[ExI] Senator from Chappaquiddick

[Keith Henson]

On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 8:53 PM,  Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com>> wrote:
>
> spike wrote:

>>> ...On Behalf Of hkhenson
>>> More than 30 years ago, a person I knew who moved in Kennedy
>>> circles told me that Kennedy didn't know Mary Jo was in the back seat.
>>> ...He and the woman got out,
>>> and had no idea that Mary Jo was drowning in the back seat...
>>> But it makes a lot more sense than the official version.
>>>
>>> Now that Kennedy is dead, perhaps some of the people who knew
>>> what actually happened will talk about it... Keith
>
>  > [In more detail]
>  >>
>
>     According [this account], Mary Jo had gone to sleep
>     in the back of the car after too much alcohol. (It
>     wouldn't have taken much if she didn't drink often.)
>
>     Kennedy and some other woman took off from the party
>     (for the usual reason he thought). Kennedy missed the
>     road and went down a boat ramp into the water. He and
>     the woman got out, and had no idea that Mary Jo was
>     drowning in the back seat. Kennedy didn't think much of
>     the silly accident and got someone else to report they
>     had driven the car into the water.
>
>     When the car was fished out and the body discovered,
>     that story wouldn't work, he obviously could not put
>     Mary Jo's death on someone else. But Kennedy could not
>     tell the real story (which increases the odds he had a
>     married woman with him).
>
>     The actual situation was told to the judge in a closed
>     court session. The judge treated it as a tragic accident
>     (which if this story is true, it was).
>
>> Keith thanks, this version of the story really does make more sense than the
>> traditional one.  I couldn't figure out how even a child of privelege could
>> have gotten off with so few consequences.  I could imagine witnesses at the
>> party testifying that Mary Jo had too much and had left the party, then some
>> time later Kennedy and someone else had left together.  For that matter Mary
>> Jo could have even been asleep in the floor behind the front seat, which
>> would explain why the carpet back there had her claw marks.  She could have
>> awakened only when the car overturned, then been disoriented by alcohol and
>> the bizarre circumstance of being upsidedown in a submerged Detroit.
>
> Like John Clark, I can't quite figure it. I put myself
> in Kennedy's position upon hearing that they've just
> found a dead woman in the back seat. Now what would
> be more damaging?  (A) that I had no idea, though I
> was with the embarrassing Mrs. X, or (B) I panicked
> and didn't seek help, and let a woman drown.
>
> The truth (1) sounds less culpable and even less
> embarrassing, and (2) is far less dangerous since
> it is the truth (and so no later story can *really*
> get me in trouble.
>
> (Of course, it may be relevant that Kennedy was
> pretty young at the time, and no telling what he
> was thinking.)

Lee, I can't account for either the original story or this variation,
this is just what I was told by someone who seemed to know about it.

If there was another woman involved, keeping her out of the story must
have been really important.

Keith