In the Wake of the Chappaquiddick Tragedy, Ted Kennedy Thanks His Brothers’ Friend and Advisor Kenneth O’Donnell For His “Public” Support

It is claimed that O’Donnell later related a version showing Kennedy was not actually responsible for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne

Kenneth O’Donnell’s relationship with the Kennedy family began at Harvard where he was Robert F. Kennedy's roommate. When Robert married Ethel Skakel on June 17, 1950, O’Donnell was one of the groomsmen and received a sliver pitcher as his gift. It was there that he met Robert’s brothers John and Ted for the first time; it was a meeting that would have major consequences for the Kennedys, O’Donnell and the country. When John ran for the U.S. Senate in 1952, Robert brought him into John’s campaign organization. There he played an important role in Kennedy’s upset election over Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge. O’Donnell came to Washington as Assistant Counsel of the Senate Labor Rackets Committee, having been hired by Robert Kennedy, chief counsel of the committee. In 1958, O’Donnell came in-house as a member of Senator Kennedy’s staff, and in 1960, he was a key organizer of Kennedy’s presidential campaign and director of his campaign schedule. O’Donnell was named Special Assistant to the President on January 21, 1961, the day JFK entered the Oval Office for the first time. He was officially the President’s appointments secretary, but unofficially and actively his political troubleshooter and policy advisor. He arranged JFK's trip to Dallas in November 1963, and was in a car just behind the President's when Kennedy was assassinated. In 1968, O'Donnell served as campaign manager for Sen. Robert Kennedy, when Kennedy challenged President Johnson for renomination. He was with Kennedy when the latter was assassinated on June 5, 1968. By 1969, O’Donnell had known the third Kennedy brother, Sen. Edward (Ted) Kennedy for almost two decades, and was considered a family intimate.

On the night of July 18, 1969, Kennedy was on Martha’s Vineyard’s Chappaquiddick Island at a party he gave for a group of young women who had worked on his brother Robert's presidential campaign the year before. Kennedy left the party, driving a 1967 Oldsmobile, and one of the women, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, was in his car. The car later drove off Dike Bridge into a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick. Kennedy was uninjured, and, by his description, dove below the surface seven or eight times, vainly attempting to reach Kopechne. Ultimately, he swam to shore and left the scene. He contacted authorities the next morning, but Kopechne's body had already been discovered.

The original police report stated that Kennedy was not driving, and a woman's handbag – not Kopechne's – was found in the car. But on July 25, amidst a ferocious media frenzy and demands that he explain the “true” facts of the death and what he – a married man – was doing with another woman in the first place, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a (suspended) sentence of two months in jail. That night, he gave a national broadcast in which he said, "I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately," but denied driving under the influence of alcohol and denied any immoral conduct between him and Kopechne. Kennedy asked the Massachusetts electorate whether he should stay in office or resign, and after getting a favorable response in messages sent to him, announced on July 30 that he would remain in the Senate and run for re-election the next year.

Although his case was over and he sought to move on, and he was well liked by his constituents, his conduct at Chappaquiddick brought him under ongoing attack from many directions. There were claims Kennedy was drunk and that he and his staff engaged in a massive cover-up of the accident. There were certainly questions that went unanswered, and the incident damaged his future presidential hopes.
 
Few public figures spoke up in his favor; O’Donnell was one who did. Typed letter signed, on his United States Senate letterhead, Washington, August 8, 1969, to O’Donnell. “Thanks so much for your public statement of confidence and your assistance during this difficult period. Your support has been an encouragement and a personal help to me. Ted.” He adds in holograph, “Thanks Kenny.” One wonders whether O’Donnell was simply being loyal to the Kennedy family or had additional facts not known to the public.

Stories have since circulated, which were purportedly confirmed by O’Donnell himself, that people at the party were very drunk. Kopechne left the party first and crawled into the back seat of Kennedy’s car and fell asleep. Kennedy left the party with another woman, and neither realized Kopechne was there. When a police car approached, Kennedy left the car and was not in the car when the other woman drove it into the pond. She easily escaped the car, and Kennedy didn't find out about Mary Jo's death until the car was pulled from the water around 10 am the next day.