1998: The Death of David MacLeod

In December 1998 I got a phone call from Michelle Phillips. “Leif,” she said, “did you hear about David MacLeod? He was found dead.” I had not heard the news. I had lost track of him over the years.

An Associated Press wire story explained what had happened. Thursday, December 31, 1998:

A former Hollywood producer and convicted pedophile found dead on a downtown Montreal street died of an irregular heartbeat, a coroner said Thursday. But what exactly caused David Leigh MacLeod’s heart to stop will not be known until toxicology tests are completed, said Dr. Paul Dionne of the Quebec coroner’s office.

MacLeod, a first cousin of actors Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine, was found dead Dec. 6 near an overpass. He was 54….

MacLeod had a lengthy criminal record and was wanted in the United States by the FBI and New York City police in the investigation of several prostitution cases involving teenage boys. MacLeod had been a fugitive since Dec. 14, 1989, when he bolted from a New York courthouse where he faced 15 charges of endangering the welfare of children and criminal solicitation. His criminal record went back as far as 1974, when he was convicted in a child molestation case in Toronto. He got a suspended sentence.

It’s the last sentence that got me. He was already a convicted child molester when he first approached my mother and got to know me in the mid-1970s. He didn’t have to troll young victims. He could just arrange a casting session.

By the way, later there was some talk about how he really died. To some, it appeared more suspicious than originally reported. To some, it appeared that it may have been an act of retribution by a parent of one of the victims.

What more has to happen? How many more young people need to be lured into potentially catastrophic situations that will scar them for the rest of their lives? As I sit here telling my story, I’m horrified at certain scenarios I was forced to experience, scenarios I survived, and I think about kids this could be happening to at this very second, with nobody stepping in to help them, defend them, or protect them. How many more “grooming” stories do we need to hear? And it’s not being done just by celebrities. Grooming has become a sophisticated tactic when it comes to how adults in general prey on youth. From the time I was sixteen, I made a conscious decision to not bring children into this world because, I’m sorry, I think it’s too crazy and dangerous a place. It scares me to think of raising children today.