Before Chappaquiddick

This was an excellent book that filled in a lot of holes that I feel were still left open despite so many years.

You don't have to be interested in history in order to enjoy this book. It's well researched, and the book is a fascinating read, esp. if you are familiar with the subject matter.
BC reads fluidly - almost like a fiction book. Highly recommend.

This is a very good account of who Edward Kennedy was in the scheme of things, considering the notable and unique family in which he was a member. The Chappaquiddick incident was hugely touted at the time, as I recall, as the nail in the coffin of his chance at the presidency. Ironically, I've always felt that the presidency was the last thing he wanted anyway but was being shoved forward as a contender by his family and certain Democrats.
What happened at Chappaquiddick is pretty clear and it doesn't really matter whether Edward was drunk or not drunk. It was a tragedy, the girl died whether she was a party girl or not and the real crime was the long, long delay in his reporting of the accident. Personally, I believe he waited until the alcohol had worn off before confronting the authorities. The Kennedys were big time party animals and this book covers much of that.
Whatever, if this subject interests you then read this book. It's well done. I only give it a 4 star because I find it a well covered story already and quite unimportant at this time in our history.

I'm a huge crime nut and I've read articles and things on this case but this book was really enjoyable. I only knew a few things about the case but this had missing pieces. It was a great book written beautifully.

Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have always been fascinated by the Kennedy's, especially the cover ups they were involved in. This book was riveting. I like how it portrayed Mary Jo Kopechne and gave you a biography of her and her family. Finally the world gets to know a little of the truth. This is a well written book and a good read. Thank you to #Netgalley, and the publisher. #BeforeChappaquidick.

A very interesting book about the innocent woman behind the Chappaquiddick incident. Get to know Mary Jo, rather than all the hype from the news and the innuendo that was tossed around creating scandal. This author really dig into the story, spending much needed time interviewing people who knew Mary Jo all through her life, to tell what she was really like. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her and her family, as I’ve always wanted to know more about this story. I’ve only known the headlines and gossipy version of what happened.  This is a well written book on Mary Jo and I recommend it. Advanced electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author William C. Kashatus, and the publisher.

It was nice to see a book about the woman behind the famous name. I did learn more about Mary Jo, but always wonder how much people idealize someone who died tragically. This account seemed at great pains to make Mary Jo out to be a very pious and straight-laced person, possibly in an effort to discount the horrid accounts that have circulated to date. Regardless of what happened that night, and this book doesn't provide any more answers than others, she was an innocent victim in a horrible tragedy. This book certainly told me a bit more of who Mary Jo was, but the writing could have been tighter. It meanders towards the end and got repetitive.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Remembering well when this tragedy happened and even remembering where I was when the story broke. This tragedy even more shadowed the moon landing.

I have read numerous articles and accounts in books; as well as the movie.

What really happened the night Mary Jo Kopecne died? The realities of that night died with Mary Jo and Ted Kennedy. I do believe there was some type of cover up in the truth and sequences, in order to protect the Kennedy family legacy and Senator Kennedy's political career. Some of the details that I did not know, I learned in this book.

Where this book differs from other accounts is that we learn more about Mary Jo as a person, rather than just from the tragic death and the rumors surrounding it. It is well written and not bias, in my opinion.if the reader remembers the event and followed it over the years, I believe it will be an enjoyable read.

Even though I did not grow up in the 60s, this story of the Kennedy brothers and Mary Jo Kopechne peaked my interest. Before Chappaquiddick details the events and people that surround the accident where Mary Jo died at the hands of Ted Kennedy. You get to know Mary Jo's background from childhood to when she started working for the Kennedy's until her time of death. This also offered a great account of all the Kennedy brothers' political careers intertwined with Mary Jo's career. I'd recommend this book for anyone interested in the Chappaquiddick scandal or an engaging nonfiction, crime style book.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Before Chappaquiddick by William C. Kashatus was a interesting read. I think we all have heard or read about this tragedy, but for me there were thinks in this book that I didn’t know. Still in the end there are more questions then answers about what happened that night.

I really enjoyed this book. I have watched and read so much about The Kennedys, but I didnt know that much about Mary Jo and the accident. I really like that the author gave Mary Jo a background to let us know her life before she passed away.

When I saw the movie about Chappaquiddick, I was very much interested in learning more. I was searching for new books to read when I came across this book. I immediately knew I had to read this book. I downloaded it to my kindle and soon was reading the book. I have to say that this book was hard to put down. I read it in a few days and it made me understand how all went down and before it went down. I will be most likely purchasing this book for my husband who too loved the movie. Thanks for allowing me to read this book and I loved it! It's a must have in everyones library of books at home!

