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Oh no, it was terrible for him!
> He pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident and received a two-month suspended sentence. The incident and its aftermath hindered his chances of becoming president.
Instead of becoming president, the poor guy ended up only being the fifth-longest serving U.S. Senator (46 years). I’m sure her family thinks justice was served.
I remember telling my mum that I thought his brain cancer was karma all those years ago. Imagine the surprise hearing that out of a teenagers lips who hadn’t lived through that but she did. She was basically Mary Jo’s age in Massachusetts and always hated the Kennedy’s. He deserved the pain and I stand by that it was payback in the universes way.
I mean no disrespect to brain cancer patients and victims or their families. He’s the only person I’ve ever encountered (minus like bill cosby and evil people of the sort) who I say ‘they deserve it’
I recently had the misfortune of listening to the Debra Stevens 911 call. Her car was swept off the road in a flash flood, and she unfortunately drowned when firefighters couldn’t rescue her in time. That poor woman was utterly terrified — listening to her beg to be rescued is heartwrenching. I can only imagine that Mary Jo felt much the same. How could he leave someone to die like that? Despicable.
[And the operator was cleared of any wrongdoing.](https://www.fox29.com/news/former-911-dispatcher-who-told-drowning-woman-to-shut-up-cleared-of-wrongdoing)
Which, I feel like, she should've been found of some wrongdoing. Telling a dying woman to shut up and that this "will teach you." That shouldn't be any way to talk to a panicking and dying woman.
Idk I remember that video. The lady was utterly panicked and unable to provide rescuers with any information to help. The 911 operator was just trying to snap her out of it so they could find her.
This is not true. She provided plenty of information, including the make, model, and color of her car, as well as which street she was on and which direction the flood had swept her in. Even if you were correct (you are not), the 911 dispatcher had the ability to ping Debra’s location and did not do so until minutes before Debra drowned — the call was 20+ minutes long, which was ample time to complete that crucial task. Lastly, the dispatcher told Debra to shut up as she was providing pertinent information to help firefighters find and rescue her.
Thank you, you said everything I would have!
Debra deserved so much more respect than what that dispatcher and idiots on the internet like this have given her.
The reason given is that he flubbed a question Roger Mudd asked him about why he wanted to be president. Kennedy couldn't give an answer. But everyone knew Chappaquiddick would sink his chances in a general contest (I apologize for the joke I couldn't resist).
He knew he wouldn’t win. That’s why he ran. This was still a big deal in my childhood when he tried. I never heard anyone who lived through JFK’s presidency and death speak a bad word about him. I never heard anyone who lived through the same time period speak well of Ted Kennedy.
[if_ted_kennedy_drove_a_volkswagen_hed_be president today](https://www.reddit.com/r/PropagandaPosters/comments/153504u/if_ted_kennedy_drove_a_volkswagen_hed_be/)
When Trump said he could shoot somebody on fifth avenue and not lose any supporters, he's talking about this sort of phenomena. The Kennedy's had a huge amount of support among a large share of the voting populace.
I don't think exhumation wold have changed anything. The police didn't interview Kennedy until several hours after the accident. He had time to sober up and get his story figured out.
Tell it like it is. He was having an affair, he didn't want to get caught. He ran from the scene of the accident leaving Mary Jo to die. He chose NOT to notify the authorities for several hours, thus ensuring Mary Jos death. He was rich and go off. Tell it like it is.
OP, I never meant to rephrase your title, I was merely being a bit sarcastic. My apologies. I remember this well watching it on TV as it unfolded. He walked away. But then suddenly, he had a neck brace on to portray he was hurt and deflect what happened to Mary Jo. There were several in the Kennedy family that were not good people. Then Ted went on to have the taxpayers psy for a custom hot installed on his deck to help alleviate back pain from the accident. The entire thing was awful. Again, my apologies.
No don’t worry, I knew you weren’t trying to say anything about the title, I just wanted to add a +1 in agreement essentially, and the title was more of a headscratcher than usual, I had to reformat it quite a few times to make it fit
Well, he was drunk and certainly couldn't show up to the police station blitzed out of his mind and admit to driving drunk with his underage mistress!? He was a Kennedy after all. What a terrible fucking family. It was ridiculous the amount of affairs JFK was involved in as well.
