Dorothy Kilgallen rose to prominence as a journalist in the mid-1930s. By the end of that decade, her daily column had captured the attention of East Coast readers, and nationwide syndication soon blasted her into even greater popularity. By the 1950s, she was an icon of the newspaper business, a radio show host, and a television celebrity.
In an era when journalism was dominated by male personalities, Dorothy shattered glass ceilings and became one of the most well-respected and popular journalists in the world. Her beginnings were in Hollywood gossip columns, but her true passion was investigative journalism. She covered controversial stories and figures of her time, and her coverage of major murder trials was acclaimed.
Her defense of those she felt were given a raw deal brought criticism and argument, but Dorothy was not afraid to speak her mind or stand up for what she believed in. She was the subject of lawsuits and feuds with celebrity royalty and even the United States government, yet she never hesitated to voice her opinion.
In 1963, the United States was forever changed when President John F. Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullet in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22. Dorothy was devastated, not just at the loss of a president she admired greatly, but because John was a personal friend she had gotten to know years earlier.
While the world watched the story unfold, from the arrest and murder of Lee Harvey Oswald to the trial of Jack Ruby and the release of the Warren Commission report, Dorothy dared to ask questions at a time when it was not popular to do so. She dedicated the last years of her life to investigating the assassination, became the only person to get a private interview with Ruby, and compiled an extensive dossier on the murder, all while under FBI surveillance.
She was questioned by intelligence agencies but never revealed her sources. In early November 1965, Dorothy quietly told some friends that she was taking a trip to New Orleans to speak with an informant, and that she was going to break the case wide open. She would never make the trip. Instead, she was found dead in her New York City townhouse.
Questions linger about the scene of her death, the manner in which she died, and what may have happened. Her dossier on Kennedy, with all of her extensive notes, vanished and has never been located. For many, there is more to the story than has ever been revealed.
Dorothy May Kilgallen was born on July 3, 1913, in Chicago, Illinois, to parents James Lawrence Kilgallen and his wife May Ahern. James was a reporter who had worked for many different news services over the years, having begun as a telegraph operator when he was just 15 years old. His dedication to the news and his rising status as one of the most well-known and respected reporters in the country would have a tremendous impact on Dorothy and her future.
As a young child, Dorothy was described as inquisitive and constantly learning. For James and May, it was clear that Dorothy had an aptitude for knowledge from a young age. She especially enjoyed being read to, and with James as a reporter, he would often read the newspaper aloud for his young daughter.
Due to the changing nature of James's career, the family moved a lot during Dorothy's early years. James worked many side reporting jobs for the Chicago Tribune as a neighborhood reporter. He would later move to The Associated Press and then the United Press, and even acted as the managing editor for the Indianapolis Times for a period.
Around the beginning of America's involvement in World War I, circa 1917, he became the co-owner of The Daily Boomerang in Laramie, Wyoming. By 1919, the Kilgallen family had expanded to include another daughter, Elinor, who was six years Dorothy's junior. While still young herself, Dorothy was drawn to her little sister and doted on her alongside her mother.
The family settled into a more permanent residence in 1920 when the International News Service brought James on as a roving reporter based out of New York City. While the Kilgallen family had been somewhat acquainted with life on the move, the children had shifted things, and whether he knew it or not, James's days of wandering the country working for various papers were over. He would ultimately work for the International News Service for the next 38 years.
Of the major stories James covered, they included the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and the German surrender in World War II. The Kilgallen family were Roman Catholic, and so the children were raised in the church. At the time, the United States was experiencing a rampant anti-Catholic movement.
While much of this anti-Catholic sentiment was most fierce in the southern states, there was still a sideways glance cast at Catholics in the north. In the late 1920s, Al Smith became the first Roman Catholic to gain a major party's nomination for president, but his Catholicism came quickly into play, with many arguing that Smith wouldn't take his orders from the American people but would instead be at the beck and call of the Pope. Interestingly, it was this very vehement anti-Catholic point of view which resulted in a surge in Catholics showing up at the polls to vote Democrat in defense of their religion.
