Chappaquiddick Tapes Reveal New Details Into Ted Kennedy’s Involvement in Mary Jo Kopechne’s Death

Damning tapes that paint a dark picture of an alleged cover-up of the 1969 death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick Island — and the involvement of the late Ted Kennedy in the tragedy — have finally resurfaced after conveniently vanishing over 30 years ago, a disappearing act that allowed the powerful Massachusetts senator to walk away from the deadly scandal virtually unscathed, sources say.

Now, insiders believe the discovery may reveal a sinister cover-up that threatens to permanently shatter the reputation of the once-revered Camelot clan.

Sources say the Kennedy crisis recently exploded when the son of now-dead investigative writer Leo Damore revealed that he uncovered his father’s cache of audiotaped interviews with significant figures linked to the evening of Mary Jo’s death. No explanation of how or why they disappeared was given.

“Kopechne’s parents died feeling like they never got justice — because Ted got away with murder,” longtime Kennedy insider Leon Wagener tells GLOBE. “Ted covered it up — and the cops helped him.

“These tapes have the potential to finally reveal the truth about Chappaquiddick and ruin the Kennedy family’s reputation!”

Recently, a Globe report exposed allegations that former President John F. Kennedy — Ted’s brother — impregnated trailer park mistress Joan Lundberg before ascending to the White House, but paid her to have an abortion.

News of the bombshell tapes also comes amid claims that staunch Democrat Kerry Kennedy banned her U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services brother Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — an appointee of Republican President Donald Trump — from the family’s annual July 4 shindig in Hyannis Port, Mass.

As Globe readers know, Mary Jo attended a late-night party in 1969 that Ted hosted on Chappaquiddick for the “Boiler Room Girls” — a group of politically ambitious young women.

Married Ted left the party with Mary Jo, 28, and detoured to the Massachusetts island’s lover’s lane, but his 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont ultimately plunged off a bridge and landed on its roof in a pond.

Ted survived — but Mary Jo was left to die in the wreckage.

The big shot, who succumbed to a brain tumor in 2009 at age 77, didn’t report the crash for 10 hours and later claimed he’d tried to rescue Mary Jo, who some say was pregnant with his child.

Leo Damore had used the resurfaced tapes to write his explosive 1988 best-seller, Senatorial Privilege: The Chappaquiddick Cover-Up, which alleges that Ted utilized the Kennedy political machine to bury the sketchy incident and attempt to salvage his White House ambitions.

However, the tapes disappeared after Leo’s 1995 suicide as he worked on a book about JFK mistress Mary Pinchot Meyer, who in 1964 was gunned down in Washington, D.C. Many suspect her unsolved murder was orchestrated by the CIA to keep her from revealing the agency’s supposed role in JFK’s 1963 assassination.

Leo’s son, Nick, 39, tells People the tapes were found in a briefcase under the bed of one of his father’s late lawyers and contain hours of interviews, including extensive chats with Ted’s late cousin Joe Gargan.

In another book, Chappaquiddick Revealed: What Really Happened, author Kenneth Kappel alleges drunken Ted crashed into a tree, thought Mary Jo was dead and sought help from Gargan and friend Paul Markham. Kappel writes that the trio pushed the Olds off the bridge to make it appear as if Mary Jo had been at the wheel alone to keep Ted from being charged with vehicular homicide.

Officials believe Mary Jo survived inside the death trap for hours in an air pocket.

According to Leo’s book, when Gargan suggested Ted call the police, the pickled politician replied, “I’ll take care of it,” but went home to sleep it off instead!

Ted later pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a two-month suspended sentence.

Nick Damore declined to comment for this article.