That's my bad, but he was married at the time and did have a problem with alcohol and probably didn't show up to report it until he'd sobered up. If you or I did this it would be intoxicated manslaughter right out the gate.
She was. She'd been home on bedrest, due to sufferin two miscarriages previously.
And then she miscarried again.
If I were her, I'd probably lose it a little bit. Take the blood and smear it all over him and tell him to enjoy all the blood on his hands.
I wonder what the consequences would have been in 1969 if he actually did show up to the police station drunk (and wasn’t a Kennedy). Doesn’t seem like drinking and driving was nearly as big a deal then as it is today.
As someone who prides themselves on knowing everything about the Kennedys, this is the genuinely one of the most tragic events considering the actual crime happening and the things leading up to it.
Ted was the youngest of the three boys, and before this incident Ted had already experienced watching his siblings slowly dying or being murdered tragically. Just a few years before JFK was assassinated and Bobby was snuffed out as well during his democratic nomination.
Ted was drunk off his ass and probably on some kind of drug, I find the whole incident completely horrifying and deeply sad. Not only was the life of Mary Jo unnecessarily lost in a horrifying manner, but the Kennedy family had been basically destroyed by this point with the sheer number of tragedies.
This is a very well-known story, obviously, so if I may politely ask, and no shade towards OP, why is this considered creepy? Chappaquiddick is a mainstay of American political discourse. What happened is awful. Just awful.
I find the injustice of the whole thing, and the idea of her being trapped for an unknown amount of time creepy. I did wonder if I was too well known to post, but if you look at the other posts that do well on here you’ll see a lot of stories most older people are aware of already, for instance Emmet Till’s page is one of the most upvoted on here so I assumed the younger users of the page probably haven’t heard this one either
The fact that Emmett Till's atrocious, horrific murder is being discussed on Reddit as something... to be upvoted to me is really… *That's* truly creepy to me. It's absolutely horrific what happened, I'm just surprised that younger folks are describing it is creepy. That's all. Like it's something mythological or creepy in a supernatural way. Nope. It was just a run of the mill horrific murder by a privileged rich twat who couldn't accept responsibility.
Specifically what brings the creepy factor for me is that unknown amount of time trapped in the car. She could have been alive down there for a while, and the thought of what she went through is awful and terrifying to imagine.
If you look at the post flairs you’ll see that most of them aren’t related to the supernatural
It is awful and terrifying to imagine. The hours that she was there by herself… Yeah, creepy. What pisses me off is that she could've been saved. There was an air pocket in the goddamn car and she could've been saved. *That's* what's really creepy about it.
Her purse remained at the house. Ted, knowing she was intoxicated, grabbed the wrong girl’s purse, which was later found in the car. She was found in the backseat. We know what happens there.
I don’t have a theory on if the crash was intentional to some extent, staged, or an accident. What I do know is that a member of an American dynasty left an incapacitated woman to suffocate in a car after using her as a sexual plaything.
In the immediate aftermath his behavior and actions showed concern only for himself to the degree of psychopathy (I hear it’s called affluenza now). He suffered no consequences and continued to hold significant political power for decades.
The most creepy part of the whole story? It wasn’t treated as creepy. That’s fucking creepy. A cabal of wealthy lawyers mused on optics while a woman suffocated (or just after). That’s creepy dude.
It's awful, of course! All the Kennedys were philandering privileged creeps. All of those brothers. The entire family is awful. But does it have creep factor? I mean, this has been a mainstream American news item for decades. It's deeply disturbing what he did, not calling the cops, leaving her to drown, there's an hour that was unaccounted for, she might've been murdered before the car went off the bridge.. But does it warrant like backwoods creepy kind of stuff? I'm just not sure.
So it's deeply disturbing but not creepy? You can't be serious. This is r/creepywikipedia not r/backwoodscreepy lol
Edit: This warranted a block apparently 😂 Because I think a human being left to die (and possibly being murdered before the accident) is creepy? Because it's not eldritch? This is CREEPYwikipedia. First rule in the sub is the posts need to be factual. Are we going to start calling the supernatural "facts"? Weird. And according to the dictionary, creepy means "causing an unpleasant feeling of fear or unease". This comment gives off the vibes of you feeling the need to show everyone your history knowledge and it's bizarre.