The Kilgallen family settled in Brooklyn upon arriving in New York, and it was a very transitional place at the time. The year of their arrival, 1920, saw the ratification of the 18th Amendment, which imposed a federal ban on alcohol in what has often been referred to as Prohibition. In major cities such as New York, the ban on alcohol resulted in the surging of the underground and the growth of organized crime, with bootleggers getting rich and wars between rival factions shedding blood in the streets.
While the world around them seemed to be chaotic and questionable, James and May worked hard to provide a good upbringing and happy home life to their children. Brooklyn is the most populous borough in New York City, covering 97 square miles. In the 1920s to 1930s, Brooklyn's population boasted more than two and a half million residents, not very different from the current population today of 2.7 million.
Brooklyn was a diverse area of New York and at the time was experiencing large growth, with schools, colleges, and businesses being constructed. Suffice it to say, Dorothy grew up in an ever-expanding borough in the shadow of Manhattan, where her father traveled each day for work. James was an admirer of culture, and it wasn't uncommon for the family to go into Manhattan to attend shows on Broadway, something which fostered a keen interest in theater for Dorothy that would develop throughout her life.
Dorothy's zest for learning and her curious nature set her up well for school, and she attended primary school in Indianapolis and Chicago prior to arriving in New York. Throughout the early years, Dorothy obtained high marks and specifically showed an aptitude when it came to writing, for which she was said to have possessed the talent much like her father. Dorothy had a natural ability to weave a story and to entice a reader, and this was an area she would pursue further as she entered Erasmus High School, located on Flatbush Avenue.
Around this time, in 1929, the stock market crash occurred and America entered the Great Depression. It hit many hard and resulted in mass homelessness and the rise of tent towns around the country, with New York seeing a massive one in Central Park. The Kilgallen family managed their way through, as James's work as a reporter only increased.
As Dorothy neared completion of her time at Erasmus High School, her interest in writing continued to grow and now encompassed journalism as well, due partially to the influence of her father and her own innate desire to learn and share her knowledge. The possibility of a career as a reporter began to develop.
Despite Dorothy's burgeoning intellectual prowess and dedication to the craft of writing, she had many obstacles to overcome. Dorothy would graduate from Erasmus in 1930, not exactly a time where it was easy for a woman to get a jump start in the field of journalism, a highly male-dominated career at the time. In spite of this knowledge, Dorothy had a reputation for her tenacity and dedication to her goals, and while the road may be difficult, she was determined to break through whatever barrier might lie in her path.
Dorothy went on to attend the College of New Rochelle, a private Catholic college. Her pursuit of journalism was vivacious, and her writing had sharpened dramatically in the last few years. The brilliant 19-year-old was certainly showing the potential to be an incredible reporter. Her tenure in college was short-lived, though, as she dropped out when she was offered a job working as a reporter for the New York Evening Journal.
While Dorothy's skill was of no doubt, it has come to be believed that this original offer came through the influence of her father. The Hearst Corporation owned the New York Evening Journal as well as James's newspaper, the International News Service. Regardless of how Dorothy found her way into the business, her skill and talent for writing and investigating would galvanize her place and erase any snide remarks about nepotism.
While Dorothy's articles were intriguing, it would be her involvement in a race which would catapult her from lesser-known writer to media darling and coast-to-coast columnist. Sixty-five years before the television show The Amazing Race debuted and showed teams racing around the world, Dorothy Kilgallen was one of three New York reporters, and the only woman, who embarked upon their own race around the world.
The rules were simple. The reporters had to traverse through their destinations using only transportation publicly available. The race, which was a joint venture between the newspapers and the airlines, aimed to show the ease with which one could circle the globe thanks to modern transportation, specifically airplanes. Each reporter would write articles in installments detailing their journeys and the adventure set out before them, which they would then cable over to their papers for publication.
