Photos: On this day – July 18, 1969 – Senator Ted Kennedy drives off a Chappaquiddick bridge killing Mary Jo Kopechne

Posted Jul 18, 2012

By vwilliams

On this day – July 18, 1969 – After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a bridge and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies.

Events at Chappaquiddick Island gained international attention on July 18, 1969, when the dead body of Mary Jo Kopechne was discovered inside an overturned car in a channel on the island. The car belonged to Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy, who did not report the midnight incident to police authorities until the following morning.Kopechne’s body was recovered from the submerged car, and Kennedy entered a plea of guilty to a charge of “leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury”. He received a sentence of two months in jail, which was suspended. (Wikipedia)

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Sen. Edward Kennedys car is pulled from water as the car is screened off the bridge at Edgartown, July 19, 1969, Edgartown, Mass. The body of Mary Kopechne of Washington, D.C., was found in rear seat. Her death was attributed to drowning. (AP Photo)
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Mary Jo Kopechne, shown in this undated photo, was killed after Sen. Edward M. Kennedy drove a car off a bridge on Massachusetts' Chappaquiddick Island on July 18, 1969. (AP Photo)
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Onlookers inspect Sen. Edward Ted Kennedy's car after it was hauled on July 19, 1969 in Edgartown, from water with body of Mary J. Kopechne in the rear seat. The 38-year-old Massachusetts Democrat is expected to face public questioning abouth Kopechne's death for the first time in the inquest that opens in Edgartown, Mass., (AP Photo)
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A large tarpaulin protects Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's car from vandals found stripping the automobile for souvenirs at Edgartown, Massachusetts, July 23, 1969. Police impounded the senator's car after it was involved in a weekend accident that took the life of Miss Mary Jo Kopechne , 28. Kennedy is charged with leaving the scene of an accident. (AP Photo)
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Joseph Kopechne of Berkley, N.J., supports his weeping wife Gwen as the grieving parents of drowning victim Mary Jo Kopechne, 29, walk into St. Vincent's Chruch in Plymouth, Pa., for funeral services for their daughter, July 2, 1969. Ms. Kopechne died in an auto accident from which Sen. Edward M. Kennedy escaped, last Saturday in Massachusetts. Others are unidentified. (AP Photo)
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Sen. Edward M. Kennedy follows his wife, Joan (foreground) and Mrs. Ethel Kennedy, widow of slain Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, shown July 22, 1969 walking with eyes lowered, from rectory into St. Vincent's Church in Plymouth, Pa. They are attending funeral service for drowning victim Mary Jo Kopechne, 29. She died in an auto mishap from which Sen. Kennedy escaped on last Saturday. (AP Photo)
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Sen. Edward M. Kennedy follows his wife, Joan (foreground) and Mrs. Ethel Kennedy, widow of slain Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, shown July 22, 1969 walking with eyes lowered, from rectory into St. Vincent's Church in Plymouth, Pa. They are attending funeral service for drowning victim Mary Jo Kopechne, 29. She died in an auto mishap from which Sen. Kennedy escaped on last Saturday. (AP Photo)
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Sen. Edward M. Kennedy follows his wife, Joan (foreground) and Mrs. Ethel Kennedy, widow of slain Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, shown July 22, 1969 walking with eyes lowered, from rectory into St. Vincent's Church in Plymouth, Pa. They are attending funeral service for drowning victim Mary Jo Kopechne, 29. She died in an auto mishap from which Sen. Kennedy escaped on last Saturday. (AP Photo)
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Sen. Edward M. Kennedy follows his wife, Joan (foreground) and Mrs. Ethel Kennedy, widow of slain Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, shown July 22, 1969 walking with eyes lowered, from rectory into St. Vincent's Church in Plymouth, Pa. They are attending funeral service for drowning victim Mary Jo Kopechne, 29. She died in an auto mishap from which Sen. Kennedy escaped on last Saturday. (AP Photo)
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U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, and his wife, Joan, pass tombstone as they walk along line of Mary Jo Kopechne, a former aide of slain Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were buried on July 22, 1969 in Plymouth, Pennsylvania. Miss Kopechne was killed when car driven by Sen. Kennedy plunged into a salt water pond in Massachusetts last Saturday. (AP Photo)