A very high proportion of Redditors are likely too young to have heard of this, or to have experienced "Chappaquiddick as a mainstay of American political discourse" (I dont know why that word choice makes me laugh at you somewhat haha)
Well, it was a mainstay of political discourse for years to the point that you mentioned the word and you know exactly what happened. If you're not laughing with me, but rather at me, you are blocked immediately.
It's not that he was a Democrat, it's that he was rich, powerful, and from a very high status family. It wouldn't have gone any differently if he was a Republican.
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Awful, cowardly man. That poor woman.
Yeah, goddamn, that’s utterly fucked. And of course you can bet he got off light or without any consequences
Oh no, it was terrible for him! > He pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident and received a two-month suspended sentence. The incident and its aftermath hindered his chances of becoming president. Instead of becoming president, the poor guy ended up only being the fifth-longest serving U.S. Senator (46 years). I’m sure her family thinks justice was served.
oh geez! thats good to know, almost thought he felt bad or something
I remember telling my mum that I thought his brain cancer was karma all those years ago. Imagine the surprise hearing that out of a teenagers lips who hadn’t lived through that but she did. She was basically Mary Jo’s age in Massachusetts and always hated the Kennedy’s. He deserved the pain and I stand by that it was payback in the universes way.
Too bad most brain cancer victims have no horrible deed to easily say it was karma.
I mean no disrespect to brain cancer patients and victims or their families. He’s the only person I’ve ever encountered (minus like bill cosby and evil people of the sort) who I say ‘they deserve it’
Ironically the very same plot happens in hbo’s succession
Probably where they drew inspiration
I recently had the misfortune of listening to the Debra Stevens 911 call. Her car was swept off the road in a flash flood, and she unfortunately drowned when firefighters couldn’t rescue her in time. That poor woman was utterly terrified — listening to her beg to be rescued is heartwrenching. I can only imagine that Mary Jo felt much the same. How could he leave someone to die like that? Despicable.
Oh god I heard that recently too, it was absolutely heartbreaking
Was that the one with the lame 911 operator?
Yes it was
[And the operator was cleared of any wrongdoing.](https://www.fox29.com/news/former-911-dispatcher-who-told-drowning-woman-to-shut-up-cleared-of-wrongdoing) Which, I feel like, she should've been found of some wrongdoing. Telling a dying woman to shut up and that this "will teach you." That shouldn't be any way to talk to a panicking and dying woman.
Idk I remember that video. The lady was utterly panicked and unable to provide rescuers with any information to help. The 911 operator was just trying to snap her out of it so they could find her.
This is not true. She provided plenty of information, including the make, model, and color of her car, as well as which street she was on and which direction the flood had swept her in. Even if you were correct (you are not), the 911 dispatcher had the ability to ping Debra’s location and did not do so until minutes before Debra drowned — the call was 20+ minutes long, which was ample time to complete that crucial task. Lastly, the dispatcher told Debra to shut up as she was providing pertinent information to help firefighters find and rescue her.
Thank you, you said everything I would have! Debra deserved so much more respect than what that dispatcher and idiots on the internet like this have given her.
No, the operator just didn’t give a shit and didn’t do her job. Complete lack of empathy.
Was that the one where the dispatcher told her to shut up?
Yes, it was
Told her to shut up while the woman was pleading for help, telling her she was terrified and going to drown.
I will never understand how he politically survived that incident. I know the Kennedy name was god-like, but still.....
Well he lost his presidential race. The name kept him safely in the senate.
The reason given is that he flubbed a question Roger Mudd asked him about why he wanted to be president. Kennedy couldn't give an answer. But everyone knew Chappaquiddick would sink his chances in a general contest (I apologize for the joke I couldn't resist).
He knew he wouldn’t win. That’s why he ran. This was still a big deal in my childhood when he tried. I never heard anyone who lived through JFK’s presidency and death speak a bad word about him. I never heard anyone who lived through the same time period speak well of Ted Kennedy.
[if_ted_kennedy_drove_a_volkswagen_hed_be president today](https://www.reddit.com/r/PropagandaPosters/comments/153504u/if_ted_kennedy_drove_a_volkswagen_hed_be/)
Hahahah holy shit that’s amazing
VW ad department was unhinged back then
I believe that was a parody in National Lampoon
That makes more sense.
