ONLY Edward Moore Kennedy knows exactly what happened from the time he left the cookout on Chappaquiddick last month until his black Oldsmobile sedan capsized off the Dike Bridge, taking Mary Jo Kopechne to her death at the bottom of Poucha Pond. From that moment until some time before he reported the accident at 9:30 a.m., according to Kennedy's televised accounting a week later, he was "overcome by a jumble of emotions." "My conduct and conversations during the next several hours make no sense at all to me," he said.
What will the inquest, due to begin this week at Edgartown, do to make sense of that bizarre and tragic night? The answer will obviously depend upon the candor and character of those who attended the cookout, including Kennedy, and upon the acuity of the questions raised by District Attorney Edmund Dinis. It will also rest significantly upon how far the presiding judge, James A. Boyle, permits Dinis to range in exploring not only the immediate circumstances of the accident but also the actions and omissions of Kennedy and his friends afterward. Last week Boyle indicated that he would allow Dinis considerable freedom. The judge ruled that he will not permit lawyers for Kennedy or any of the others who were at the Chappaquiddick party to cross-examine witnesses or to challenge the district attorney's questions on grounds of irrelevance (see THE LAW).
Here is a succinct guide to the characters, other than Kennedy himself, who are most likely to play leading roles in the inquest:
Judge James A. Boyle
A balding, rubicund resident of Martha's Vineyard for 38 years, Boyle must control the tone as well as the direction of questioning in the "nonaccusatory" proceeding. A 1929 graduate of what was then the Southeastern Massachusetts Law School, Boyle, 62, served as Dukes County Superior Court clerk for 27 years before former Governor John A. Volpe appointed him to the District Court bench in 1961. Some observers question his judicial competence, and one acquaintance asserts that Boyle was so innocent of the law that he thought he could remain superior court clerk even after his appointment to the District Court. Yet he is generally regarded as a fair jurist who conducts court business in open court, shunning closed-door conferences. His brusque conduct at last week's pre-inquest hearings suggested that he hopes and intends to preserve the decorum of a procedure that, as he knows, could dissolve into a constitutional morass.
District Attorney Edmund Dinis