The Man Who Tried to Solve the Mystery of Chappaquiddick Was Also a Mystery Himself, Son Says

Mar. 15, 2025

Leo Damore.Photo: Getty

“For Nick, from Dad.” That’s how investigative journalistLeo Damorelabeled the cassette he left for his son on the kitchen counter of his Connecticut apartment before he killed himself on Oct. 2, 1985.

Nick Damore, a 36-year-old English teacher, first listened to the tape when he turned 18. And then again while researching and making a documentary about the life and death of his father, entitledFor Nick, From Dad.

Leo, the author ofSenatorial Privilege, an in-depth investigation of Chappaquiddick, had spent eight years piecing together what really happened the evening of July 18, 1969, whenMary Jo Kopechnedied inTed Kennedy’s car after it went off the Dike Bridge. The senator waited until the next morning, some 10 hours later, before reporting the accident, leaving behind questions that remain to this day. The incident later became the subject of a 2018 film and PEOPLE’s original podcastCover-Up.

At the time thatSenatorial Privilegewas published, a Kennedy family spokesperson called it “an irresponsible rehash of all the old rumors and innuendo.”

The Chappaquiddick crash.Getty

Now,53 years after the Chappaquiddick incident, Nick and his partner (and childhood best friend),filmmaker Matt Cascella, have completed a documentary about the investigative journalist.

“Leo was known as a seeker of the truth. That was his driving force,” Nick tells PEOPLE. “What we found was that his own story was very complicated.”

For Nick, From Dad, which will have a local premiere in Madison, Conn., on Aug. 6, is told through interviews with family, friends and archival footage. “It’s an exploration into truth, memory, and fatherhood,” says Nick, a first-time film director, now in the process of submitting the documentary to film festivals.

“It’s about me trying to understand my father better. When it comes to trauma and suicide, I discovered how people remember things differently, and that’s part of the story as we tried to piece together this brilliant man, as well as restore his legacy,” he says. (An exclusive clip from the documentary is shown below.)

In 1969, Leo was a Cape Cod reporter earning extra money as a shoe salesman in Hyannisport, Mass.

But Leo’s story was about much more than Chappaquiddick.

“That established him as the voice of investigative journalism at the time,” says his son. [Leo had three children, two from his first marriage, and his youngest, Nick, from his second marriage.] “At one point, he was also looking into doing a book on Iran Contra and Oliver North. But the story he wanted to tell was that of Mary Pinchot Meyer. He was really trying to break the case.”

Mary Pinchot Meyer, an artist and the mistress of PresidentJohn F. Kennedy, had been married to CIA operative Cord Meyer. She was murdered on Oct. 12, 1964, near her home in Georgetown and the case was never solved. Leo was working on a book about her at the time of his death, but the manuscript went missing — one of the many unanswered questions that his son continues to investigate.

“Leo thought he had found the killer,” says Nick. “Then he started getting sick. He was unable to finish writing and his life began to unravel. In his journals, he’s constantly trying to figure out what is wrong with him — and it eventually pretty much drove him off the edge.”

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In the course of making the film, Nick reveals there were other unexpected twists and turns, including the discovery of the long lost tapes of his father’s interviews forSenatorial Privilege. “There’s still much more to the story,” says Nick, now working on a book about the many mysteries of his father’s life.

Leo Damore with his son, Nick Damore, when Nick was a boy.Courtesy of Nick Damore

And it’s also the story of a father and his young son. “The heart of it is us really trying to make sure Leo got a chance to have his story told,” says Nick. “And I’m wrapped up in that. You can’t really separate the two.”

“When someone takes their life, they may think they are releasing their family from a burden but they fail to see they are also shackling them,” he says. “It leaves things so unresolved that it leaves a chasm. So these projects are my attempt at feeling whole and hoping to understand things better. It’s when we don’t address what happened that it lingers.”

source: people.com