Should Kennedy really have expressed regret over doing that with William K Smith?”
NEW YORK — Sen. Edward M. Kennedy wrote in a memoir being published this month that he made terrible decisions after the 1969 car crash that killed Mary Jo Kopechne, but said he was never romantically involved with her and was haunted by that night for his entire life. He also wrote in “True Compass” that he accepted the conclusion that a lone gunman assassinated his brother President John F. Kennedy. The memoir is to be published Sept. 14 by Twelve, a division of the Hachette book group. The 532-page book was obtained early by The New York Times and the New York Daily News. In it, Kennedy said his actions on Chappaquiddick Island on July 18, 1969, were “inexcusable.” He said he was afraid and “made terrible decisions” and had to live with the guilt for more than four decades. Kennedy drove off a bridge into a pond. He swam to safety, leaving Kopechne in the car. Kopechne, a worker with slain Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s campaign, was found dead in the submerged car’s back seat 10 hours la
