Boiler Room Girls

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, D.C. electoral offices. They were political strategists who received national media exposure from the infamous Chappaquiddick incident in 1969. It was in Chappaquiddick that Mary Jo Kopechne died in a car crash, in which Ted Kennedy was the driver.^[1]

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.

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. 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"^[2] as well as "uniformly bright, efficient, fascinated by politics".^[3]

There had already been one formal reunion of the highly regarded Boiler Room Girls prior to Chappaquiddick. It was held at Hyannis Port two months after the death of Robert Kennedy, was organized by Joseph Gargan plus Joan Kennedy, and was attended by twelve of the young campaign workers. The three day occasion included a cocktail party, a restaurant meal, sailing, swimming, charades and a cookout.^[13]

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 Gargan, Paul F. Markham, and Charles Tretter, as well as John B. Crimmins, Mr. Kennedy's driver, and family friend, Raymond S. La Rosa.^[14] That night, Edward Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne went for a drive where they crashed over a bridge into Pocha Pond on Chappaquiddick Island.^[15]

In 2017, John Curran directed a movie portrayal of Chappaquiddick, written by Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan.^[16] The movie depicts Edward (Ted) Kennedy attempting to persuade Mary Jo Kopechne to join his presidential campaign.^[17] In the film, Mary Jo is seen as a political strategist and victim to the car crash.^[17] Aside from mentioning Robert (Bobby) Kennedy's campaign, the Boiler Room Girls' other political work is not mentioned.^[17] The film only shows the short string of events leading up to the Chappaquiddick incident and the aftermath.^[17]