The "Boiler Room Girls" was a nickname for a group of six women who worked as political advisors for Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign in a windowless work area in Kennedy's Washington, DC electoral offices. They were political strategists who received national media exposure from the infamous Chappaquiddick incident. It was in this incident that political strategistMary Jo Kopechne died in a car crash where Edward Kennedy was the driver.
Creation of Boiler Room
Each "girl" was assigned a regional desk, divided by regions of the country, and was responsible for daily communication in and out of the Washington campaign headquarters to each state director in their region. At the end of the day, a decision book was compiled and sent to Kennedy and his campaign manager, Stephen Smith. Each decision book was composed by the boiler room team. The team of women also kept track of Kennedy's delegate count against Democratic primary contenders Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey. Just before the 1968 Democratic National Convention, the boiler room team was moved to a temporary office adjoining the convention floor where the same delegate officers met with the same state leaders. Following the assassination of United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968, the team was responsible for finishing the campaign coordination work assigned at the beginning. They eventually dispersed to work in other offices on Capitol Hill or elsewhere in Washington. The Boiler Room Girls were variously described as "frighteningly intelligent, politically astute, capable as all get-out" as well as "uniformly bright, efficient, fascinated by politics".
After graduating in the 1962 class of Caldwell College for Women, Mary Jo moved to Alabama where she taught at Montgomery Catholic School. She joined the staff of Senator George A. Smathers of Florida in 1963 as a secretary. One year later she became a speech writer for Joseph Dolan, one of Robert Kennedy's political advisors. After Robert Kennedy's assassination, she joined Matt Reese Associates. She became a member of Senator Edward Kennedy's office. After Chappaquiddick, reports of the incident captioned Mary as “Copachni” by the New Bedford Standard-Times, and “Palporki” by the FBI, and even “TED SAFE; BLONDE DIES” by another wire service.
Mary Ellen Lyons was a graduate of Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts. Her sister, Nance Lyons, worked on Robert Kennedy's campaign staff as well. She worked for State Senator Beryl Cohen of Massachusetts.
In January 1967, Nance began "working in case", assisting with constituents, federal agencies, etc. for Robert Kennedy's office. One of her most notable projects was the legislation for Massachusetts, and getting the appropriations for the National Seashore or for the Lexington Concord National Park. After Nixon was elected as the 37th president, she left the government. She received a call from the Senator's office about working for Senator Edward Kennedy. She responded by agreeing to come back under the condition that she receive a legislative assistant job, as she was already doing the work. Legislative assistants wrote the legislation on national issues, as well as the committee work and hearings. In the office, all male legislative assistants had secretaries, who aided them in their work. Nance had to write everything, type it, and mimeograph it by herself. During her time in the government she worked on the economic conversion bill and national transportation trust fund.
In 1968, Esther joined Robert Kennedy's Presidential campaign where she served as an aide. After, she was known to work at the Urban Institute in Washington. She is now working as a literary agent at International Creative Management.
Rosemary Keough was an alumna from Manhattanville College and graduated from Boston University Law School. She was a former administrative assistant to Senator Robert F. Kennedy who also worked for the Children's Foundation in Washington. During the Chappaquiddick incident, Keough's purse was in the backseat of the sunken car. She married Paul Redmond, one of the attorneys that Kennedy hired to look after the Boiler Room Girls after the incident and up through the inquest.
1969 Reunion at Chappaquiddick
On July 18, 1969 the Boiler Room Girls attended a gathering at Chappaquiddick Island with Edward M. Kennedy. He was accompanied by three lawyers, Joseph F. Gargan, Paul Markham, and Charles Tretter, as well as John B. Crimsons, Mr. Kennedy's driver, and family friend, Raymond S. La Rosa. That night, Edward Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne went for a drive where they crashed over a bridge into Poucha Pond on Chappaquiddick Island.
Media Portrayals of Boiler Room
In 2017, John Curran directed a movie portrayal of Chappaquiddick, written by Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan. The movie depicts Edward Kennedy attempting to persuade Mary Jo Kopechne to join his presidential campaign. In the film, Mary Jo is seen as a political strategist and victim to the car crash. Aside from mentioning Robert Kennedy's campaign, the Boiler Room Girls' other political work is not mentioned. The film only shows the short string of events leading up to the Chappaquiddick incident and the aftermath.