The National Aeronautical Association was responsible for tracking the time, and the race kicked off on the evening of September 30, when each of the participants left their respective offices. The first goal was to reach Lakehurst, New Jersey, where the participants would board the famous Hindenburg Zeppelin, which would be destroyed in a tragic disaster less than a year later.
It was a bad night, with heavy rain forcing each racer to drive to the site rather than fly. Kilgallen was the last to arrive, but nonetheless the trio were then ushered by dirigible to Frankfurt, Germany. Sometime during the trip, Kilgallen struck up a friendship with fellow reporter Leo Kieran, and the two followed much of the journey together.
After Frankfurt, the next targets were Italy, followed by Hong Kong. Kilgallen and Kieran went their separate ways in Bangkok. Following Bangkok was Hong Kong, Manila, Honolulu, and then the race back home to New York.
Ultimately, Kilgallen came in second, arriving back in New York having gone around the world in 24 days and 12 hours. Kieran finished last, having taken two hours longer than Dorothy. Herbert of the World Telegram won, though there was some dispute about the manner in which he won, having talked himself onto a Pan American airline flight which was for crew only, breaking the rules about using publicly available transportation.
Regardless of the fact that Eakins had completed the race in just over eighteen days, it was Dorothy Kilgallen who received most of the pomp and circumstance and quickly was elevated into the position of being a role model for women across the country and an inspiration to a generation, showing her female counterparts that she could compete with the guys and they could too.
The race resulted in Dorothy becoming a spokeswoman for airlines, and shortly after returning she collected all of the articles she had written during her trip, added in some personal thoughts about the race, the locations, and the adventures as a whole, and released it as a book entitled Girl Around the World. The book was a success for Dorothy, further increasing her already growing celebrity status, and was later credited as inspiration for the film Fly-Away Baby.
In the film, Glenda Farrell plays reporter Torchy Blaine, based loosely on Kilgallen. The movie, released in June of 1937, depicts Blaine's attempt to solve a murder and smuggling case while on an around-the-world flight, and was quite successful as the second film in the Torchy Blaine movie series, with a third film following later. Prior to the release of Fly-Away Baby, Dorothy stepped in front of the cameras herself, playing a reporter in the 1936 film Sinner Takes All, starring Bruce Cabot.
Throughout this rise in popularity, Dorothy continued writing columns and considered being a reporter her true career. As the 1930s drew to an end, The Evening Journal for which she wrote merged with another paper, the American, and Dorothy began writing a daily column called "The Voice of Broadway" for the newly formed New York Journal American. The column appeared for the first time in 1938.
While the columns were originally based around New York show business news and gossip, Dorothy would frequently insert more serious work covering politics and organized crime. The columns were so well received and Dorothy was now gaining more traction that they were eventually picked up for syndication, and soon the once New York-only columns began appearing in 146 newspapers nationwide, increasing Dorothy's reach and boosting her already bolstered popularity. The success of the articles was so financially rewarding that Dorothy moved her family, with whom she was still living at the time, from Brooklyn to Manhattan.
In late 1938, early 1939, Dorothy was working on a column about a new musical called The Knickerbocker Holiday. It was during this time that she met and began a relationship with one of the actors in the play, Richard Kollmar. Kollmar had been involved in entertainment for a while, though he hadn't truly been connected to any major hits. Some have argued that Kollmar may have viewed Dorothy as a way to shoot himself into stardom on the coattails of her celebrity, while others have stated that it was a whirlwind romance which encompassed both of them.
Kollmar converted to Catholicism for Dorothy, and on April 6, 1943, 33-year-old Kollmar married 27-year-old Kilgallen, who would retain her maiden name in print and popular culture. Dorothy and Richard would embark upon several journeys together, one of which involved the growing world of radio broadcasting. Richard eventually joined a nationally syndicated radio drama in which he played Boston Blackie, a hard-boiled detective with an edge.
For Dorothy, her "Voice of Broadway" column would be utilized to create a CBS radio broadcast of the same name. As America entered World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Dorothy's radio show was growing in popularity, and over the course of the next few years both Dorothy and Richard would build their radio reputations.
