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Lawyer, Kennedy friend involved in Chappaquiddick crash dies

Former federal prosecutor, Paul Markham, who was on Chappaquiddick Island the night of U.S. Sen ...
Former federal prosecutor, Paul Markham, who was on Chappaquiddick Island the night of U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy’sfateful car crash has died. (AP)
Former federal prosecutor, Paul Markham, who was on Chappaquiddick Island the night of U.S. Sen ...
Former federal prosecutor, Paul Markham, who was on Chappaquiddick Island the night of U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy’s fateful car crash has died. In this July 19, 1969 file photograph, U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy's car is pulled from the water at Edgartown, Mass. Mary Jo Kopechne was drowned after Kennedy drove his car off Dyke Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island. It's been 50 years since the fateful automobile accident that killed a woman and thwarted Kennedy's presidential aspirations. (AP Photo, File)
Former federal prosecutor, Paul Markham, who was on Chappaquiddick Island the night of U.S. Sen ...
Former federal prosecutor, Paul Markham, who was on Chappaquiddick Island the night of U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy’s fateful car crash has died. In this July 18, 1969 file photograph, curious onlookers inspect U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy's car in Edgartown, Mass. Mary Jo Kopechne drowned after Kennedy drove the car off Dyke Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, Mass. on July 18, 1969. It's been 50 years since the fateful automobile accident that killed a woman and thwarted Kennedy's presidential aspirations. (AP Photo, File)
Former federal prosecutor, Paul Markham, who was on Chappaquiddick Island the night of U.S. Sen ...
Former federal prosecutor, Paul Markham, who was on Chappaquiddick Island the night of U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy’s fateful car crash has died. In this July 22, 1969 file photograph, U.S Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., arrives back home in Hyannis, Mass., after attending the funeral of Mary Jo Kopechne in Pennsylvania. Kopechne drowned when a car driven by Kennedy went off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, at the eastern end of Martha's Vineyard. It's been 50 years since the fateful automobile accident that killed a woman and thwarted Kennedy's presidential aspirations. (AP Photo/Frank C. Curtin, File)
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By The Associated Press
July 28, 2019 - 9:46 am
 

PEABODY, Mass. — A former federal prosecutor who was on Chappaquiddick Island the night of U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy’s fateful car crash has died.

An obituary posted by the Gately Funeral Home says Paul Markham died July 13 in Peabody, Massachusetts. A funeral was held July 18, the 50th anniversary of the 1969 crash. He was 89.

Markham was one of the few people Kennedy told that night about driving his car off a bridge, killing Mary Jo Kopechne. Markham dove unsuccessfully into the waters to try to locate Kopechne.

The following day, he went with Kennedy to provide a statement to police after the senator failed to report the crash.

Markham was appointed a federal prosecutor by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. He served as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts until months before the Chappaquiddick crash.

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