Molla says it was implied that he needed to “show him the courtesies of a senator” by not pushing for answers and not approaching the other women. Later, Molla says he drove Kennedy, Gargan, and Markham to the airport and again tried to get Kennedy to talk.

“Basically he said, ‘I’m saying nothing further until I discuss this with my mother,’” Molla says, adding that he smelled alcohol he believed was coming from Kennedy. “I said, ‘Were you drinking this morning?’ And he said, ‘I’ve already told you there would be no more questions.’”

Kennedy always maintained he only had a couple drinks that evening. Bruguiere, one of the officers, says he found two garbage cans full of beer and liquor bottles at the cottage. But soon after, Bruguiere says someone dumped the cans and cleaned the cottage before investigators could take photos. Similarly, Molla says he went to the funeral home to see Kopechne’s body but was told it had already been flown off the island.

When the media finally descended, most of the stories focused on Kennedy’s political future and dismissed Kopechne. The most telling headline: “Teddy Escapes, Blonde Drowns.”

Kopechne grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and attended Caldwell College for Women in New Jersey, where she met Kluge. “She was quiet, self-effacing, never bragged,” Kluge says. Kopechne strongly supported the civil rights movement, says Kluge, which drew her to Montgomery, Alabama, after graduation. There she taught at an all-black high school. She moved to Washington, D.C., in 1963 and joined Bobby Kennedy’s staff the following year, drawn to the senator because of his focus on social justice issues.

During the ’68 campaign, Kopechne was tasked with counting the candidate’s Northeast delegates and typing speeches. She was even on the train that carried RFK’s body back to Washington from New York City.

Kluge says Kopechne attended the party because it was ultimately a thank-you for the women’s work on the Kennedy campaign a year earlier. “She didn’t go up there because of Teddy,” Kluge says. “She didn’t really know him.”

The coverage at the time often implied some sort of improper relationship between Kennedy and Kopechne. The party itself was cast as vaguely illicit, since most of the men were married and all of the women were single. But Kay Martin, one of the Boiler Room Girls who did not attend the party, says that the gathering was characterized as “something other than what it was” and that Kopechne was “portrayed in a very negative light.”

Even though Kopechne’s blood-alcohol content was tested and came back at .09, the equivalent of at least several drinks, those who know Kopechne say she was not a partier and rarely drank. Owen Lopez, who dated Kopechne, says: “When she would drink, she would have about one drink.”

A week after the incident, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident. His punishment was a two-month suspended jail sentence. In January 1970, an inquest was held to gather facts about the incident. Molla was subpoenaed but says he didn’t testify and was ushered out of the courtroom after being told he wouldn’t be asked any questions. Similarly, Farrar has said he drew a sketch of Kopechne inside the car, but the judge didn’t allow him to discuss it.

“The official word was that Kennedy was being taken care of by the D.A., the judge, everybody,” Molla says.

The inquest, which was conducted in secret, found probable cause that Kennedy negligently operated his vehicle, contributing to Kopechne’s death, but the district attorney declined to press charges. A grand jury convened several months later but wasn’t able to view evidence from the inquest. An autopsy was never conducted. Later, the Kopechne family reportedly received almost $150,000 from Kennedy’s insurance and from him personally.

Chappaquiddick dogged Kennedy for the rest of his political career. He didn’t run for president in 1972 or 1976 in part because of the fallout from the accident. And when he did run in 1980, his candidacy went nowhere after Kennedy was famously unable to answer why he wanted to be president.

Kopechne, meanwhile, was too often forgotten. “I think if Bobby had been elected president she would’ve been a White House adviser,” Lopez says. “She was that intelligent and thoughtful. She was a tragic loss.”

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