Editor’s Note: In November 1979, Senator Edward Kennedy seemed poised to seize the Democratic nomination for president from incumbent Jimmy Carter. But the aura of inevitability was dispelled when questions were once again raised about the fatal car crash at Chappaquiddick ten years before that left long-time Kennedy-clan campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne dead in a submerged car off a one-lane bridge near Martha’s Vineyard. Kennedy, who had been behind the wheel of the car, escaped to safety and, for reasons never convincingly explained, waited ten hours to report the incident.
Then came Reader’s Digest’s February 1980 cover story by investigative journalist John Barron. Built around a painstaking re-enactment of the scene and independently commissioned reports on details of the crash and tidal conditions at the time, it contradicted Kennedy’s account. Many blamed our story for helping to reverse Kennedy’s comeback and, ultimately, defeat him.
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