Before Chappaquiddick

The Untold Story of Mary Jo Kopechne and the Kennedy Brothers

On July 18, 1969, a car driven by Senator Edward M. Kennedy plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, off the coast of Cape Cod. Mary Jo Kopechne, a 28-year-old former staffer for Kennedy’s brother Robert, died in the crash. The scandal that followed demeaned Kopechne’s reputation and scapegoated her for Ted Kennedy’s inability to run for the presidency instead of acknowledging her as an innocent victim in a tragedy that took her life.

William C. Kashatus’s biography of Mary Jo Kopechne illuminates the life of a politically committed young woman who embodied the best ideals of the 60s. Arriving in Washington in 1963, Kopechne soon joined the staff of Robert F. Kennedy and committed herself to his vision of compassion for the underprivileged, social idealism tempered by political realism, and a more humane nation.

Kashatus details her work as an energetic and trusted staffer who became one of the famed Boiler Room Girls at the heart of RFK’s presidential campaign. Shattered by his assassination, Kopechne took a break from politics before returning as a consultant. It was at a reunion of the Boiler Room Girls that she accepted a ride from Edward Kennedy - a decision she would pay for with her life.

The untold - and long overdue - story of a promising life cut short, Before Chappaquiddick tells the human side of one of the most memorable scandals of the 1960s.

©2020 William C. Kashatus (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Just the facts

I enjoyed this one the Chappaquiddick story involving Ted Kennedy and Mary Lou Kopechne because Kashatus gave only the facts collected from previous interviews and articles. His forward expresses how he wanted Mary Lou’s personal to be known for more than just her death and link to the Kennedys.

the real Mary Jo

Mary Jo Kopechne comes to life in there pages as friends and functionarieas speak of her.

An injustice on so many levels

The book in spite of the author trying to give both sides of the picture cannot cover up the horrible injustice regarding the life of this poor woman, the victim of a unrepentant, power-hungry force of destruction in the man of Ted Kennedy. One would say that the blood of Mary Joe is on the hands of all the political forces in the Democratic Party that helped keep Kennedy from paying for his sins in addition to the sycophantic voters of Massachusetts who kept electing the monster of the Senate time after time.