m. to head for the ferry crossing. In his official police statement, made on the morning of Saturday, July 19, Kennedy stated: "I was driving my car on Main Street [also known also Chappaquiddick Road and Schoolhouse Road] on my way to get the ferry back to Edgartown. I was unfamiliar with the road and turned right onto Dike Road instead of bearing left on Main Street. After proceeding for approximately a half mile on Dike Road I descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge. The car went off the side of the bridge ." (McGinniss 545) In his statement Kennedy then went on to describe how he could not remember getting out of the car, and how he made repeated rescue attempts "to see if the passenger was still in the car". Unsuccessful in the attempts and exhausted from them, Kennedy then returned on foot to the Lawrence cottage. .

             In his police statement Kennedy also stated that "There was a car parked in front of the cottage and I climbed into the back seat. I then asked for someone to bring me back to Edgartown. I remember walking around for a period of time and then going back to my hotel room. When I fully realized what happened this morning, I immediately contacted the police". (McGinniss 545).

             In his TV statement directed at the voters of Massachusetts on July 25, Kennedy's story had a new feature. The rescue attempt of Joe Gargan and Paul Markham: ". I walked back to the cottage where the party was being held, requested the help of two friends, Joe Gargan and Paul Markham, and directed them to return immediately to the scene with me (it then being sometime after midnight) in order to undertake a new effort to dive down and locate Miss Kopechne. Their strenuous efforts, undertaken at some risk to their own lives, also proved futile . Instructing Gargan and Markham not to alarm Mary Jo's friends that night, I had them take me to the ferry crossing. The ferry having shut down for the night, I suddenly jumped into the water and impulsively swam across, nearly drowning once again in the effort, returning to my hotel around 2:00 a.