Before Chappaquiddick is a book that finally focuses on the victim Mary Jo. Her story needed to be told and this book addresses Mary Jo and not just Ted Kennedy. It is fast moving and full of information. The author offers some salient points and observations about the accident at Chappaquiddick. Very interesting read. Thank you to NetGalley.

Like so many others, I have been drawn to the Kennedy family for as long as I can remember. While my grandmother can recall with perfect clarity where she was and what she was doing when JFK was shot, I can do the same in regards to the day that JFK Jr, his wife Carolyn, and sister-in-law Lauren were pulled from the ocean.

Admittedly, Teddy is the brother I have always known the least about, and Chappaquiddick is why - though all I have ever known of the story prior to this book is that he left a young woman to die, and they may or may not have been having an affair. It was hard to reconcile that night with the decades of work he did in the Senate. I recall having heard more than a few people throughout my lifetime saying they wished it had been Teddy who had died instead of Jack or Bobby. I think that is going a bit far and would never in a million years wish death on my worst enemy.

I discovered this book while browsing NetGalley and read it within one day; I could not put it down. Mary Jo Kopechne became a real person in these pages, and I am grateful to the author for giving Kopechne the proper attention she deserves. As stated before, I have not read anything about Kopechne before, so I do not know how much information is new, and how much is already well-known.

We are given a background of Kopechne's family, going back to the late 1800s. Nothing so details that it drags on, but an overview of the family and how Joe and Gwen Kopechne came to raise their daughter Mary Jo in the 40s and 50s. I feel like this was probably included at all, simply due to their being limited information available about Kopechne's early years and life before politics. Even so, I don't consider it padding, because I found it of interest.

I did not know prior to this that Kopechne actually knew the Kennedy family somewhat well, having worked directly for Bobby's presidential campaign. It was interesting that after Bobby's assassination, the 'Boiler Room Girls' (so-called due to their windowless basement office) did not actually mesh all that well with Teddy's staff. I was under the impression that Kopechne actually was a staffer for Teddy. I now wonder where that belief came from, because I do not recall ever being told as much, or hearing/reading it anywhere. Perhaps it was just an assumption that made sense in my younger brain.

I have found the coverage related to Kopechne to be abhorrent. Reading about the pain and anguish her parents dealt with as they buried their only child, trying in vain to get answers about her death, was difficult. On top of all of that, the hate mail they received is beyond the pale. No one but Teddy derailed his own career, and to blame Kopechne is offensive and demeaning. I find it rather disgusting that people not only thought death by drowning (or suffocation, depending on which theory you believe) was an acceptable punishment for a single woman who was thought to be having an affair with a married man, but THEN those people wrote to her parents making those kinds of statements. Regardless of whether or not they did have an affair (I don't believe so based on this and articles I have sought out since finishing the book), the punishment of death is not at all appropriate and people suggesting otherwise are gross.

As Kopechne graduates from college and moves on to her adult life, the author does an excellent job of weaving the political careers of the Kennedy brothers through the narrative at the same time - without being overwhelming. This is, after all, a book dedicated primarily to the life of Mary Jo Kopechne. It is difficult for anyone to not be overshadowed by the Kennedys, but I think there is a balance here that shows how they eventually came to be in one another's orbits.

Kopechne took a much-needed break from politics following Bobby's murder, something she was devastated by. There is again insinuations from people that she also had an affair with him as well. It is absolutely maddening to me that a young single woman with commitment to various causes and solving the problems plaguing our country can be reduced to something akin to a groupie. (Okay, don't get me wrong, I would totally not have been able to resist advances from Bobby Kennedy, but I am also kind of a terrible person, so...) But as we are reminded throughout the book, this simply does not jive with the person she is repeatedly described as. No one who knew her could have ever believed in either rumor for even a minute.

So what lead Kopechne to be on Chappaquiddick that night? There was a small party, a reunion for the Boiler Room Girls. Details of the party are conflicting, and are probably destined to remain so. Teddy himself insisted he had hardly anything to drink, and others said it was a quieter affair. Neighbors nearby insisted it was raucous and loud until around 1 AM and he nearly called the police.

