McNeil details 10 surprising things listeners will learn about the tangled case in the podcast. This article was originally published on May 31, 2018.
Over eight months, I investigated what really happened on the tiny Massachusetts island of Chappaquiddick on July 18, 1969, when Sen. Ted Kennedy drove his car off a narrow wooden bridge — an accident which took the life of his passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne.
The results of my reportingcan be heard inCover-Up, which PEOPLE produced with Cadence 13.
The podcast explores the events of that night and the scandal that ensued — starting with the 10-hour delay between the time Kennedy escaped from the car and when he reported the accident to the police — all in an effort to understand a mystery that has lasted half a century.
- Mary Jo Kopechne almost didn’t go to Chappaquiddick.According to her cousin and closest living relative, Georgetta Potoski, 79, “Mary Jo was never supposed to go to Chappaquiddick that weekend.” Potoski tells PEOPLE Kopechne had a work obligation in New Orleans that was going to prevent her from attending the reunion party for her fellow campaign workers in Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential run. But, at the last minute, Potoski says, “She got someone to cover for her and she went because she wanted to see her friends.”
Bettmann Archive/Getty Images (2)
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The site of the 1969 Chappaquiddick Island crash involving Sen. Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne.Bettmann Archive/Getty
- Mary Jo’s final conversation with her parents left them with unanswered questions.In their last phone call, several days before she died, Mary Jo told her mom she had three things to tell her. “The first was she was thinking of getting engaged,” says Potoski. (Her boyfriend worked in the Foreign Service.) “The second thing was she had taken a job working for Matt Reese, a political consultant. But before she could tell them the third thing, her father got on the phone to say ‘hi’ and they never found out the third thing. We’ll never know what the third thing was.”
Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
Deputy Sherriff Huck Look saw Ted’s car 90 minutes after Ted said his car went over the Dike Bridge.On July 19, 1969, around 12:45 a.m., Look was driving back to his home on Chappaquiddick when he saw a dark car and thought the driver appeared “unsure or lost.” He parked his car and got out to see if the driver needed help, but before he could get there the car took off and went down Dike Road toward the bridge. Look continued home. But the next morning, when he went to the scene of the car accident on Dike Bridge and saw Ted’s car overturned in the water, he said “That’s the same car I saw last night.” The 90-minute time difference between 11:15 p.m., when Ted said the accident occurred, and 12:45 a.m., when Look said he saw the senator’s car, was never fully explained.
The Ballou family had a strange encounter on the water that night.A little before 2 o’clock on the morning of July 19, 1969, C. Remington Ballou and his family were on their boat, which was moored close to the ferry channel. As Ballou told theNew Bedford Standard Times, he saw a small boat, carrying three people, douse its lights and its motor — an unusual occurrence. He then saw the small boat drift toward a larger boat that had crossed the channel to the Chappaquiddick landing. And that boat also turned off its lights. A few minutes later, the smaller boat revved up its motor and sailed out of the harbor. At the time, Ted’s press aide Dick Drayne denied any connection. “If there was a boat, the senator wasn’t on it,” he said. “The senator swam across [the water].” But Remington’s daughter, Cristy Ballou, tells PEOPLE her father always wondered if the boats were somehow linked to what had happened earlier that night. “The next day when he heard what happened at Chappaquiddick, he thought they were definitely connected,” says Cristy. “He thought it was very odd for that time of night.”
Sen. Ted Kennedy.GETTY
- Mary Jo’s family is hoping for a “death bed confession” from someone who knows more about what happened that night.“The truth has never come out,” says Nelson, her cousin. Adds Potoski, his mom: “Mary Jo’s parents never had her final hours explained to them. We are hoping some day more information will come out. Maybe someday there will be a death bed confession.”
The letter went on to say later that night, Ted went for a drive with another woman. But that neither he nor his female passenger realized Mary Jo was in the back seat. According to the letter, Potoski says: “The car went off the bridge and Ted and his female companion escaped from the car and returned to the party. And Ted was not aware Mary Jo was asleep in the back.”
According to the letter, it was only the next morning, when Betty asked where Mary Jo was, that she was shocked to find out Ted’s car had gone over the bridge. That’s when she told her fellow party guests she had placed Mary Jo in the back seat to rest the night before. According to the letter, once they all realized what had happened, Ted was informed Mary Jo had been asleep in the back.
Still, says Potoski, “It doesn’t answer all the questions. If he hadn’t known she was asleep in the back seat, why didn’t they just say that?”
Now that a year has passed since she received the note, Potoski adds: “I’m still not convinced the mystery has been solved. There are still things we do not know about what happened that night.” But she and her son try to focus on the positive, includingthe scholarship in Mary Jo’s nameat Misericordia University, Potoski’s alma mater.
“In that way Mary Jo continues to help people,” says Potoski, “and she has brought the recipients happiness. And we’re grateful for that.”
For more on the Chappaquiddick scandal, listen to PEOPLE’s podcastCover-UponApple Podcasts,Spotify,Google Playor wherever podcasts are available. And to continue the discussion, joinour Facebook groupto share your thoughts and theories or reach us directly atcoverup@people.com.
source: people.com