In 1945, the two decided to go in on a joint venture, a daily morning radio show entitled Breakfast with Dorothy and Dick. The show would air Monday through Saturday from 8:15 to 8:55 a.m. and between 11:30 and 12:00 on Sundays. The show was quite ahead of its time, considering today's world of podcasting. The two broadcast from their apartment, and through Dorothy's career and celebrity status she had connections to advertisers, so the two would frequently promote books, movies, and plays by discussing them as topics on the show.
Breakfast with Dorothy and Dick began in their 16-room apartment located at 640 Park Avenue and later followed them to a brownstone at 45 East 68th Street. This morning show would outlast other similar radio endeavors, being conducted by the couple for over 20 years.
Over the next few years, Dorothy's popularity would continue to rise. The syndication of her column, her work on broadcast radio, and her connections to Hollywood kept her name prominent in the public forum. In 1948, she worked on a broadcast with the wildly popular Frank Sinatra, though the two would later have a falling out when Dorothy wrote a comprehensive tell-all about Sinatra's life.
Sinatra would be only one of many major names with whom she would have difficulties. She had a legendary feud with Jack Paar, the second host of The Tonight Show and the precursor to Johnny Carson. By 1950, it was estimated that Dorothy had nearly 20 million readers around the country.
While she was a fine writer, many have attributed her success to an innate ability to get information that others weren't in possession of, bolstering the gossip aspect of her column. According to insiders of the time, Dorothy was consistently approached by agents to plug and promote the activities of their celebrities. Dorothy didn't believe in giving out free promotion, and in order to do so she has been alleged to have said to these people, "Bring me three detrimental stories concerning other stars and I will include a good piece about your client." This typically wasn't a difficult requirement to meet, as the competition between rival stars was intense and the ability to smear a competitor was quickly taken up.
In 1950, Dorothy made yet another splash in the public eye when she was invited to be a panelist on a new television game show entitled What's My Line. The game show involved a four-person celebrity panel asking questions of a guest in an attempt to determine their occupation. Over the years, the show became wildly popular and saw many celebrity mystery guests, including the likes of Sean Connery, John Wayne, and Julie Andrews. Dorothy would serve as a panelist from the inception of the show until her death 15 years later.
For many who knew Dorothy both in print and by her voice on the radio, this introduced them to another side of her. While Dorothy was not quite as widely known as movie stars of the time, she was one of the most well-known female figures in America.
Just a few years later, while Dorothy continued to write gossip columns, she began to expand her investigative side and to publicly explore many areas which would bring controversy and criticism. In 1954, Dorothy covered the murder trial of Dr. Samuel Sheppard. If that name sounds familiar, it's because the arrest and trial of Sheppard became the basis for the television series The Fugitive, which was later made into a film starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones.
Sheppard was ultimately arrested and found guilty of bludgeoning his wife to death in their home in the Cleveland suburb of Bay Village. Dorothy, though, disagreed with the verdict and wrote front-page stories pointing out questionable evidence and criticizing the prosecution. This stirred up a lot of controversy, and at least one Cleveland newspaper stopped carrying her column in response.
Dorothy was exceedingly outspoken about the case and wrote extensively. She argued firmly that there wasn't enough evidence to convict Sheppard and that there was a good chance the real killer had gotten away. While she was publicly against the determination of the trial, it wasn't until after the judge, Edward J. Blythin, passed away that she publicly revealed that he had told her before the trial had begun that he believed Sheppard to be "guilty as hell."
When Dorothy was approached by attorney F. Lee Bailey about this statement, she agreed to be deposed, and that deposition played a major role in later getting Sheppard's conviction overturned. At a retrial, Sheppard was found not guilty. Bailey later wrote in his memoirs that Sheppard had met Dorothy at a late-night party following his release, at which point he thanked her for her investigative work and defense of his innocence.