There are a couple different theories about what happened to even lead Kopechne to be in the car. First, the possibility that she asked Teddy for a ride because he was leaving, and she did not feel well after being out in the sun all day. It is of interest to note her purse and hotel key were left behind at the party. Secondly, there is the idea that Kopechne drank some (and considering she was not a drinker, it would have been easy for her to have become intoxicated quickly), and wound up asleep in the back of Teddy's car. When Teddy got in to leave, he would possibly not have even known she was there. The purse and id of a fellow Boiler Room Girl were found in the car, so some have put forward the idea that there were three people in the car that night. Thirdly, there is the idea that Kopechne herself had been driving and crashed the vehicle after letting Teddy out. This is the least likely to me, as if that had even possibly been the case then surely Teddy would have said so and placed all blame on the deceased victim. He didn't. Instead, he admitted to being the driver, crashing the car, attempting to rescue Kopechne, and then not reporting the accident for ten hours.

Through it all, we get to see the real Mary Jo Kopechne. We see a bright, ambitious, hard-working young woman committed to making this world a better place. That's what drew her to DC in the first place, and to finding a place on Bobby's staff. She was ready to do the work, and push forward to do all the things left undone by JFK's death. Tragically, she would never get the chance. She would suffer, possibly for hours as her oxygen supply dwindled or for minutes as she drowned, and die alone, a promising life cut short.

Unfortunately, we will never really know what happened that night. Teddy's account of what he did immediately following his escape from the car and over the course of the next ten hours doesn't mesh with other facts known about that night. Without a doubt there was some kind of cover-up, but we don't really even know WHAT was covered up. Surely the story is terrible enough. I don't want to believe that THIS is the best version of events they could come up with is something worse actually occurred.

Recommended for those wanting to know more about this specific event, and those with an interest in the Kennedys in general.

This book humanized the woman that is unfortunately a tragic part of the Kennedy legacy. Many people have heard her name over the years and of the accident that took her life, but few know anything about the woman herself. The author did a brilliant job in capturing what kind of a woman Mary Jo was. I highly recommend this.

I was 2 when this happened and all my knowledge was picked up from the media. It was interesting to hear about the most important person in the tragic story and learn how her reputation was smeared while Kennedy was let off with a slap on the wrists because.......he was a Kennedy. There are a few annoying errors, such as mentioning November 16th and saying JFK was assassinated 4 days later....it was 6 days. There are other examples too but none of this detracted from an interesting book.

This book is a nice, good surprise as it doesn't fall into the sensationalizing of the Kennedys.
For so many decades it was just a name Mary Jo Kopechne and another Kennedy scandal. Before Chappaquiddick gives life to a name. It rightly shows the tragedy of the life lost. It isn't just another scandal but gives meaning to a life lost.

The Chappaquickddick tragedy has, in both film and print, largely been told from the Kennedy perspective (are you surprised?) but Kashatus restores Mary Jo Kopechne to the center of the narrative with solid research. He does have to engage the web of rumors surrounding the Kennedys, but I felt that such issues were handled deftly and quickly and didn't get in the way of the story. Kashatus situates Mary Jo in a myriad of contexts: religious (she was a devout Catholic educated in Catholic schools), social (she championed the rights of African Americans and was against Vietnam), and political. He also examines how women like her helped pave the way for women entering the workforce later. He writes: "By today’s standards, Kopechne appears to have been grossly underpaid, extremely overworked, and dismissed as a “secretary” when her responsibilities suggested she deserved the more respectable title of “political consultant” and to be paid accordingly. But she, like the other young women who worked for Robert Kennedy, belonged to a transitional generation of women who paved the way for the feminists of the 1970s and their fight for gender equality." My favorite aspect of this work was the attention paid to Appalachia, which Mary Jo was from and the people of which RFK sought to help.

You always here about Ted Kennedy and how the incident at Chappaquiddick defined him and changed his life, but you never really heard much about the young woman that died. Yes you heard the rumors that they were having an affair, that she was a party girl, but you never really heard about her. This books tells you who Mary Jo Kopechne. This book tells her story, her dreams and the family that never got over losing her. This is a book that finally shows that there was another victim of the awful night and that she was just at the beginning of her political career and had plans for the rest of her life. Those plans did not include having that life cut short. This books shows that all the rumors were not true and there are people that know exactly what happen but are keeping the secrets of things that may never be known. The more you learn about Ms. Kopechne and her upbringing and goals you realize how devastating the accident was. This is a wonderful book that anyone that has an interest in history and politics should read.