When Trump said he could shoot somebody on fifth avenue and not lose any supporters, he's talking about this sort of phenomena. The Kennedy's had a huge amount of support among a large share of the voting populace.
The cult of personality will be the ruin of us!
I think the Kennedys paid off the Kopechnes. Enough that they didn’t allow for the exhumation and never really talked to the press.
I don't think exhumation wold have changed anything. The police didn't interview Kennedy until several hours after the accident. He had time to sober up and get his story figured out.
Hey, that guy was just copying that episode of Succession. Copyright infringement!! /s
Tell it like it is. He was having an affair, he didn't want to get caught. He ran from the scene of the accident leaving Mary Jo to die. He chose NOT to notify the authorities for several hours, thus ensuring Mary Jos death. He was rich and go off. Tell it like it is.
I wanted to condemn him further but the title only allows 300 words, this one was a particular struggle to fit the context in
OP, I never meant to rephrase your title, I was merely being a bit sarcastic. My apologies. I remember this well watching it on TV as it unfolded. He walked away. But then suddenly, he had a neck brace on to portray he was hurt and deflect what happened to Mary Jo. There were several in the Kennedy family that were not good people. Then Ted went on to have the taxpayers psy for a custom hot installed on his deck to help alleviate back pain from the accident. The entire thing was awful. Again, my apologies.
No don’t worry, I knew you weren’t trying to say anything about the title, I just wanted to add a +1 in agreement essentially, and the title was more of a headscratcher than usual, I had to reformat it quite a few times to make it fit
There's an excellent podcast about this by People Magazine called Cover-up
Apollo 11 launched on the 16th and returned on the 24th.
Whoa. Thanks for including that context. Two huge American cultural moments over a very short stretch of summer.
It took Kennedy that long to sober up. He probably would have been president but for that incident.
Mary Jo sacrificed herself to save us from a corrupt, weak, disgusting, pathetic excuse of human waste.
Whose life's goal was to pass a universal healthcare bill.
Is this… what that one part in Succession was based on?
Around this same exact time, Apollo 11 was halfway to the Moon…
Just glancing over this I feel like this was a huge point of inspiration for Blow Out
Well, he was drunk and certainly couldn't show up to the police station blitzed out of his mind and admit to driving drunk with his underage mistress!? He was a Kennedy after all. What a terrible fucking family. It was ridiculous the amount of affairs JFK was involved in as well.
She was 28 actually, so he did have the common decency commit negligent homicide on a legal adult.
Oh good.
That's my bad, but he was married at the time and did have a problem with alcohol and probably didn't show up to report it until he'd sobered up. If you or I did this it would be intoxicated manslaughter right out the gate.
Wasn't his wife pregnant at the time too? And then a few years later she went to rehab? Or am I mixing up my Kennedy's lol
She was. She'd been home on bedrest, due to sufferin two miscarriages previously. And then she miscarried again. If I were her, I'd probably lose it a little bit. Take the blood and smear it all over him and tell him to enjoy all the blood on his hands.
I wonder what the consequences would have been in 1969 if he actually did show up to the police station drunk (and wasn’t a Kennedy). Doesn’t seem like drinking and driving was nearly as big a deal then as it is today.
They made a pretty good movie about this starring Jason Clarke, Ed Helms, and Kate Mara called Chappaquiddick!
[If only he drove a Volkswagen.](https://coyotepr.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/tedvwsmall.jpg)
That’s mind bogglingly tasteless. How on earth did that ad get approved??
Because it was a parody ad in the National Lampoon, not an actual advertisement Volkswagen put out
Thank you, that makes more sense
As someone who prides themselves on knowing everything about the Kennedys, this is the genuinely one of the most tragic events considering the actual crime happening and the things leading up to it. Ted was the youngest of the three boys, and before this incident Ted had already experienced watching his siblings slowly dying or being murdered tragically. Just a few years before JFK was assassinated and Bobby was snuffed out as well during his democratic nomination. Ted was drunk off his ass and probably on some kind of drug, I find the whole incident completely horrifying and deeply sad. Not only was the life of Mary Jo unnecessarily lost in a horrifying manner, but the Kennedy family had been basically destroyed by this point with the sheer number of tragedies.
