Ted Kennedy and Chappa-who? Another Hollywood Fiction In the Works!

[maxparrish]

After coming upon an interesting article on Chappaquiddick, and a new movie in the works, I thought it might make a pleasant diversion.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/12/first-truth-now-chappaquiddick.php

...The facts are much worse than most people realize: Kennedy presumably was drunk, but that is the least of it. After his car plunged into Poucha Pond, Kennedy saved himself but left Mary Jo Kopechne to die. In all likelihood, she could have been saved if Kennedy had simply knocked on the door of the nearest house with a light on, only yards away, and called the Edgartown rescue squad. That is what the head of the rescue squad said after he discovered Kopechne’s body inside the car, where she had wedged herself into an air pocket and probably survived for several hours, expecting help that never came.

Kennedy made no effort to save his companion. Instead, he made the long walk back to the house where he and others had been partying. He summoned his cousin Joe Gargan and tried to persuade Gargan to say that he had been driving the car. Gargan sensibly refused, but insisted that they go back to the pond and try to rescue Kopechne. Kennedy sat on the bank and watched while Gargan tried to dive down to the submerged car, unsuccessfully. Kennedy never did call the authorities, but instead returned to his hotel and attempted to set up an alibi with the night clerk.

Hollywood Reporter has the story:

Sam Taylor-Johnson, who directed Fifty Shades of Grey, is in talks to direct Apex Entertainment’s feature Chappaquiddick.

Mark Ciardi is producing the project, ... Campbell McInnes of Apex Entertainment and Chris Cowles of DMG Entertainment are also producing.

“I’ve done a lot of true life stories, many sports stories, but this one had a deep impact on this country,” said Ciardi. “Everyone has an idea of what happened on Chappaquiddick…

You’ll see what he had to go through.”

What he had to go through? Are these people crazy?

They might be. Will they really show how Kennedy escaped political justice (and jail?) Will it show Kennedys cowardice, callousness, and desperate actions to set up an alibi at his hotel room, or his craven attempt to persuade his cousin to take the fall?

What's the story? A drunk womanizer and adulterer, a member of the very rich NE class, and a well known Senator from the most predominate political family in America is driving his secretary to some private location - then his sexual target, a little person, dies?

It would be the story of a political machine whose brain trust didn’t even include Ted–considered by them to be an idiot–in the meeting where they planned a strategy to deal with his vehicular homicide. It would be a story of political corruption and of a debased electorate whose weird devotion to the Kennedys prevented Ted from paying even a minimal price for his fatal cowardice.

No doubt it will be as accurate as "Truth", the recent fiction about the 60 minutes debacle.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Your version of the story sounds much more interesting. I hope they use that. Also, they should have him crash at the end of a really cool car race.

 

[untermensche]

He was probably guilty of manslaughter.

Killing somebody unintentionally but through negligence, being drunk and driving.

I don't know if there was any hard evidence he was drunk though.

 

[credoconsolans]

He was probably guilty of manslaughter.

Killing somebody unintentionally but through negligence, being drunk and driving.

I don't know if there was any hard evidence he was drunk though.

He tried to cover his tracks.

That proves he wasn't that drunk.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

He was probably guilty of manslaughter.

Killing somebody unintentionally but through negligence, being drunk and driving.

I don't know if there was any hard evidence he was drunk though.

He tried to cover his tracks.

That proves he wasn't that drunk.

You can still think straight when you're drunk and the adrenaline hit from a crash can sober you up quick.

 

[untermensche]

He was probably guilty of manslaughter.

Killing somebody unintentionally but through negligence, being drunk and driving.

I don't know if there was any hard evidence he was drunk though.

He tried to cover his tracks.

That proves he wasn't that drunk.

I think he tried to sober up.

But it is a lie to say this had much negative impact on this country.

Kennedy was a Senator and got a few things done.

But he is long dead and gone. A ghost.

 

[laughing dog]

He was probably guilty of manslaughter.

Killing somebody unintentionally but through negligence, being drunk and driving.

I don't know if there was any hard evidence he was drunk though.

He tried to cover his tracks.

That proves he wasn't that drunk.

No it doesn't. Drunks try to cover their tracks all the time. The fact he didn't do it very well suggests that he was drunk.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

It also suggests that he wasn't an evil mastermind who excelled at staging crime scenes. Which is weird, because he was a Kennedy.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Umm... why would he cover his tracks if he wasn't drunk and it was an honest accident?