I would hazard a guess that anyone who knows who Mary Jo Kopechne is, probably knows that she died one night in July when then-Senator Edward M. Kennedy's car plunged off the side of a bridge. Since then, there has been speculation and conspiracies as to how and why this happened, when Kennedy himself survived.

People have said that he drowned her because she knew too much about the Kennedys; that she was having an affair with Ted (Edward); etc., but I tend to believe it was merely an accident, and although many will disagree with me, I seriously can't believe that someone as high-profile as the senator was and still is, that he would purposely kill a young woman and then just walk away...

This book begins far earlier than Mary Jo's conception, beginning with her grand-parentage and explaining the type of people that her family was and where they came from: a set of working class immigrants who came to this country to make it a better place and give themselves a better life. Her family worked in the mines, which even now is dangerous and hard work, causing all manner of health problems.

But Mary Jo was born to Joe and Gwen Kopechne, their only child. As such, she was pampered and loved, given every opportunity to make something of her life that was better than her parents'. After all, isn't that what we as parent are supposed to do? Want something better for our children and give them the chance to be better, to grow? Joe and Gwen were no different than other parents, and they supported Mary Jo in whatever she wanted to do.

What she wanted to do -- and succeeded in doing so -- was go into politics and work for Senator John F. Kennedy while he made a run for president. She worked hard, she worked long hours, and she pushed her way into becoming important for his campaign. When JFK was elected, Mary Jo couldn't have been happier. But then, unexpectedly, he was assassinated while driving through Dallas, and she was crushed. It shattered her world.

When she recovered, she went to work for his brother Robert, who was once John's attorney general, and worked longer hours and like a whirlwind to help him in his own campaign for the presidency. But then again, RFK was assassinated, and Mary Jo's life once again crumbled to the ground; she had utter adulation for the Kennedys, and this truly devastated her, while she insisted she would never work for Ted, while other of the Boiler Room girls (Robert's staff) did so.

Now you can say that she was having affairs with these men, but you'd be wrong. Robert was happily married to Ethel, and while John had a roving eye, it never roved in her direction. Her zeal was to help the Democratic party and her loyalty was to the Kennedy brothers. Unfortunately, the third time tragedy struck, it stuck hard and ended everything.

Senator Edward Kennedy never wanted to be president. He didn't have the charisma of his brother John, and he didn't have the determination of his brother Robert. He was the youngest Kennedy, and the last of four brothers (Joseph, Jr. was killed in WWII). He'd lost three brothers and one sister at this point, and some say that he never recovered after Robert's death.

It was a fateful night on Chappaquiddick when the accident occurred, and Ted made decisions that would change both his life and that of the Kopechne's forever. Mary Jo's death never went away, and Ted threw himself into his work, playing a major part in getting laws passed that have benefited the American people, which included (but is not limited to) the COBRA health insurance provision; The Americans with Disabilities Act; and the Ryan White AIDS act. You can say that Mary Jo's death left Ted a better person.

Now I am not praising Ted Kennedy at all; in fact, I've always believed that if he'd gotten help immediately she might have lived. For myself, when John died so did my alliance to the Kennedys themselves. And who knows what her life would have been? Her death shattered her parents; it changed Ted. Nevertheless, she left behind a legacy. She was definitely a victim in this, perhaps someone who shouldn't have been there, perhaps willingly. We will never know the truth.

But this book gives an interesting take on Mary Jo's presence; it delves into her life and brings forth the young girl she was and the young woman she became. It gives her life meaning, and makes her more than just a victim on a late July night. It tells the story of how she became the person she was, and gives her loss a heavy sadness. I read this book hoping to gain insight into Mary Jo, and I was not disappointed in the outcome. Highly recommended.

I commend the author for documenting the life of the victim of this unnecessary tragedy, however, I feel that it’s value will be for those researching the incident. Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, “Black Water”, would be a better choice for anyone trying to understand what happened from Mary Jo’s perspective.

“Before Chappaquiddick” delves into Mary Jo Kopeckne’s life and passions before her death. The author dug into her past and dispelled previous scandal and innuendo by interviewing people from her past and up to her present. It was a nice change to concentrate on the victim in the accident as opposed to the Kennedy spin provided to the media and public. I enjoyed the book. Thanks to Net Galley and Potomic Books for an opportunity to read and review the book.

Before Chappaquiddick: The Untold Story of Mary Jo Kopechne and the Kennedy Brothers is an interesting read. I like that I was able to see this beautiful young woman like I have never have. Five stars.

A well written boo about a fascinating chapter in the Kennedy family saga. I highly Recommend for all history readers