This incident, though, would not be Dorothy's only brush with controversy, and if nothing else signified a turn in her reporting. It has been suggested over the years that Kilgallen, like many popular news reporters of the time, had connections to the Central Intelligence Agency in terms of receiving tips and information from the agency in exchange for popular support of covert and military activities.
As tensions between the United States and the Communists overrun Cuba were beginning to increase in the late 1950s, Dorothy wrote a number of anti-Castro stories in her columns. Some of this information is rumored to have been given to her through first-hand accounts in direct interviews with Cuban exiles based in Miami. Some of these exiles would later participate in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.
The US military, CIA, and other assets had set out to train, arm, and supply the exiles with what they needed in order to deliver them to the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, from which point they were to launch an offensive with the goal of overthrowing Castro. This came after an alleged series of plans worked on jointly by the United States government and the Mafia to assassinate Castro.
While much of this information was very unknown to the public and still is debated today, it was considered anti-American to speak of at the time. But Dorothy released a column on July 15, 1959, in which she became the first major journalist to suggest publicly that the CIA and Mafia may be working together. The article did not sit well with higher-level military and intelligence agents, and it has been reported that the head of the FBI himself, J. Edgar Hoover, was angry about Dorothy's writings.
From this point forward, her activities would be kept track of, and the FBI initiated a dossier on her. Many friends of Dorothy's from this time onward have spoken openly about how it became a running joke that if Dorothy called, they knew the conversation was being listened to and that the phones were being wiretapped.
In September of 1959, Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the USSR, became the first Soviet leader to visit the United States. During this time, Khrushchev would have a face-to-face meeting with President Eisenhower in hopes of calming down tensions between the two countries. Dorothy wrote a scathing article about the visit in which she attacked the style of Khrushchev's wife, writing that it would be difficult to find clothes comparable to hers in the waiting room of a New York employment agency for domestic help, and that applicants for jobs as laundresses, chambermaids, and cooks usually were far more à la mode than Russia's first lady.
The article ignited such fervent backlash that for a time Dorothy thought she may have to cease publication and resign. With a mirrored similarity to current-day reports, Dorothy remained staunch in her anti-Russia stance and continued to write about Khrushchev, Castro, communism, and much more despite the backlash.
Just months later, she would create another controversy. In an article published on December 22, 1959, Dorothy suggested that another female reporter, Elaine Shepard, had been involved in an extramarital affair with a member of President Eisenhower's White House staff. The story came out of a European trip conducted by the president in which 83 members of the Washington press group went along. Shepard was the only female reporter involved in the trip.
Shepard later sued Dorothy for libel, looking for $750,000 in damages, alleging that Dorothy had "maliciously implied that she was a person of lewd and unchaste character." This lawsuit was the beginning of a long and bitter feud between the two women.
In 1961, Dorothy went back to covering a trial revolving around another murdered wife. In 1959, Raymond Bernard Finch was a married 40-year-old surgeon living in West Covina, California, with his wife Barbara. He hired an 18-year-old woman, Carol Tregoff, as his receptionist. The two initiated an extramarital affair a year later, and the affair slowly began to change, with the two discussing the possibility of a permanent relationship.
Tregoff, who was married at the time, had no qualms about divorcing her husband, but for Finch it was more complicated. Based on California law, were he to divorce Barbara, she would be entitled to half his assets, and likely more if it were established in court that he had been unfaithful.
At 10:00 p.m. on July 18, 1959, Finch and Tregoff arrived at the Finch residence on Larkhill Drive. An hour later, Barbara arrived home, and her husband approached her. Reportedly, a dispute broke out between the two, and Barbara was shot and killed by a .38 caliber handgun. At this point, Finch and Tregoff separated, with Finch stealing two cars along his way to Las Vegas. Tregoff arrived the next day, but later on in the evening the two were caught and arrested.
Finch was charged with first-degree murder, while Tregoff was charged with second degree. The first trial resulted in a deadlocked jury, reportedly due to racial tensions amongst the jurors. There would be a second and even a third trial, with both eventually being found guilty. Tregoff went on to serve eight years, while Finch served 10, ultimately having his medical license reinstated in 1984.
