Kennedy Denies Allegations

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32067, 15 August 1969, Page 21

Kennedy Denies Allegations

(N.Z;P. A. -Reuter—Copyright)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13. Senator Edward Kennedy today labelled as “categorically untrue” a report by a newspaper columnist, Jack Anderson, that he did not swim the channel between Chappaquiddick Island and Martha’s Vineyard after the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. Mr Anderson said in a copyright column today that the Senator did not swim the 150yard channel, as he claimed in a television explanation of the 28-year-old Miss Kopeche’s death, but rather was taken across in a boat pro-

vided by his cousin, Mr Joe Gargan, and a friend, Mr Paul Markham. The senator told reporters today that he would have no comment on the matter pending an inquest, in early September, into the July i 8 death in Martha’s Vineyard, except to say that Mr Anderson’s column was “categorically untrue, as was the previous column he wrote about the circumstances surrounding the tragic death of Miss Kqpechne.” In the column the Massachusetts Democrat called untrue, Mr Anderson also said, as he had in another previous column, that Mr Gargan agreed to say he had driven the car in which Miss Kopechne drowned when it ran off a narrow bridge and into a pond on Chappaquiddick Island. Meanwhile, in Manchester,

New Hampshire, the “Manchester Union Leader” reported today that Senator Edward Kennedy “had the mental fortitude” to make 17 telephone calls in the hours after the fatal car accident on July 18. . The newspaper said that the calls were made even though the senator claimed to be in a state of shock after the mishap in which his car ran off a wooden bridge into a pond on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. The newspaper said it learned from a reliable source that shortly before midnight on July 18, Senator Kennedy placed five calls from a telephone number listed to Mr Sidney Lawrence, of Chappaquiddick Island, owner of the cottage where Mrs Kennedy and friends had been holding a party just before the fatal crash. The

calls were said to have been billed to Mr Kennedy’s credit card number. The newspaper said that another 12 telephone calls made by the senator during the early morning hours after the accident Were from a pay telephone in the Shiretown Inn, in Edgartown, Massachusetts, where Senator Kennedy had rented several rooms. None To Police The newspaper added that the persons who secured the list of 17 calls noted that “there were no efforts to reach the police, fire or Coast Guard officials to summon help to learn the fate of Miss Kopechne.” The Associated Press reported from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, that a petition by the District Attorney, Mr Edmund Dinis, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, seeking the exhumation of the body

of Miss Kopechne, ran into a legal snag. The parents of the pretty, 28-year-old former secretary said they were conferring with a lawyer. They said previously they would oppose any attempt to have an autopsy performed. Mr Dinis wants the autopsy for the inquest he has scheduled for September 3 at Edgartown, Massachusetts, near the small island where the accident occurred. His petitions, posted yesterday, were received today by the Luzerne County District Attorney’s office and the office of the Clerk of Common Pleas Court. Judge Bernard Brominski said, however, that the only way the matter could come before him would be if Mr Dinis, or an agent, acting for him, appeared personally to present the petition.