"Teddy Kennedy was the weak kitten in the litter, never able to measure up to his brothers.
The accident at Chappaquiddick displayed his chronic immaturity. One problem Teddy has always had was keeping it in his pants - even when other people are around."
- Cleo O'Donnell - wife of former Kennedy campaign aide.

-1-
- Ted managed to graduate from prep school (Milton Academy) in 1950 with only a C average.
- Teddy was never a scholar, and his brother Jack once referred to him as "the gay illiterate".
- Despite his terrible grades, Teddy (like brother Robert) was admitted to Harvard as a "legacy", because his older brothers and father had graduated form there with such distinction.
- Yet even at Harvard, young Ted floundered.
- In his sophomore year he was expelled for cheating. He had been failing Spanish and feared it would keep him off the varsity football team.
- He paid a friend to take the exam for him.
- Ted's friend, however, was recognized when he turned in the exam book.
- Both lads were expelled, but were advised that they could apply for readmission in a year if they demonstrated responsible citizenship.
- It was a shame and disgrace, but the family would manage to keep it a secret until Teddy ran for the Senate.

- 2 -
- After his expulsion from Harvard, Teddy returned to Hyannis Port where he would sit brooding, sometimes for hours.
- Finally, he enlisted in the Army.
- Not surprisingly, he did not bother to read the enlistment papers and signed up for four years instead of two.
- Ted's father, the US Ambassador to England, was horrofied at the thought of his youngest son spending four years in the service, with a good chance of being sent into combat in Korea.
- "Don't you ever look at what you're signing?" he shouted.
- With one phone call Joe contacted a friend who managed to get hold of Teddy's enlistment papers.
- Ted's enlistment period was shortened to two years, a maneuver that was nearly impossible for the average enlistee.
- Furthermore, Ted would do his service in Europe, not Korea.
- Teddy never rose above the rank of private, and was discharged in 1952.
- He returned to Harvard in the fall of 1953, as did his test-taking friend, and they graduated together.

- 2 -
- Once back at Harvard, Teddy made the rugby team.
- During one match in 1954, Ted got into three fistfights with opposing players and was finally thrown out of the game. According to referee Frederick Costick, Teddy was the only player he had ever expelled from a game in thirty years of officiating.
- "Rugby is a character-building sport," Costick said. "Players learn how to conduct themselves on the field with the idea that they will learn how to conduct themselves in life. When a player loses control of himself three times in a single afternoon, to my mind, that is a sign that, in a crisis, the man is not capable of thinking clearly and acting rationally. Such a man will panic under pressure."
- Of course, years later, in the crisis at Chappaquiddick, Teddy would do exactly that.

- 3 -
- In 1957, Ted entered the University of Virginia Law School.
- The warning signs of trouble would continue.
- While in law school, Ted would earn the nickname "Cadillac Eddie". He was cited four times for reckless driving (three times in 1958 and once in 1959). These violations included running red lights and driving with his lights off at ninety miles per hour in a suburban area.
- Teddy was convicted of three violations and fined, but for some reason his driver's license was never revoked. [ for more details - click HERE ]

"Ted isn't very heavy mentally........nothing like his brothers. In many ways he's a fathead - a little bit conceited, a little bit cocky, the kind of guy who'd never finish a sentence when you asked him a question."
- Joe McCarthy - Journalist

- 1 -
- In 1960, Jack Kennedy became President of the United States, and vacated his Massachusetts Senate seat.
- Joe Kennedy told the President: "You boys have what you want now and everyone else helped you work to get it. Now it's Teds turn."
- Joe still wanted to collect on all he had invested in getting Jack the seat in the Senate.
[ for more details - click HERE ]
"Look, I paid for it," Joe explained. "It belongs in the family."
- But Teddy would not be eligible to fill Jack's vacant Senate seat until February 22, 1962, when he would turn thirty.
- Joe therefore persuaded the Massachusetts governor to name a Kennedy family friend to fill out Jack's term, keeping the seat available for Teddy.

- 2 -
- On March 19, 1962 Teddy announced that he was a candidate for the US Senate.
- Almost immediately, the Boston Globe unearthed the dark secret in Teddy's past - that he had been expelled from Harvard for cheating.
- Robert L Healy, political editor of the Globe, found the story. In order to get it into the paper, however, he had to get some confirmation. He asked the White House to open up the Harvard record and was immediately summoned to the Oval Office.
- The President and his aides kept pressing Healy to play down the story, but he stood his ground. "So finally, Jack gave me access to the whole thing," Healy said.

- On March 30 the Globe ran the story. Ted immediately issued a statement accepting full blame:
"I made a mistake. What I did was wrong. I have regretted it ever since. The unhappiness I caused my family and friends, even though eleven years ago, has been a bitter experience for me, but it has also been a valuable lesson. That is the story."
- This was the first of what would become the three historic apologies of Ted's career.

- The cheating story eventually died, and Ted was elected to the Senate.
- The admiring journalist Joe McCarthy had no illusions about young Ted. "He isn't very very heavy mentally........nothing like his brothers. In many ways he's a fathead, a little bit conceited, a little bit cocky, the kind of guy who'd never finish a sentence when you asked him a question. He simply didn't think things through as Jack and Bobby did."

The articles above are excerpted from:
- The Kennedy Men: Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets - by Nellie Bly
- This book covers the family scandals through three generations,
from Joseph P Kennedy to Will Kennedy Smith.
- We highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about the history of the Kennedy family.

More of Teddy's Other Scandals Coming Soon!