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This is road intersection on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts where Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is believed to have turned right instead of left. Kennedy car came down road from behind photo's position and went sharp right. Road to left goes to ferry to Martha's vineyard. Road showing beyond men is not involved. It is about 7/10 miles to bridge down road beyond pole at extreme right. (AP Photo)
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The two car ferry "On Time" carrying tourists approaches slip on Chappaquiddick Island on trip from Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard on July 25, 1969. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was headed for this ferry landing late last Friday night when he took a wrong turn and plunged off bridge and a woman passenger Miss Mary Jo Kopechne, 28, of Washington, D.C., was killed. Building at left is waiting room for ferry. (AP Photo)
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Edgartown Patrolman Robert Bruguiere as he announces, Thursday, July 24, 1969 in Edgartown, cancellation of the twice- daily news briefings on accident case involving Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Kennedy is charged with leaving the scene of an auto accident on Chappaquiddick Island in which a passenger Miss Mary Jo Kopechne, 28, of Washington, D.C., died. (AP Photo)
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Edgartown Patrolman Robert Bruguiere as he announces, Thursday, July 24, 1969 in Edgartown, cancellation of the twice- daily news briefings on accident case involving Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Kennedy is charged with leaving the scene of an auto accident on Chappaquiddick Island in which a passenger Miss Mary Jo Kopechne, 28, of Washington, D.C., died. (AP Photo)
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Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., arrives at the Capitol in Washington on July 31, 1969, returning to his job as U.S. senator. Kennedy was met by a crowd of newsmen and tourists on his first day back since the accident on Massachusetts' Chappaquiddick Island with the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. (AP Photo)
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Sen. Edward Kennedy walking into the Senate wing on July 31, 1969 in Washington, his first time back at the Capitol since the accident July 18, 1969 in Massachusetts with the death of Mary Jo Kopechne on Chappaquiddick Island. Senator Kennedy was driving the car which went off a bridge. Kennedy extricated himself from the submerged car but Kopechne died. (AP Photo/Henry Burroughs)**Eds Note: Sen. Kennedy died August 26, 2009**
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Tourists pause outside the house in Chappaquiddick Island, Martha's Vineyard, where a cook-out was held on July 18, 1969 where Sen. Edward Kennedy hosted a reunion for campaign workers from Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign. Leaving the party on July 18, 1969, Sen. Edward Kennedy drove a car off the Dyke Bridge on Chappaquiddick island, Martha's Vineyard with campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne, who downed in the submerged car. The exterior of this house, site of the Kennedy party, was photographed on August 25, 1969. (AP Photo)
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Tourists pause outside the house in Chappaquiddick Island, Martha's Vineyard, where a cook-out was held on July 18, 1969 where Sen. Edward Kennedy hosted a reunion for campaign workers from Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign. Leaving the party on July 18, 1969, Sen. Edward Kennedy drove a car off the Dyke Bridge on Chappaquiddick island, Martha's Vineyard with campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne, who downed in the submerged car. The exterior of this house, site of the Kennedy party, was photographed on August 25, 1969. (AP Photo)
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General view of bridge on Chappaquiddick Island in Aug. 25, 1969, where Mary Jo Kopechne drowned in an accident involving Sen. Edward Kennedy on July 18, 1969. (AP Photo)
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General view of bridge on Chappaquiddick Island in Aug. 25, 1969, where Mary Jo Kopechne drowned in an accident involving Sen. Edward Kennedy on July 18, 1969. (AP Photo)
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A ferry with a cars on board crosses from Edgartown, Mass. to Chappaquiddick Island on Aug. 25, 1969. On July 18, 1969, Sen. Edward Kennedy hosted a reunion party on Chappaquiddick Island for campaign workers from Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign. Leaving the party on July 18, Sen. Edward Kennedy drove a car off the Dyke Bridge on Chappaquiddick island, Martha's Vineyard with campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne, who downed in the submerged car. (AP Photo)
