that cut off US military aid to Chile. Propaganda in the newspapers called him the number one enemy of the country.

Previously, a demonstration of two hundred people had blocked the exit route from the airport. They carried banners with a photo of Mary Jo Kopechne and pamphlets asking about her human rights. Others hung life jackets from her neck with the damn inscription CHAPPAQUIDDICK.