Kennedy talks of guilt in memoir

IN a posthumous memoir, Senator Edward Kennedy writes of fear and remorse surrounding the events on Chappaquiddick Island in 1969 and says he accepted the finding that a lone gunman assassinated his brother President John F Kennedy.

In True Compass, to be published on September 14, Kennedy says his actions on July 18, 1969, were “inexcusable”. He says 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 Mary Jo Kopechne in the car. A worker on Kennedy’s election campaign, she was found dead 10 hours later. Kennedy, then 37, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and got a suspended sentence and probation.