By the time that the third trial had begun, most of the major media outlets in the country had moved away from the story, but Dorothy stuck with it and won acclaim and praise for her coverage. Her columns regarding the trial were noticed by Random House co-founder Bennett Cerf, also one of her co-panelists on What's My Line, and he reached out to Dorothy about a book deal.
The book, later titled Murder One, would contain Dorothy's coverage of six murder trials throughout her career. While Kilgallen is listed as the sole author of the book, there has been some dispute about it in the years since, with Cerf's widow later stating that the book had actually been authored by Allen Ullman and that Dorothy's name had been attached purely for publicity's sake.
Dorothy then turned her attention to a new controversy being stirred up which involved celebrities and officials attending so-called sex parties. Most newspapers picked up on the story and ran with it, and the story became a major scandal in England. One of Dorothy's articles stated that authorities searching the apartment of one of the principals in the case came upon a photograph showing a key figure disporting with a bevy of ladies, all nude except for the gentleman in the picture, who was wearing an apron, and that this was a man who had been on extremely friendly terms with the very proper Queen and members of her immediate family.
While sensationalist in style, Dorothy worked just as doggedly at this article as she had on ones with major implications. In March of 1963, Dorothy was rushed to the hospital due to an unknown illness, which was later determined to be anemia. Some have debated publicly whether or not this was a cover story for alcohol problems, a pill addiction, or possibly even a mental breakdown.
In her absence, Richard continued on with their morning show, though without Dorothy its popularity decreased and the show ended the next month, ending their 23-year-long run. While from the outside public opinion of Dorothy's marriage seemed to suggest a loving engagement, those close to the couple were aware of severe marital problems.
They had three children over the years, Jill, Richard, and Kerry, and seemed to be living a blessed life, but as is often the case, the truth beneath the gleam of celebrity life was darker. Richard was said to have engaged in numerous extramarital affairs and may have even fathered children out of wedlock. It was said that it was common for him to dip into their bank accounts to frequently pay out hush money to these women.
There's a famous story that Dorothy actually walked in on one of these affairs taking place in the couple's own bed, and that from that day forward she refused to ever sleep in that bed again. While they kept up appearances publicly, it appeared that they were very much no longer in step, nor did they consider themselves married privately.
Throughout her illustrious career, Dorothy had made friends with a great number of celebrities and public figures. One friend in particular was future President of the United States John F. Kennedy. The two had met through a mutual friend, Florence Pritchett. Friend may be the wrong term, though, for a while she was friends with Dorothy, she was one of JFK's mistresses.
The two struck up a friendship, and Dorothy became close to Kennedy, and through their friendship she gained a great deal of knowledge and insight. While she was a gossip columnist among other things, she refused to cover the more questionable stories about Kennedy's extramarital affairs.
On August 3, 1962, she wrote a mysterious article in which she discussed a prominent man in politics engaging in an affair with Marilyn Monroe. She never named the man, though the public automatically assumed it was JFK. Dorothy would later allege that she'd actually not been talking about John but rather his younger brother and then Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
Dorothy became the first journalist to discuss this story, which internally was well known at the time. Back then, newspapers often kept things such as this secret in order to protect the President or other popular names, but all of that would change. Some have debated whether Dorothy elected to write this piece or if in fact she faced outside pressure to do so.
Shockingly, just two days after the article was published, Monroe was found dead, and Dorothy began to wonder if those who had urged her to write the article had done so in hopes of smearing the Kennedys. Rumors began circulating that Bobby had had Monroe killed in order to protect the secret.
On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, while his motorcade moved through Dealey Plaza. Lee Harvey Oswald was later arrested for the murder of Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit and then also charged with the assassination of Kennedy. Oswald was in turn shot and killed by Dallas criminal and club owner Jack Ruby before he could go to trial for the assassination.