Kennedy is an odd bird. Two brothers murdered (one was President of the US, another running for President), nearly died in a plane crash too. Involved in another accident (of dubious circumstances) that led to the death of his passenger. And he was a Kennedy, an American dynasty (that didn't make its fortune via the Nazis).

 

[maxparrish]

Umm... why would he cover his tracks if he wasn't drunk and it was an honest accident?

Kennedy is an odd bird. Two brothers murdered (one was President of the US, another running for President), nearly died in a plane crash too. Involved in another accident (of dubious circumstances) that led to the death of his passenger. And he was a Kennedy, an American dynasty (that didn't make its fortune via the Nazis).

Why? Because (in 1969) he was a US Senator and a married man with a single 20ty something headed to a secluded beach for some nookie, who died because of his negligent driving. His story about "going to the Ferry" was easily refuted. Just how much he had to drink remains a mystery because he waited till the next day to report the accident.

We do know he was at a private party and BBQ, one half of the party-goers were accomplished married men, the other half 20ty something single women.

There many questions that remain unanswered. Within hours Dun Gifford, Kennedy's aid, was dispatched to the island with orders to get the body off the island. And within hours after discovery, it ended up in Penn. out of Mass ME jurisdiction. How that happened has never been reveled.

We also know that, from the Diver, that she must have survived in a pocket of air and suffocated, rather than drowned. Kennedy said he left at 11:15pm, and after the accident tried to rescue her but the currant was too strong. The problem here is that there is no current at that time (although there is one closer to 1 am).

In spite of the "I was dazed and confused" story, he was not too traumatized to walk back to BBQ party 1.5 hrs after he left, passing several nearby houses with lights on, and consult with two of the party's lawyer friends. And he was able to make 16 long distance phone calls that night (from the house and motel), and go to motel, complain about noisy party, chat about boat race with friend the next morning, order newspapers, meet with lawyers again, go back to the island, call another lawyer from pay prone, before notifying police at 9:45 am (1 hr after he discovered that the accident had been discovered).

Nor was he too traumatized to return to the scene that night, with his two lawyer friends, and dive to get her out of the car. Having failed Kennedy had an argument with the lawyers, who demanded he report the accident OR they would. Angry, he says he jumped in the water and swam 300 yards to his nearby motel room.

Kennedy summoned 19 high level advisers the next day.

Other questions remain. The Grand jury was threatened with jail and intimidated by the judge, who refused exhumation even though blood on her clothes had been discovered (an autopsy was blocked).

The diver was barred from telling the grand jury what he discovered about Mary Jo's likely survival for some hours.


This could be a damning movie - but I somehow doubt Hollywood will allow themselves to tell it straight.

 

[untermensche]

I say, dig him up and slap him in the face, real hard.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Because that sounds like a boring movie. How about if Kennedy has a pet chimp with him?

 

[untermensche]

When you have money in America you have your own separate justice system.

That is the lessen here.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Ted threw up on my dad one time.

Dad was flying home from boot camp for leave, Ted was flying into Salt Lake to stump for his brother's campaign. The plane hit turbulence and this drunk sitting next to my dad barfed on his class A's. Didn't apologize.

He didn't try to cover it up, but he didn't apologize, either.

Dad had to laugh, though. They got off the plane and all these people were lined up on the field, excited because they'd heard only that 'Kennedy' was flying in to make a speech. They were disappointed to find that it was only Ted, and left him standing there.

That'd make a good movie, wouldn't it? Make the plane a fighter jet, make the turbulence an alien attack... Kennedy could play himself... Zombie Ted vs. The Alien Horde...

 

[Loren Pechtel]

An air pocket that lasted in the car for several hours?

Even if it somehow survived lets take a look at the math.

At resting metabolism (which most certainly doesn't apply here!) an average person consumes 300ml of oxygen and releases 300ml of CO₂. That's coming out of that air pocket.

I don't know what he was driving so I'll use my car as a reference point. It has 2.76 m³ of interior volume (admittedly, data from the current model year rather than mine.) Now, I'll be very generous and assume an air pocket that holds 10% of this volume--.276 m³. Converting to consistent units we have 276 liters of air being consumed at a rate of .3 liters/minute. Except that air is only 20% oxygen--which will be consumed in 3 hours. Only it won't be--she's exhaling CO₂ and that's going to be a problem first. You'll pass out in a few minutes at 7% concentration. (Actually, less, because at that point the O₂ level will be down to 13%. I can't find data specifically on consuming a limited air supply, I'm going on the data for CO₂ exposure.) Now we're down to an hour.

