Before Chappaquiddick
The Untold Story of Mary Jo Kopechne
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Potomac Books Inc
Published:15th Sep '20
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Before Chappaquiddick is a biography of Mary Jo Kopechne, a twenty-eight-year-old secretary who worked on the senatorial staff of Robert F. Kennedy and his 1968 presidential campaign. She was killed on July 18, 1969, when a car driven by Senator Edward M. Based on interviews with family, friends, and colleagues who worked with her on RFK’s senatorial staff from 1965 to 1968 and recently released FBI documents, the biography explores the life and death of a devoted Kennedy staffer during a transformative period in modern American history. Kennedy plunged off a bridge into a tidal basin on Chappaquiddick Island, off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Caught between the silent generation of the 1950s and the politically active generation of the 1960s, Kopechne belonged to an exclusive group of females who worked on Capitol Hill and committed themselves unconditionally to the Kennedy brothers and their noble vision for a better, more humane nation. She was both a participant in and product of that vision. In the process, Kopechne came to embody the very best ideals of the sixties: compassion for the underprivileged, social idealism tempered by political realism, and a fierce devotion to just causes. Chappaquiddick is addressed at length because it brought Kopechne into the national spotlight; the narrative adheres to Senator Edward Kennedy’s account of the accident but also highlights the inconsistencies of his account as well as the many questions that remain unanswered fifty years later.
“Senator Edward M. Kennedy has dominated the tragic story of Chappaquiddick until now. In Before Chappaquiddick William Kashatus gives us the life story of Mary Jo Kopechne, the young woman who died in Kennedy’s car that summer night in 1969. Inspired by her volunteer work on JFK’s 1960 presidential campaign, Kopechne later became a valued staff member to Robert F. Kennedy. Crushed by his assassination, she rebuilt a political career as a consultant and adviser to Democratic candidates. Ironically, Mary Jo will forever be linked to Ted Kennedy, who was a distant reflection of his elder brothers and the idealism she cherished.”-Walter Mears, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of The Kennedy Brothers “Before Chappaquiddick captures Mary Jo Kopechne’s intelligence, idealism, and beauty. Weaving her life story into the fabric of the Kennedy brothers’ political careers, Kashatus sets this promising young political consultant free from the rumors and bold-faced lies that have tarnished her reputation for a half century.”-Donald D. McFadden, attorney and private investigator for the Kopechne exhumation hearing “For years after the incident on Chappaquiddick, very little has been published about Mary Jo: who she was, what she and her family suffered. I am so pleased to read Kashatus’s book Before Chappaquiddick and to see Mary Jo’s story told. She was a young woman with ideals. She had hopes and dreams for her future, only to have her life cut short so tragically. She deserves this book, and anyone interested in what happened on the small island of Chappaquiddick so many years ago will find it a worthwhile read.”-Leslie H. Leland, foreman for the grand jury inquest into the death of Mary Jo Kopechne “William Kashatus’s Before Chappaquiddick is beautifully written, thoughtful, and compassionate. He captures the strength of Mary Jo’s character and does so in the context of the idealistic and often tumultuous sixties. In the process, Kashatus shows that she was innocent of any indecent behavior with Senator Ted Kennedy and that she was unjustly treated by the public and the press. His efforts on Mary Jo’s behalf have given our family much needed solace and comfort.”-Georgetta Nelson Potoski, executor of the estate of Joseph and Gwen Kopechne and coauthor of Our Mary Jo
ISBN: 9781640122697
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
256 pages