Davison says the pieces came together showing behaviors that contributed to Kennedy receiving preferential treatment and avoiding serious criminal charges related to the crash and Kopechne's death. He pushed to interview people involved in the original investigation of the crash and those connected to the inquest that followed in 1970. He felt like he had messed up the case, and he thought he would like to have (Leo) do it.'ĭamore began to dig, as only a good investigative reporter could. 'Killen was dying, and (Leo) went to see him,' Davison says at 2:30 of the podcast. Davison says Damore's passions were ignited by a phone call by one of those sources, a detective named George Killen. But it wasn't until many years later that Damore began doing extensive work on the Chappaquiddick story, using trusted sources he had cultivated over many years of covering news on the cape. She remembers Damore working on the original crash story, and on the inquest that followed months later in 1970. She married Damore in 1973, and ended up copy-editing his best-selling book Senatorial Privilege: The Chappaquiddick Coverup, which published in 1988. She taught for a decade at Brunswick Community College and still does some editing work. That was the beginning.'ĭavison took early retirement from teaching English in Connecticut and moved to Wilmington in 2005, after her son had finished his freshman year at UNCW. 'They started saying 'you better get over there'. 'Somebody from the island called, since he was a stringer for the Cape Cod News,' Davison remembers of that night.

Damore went on to cover the story, and later wrote a best-selling book about what happened that night, and in the years to follow. Davison says the couple never made it to dinner. Damore was an award-winning reporter/columnist for the area's weekly newspaper, The Cape Cod News. June Davison and her then-boyfriend Leo Damore were about to go to dinner that night when the phone rang. Mary Jo Kopechne, a young senate aide riding with Kennedy, drowned in the overturned vehicle. Kennedy escaped the submerged car and made his way to the shore. Late in the evening of July 18, 1969, Senator Ted Kennedy's car ran off a bridge and plunged into the water on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. WILMINGTON, NC (UNCW News Release) - The release of the new movie 'Chappaquiddick' is refocusing the spotlight on a tragic incident that happened almost a half-century ago involving one of America's premiere political families. You can listen to previous episodes of the free '1on1 with Jon Evans' podcast by clicking links inside this story.

In His Garden by Leo Damore