-Caveat Lector-
JFK DEATH CRASH PROBE: WAS THERE A
COVER-UP?
Richard Gooding
STAR
January 4, 2000
Shocking new questions have been raised about the plane crash that
killed John F. Kennedy Jr., his
wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren.
STAR has learned that there is growing speculation about whether
Sen.
Ted Kennedy and the
powerful Kennedy family have tried to cover up important details
about the tragedy.
Sources point to the incredible speed with which the autopsy on John
Kennedy was carried out - and
the bodies of the three victims cremated and buried at sea.
"The JFK Jr. case could end up raising the same specter of cover-up
that still plagues the autopsy of
his assassinated father 36 years later," said an observer.
"And there are still questions about
exactly what happened
with the death of Mary Jo Kopechne,
who drowned when
Ted Kennedy drove his car off a
Chappaquiddick bridge
30 years ago."
John Kennedy's autopsy was carried
out at night - and
took less than four hours to
complete.
Sources close to the case revealed
to
STAR that secret
photographs were taken of John
Kennedy and Carolyn and
Lauren Bessette's mangled bodies
during the unusually
speedy procedure - but the pictures
have never been
shown to anyone.
"Sen. Kennedy fought against having
any photos - and they
have never even been developed,"
said
a source.
"But if this ever gets into a
courtroom, those pictures could
be crucial evidence."
The shocking new revelations come as
the Kennedys brace
themselves for a bitter
multimillion-dollar battle with
Carolyn's family in a potential
wrongful death lawsuit.
STAR reported exclusively last week
that as much as $25
million of JFK Jr.'s $100-million fortune could be at stake.
After JFK Jr.'s private plane plunged into the waters off Martha's
Vineyard last July, instantly killing
Kennedy, his wife Carolyn and her sister Lauren, it took rescuers
five days to recover the bodies.
Yet the bodies were in the hands of medical investigators - under
unprecedented security precautions
- at a Bourne, Mass., hospital for less than four hours before the
remains were released to the
families.
"You can't let � pressures alter your routines," said Robert
Kirschner, formerly the deputy chief
medical examiner for Cook County, Ill. about the problems in dealing
with a famous victim such as
John Kennedy.
"If you alter your procedure and do things differently, then you're
always going to run into problems."
Even at the time, the question many expert observers were asking
was:
Look at all the man-hours
and effort required to retrieve the bodies from the ocean floor, and
then look at how quickly they
were examined, cremated and returned to their deep-sea grave.
"What was the rush?" asked one expert.
Kirschner said so much haste and secrecy could lead to serious and
haunting questions about the
investigation's thoroughness.
And he doubts that autopsies were even performed on Carolyn or
Lauren
Bessette. "You can't
possibly do three investigations in four hours," he said.
That lapse could also prove damning.
Without those tests, a Bessette family lawsuit would be unable to
prove how much the sisters
suffered in the moments before their deaths - a key issue in any
suit
for damages by a victim's
relatives.
The investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board is
expected to be completed early this
year - and the Kennedys fear the "imminent" filing of a blockbuster
wrongful death suit.
"In just the last few weeks, it's become clear to the Kennedys that
something's coming soon," an
informed source told STAR.
"Ted recently got a letter from Ann Freeman [Carolyn and Lauren's
mother] asking for his help in
speeding up the NTSB report on the crash. She didn't say anything
critical, but the Kennedys read it
as a hint that they were somehow holding it up.
"One thing, though, is clear - if there's anything in the report
that
looks at all like a cover-up, this is
going to get very ugly."
The official report should answer the question central to a suit -
who or what was to blame for the
crash?
The Kennedys dread hearing the answer, say STAR's sources.
"They can't bear the thought of John's legacy being that he was
responsible for this tragedy," says a
source. "It's not realistic, but they just want it all to go away.
"If they could get their way, they'd want the report to say the
cause
couldn't be conclusively proven -
or ideally, that some mechanical problem or the weather were at
fault.
"But if it comes down that John was too inexperienced a pilot to
have
made that flight, or that his
broken ankle wasn't healed enough for him to be at the controls so
soon - or, worst of all, that he
was doing some risky maneuver and lost control - it would be a
crushing blow.
"And if that's the case, they'll fight tooth-and-nail to overturn
that determination and any lawsuit based
on it."
STAR has learned that the federal probers found no mechanical
malfunction of any kind in the
single-engine Piper Saratoga.
"There doesn't seem to be any doubt about it," said a highly placed
source. "There was nothing
wrong with that plane - everyone is convinced of that."
The source said that experts from the companies who manufactured the
plane and its engine
examined the wreckage with NTSB officials, and all came away 99
percent certain that the engine or
plane's body did not fail.
"But just to be sure investigators sent the engine to its
manufacturer, Textron Lycoming in Pa., where
they had all the tools to break down the engine for a full
inspection," added the source.
Those tests ruled out a mechanical malfunction.
"The engine was fine and mechanically the plane was very sound,"
said
the source.
"Investigators also searched for signs of smoke or carbon monoxide
poisoning, which would indicate
a malfunction in the aircraft. But there was nothing like that.
"And less than three weeks before the crash, the plane had passed a
full safety inspection.
"From the evidence that has been tested and studies, everything
indicates that this crash was a clear
case of pilot error."
Veteran pilots have said that they would never have made the flight
that JFK Jr. attempted in the
poor visibility on the night of July 16.
When he went into a "dead man's spiral" as he approached Martha's
Vineyard, they say he may not
have been experienced enough to pull out of it.
Another Kennedy fear is that the investigation will reveal gruesome
details of the crash they'd hoped
could be hidden forever.
Sources told STAR that the victims' bodies had suffered severely by
being in the water so long - and
subject to the robust life at the bottom of the sea.
"No one will want to hear the truth about this," said a source. "And
the erosion of the bodies may
also add to the questions about the speed of the autopsy on John -
given the state of his remains, did
they need more time and more tests to come to proper conclusions?"
Mrs. Freeman first raised the possibility of a civil suit against
JFK
Jr.'s estate in August when she filed
court papers about her daughters assets and listed the possible
proceeds of "personal injury and
wrongful death claims."
Her attorney, Constantine Ralli, declined to comment to STAR about
Mrs. Freeman's current
intentions.
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