The Kennedys: Back to Chappaquiddick

Six months ago, a black Oldsmobile 88 sedan owned by Edward Kennedy plunged off a narrow wooden bridge on the island of Chappaquiddick. The car overturned in a tidal pond and Mary Jo Kopechne died.

It was the most publicized automobile accident in history; yet those are virtually the only facts about it that are beyond dispute. Except, perhaps, that Chappaquiddick has shadowed Kennedy's political career and capsized his presidential hopes—at least for 1972. This week in the red-brick Dukes County courthouse in Edgartown, Mass., Justice James A. Boyle will sit to hear...

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