Caroline Kennedy Tried to Reach David Before Death

Caroline Kennedy, denying that she knew anything of her cousin David Kennedy’s alleged drug purchases, repeatedly but unsuccessfully tried to contact her cousin before his death from an overdose, she said.

Her 39-page sworn statement to State Atty. David Bludworth, in an interview conducted May 7 in Washington, D.C., was released by court order Monday after a judge chided unwilling prosecutors for being “governed by what the Kennedys want to do.”

In her statement, Caroline said she and another cousin, Sydney Lawford McKelvy, stopped to see their 28-year-old cousin, son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, at the Brazilian Court Hotel on April 24, 1984, the night before his body was found.

The women inquired at the hotel’s front desk about David’s whereabouts and glanced in the dining room looking for him. They then left a message with the desk, Caroline said in her statement.

The next morning, she said, she and Sydney again visited the hotel but never entered David’s room. Police received a first-aid call from the hotel about an hour later and found young Kennedy dead.

Medical examiners said David died from a combination of cocaine, the pain-killer Demerol and the tranquilizer Mellaril.

Caroline said no when asked if she had any “personal information, knowledge or hearsay, that he did obtain cocaine, Demerol, or other drugs during the time he was in Palm Beach,” court papers indicated.

Circuit Judge John Born ordered Bludworth to release Caroline’s statement on Monday. On Nov. 21, Born had ordered the statement released by Dec. 5.

“I ordered (the release) before. I want it done now,” Born told Bludworth. “You’re governed by what the Kennedys want to do.”