Note our assumptions: Baseline metabolism and a big air pocket--and we get a mere hour.

In practice that bubble is going to leak away pretty quickly.

Your source is garbage. In practice even when the emergency services roll immediately they usually don't save the person in the car. (People who are talking to 911 when their car goes into the water.) Also, Mythbusters did an episode about this--didn't work, they quickly had to resort to their emergency air supply. The formula to survive your car going into water is to open at least one window, if you're already underwater you have to shatter a window.

 

[dismal]

He was probably guilty of manslaughter.

Killing somebody unintentionally but through negligence, being drunk and driving.

I don't know if there was any hard evidence he was drunk though.

He left the scene while she was still alive, did not call the authorities, and did not get help for hours. She suffocated long after the crash in an air pocket.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

He left the scene while she was still alive, did not call the authorities, and did not get help for hours. She suffocated long after the crash in an air pocket.

Still, it was probably the best date any woman had had with Ted Kennedy in a decade.

 

[Bronzeage]

An air pocket that lasted in the car for several hours?

Even if it somehow survived lets take a look at the math.

At resting metabolism (which most certainly doesn't apply here!) an average person consumes 300ml of oxygen and releases 300ml of CO₂. That's coming out of that air pocket.

I don't know what he was driving so I'll use my car as a reference point. It has 2.76 m³ of interior volume (admittedly, data from the current model year rather than mine.) Now, I'll be very generous and assume an air pocket that holds 10% of this volume--.276 m³. Converting to consistent units we have 276 liters of air being consumed at a rate of .3 liters/minute. Except that air is only 20% oxygen--which will be consumed in 3 hours. Only it won't be--she's exhaling CO₂ and that's going to be a problem first. You'll pass out in a few minutes at 7% concentration. (Actually, less, because at that point the O₂ level will be down to 13%. I can't find data specifically on consuming a limited air supply, I'm going on the data for CO₂ exposure.) Now we're down to an hour.

Note our assumptions: Baseline metabolism and a big air pocket--and we get a mere hour.

In practice that bubble is going to leak away pretty quickly.

Your source is garbage. In practice even when the emergency services roll immediately they usually don't save the person in the car. (People who are talking to 911 when their car goes into the water.) Also, Mythbusters did an episode about this--didn't work, they quickly had to resort to their emergency air supply. The formula to survive your car going into water is to open at least one window, if you're already underwater you have to shatter a window.

I agree there is no way the woman lived several hours, but she did not die quickly. As I recall, the autopsy found traces of gasoline fumes in her lungs, which indicated she breathed contaminated air before drowning. I am very familiar with that model car and can say with certainty, if it landed on its side, as shown in the picture, it could not have held air for more than a few minutes.

Unless there is a hammer handy, no one is going to smash a window from the inside of a flooded car. It is also almost impossible to open the door of a car when it's lying on its side. The door is very heavy and the trapped person has very little leverage. One has to hold the door up and try to gain a foothold or handhold at the same time.

Many years ago, I helped a woman get out of her car after she slid into a ditch and landed on the driver's door. She wasn't injured and when I got there, she was trying to open the door, but it would not stay open and she needed both hands to climb out. I climbed up on the car and held the door while pulling her up high enough to get a foot out the door.

The secondary tragedy of the whole thing was Kennedy's failure at every turn. He was on a path to be President, but he was still on the coattails of his brothers. Everybody knew that, but expected better things from him in the future. This was his one chance to demonstrate real heroism. If he had stayed and pulled her from the car, it would have been the same amount of news coverage and notoriety, but he would have been seen as a hero, in spite of all the unseemly parts of the incident. He was a Senator when it happened and he died a Senator. For all practical purposes, he was frozen in place at that moment.

 

[untermensche]

He was probably guilty of manslaughter.

Killing somebody unintentionally but through negligence, being drunk and driving.

I don't know if there was any hard evidence he was drunk though.

He left the scene while she was still alive, did not call the authorities, and did not get help for hours. She suffocated long after the crash in an air pocket.

As I said, in this country wealth opens the door to a reserved justice system.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

As I said, in this country wealth opens the door to a reserved justice system.

To be fair to the US, that's not really an America-specific problem.