I know you're desperate to excuse anyone and everyone with a D behind their name, but that's stupid. Kennedy left a passenger in his car to die. He didn't try to help her or get her help.
yes, he did.
At the inquest, Kennedy claimed that he called Kopechne's name several times from the shore and tried to swim down to reach her seven or eight times. Knowing that the woman was still trapped inside the vehicle, Kennedy rested on the bank for around 15 minutes before he returned on foot to Lawrence Cottage, which was the site of the party that was attended by Kopechne and the other "boiler room girls". Kennedy denied seeing any house with a light on during his walk back to Lawrence Cottage.
[12]
According to Kennedy's testimony, Gargan and party co-host Paul Markham then returned to the waterway with him to try to rescue Kopechne. Both of the other men also tried multiple times to dive into the water and rescue Kopechne.
[5] Kennedy testified that their efforts to rescue Kopechne failed, and Gargan and Markham drove with him to the ferry landing. Both men insisted multiple times that the crash had to be reported to the authorities.
[15] According to Markham's testimony, Kennedy was sobbing and on the verge of becoming crazed.
[16] Kennedy went on to testify, "
had full intention of reporting it. And I mentioned to Gargan and Markham something like, 'You take care of the other girls; I will take care of the accident!'—that is what I said and I dove into the water."[15] Kennedy had already told Gargan and Markham not to tell the other women anything about the incident "ecause I felt strongly that if these girls were notified that an accident had taken place and Mary Jo had, in fact, drowned, that it would only be a matter of seconds before all of those girls, who were long and dear friends of Mary Jo's, would go to the scene of the accident and enter the water with, I felt, a good chance that some serious mishap might have occurred to any one of them."[17]