Everybody Knew His Name, Teddy

This file photo shows the Kennedy brothers, John F. Kennedy, left, Robert Kennedy, and Ted Kennedy, right, in Hyannis Port, Mass.

On 18 July 1969, Edward Moore (Nicknames: "Ted" or "Teddy") Kennedy in an attempt to shut up an affair and remove a problem that was felt would harm his political career with this pregnant young unmarried woman, who was carrying Ted Kennedy’s unborn child; while in the early evening, not the late hour originally claimed by Kennedy of 11:15 p.m. Kennedy drove with intent, his 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 off a Chappaquiddick (Martha's Vineyard, Mass.) bridge and it overturned in the water, where Kennedy left the submerged car leaving intentionally because he never planned on helping the woman, left a very pregnant Mary Jo Kopechne to drown.

As stated by sources, Kennedy contacted his brother’s Robert and John Kennedy on what to do about Mary Jo after he had fled the crime scene; but intentionally failed to report the incident to the authorities until the car and Kopechne's body were discovered the next morning.

From President Kennedy's birthday gala where Marilyn Monroe sang the famous televised "Happy Birthday, Mr. President;" which some biographer’s claimed Marilyn was intoxicated while singing.

Earlier in the evening of the previous day, their had been numerous bouts of drinking and allegations of illegal drugs consumed. Which over the course of Kennedy’s life, he would have numerous affairs or classified a womanizer like his brothers Robert and John ( who's famous "embarrassing" affair with Marilyn Monroe, who many has classified her death as murder on 5 August 1962); but also Kennedy's severe bouts of obsessive drinking over the years.

While Kennedy was never charged with homicide, but rather went by the public view of the time, as being swept under the carpet; too many people that lived during this time still have felt that Kennedy was guilty of two counts of homicide.

1962 college yearbook portrait of Mary Jo Kopechne

What is ironic, a funeral for Mary Jo Kopechne was held on 22 July 1969, at St. Vincent's Roman Catholic Church in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, which was attended by Kennedy, who was also Roman Catholic. She is buried in the parish cemetery on the side of Larksville Mountain. Mary Jo, was only 28 years-old.

This is the legacy, that Ted Kennedy is actually most known for by many from that time, which has actually overshadowed his political career; until the day he died 25 August 2009, at 77 years-old.

I have always remembered this homicide case, due not just to the fact in was a premeditated homicide; but the horror of purposely letting a young woman, with an unborn baby drown to death. -HRM Deborah