Dorothy was absolutely devastated by the news, having not only been friends with Kennedy but also a staunch supporter of his administration. The shock to the country was astounding, and even today those who were alive remember where they were when they learned of the assassination. It was a flashbulb moment for the United States and perhaps even the world, and goes down in history as one of the most controversial incidents ever.
Seven days after the assassination, President Lyndon Johnson assigned the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, which would later become known as the Warren Commission since it was chaired by then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Earl Warren. In the years since, many have stepped up to question the veracity of the claim that Oswald was the lone assassin, let alone the quality of examination conducted by the Warren Commission itself.
Back in 1963, few people imagined that the government would conceal the truth about such a major incident, let alone possibly play a role in the assassination itself. Dorothy Kilgallen, though, was never afraid to follow her gut, and to her something was wrong with the official story. Being a reporter with a great deal of knowledge and experience in covering major crimes and trials, she quickly became fixated on gathering information about the assassination while also focusing in on the pending trial of Jack Ruby.
One of her first acts was to reach out to a contact she had in the Dallas Police Department. She was given transcripts of all Dallas police radio communication the day of the assassination, and in those transcripts Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry stated, "Get a man on top of the overpass and see what happened up there." Kilgallen later wrote an article that Curry had lied to the media when he had told them that he believed from the first moment that the shots had been fired from the 6th floor of the school book depository where Oswald was said to have been.
It would be Dorothy's investigation into the Kennedy assassination which would stir up the greatest amount of controversy in her life, and just two years after Kennedy was shot, Dorothy herself would be found dead under circumstances which some have argued to be highly suspicious. Those two years' worth of research and investigation into the most dramatic crime of the time would leave many with unanswered questions and lead others to believe that Dorothy's insistence and outspoken criticism of the police, the Warren Commission, and the government itself could possibly have made some want to silence the country's most popular and well-known woman reporter.
Jack Ruby was found guilty of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald on March 14, 1964, and with the attention she had paid to the trial, Dorothy found herself with more questions than answers. She began digging deeper into the assassination and started trying to arrange a meeting and interview with Ruby himself.
The Warren Commission report was released initially in an 889-page report in September of 1964, though in November the entire report would be released in a 26-volume text consisting of supporting documents, depositions from over 550 witnesses, and more than 3,000 evidence exhibits. Interestingly, Dorothy had someone inside the Commission who was passing her information. Prior to the official release of the report, Dorothy received a 102-page segment specifically detailing Jack Ruby's involvement with the Commission.
She wrote several columns in which she released this information, allegedly so that when the official report was released, these details would have to be included. In response to these columns, the FBI began investigating the leak and sought out Dorothy for answers. They were already maintaining a dossier on her, but now it seemed that their interest was more heightened.
Dorothy was extensively interviewed, though she was later reported to have said, "I'd rather die than reveal the source." In an article published on September 30, 1964, Dorothy wrote about the encounter and then added that the FBI "might have been more profitably employed in probing the facts of the case rather than how I got them." She would later write in another column that the American people had lost a beloved president, that it was a dark chapter in our history, but that we have the right to read every word of it.
It was shortly after the publication of the leaked pages that Dorothy was contacted by Mark Lane. Lane himself was interested in the JFK assassination and felt that the investigation had been poorly handled and that there was evidence of a cover-up. Lane would go on to publish several books on the subject, including his 1966 release Rush to Judgment, which was a scathing indictment of the Warren Commission.
Lane put Dorothy in contact with Thayer Waldo, a journalist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram who had information he was afraid to publish. According to Waldo, he had discovered that a meeting had taken place just eight days before the assassination at Jack Ruby's Carousel Club. The meeting was alleged to have been between Ruby, officer J.D. Tippit, who was murdered hours after the assassination, and Bernard Weissman.
Unlike her contemporary Waldo, Dorothy published the account of the meeting. According to her, Waldo had told her he was in possession of other information but he feared for his life were he to share it. Later, after publication, Dorothy implied that the Warren Commission had been made well aware of this meeting but they had elected not to dig into it, as their information indicated that a fourth man had attended. What his identity was hasn't been revealed, though he was alleged to have been an important figure in the Texas oil business.
