The Girl in the Car

While Apollo 11 astronauts orbited the moon preparing for their historic landing, realizing a goal set by the late President John F. Kennedy, his brother Senator Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge into the waters of Martha's Vineyard. Ted left a young woman, Mary Jo Kopechne, who had been a campaign staffer for their late brother Robert F. Kennedy, in the submerged car. Kopechne died and to this day the diver who pulled her from the water and the accident investigator sent to the scene believe she might have been saved had the Senator reported the accident when it happened. Instead her story has largely been lost to history as the media and the public focused on the man whose career was forever damaged by the accident, rather than the bright and young woman who did not live to tell us what really happened on that mysterious night.