[chris]

This file concerns the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident in which Mary Jo Kopechne died after a car driven by Senator Edward M. Kennedy went off the Dike Bridge. An urgent July 19, 1969 Boston-to-Headquarters message reports that Kopechne's body was found in an overturned car and that Kennedy was identified as the driver. The released material also includes public correspondence sent to the FBI, including criticism of the handling of the death and a 1970 card urging Kennedy to resign. Later records from 1971 through 1973 document Albert S. Patterson's allegations of perjury in Kennedy's inquest testimony, his contacts with the Senate Standards and Conduct Committee, and an FBI receipt of inquest material and Patterson's manuscript.

FBI file number: BS 66-4051 | Documents span: 1969-1973 | Released in 2 parts
Names in this file: Mary Jo Kopechne, Edward M. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, J. Edgar Hoover, Albert S. Patterson, John C. Stennis, Benjamin R. Fern, James A. Boyle, James Walter McCord, E. Howard Hunt
Subjects: Chappaquiddick, Mary Jo Kopechne, Edward M. Kennedy, inquest testimony, public correspondence, Senate ethics