She Was Trapped Underwater and Left to Die
Why I am still talking about Mary Jo Kopechne 52 years after her death.
Everyone who’s into true crime have the cases they’ve taken a special interest in. Some of mine include the murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty German, The Bear Brook Murders, The Disappearance of Asha Degree, The St Louis Jane Doe (click on with caution, while there’s no body, it’s an upsetting photo), and Opelika Jane Doe. I hope that all of these are fully resolved in some way.
But the death of Mary Jo Kopechne is the only one I’ve written about. Since I originally wrote this thread on the 50th anniversary two years ago, I’ve tried to continue to be an advocate for a woman who’s often relegated to a nameless footnote in history.
Why? Because her story interested me. Because I was afraid no one else would if I didn’t.
Even if the name Mary Jo Kopechne is unknown to you, what happened to her probably is. Most people are aware a woman died in a car accident where the driver was Ted Kennedy. What gets lost are the details.
On July 18th or 19th, 1969, Ted’s 67’ Oldsmobile went off the Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island on the east side of Martha’s Vineyard. The car landed roof down in the water. Ted was able to escape, but his passenger Mary Jo was not. He would later say he tried seven or eight times to reach her.
And Ted waited ten hours to report… If he had immediately, there’s a very strong chance Mary Jo might have lived. She did not drown. She suffocated in the air pocket.
I break it down in more detail in my thread.
There’s been plenty written about the accident and the coverup that followed, but it all focuses on Ted and how the crash ended his presidential ambitions and blah blah blah… I don’t give a damn.
I want to talk about Mary Jo.
2019 was the 50th anniversary of several pivotal events. The Tate-LaBianca murders. The moon landing. (It was fun seeing the twitter accounts for the Kennedy and Nixon libraries duke it out over whose president was more important to the space race.)
I realized a reevaluation about Mary Jo’s death would likely be lost among the former, so in January 2019 I started gathering my research. I believed I could successfully pitch and write an essay focused on her, and make the horrible reality more well-known.
That didn’t happen.
While I was disappointed none of my pitches went anywhere, I used my small (but always loyal) platform to post my research on twitter. I consider the thread to be one of my proudest writing achievements. And it was nothing without all my wonderful readers. Thank you! <3
The thread has continues to have a long life. It was even featured on the JFK “Daddy Kennedy” episode of The Speakeasy Podcast by Lauren Devora and Eric Langois. :D
And speaking of Bad Teds, this is a perfect place to say that Trapped in Camelot was inspired by Emily Van Duyne’s wonderful newsletter, Loving Sylvia Plath. Read it, even if you aren’t a Plathian.
Two years have passed since I posted the thread. I know more now. Perhaps I should’ve tried pitching an essay more or in a different way. But I am glad it entered the world how it did. What I am bitter about is that I couldn’t find any retrospectives about the crash that didn’t turn it into a sob story for Ted. If a more established writer had done what I wanted to do, I would’ve happily shared it.
I’m 28. The same age Mary Jo was when she died. I feel like I’ve done so much, and yet so little. I wonder if she felt the same. I know it’s more professional to call your subjects by their last name, but I feel it’s cold to do so here.
In preparation for this essay, I learned more about the coverup and backlash. Thankfully, there are good things here too.
I was clarified on why an autopsy was never performed. Originally Joe Kopechne supported one being done, but he and his wife were pressured not to by coverup fans, the Catholic Church (Cardinal Cushing and the Kennedy family were pals).
The Kopechnes (and probably Ted) were also afraid an autopsy would’ve confirmed that Mary Jo was sexually active before her death, thus ruining her “good Catholic girl” reputation. A woman’s sexual decisions should never make her life less valuable in the eyes of society. An autopsy is grim by the very nature of the thing, but not having one denied Mary Jo the last chance to defend herself.
And if she had any kind of relationship with Ted or RFK and were afraid of it getting out… Well, that’s a them problem. There’s no concrete evidence either way.
Mary Jo’s cousins William Nelson and Georgetta Potoski shared that among the thousands of letters Joe and Gwen Kopechne received after the loss of their daughter, one was from none of than Muhammad Ali. The family never shared this with the public until the 50th anniversary. You can read their full statement here.
Lastly, I’m very happy to say there’s a memorial for Mary Jo on the (thankfully safer) Dike Bridge. It was done anonymously.
This essay is not to argue that Ted Kennedy didn’t do good in his life (Universal Healthcare, baby! ). And I am wholly sympathetic to a man who suffered from trauma and addiction issues. However. Mary Jo’s death is a dark stain that’s been blotted out for his benefit at her expense. It’s a huge disservice, and dare I say it, an insult to her memory.
I close this essay with some homework. Stop calling it the Chappaquiddick Incident. That’s what is labeled as on Wikipedia, and not The Death of Mary Jo Kopechne as I believe it should be. Words are important, and how we talk about events and identities shape the way they’re seen.
Incident sounds so mild, so harmless, instead of the devastating crime it was. What if we went around saying The Boulder Christmas Incident , The Guyanese Jungle Incident, or The Northwest Orient Flight 305 Incident? See where I’m going with this?
If these past years haven’t enforced it enough, we have to speak, and speak loudly, to have the dark parts of our world acknowledged. I’m never going to shut up about things that matter to me, and I’m trying my best to stand by others doing the same.
So lets talk about what happened to Mary Jo Kopechne using the right language. Because she is not an incident, or a footnote. More than a victim or a punchline.
To Mary Jo, and all the other lost women of history.
As in my original thread, the sources can be found here.
I also used the following articles.
“Kopechne Memorials Found on Dike Bridge” by Brian Dowd, Martha’s Vineyard Times, pub. 20 August 2019
“Family of Mary Jo Kopechne releases 50-year-old letter from Muhammad Ali” Times Leader, pub. 13 July 2019
“The End of Camelot” by Joe McGinniss, Vanity Fair, pub. September 1993
No update next week. I’m on vacation! See you later!