Teddy's description of the Chappaquiddick "accident" was enough to convict him of involuntary and voluntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment.

Today you can add homicide by vehicle while intoxicated, a mandatory three-year prison term in most states.

The facts are simple.  Kennedy drove fast, probably drunk, off a bridge at about 11:30 P.M.  The pond was only about six feet deep.  The front end of the car was angled down.

Kennedy walked away, went to his hotel, and waited until the next morning to report to the police.  The car was discovered by two boys fishing in the morning.  The boys, unlike Teddy, went to a nearby house to report the car in the water.  Had Teddy done this instead of leaving, Mary Jo Kopechne probably would have been saved. 

Kennedy spent the night at his hotel room drying out so there would be no alcohol in his system, and to fabricate with his fixers the statement he gave the police.  During the time Kennedy was at his hotel with his fixers, Mary Jo died from suffocation.

It was negligence to drive too fast and off the road while drunk, which is involuntary manslaughter.  But it was far more criminal to leave her in the car for eight or more hours, without calling for help, which may get into voluntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment.  Kennedy had to explain why he waited almost eight hours to report to the police and had to explain why he left Mary Jo in the car.

The substance of the statement concocted by Kennedy and his fixers is that it took him until morning to realize what happened, and he did not know that Mary Jo was in the car when he left the pond.

This is Teddy's statement to the police:

On July 18, 1969, at approximately 11:15 p.m. in Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, I was driving my car on Main Street on my way to get the ferry back to Edgartown. I was unfamiliar with the road and turned right onto Dike Road, instead of bearing hard left on Main Street. After proceeding for approximately one-half mile [800 m] on Dike Road I descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge. The car went off the side of the bridge. There was one passenger with me, one Miss Mary Kopechne, a former secretary of my brother Sen. Robert Kennedy. The car turned over and sank into the water and landed with the roof resting on the bottom. I attempted to open the door and the window of the car but have no recollection of how I got out of the car. I came to the surface and then repeatedly dove down to the car in an attempt to see if the passenger was still in the car. I was unsuccessful in the attempt. I was exhausted and in a state of shock. I recall walking back to where my friends were eating. There was a car parked in front of the cottage and I climbed into the backseat. I then asked for someone to bring me back to Edgartown. I remember walking around for a period and then going back to my hotel room. When I fully realized what had happened this morning, I immediately contacted the police.

The lawyerly lies are breathtaking:

1. "The car went off the side of the bridge."

Should say, I drove off the side of the bridge.

2. "I have no recollection of how I got out of the car."

This means he is lying, or else he admits he was so drunk that he does not know how he got out.

3. "I came to the surface and then repeatedly dove down to the car in an attempt to see if the passenger was still in the car."

He does not even bother to humanize Mary Jo by using her name.  She is a "passenger."  He does not say he tried to get her out.  He is setting up a defense that he did not know if Mary Jo was in the car.  Maybe he thought she had walked away to meet with her lawyers.

4. "I was unsuccessful in the attempt."

Does he mean he could not see if Mary Joe was in the car?  This is clever lawyer BS to make it sound as if Mary Jo may have escaped the car.  Kennedy and his lawyers wrote this to make it appear that Kennedy did not know that Mary Jo was still in the car.  This goes to the criminal intent to leave Mary Jo in the car, which is reckless disregard of Mary Jo's life.  Teddy is setting up the defense that he did not know if Mary Jo was in the car.  Sounds like the "no criminal intent" Crooked Hillary defense.  A real district attorney would point out that if he could not see Mary Jo in the car, it means he was too drunk, or more likely he never looked and never tried to help her.  The pond was only six feet deep.  He knew that Mary Jo was in the car when they left the party and were alone in the car, so where did he think she went?

5. "I was exhausted and in a state of shock."

Kennedy and his lawyers wrote this to negate the criminal intent of knowingly leaving Mary Jo in the car to die.  He was in "shock,"  did not know if Mary Jo was in the car, and therefore could not be responsible because he was in shock and therefore unable to form the intent to leave her in the car.  Teddy is trying to explain why he did not "see" Mary Jo, and why he walked away without calling for help.

6. "I recall walking back to where my friends were eating. There was a car parked in front of the cottage and I climbed into the backseat. I then asked for someone to bring me back to Edgartown. I remember walking around for a period and then going back to my hotel room. When I fully realized what had happened this morning, I immediately contacted the police."

This is beyond belief.  Kennedy says he was walking around, goes back to his friends, gets in a car, and someone drove him to Edgartown, walks around some more, then went to his hotel room.  He did not "fully realize" what happened until the morning, and then he called the police.

Note that Kennedy never says he recalls that Mary Jo was still in the car until he "fully realized" it the next morning.  

The entire statement is written to show that Kennedy was in a state of shock and did not know until the morning that Mary Jo was in the car.

Teddy forgot to put in his report that he and five other married friends were at a party with six single women and that he left with Mary Jo.

Kennedy was charged only with leaving the scene of an accident, with a two-month suspension of his driver's license.

See Senatorial Privilege, the Chappaquidick Cover-Up by Leo Damore (Regenery Gateway,1988).  The Damore book contains all the facts of Chappaquidick and the cover-up.

Kennedy's account would make even Crooked Hillary and Bubba blush.

This is the man who criticized Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas as unfit to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.  He accused Bork of forcing women to have back-alley abortions.  He accused Thomas of harassing Anita Hill.

This is the man who ran in the 1976 Democratic presidential primaries and almost won.  Had he beaten Jimmy Carter, Kennedy would have most likely defeated Gerald Ford to become our president.

This is the man who was called the Lion of the Senate by the Democrats and their cheerleaders in the media, who contacted the Soviet Union commie leaders to ignore Reagan and was the leader of the Democratic Party that represents itself as the party to help women.