Ted Kennedy Death Threat File Now Public: FBI Conceals Kennedy Name: Remember Mary Jo One More Time

No surprise that Ted Kennedy's life was under continual threat of assassination. Apparently the file released by the FBI is huge. I found a couple of interesting items - about Mary Jo Kopechne, of course.

Ted Kennedy's car in waters off of Chappaquiddick Island

The FBI file, some 2,352 pages of it, shows that the Boston office of the FBI was notified of the "accident" immediately, but kept his identity secret as long as they could.

John Dean, in Richard Nixon's administration, asked the FBI to discreetly determine if Mary Jo had been in Greece in August 1968, about eleven months before she died. Dean supplied Kopechne's passport number. This report blacks out whatever answer was found. This give the impression that Ted Kennedy was in Greece in August 1968. So far, I haven't found any reports putting him there, but I'm sure if Ted Kennedy did not want to be found, he could make that happen.

Here's a reminder of Chappaquiddick that I found at Boston.com - many years after Mary Joe Kopechne died. This article published by the leading paper in Ted Kennedy's hometown makes you feel as though you were in the car with Kennedy and Kopechne. Portions of the following is from my own article. Those portions have not been indented.

Mary Jo Kopechne

Her death occurred on July 20th, 1969 [she would have been 70 in 2010]. She was 28 at the time. Two days later her funeral was held in Pennsylvania and she was buried there. Ms. Kophecne's body was whisked off the island and out of Massachusetts for a very quick burial.

There was no defense for Ms. Kopechne against the Kennedy clan. There was no autopsy.

Kennedy pleaded "guilty," and then:

Ted Kennedy

His lawyer asked that his sentence be suspended. Judge James Boyle consented. 

"It is my understanding that he has already been, and will continue to be, punished far beyond anything this court can impose," said Boyle. 

The hearing lasted less than 10 minutes. Afterward, the police chief told reporters his investigation was closed. 

In January [1970], the Chappaquiddick inquest was held on Martha's Vineyard. Kennedy's lawyers had prevailed, and the four days of testimony were closed to the public and press, the transcript locked away until a later date. 

Within days of its decision, Judge Boyle released the 764-page inquest transcript — including his own stunning conclusion that Kennedy's negligence had contributed to Kopechne's death. 

Based on testimony at the inquest, Boyle concluded that Kennedy had lied; he "did not intend to drive to the ferry slip and his turn onto Dike Road was intentional."

Ted Kennedy's book, True Compass, was released just before his death. One thousand leather-bound copies sold for $1,000 each. Maybe Kennedy found his True Compass before he died. He certainly didn't have it the night he did not rescue Mary Jo Kopechne from the cold waters off of Chappaquiddick Island. I guess it is time I let his memory rest in peace.

Chappaquiddick Joke on Ted Kennedy

ChicagoRay found this video. Ed Klein tells the story of Chappaquiddick being one of Ted Kennedy's favorite jokes. Klein is a former Editor of The New York Times Magazine and currently the foreign editor of Newsweek. He is releasing a new book on Ted Kennedy, and the question is, who isn't? If this is true, the joke is really on Ted Kennedy. He may be lionized today, but surely those hearing the "Chappaquiddick" jokes, had to wonder what kind of a sick joke Ted Kennedy was.

As he has been memorialized today, it is obvious that he was beloved by his family, that he stepped up for all the nieces and nephews who were fatherless, that his own children loved him dearly, and that he knew how to get done what he wanted to get done in the halls of the U.S. Senate.

What I remember about Ted Kennedy is the Kennedy-McCain Amnesty Bill - one of the most devastating Bills to ever hit Capitol Hill. I won't forgive Kennedy or McCain for that one. I won't forget what he did to Judge Robert Bork. It was cruel and contemptible and it all lies. For those who want to see as his pompous tirade about the Judge as merely political rhetoric, your political world is much different than mine. I didn't know much about Robert Bork at the time, as most Americans didn't, but Kennedy's comments were uncalled for and only a black heart could stand in the Senate and rip a good man in this way:

Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is — and is often the only — protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy… President Reagan is still our president. But he should not be able to reach out from the muck of Irangate, reach into the muck of Watergate and impose his reactionary vision of the Constitution on the Supreme Court and the next generation of Americans. No justice would be better than this injustice.

This was not acceptable for the U.S. Senate, and he should have been excoriated by his peers, but he he was not - it's just politics. And may we all be reminded that Ted Kennedy wanted no part of windmills or oil rigs off his Hyannis Port shoreline, but he didn't mind if they were in your backyard.

I have no way to know whether Ted Kennedy had real remorse for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but I feel he did. Who would not, but you can read what some of the locals had to say, as well as some astonishing, odd and unusual details of what really happened here. Ted Kennedy's real legacy is proof that we should make it unlawful to be a career Senator or U.S. Representative.





 Chappaquiddick Joke on Ted Kennedy