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Although his performance early in the case was erratic and ill-formed, Dinis promises an aggressive pursuit at the inquest. He has some lapses to make up. It was he who agreed that an autopsy did not seem necessary immediately after the accident, permitted Mary Jo's body to be shipped to Pennsylvania and, many believe, avoided involvement in the matter until he belatedly saw an opportunity to make political capital out of it. In 1948, Dinis, a Democrat, replaced his late father, an immigrant Portuguese furniture maker, in the Massachusetts state legislature. Ten years ago he became the youngest district attorney ever elected in Massachusetts, but since then his ambition and oratory have failed to carry him to any higher office. Last year he lost a race for a seat in the House in part because Ted Kennedy refused to support him. Because of recent threats against his life, he now has a state trooper bodyguard.
Paul Markham and Joseph Gargan are the two witnesses who, besides Kennedy, have the most explaining to do about that July night on Chappaquiddick. In some ways, they have much more to clarify than Kennedy, since they were presumably lucid when Kennedy returned to the cottage dazed from his accident. Not the least of the mysteries is why the two lawyers failed to summon help immediately, report the crash to the police, and later supposedly permitted Kennedy to swim the channel to Edgartown alone. That swim is all the more incredible because both men are among Ted's oldest friends. Markham and Joey Gargan, Ted's cousin, attended prep school together, and it was through Gargan that Markham became a regular member of Kennedy touch-football squads.
Paul Markham
Markham worked in Ted Kennedy's 1962 senatorial campaign, and through Robert Kennedy became an assistant U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts in 1964. Three years later, Lyndon Johnson named Markham to be the state's U.S. Attorney, the highest federal law officer in Massachusetts. Until July 19, Markham enjoyed a reasonably good reputation in Boston's legal circles. He was known as quick-witted and charming, even though some questioned his legal talents. As U.S. Attorney, he had the distinction of convicting Raymond Patriarca, a New England Cosa Nostra boss, on two counts of conspiracy to murder. Yet he was blamed for allowing four defendants to escape punishment for the $ 1,551,277 Plymouth mail robbery. The Kennedy disaster was a hard blow professionally, since it was only last May that Markham resigned as U.S. Attorney to join a private law firm in Boston. Now his legal reputation is at least diminished.
Joseph Gargan