Chappaquiddick: Did Accounts Are in Material Disagree- Ously Bad in Certain Camps
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Federal Bar Council Quarterly Sept./Oct./Nov. 2018 14 companied by a rigorous registra- But the effort came too late for any stages of a party on Chappaquid- tion system that required “enemy counterpart to the U.S. restitution dick for six “Boiler Room girls” aliens” (including many Cana- program – the last survivors of the (young women who worked on dian citizens) to report regularly intern program died in 1991 and Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presi- to the police. And their freedom 1992, and they were very young dential campaign) and six mid- of movement and of speech was children when interned (one was dle-aged men, five of whom were curtailed. The account in the Ca- born in a camp). married (including Kennedy). nadian Encyclopedia places the We in this country are not Most of the reporting has been de- total camp population at 8,579. Of unique in this perversion of our voted to Kennedy’s two accounts this number, many were “paroled” democratic ideals. – his volunteered account on the in 1916-17, especially to do farm morning of July 19 to the local work under close supervision in police chief, and his July 25 tele- response to a critical labor short- vised statement (authored by his age. Other parolees were sent as Legal History brother’s principal speechwriter, paid workers to railway gangs and Theodore Sorensen). Those two mines. Conditions were notori- Chappaquiddick: Did accounts are in material disagree- ously bad in certain camps. The The Justice System ment; furthermore, both have one in Kapuskasing in remote been shown – by countless ana- northern Ontario experienced a Work? lysts – to be false and misleading riot and strike in 1916 that was on numerous key points. only put down with the arrival of By C. Evan Stewart This article will not relitigate 300 soldiers. It is interesting that that well-trod ground. Rather, the these were called “concentration focus will be on how well the camps” at the time – no mincing justice system handled what has of words here! been called the “most famous Though the camp population traffic fatality of the [Twentieth] was reduced by the parole pro- century.” grams, several camps continued in operation well past the end of The Police Investigation the war. Canada suffered consid- erable anti-immigrant agitation The only real “evidence” un- following the Russian Revolu- covered by the Edgartown police tion, roughly parallel to the “Red (which had jurisdiction over the Scare” south of the border. And investigation) was the account there were calls by some members Many trees have died since proffered by Kennedy himself to of Parliament and other officials July 18-19, 1969, quite a few of the police about one hour after he for mass deportations. Two of the them devoted to exploring what first reported the incident (nine camps were only closed in 1920. really happened when Mary Jo to 10 hours after it occurred). It In recent years, Canada has Kopechne perished in Sena- was handwritten by his friend made an effort to recognize and tor Edward Moore Kennedy’s Paul Markham (a former U.S. At- redress some of the evils of the Oldsmobile Delmont 88 when it torney for Massachusetts and a internment program. Trilingual drove off Dike Bridge and was participant in the prior evening’s plaques and accompanying cere- submerged in Poucha Pond on party), and its text is as follows: monies have appeared at many lo- Chappaquiddick Island, in Ed- cations. The national human rights gartown, Massachusetts. That ac- On July 18, 1969, at approxi- museum in Winnipeg takes notice. cident occurred during the latter mately 11:15 p.m. in Chap- 15 Sept./Oct./Nov. 2018 Federal Bar Council Quarterly paquiddick, Martha’s Vine- The victim’s name was left least) several more drinks at the yard, Mass., I was driving blank because neither Kennedy party, and it was widely known my car on Main Street on my nor Markham knew how to spell (in Washington circles) that he way to get the ferry back to her last name. At no time thereaf- had had a serious drinking prob- Edgartown. I was unfamil- ter did Kennedy provide any other lem since his brother’s 1968 as- iar with the road and turned information to the police; and he sassination. Also unknown to the onto Dike Road instead of refused to answer any questions. police was the fact that the small bearing hard left on Main The five remaining single women house on the island where the Street. After proceeding for at the party were whisked off the party took place had been stocked approximately one half mile island on July 19 before the po- with three half-gallon bottles of on Dike Road, I descended a lice knew they had ever been at vodka, four fifths of scotch, two hill and came upon a narrow the party (or that there had even bottles of rum, and two cases of bridge. The car went off the been a party). None of the four beer (and two of the men present side of the bridge. There was other married men who attended – Crimmins and Gargan – drank one passenger with me, one the party – besides Kennedy – (in- no alcohol that night); all evi- Miss Mary ______, a former cluding Markham and Kennedy’s dence of what was in the house secretary of my brother, Sen- cousin, Joseph Gargan) was ques- was quickly vacuumed up on ator Robert Kennedy. The tioned; the sixth man at the party – July 19 by Kennedy aides. Final- car turned over and sank into Kennedy’s aide and often chauffer, ly, Kopechne – known as a very the water and landed with John Crimmins – later offered a moderate drinker – was found the roof resting on the bot- conclusory, tersely written state- (after nine or 10 hours of being tom. I attempted to open the ment that moved the evidentiary submerged in cold salt water and door and the window of the needle not one whit. Kopechne’s then several more hours after hav- car but have no recollection body was flown off the island to ing been removed from the car) of how I got out of the car. I Pennsylvania by another Kennedy to have had an alcohol content in came to the surface and then aide on July 20 (he had been di- her blood of 0.09 – the equivalent repeatedly dove down to the rected to do so on July 19, before of having had five or six drinks car in an attempt to see if the Kennedy notified the police of his in the hour before her death (i.e., passenger was still in the car. involvement); there had been only she was “legally drunk”). None I was unsuccessful in the at- a cursory review of her body, with of the foregoing played any part tempt. I was exhausted and no autopsy or official statement as in the police investigation. in a state of shock. I recall to the cause of death. Then there was the question walking back, to where my For multiple reasons – includ- of liability. Under Massachusetts friends were eating. There ing the fact that nine or 10 hours law, “[a]ny person who wan- was a car parked in front of had passed since the incident, and tonly or in a reckless or grossly the cottage, and I climbed that Kennedy seemed uninjured, negligent manner did that which into the back seat. I then was perfectly calm, and in full resulted in the death of a human asked for someone to bring command of his faculties on the being was guilty of manslaugh- me back to Edgartown. I re- morning of July 19 – the senator ter, although he did not contem- member walking around for was not subjected to any testing plate such a result.” In meeting a period of time and then go- for alcohol. Nonetheless, it was that standard, besides factoring in ing back to my hotel room. later established that he had had whether Kennedy was impaired When I fully realized what numerous cocktails in the latter when he drove off the bridge had happened this morning, part of the afternoon of the 18th (which went unexplored), an- I immediately contacted the (along with a beer or two – all other key question would have police. before the party), that he had (at been to determine how fast the Federal Bar Council Quarterly Sept./Oct./Nov. 2018 16 car was going when it drove off sponse was “for any first of- municado, at his family’s Hyan- the bridge. The police, however, fender,” it would be a suspended nisport compound with a bevy of made no effort to answer that sentence. (That, of course, posed advisors trying to figure out what question. Then there was the is- a problem given Kennedy’s Vir- to do). Ultimately, those two con- sue of Kennedy’s driving history. ginia offenses.) Would the judge flicting considerations won out, Two facts complicated that sub- go along? The local prosecutor and Kennedy’s legal team met ject: First, his driver’s license had could not make any such repre- again with the local authorities expired; and second, Kennedy sentation. The Kennedy team, to seal the deal: Kennedy would had at least three reckless driving without authority to commit to agree to waive a hearing, plead convictions in Virginia (and two anything, said they had to go guilty to leaving the scene, and other Virginia charges for driv- back and check with the people a suspended sentence would be ing without a license).