EdwardM.KennedyquotChappaquiddickquot

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Edward M. Kennedy: "Chappaquiddick"

My fellow citizens:

I have requested this opportunity to talk to the

people of Massachusetts about the tragedy which happened

last Friday evening. This morning I entered a plea of

guilty to the charge of leaving the scene of an accident.

Prior to my appearance in court it would have been

improper for me to comment on these matters. But tonight

I am free to tell you what happened and to say what it

means to me.

On the weekend of July 18, I was on Martha's Vineyard

Island participating with my nephew, Joe Kennedy -- as

for thirty years my family has participated -- in the

annual Edgartown Sailing Regatta. Only reasons of health

prevented my wife from accompanying me.

On Chappaquiddick Island, off Martha's Vineyard, I

attended, on Friday evening, July 18, a cook-out, I had

encouraged and helped sponsor for devoted group of

Kennedy campaign secretaries. When I left the party,

around 11:15 P.M., I was accompanied by one of these

girls, Miss Mary Jo Kopechne. Mary J was one of the most

devoted members of the staff of Senator Robert Kennedy.

She worked for him for four years and was broken up over

his death. For this reason, and because she was such a

gentle, kind, and idealistic person, all of us tried to

help her feel that she still had a home with the Kennedy

family.

Mary Jo Kopechne

There is not truth, not truth whatever, to the widely

circulated suspicions of immoral conduct that have been

leveled at my behavior and hers regarding that evening.

There has never been a private relationship between us of

any kind. I know of nothing in Mary Jo's conduct on that

or nay other occasion -- the same is true of the other

girls at that party -- that would lend any substance to

such ugly speculation about their character.

Nor was I driving under the influence of liquor.

Little over one mile away, the car that I was driving

on the unlit road went of a narrow bridge which had no

guard rails and was built on a left angle to the road.

The car overturned in a deep pond and immediately filled

with water. I remember thinking as the cold water rushed

in around my head that I was for certain drowning. Then

water entered my lungs and I actual felt the sensation of

drowning. But somehow I struggled to the surface alive.

I made immediate and repeated efforts to save Mary Jo

be diving into strong and murky current, but succeeded

only in increasing my state of utter exhaustion and

alarm. My conduct and conversations during the next

several hours, to the extent that I can remember them,

make no sense to me at all.

Although my doctors informed me that I suffered a

cerebral concussion, as well as shock, I do not seek to

escape responsibility for my actions by placing the blame

either in the physical, emotional trauma brought on by

the accident, or on anyone else. I regard as indefensible

the fact that I did not report the accident to the policy

immediately.

Instead of looking directly for a telephone after

lying exhausted in the grass for an undetermined time, I

walked back to the cottage where the party was being held

and requested the help of two friends, my cousin, Joseph

Gargan and Phil Markham, and directed them to return

immediately to the scene with me -- this was sometime

after midnight -- in order to undertake a new effort to

dive down and locate Miss Kopechne. Their strenuous

efforts, undertaken at some risk to their own lives also

proved futile.

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摘要：

EdwardM.KennedyquotChappaquiddickquotEdwardM.Kennedy:"Chappaquiddick"Myfellowcitizens:IhaverequestedthisopportunitytotalktothepeopleofMassachusettsaboutthetragedywhichhappenedlastFridayevening.ThismorningIenteredapleaofguiltytothechargeofleavingthesceneofanaccident.Priortomyappearanceincourtitwouldh...

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