She (Meyer) had access to the highest levels. She was involved in illegal drug activity. What do you think it would do to the beatification of Kennedy if this woman said, 'It wasn't Camelot, it was Caligula's court'?


Leo Damore was an author who took on controversial subjects that annoyed some powerful people. His first venture into danger was looking into the death of Mary Jo Kopechne as she rode with Senator Edward Kennedy on Chappaquiddick Island.

Damore was a reporter and part time shoe salesman in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts so he was familiar with Kennedy's and he didn't believe the public heard the whole story. He spent eight years and and interviewed two hundred people to find out what actually happened the night of July 18, 1969.

His first attempt to publish his work, titled Senatorial Published, was squashed by protests from the subjects family. However he persisted and eventually his book saw the light of day, selling a million copies... much to the displeasure of the Kennedy's who called it just rehash of old news. The facts may have not been that new, but the conclusions were unsettling to the Kennedy Compound.

His final project went deeper than taking on the family of the deceased president. He began digging into the life and death of Mary Pinchot Meyer as well as her affair with John Kennedy. Her drug fueled evenings in the White House when Jackie was gone were known, but hushed. She was the former wife of CIA spook Cord Meyer and knew much of what was going on in DC. She was also close friends with Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee.

As Damore dug further into to relationship between Mary Meyer and Kennedy he began receiving calls and letters threatening him and his family... even talking of burning his house to the ground. He concluded Meyers death on a Georgetown jogging path was a professional hit and he believed he knew who was behind it. However the pressure of midnight phone calls and other forms of harassment began to impact his health and well being.

One time he commented: "She (Meyer) had access to the highest levels. She was involved in illegal drug activity. What do you think it would do to the beatification of Kennedy if this woman said, 'It wasn't Camelot, it was Caligula's court'?"

Shortly before his death he told his ten year old son, “If anything ever happens to me, there's a box under my bed for you.” His son Nick, looked an found a metal box under the bed. However after his father's apparent suicide, the box was gone. He may have been one more person that knew too much.

BOOK: Chappaquiddick: Power, Privilege, and the Ted Kennedy Cover Up

Chappaquiddick: Power, Privilege, and the Ted Kennedy Cover-Up
by Leo Damore

A young woman leaves a party with a wealthy U.S. senator. The next morning her body is discovered in his car at the bottom of a pond.

This is the damning true story of the death of campaign strategist Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick and of the senator—37-year-old Senator Ted Kennedy—who left her trapped underwater while he returned to his hotel, slept, and made phone calls to associates. It is the story of a powerful, privileged American man who was able to treat a woman's life as disposable without facing real consequences. And it is the story of a shameful political coverup involving one of the nation's most well-connected families and its network of lawyers, public relations people, and friends who ensured Ted Kennedy remained a respected member of the Senate for forty more years.

Originally published in 1988 under the title Senatorial Privilege, this book almost didn't make it into print after its original publisher, Random House, judged it too explosive and backed out of its contract with author Leo Damore. Mysteriously, none of the other big New York publishers wanted to touch it. Only when small independent publisher Regnery obtained the manuscript was the book's publication made possible and the true story of the so-called "Chappaquiddick Incident" finally told.