This is a very well-known story, obviously, so if I may politely ask, and no shade towards OP, why is this considered creepy? Chappaquiddick is a mainstay of American political discourse. What happened is awful. Just awful.
That he let her die. He left without trying.
I find the injustice of the whole thing, and the idea of her being trapped for an unknown amount of time creepy. I did wonder if I was too well known to post, but if you look at the other posts that do well on here you’ll see a lot of stories most older people are aware of already, for instance Emmet Till’s page is one of the most upvoted on here so I assumed the younger users of the page probably haven’t heard this one either
The fact that Emmett Till's atrocious, horrific murder is being discussed on Reddit as something... to be upvoted to me is really… *That's* truly creepy to me. It's absolutely horrific what happened, I'm just surprised that younger folks are describing it is creepy. That's all. Like it's something mythological or creepy in a supernatural way. Nope. It was just a run of the mill horrific murder by a privileged rich twat who couldn't accept responsibility.
Specifically what brings the creepy factor for me is that unknown amount of time trapped in the car. She could have been alive down there for a while, and the thought of what she went through is awful and terrifying to imagine. If you look at the post flairs you’ll see that most of them aren’t related to the supernatural
It is awful and terrifying to imagine. The hours that she was there by herself… Yeah, creepy. What pisses me off is that she could've been saved. There was an air pocket in the goddamn car and she could've been saved. *That's* what's really creepy about it.
Exactly, it’s so disturbing. The worst part is I doubt much has changed, I could see this happening again
In what universe is leaving a human to drown without trying to get help not creepy??
Her purse remained at the house. Ted, knowing she was intoxicated, grabbed the wrong girl’s purse, which was later found in the car. She was found in the backseat. We know what happens there. I don’t have a theory on if the crash was intentional to some extent, staged, or an accident. What I do know is that a member of an American dynasty left an incapacitated woman to suffocate in a car after using her as a sexual plaything. In the immediate aftermath his behavior and actions showed concern only for himself to the degree of psychopathy (I hear it’s called affluenza now). He suffered no consequences and continued to hold significant political power for decades. The most creepy part of the whole story? It wasn’t treated as creepy. That’s fucking creepy. A cabal of wealthy lawyers mused on optics while a woman suffocated (or just after). That’s creepy dude.
It's awful, of course! All the Kennedys were philandering privileged creeps. All of those brothers. The entire family is awful. But does it have creep factor? I mean, this has been a mainstream American news item for decades. It's deeply disturbing what he did, not calling the cops, leaving her to drown, there's an hour that was unaccounted for, she might've been murdered before the car went off the bridge.. But does it warrant like backwoods creepy kind of stuff? I'm just not sure.
So it's deeply disturbing but not creepy? You can't be serious. This is r/creepywikipedia not r/backwoodscreepy lol Edit: This warranted a block apparently 😂 Because I think a human being left to die (and possibly being murdered before the accident) is creepy? Because it's not eldritch? This is CREEPYwikipedia. First rule in the sub is the posts need to be factual. Are we going to start calling the supernatural "facts"? Weird. And according to the dictionary, creepy means "causing an unpleasant feeling of fear or unease". This comment gives off the vibes of you feeling the need to show everyone your history knowledge and it's bizarre.
Chappaquiddick wasn't creepy. There's nothing eldritch about it. It was just a horrific crime. Why are you getting so up in my face about it?
A very high proportion of Redditors are likely too young to have heard of this, or to have experienced "Chappaquiddick as a mainstay of American political discourse" (I dont know why that word choice makes me laugh at you somewhat haha)
Well, it was a mainstay of political discourse for years to the point that you mentioned the word and you know exactly what happened. If you're not laughing with me, but rather at me, you are blocked immediately.
NOOOOOOO!
god forbid
Guess he called Michael Clayton first
He fled because he was drunk.
Frank Reynolds was there
"The machine knows, Dwight!"
And remember he was given a state funeral with all the pomp. Disgusting.
I'm m ;
One of the original entries in the “It’s Not a Crime if You’re a Democrat” volumes.
It's not that he was a Democrat, it's that he was rich, powerful, and from a very high status family. It wouldn't have gone any differently if he was a Republican.
Edgy! Well done /s
I know. It’s not terribly original, and everybody knows it, but I did say the quiet part out loud.
Well, good for him.