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A boy fishes from dock near the ferry landing at Edgartown, Mass. as the ferry crosses to Chappaquiddick Island on Aug. 25, 1969. On July 18, 1969, Sen. Edward Kennedy hosted a reunion party on Chappaquiddick Island for campaign workers from Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign. Leaving the party on July 18, Sen. Edward Kennedy drove a car off the Dyke Bridge on Chappaquiddick island, Martha's Vineyard with campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne, who downed in the submerged car. (AP Photo)
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A ferry with a cars on board crosses from Edgartown, Mass. to Chappaquiddick Island on Aug. 25, 1969. On July 18, 1969, Sen. Edward Kennedy hosted a reunion party on Chappaquiddick Island for campaign workers from Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign. Leaving the party on July 18, Sen. Edward Kennedy drove a car off the Dyke Bridge on Chappaquiddick island, Martha's Vineyard with campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne, who downed in the submerged car. (AP Photo)
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A car waits for ferry to board for short trip from Edgartown, Mass. to cross the channel to Chappaquiddick Island on Aug. 25, 1969. On July 18, 1969, Sen. Edward Kennedy hosted a reunion party on Chappaquiddick Island for campaign workers from Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign. Leaving the party on July 18, Sen. Edward Kennedy drove a car off the Dyke Bridge on Chappaquiddick island, Martha's Vineyard with campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne, who downed in the submerged car. (AP Photo)
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View of photographers taking pictures, with other press and spectators in front of Dukes County Courthouse at Edgartown, Mass. on Aug. 27, 1969. The crowd is waiting for findings from the inquest into the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. On July 18, 1969, Sen. Edward Kennedy drove a car off the Dyke Bridge on Chappaquiddick island, Martha's Vineyard with campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne, who downed in the submerged car. (AP Photo)
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Photographers get the word in no uncertain terms in the Pemberton Square courthouse in Boston, Oct. 8, 1969. The Massachusetts Supreme Court arguments on 13th floor that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's constitutional rights would be by a ban on examining witnesses at an inquest into the death of Mary Jo Kopechne in TV and other newsmen at right. (AP Photo)
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Joseph and Gwen Kopechne, parents of Mary Jo Kopechne, leave the Luzerne County Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Oct. 21, 1969, after the hearings ended on a petition to exhume the body of their daughter, who died in Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's car. (AP Photo/Paul Vathis)
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Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and wife Joan approach Dukes County court house in Edgartown Monday, Jan. 5, 1970 where he will testify at inquest into death of Mary Jo Kopechne. Miss Kopechne was killed in car driven by the senator when it went off bridge on Chappaquiddick Island and into a pond last July 18. (AP Photo)
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Five young persons who testified at inquest into the death of Mary Jo Kopechne in Dukes County court house at Edgartown, Thursday, Jan. 8, 1970, return to airport terminal when special chartered plane became disabled before take off. From left: Rosemary Keough, 24 Drexel Hill, Pa. ; Maryellen Lyons, 26, of Milton; Nance Lyons, 25, of Washington; Susan Tannenbaum, 24, of Washington, and Esther Newberg, 27, of Arlington, Va. (AP Photo)
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This was the scene outside court house on April 7, 1970 at Edgartown, Mass. this when District Attorney Edmund Dinis announced the grand jury looking into the death of Mary Jo Kopechne had been dismissed, April 7, 1970. (AP Photo)
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Young couple walk over the Dyke bridge on the eve of a Grand Jury hearing, April 4, 1970 in Edgartown on the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. The young Washington secretary died by automobile driven by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy plunged off the bridge into the creek. (AP Photo)
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Allison Eyre holds her daughter at the Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts in May 1989. The rotting bridge lives oversized in American political history because it is the spot where Sen. Edward Kennedy drove his car into Poucha Pond 20 years ago, resulting in the death of passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. (AP Photo/Saw)