Mary Jo Kopechne

Mary Jo Kopechne (July 26, 1940 – July 18 1969) born in Forty Fort, Pennsylvania, was the only child of insurance salesman Joseph Kopechne and his wife Gwen. Upon graduation from Caldwell College for women, Kopechne moved to Washington D.C. initially to work as secretary to U.S. Senator George Smathers and subsequently as secretary to Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Kopechne died in Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts when a car driven by Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy, in which she was the passenger, went off a bridge and overturned into a pond. Earlier that evening, the two had been attending a party along with other Kennedy aides and several women who had served as "boiler room" girls in the 1968 Presidential campaign of Senator Robert Kennedy. Kennedy managed to escape from the submerged car, but he left the scene and inexplicably did not report the incident or Kopechne's wherabouts. The next day authorities discovered Kennedy's car and recovered Kopechene's body. Though Kennedy pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury, several details of Mary Jo Kopechne's death remain a mystery. (See "Chappaquiddick" section below.)

Further reading

• 1969 The bridge at Chappaquiddick by Jack Olsen
• 1969 The Ted Kennedy episode by H. Don Hastings
• 1971 Teddy Bare, the Last of the Kennedy Clan. by Zad Rust
• 1973 You, the jury -- in re: Chappaquiddick by R. B. Cutler
• 1975 The Inspector's opinion: The Chappaquiddick incident by Malcolm Reybold
• 1976 The last Kennedy by Robert Sherrill
• 1976 Burns, James M. Edward Kennedy and the Camelot Legacy. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 039307501X
• 1979 Kennedy's Chappaquiddick revisited: What really happened by John Haggard
• 1979 Tedrow, Thomas L. Death at Chappaquiddick. New Orleans: Pelican Company. ISBN 0882892495
• 1980 Chappaquiddick decision by Larryann C Willis
• 1988 Damore, Leo. Senatorial Privilege: The Chappaquiddick Cover-Up. Washington D.C.: Regnery Gateway. ISBN 0895265648
• 1989 Chappaquiddick Revealed What Really Happened by Kenneth Kappel
• 1993 Chappaquiddick: The Real Story by James E. T. Lange, Katherine, Jr. Dewitt
• 1992 Oates, Joyce C. Black Water. New York: E. P. Dutton. ISBN 0525934553 (fictional treatment)