Dorothy published several articles questioning the Warren Commission's approach and then accused both the FBI and the Dallas Police Department of threatening witnesses and altering their testimony. On September 25, 1964, Dorothy published an interview with Acquilla Clemons, one of the witnesses to the murder of officer Tippit. In the interview, Clemons contradicted the official story, saying that she distinctly saw two men running from the scene of the murder and neither resembled Oswald. She was afraid to discuss it too deeply, stating, "I'm not supposed to be talking to anybody. Might get killed on the way to work."
Clemons may have had reason to fear, as from 1963 to 1974 more than 30 individuals connected to the assassination would die from gunshots, unsolved murders, and mysterious accidents. Some of these were witnesses, others were simply associates of either Oswald or Ruby.
Dorothy then approached one of Jack Ruby's legal counsel, Joe Tonahill, and requested that he deliver a message to his client. The message was said to be from a mutual friend, and upon receiving it Ruby agreed to a one-on-one conversation with Dorothy. Tonahill later stated that the mutual friend was from San Francisco, and while the identity has never been confirmed, some have alleged that it may have been Mike Shore, a co-founder of Reprise Records.
Dorothy Kilgallen became the only person to ever gain a private interview with Jack Ruby. Ruby's lawyers and even the prison guards agreed to wait outside. The interview lasted only eight minutes, and Dorothy never officially released exactly what Ruby told her. Friends would later say that Dorothy told them that following this interview she was going to blow the entire Kennedy investigation wide open. Dorothy believed that the information she had was going to be a major scoop, and so she didn't want to tell anyone else who might rush to publication before she could.
In June of 1964, Dorothy met Adam Ronald Pataky, a film and drama critic for The Columbus Citizen-Journal. According to friends, Pataky approached Dorothy and asked her if she was Clare Boothe Luce. The two hit it off and began an alleged romantic affair which was kept secret. Some have said that Dorothy was suspicious of Pataky, believing that he may in fact have been a spy working for the FBI or CIA who was attempting to get close to her.
For many, Pataky was unknown at the time, and he was frequently referred to as the out-of-towner or Dorothy's mystery man in Ohio. It was an interesting relationship, with Dorothy being 12 years Pataky's senior and living halfway across the country, but the two found ways to meet up. Pataky has said that he worked with Dorothy on some of her investigation into the JFK assassination and that he met her a number of times in the Regency Hotel, a location which will become important later. Pataky, however, denies that their relationship was ever romantic, insisting that the two were just friends.
Around this same time, Dorothy was experiencing some financial difficulties. Her husband had made some bad financial investments, and they no longer had the income from their morning radio show to fall back on. For a period of time she began to worry that they might actually lose their home in New York, and so this drove her harder to keep her information secret, believing that the financial gain she could make when she finally published would set things back in order.
Unfortunately for Dorothy, she would never get the opportunity to publish a single word of her report. She had been investigating the case for well over a year, and in October of 1965 she told Mark Lane that she had found new information in New Orleans. She planned to visit an informant in the coming weeks, but she would be found dead before the trip could take place.
It's important to note that Lee Harvey Oswald had spent time in New Orleans, and Jim Garrison, the former District Attorney of Orleans Parish, would become the only man to bring a case against an alleged conspirator in the assassination, though he would ultimately lose that case. According to Ramparts magazine writer David Welsh, Dorothy had told him that "she vowed she could crack this case." Another friend of Dorothy stated that Dorothy had told her, "In five more days I'm going to bust this case wide open."
At the same time, Dorothy was growing paranoid of the eyes and ears she believed to be following her. She had subtly revealed that she'd received information showing a connection between Ruby and Tippit, as well as information that David Ferrie played a role in the assassination. Ferrie would later die under strange circumstances after speaking with Jim Garrison.
She handed a draft of some of her Kennedy investigation notes to her friend Florence Pritchett, then Florence Smith. When asked why she was doing this, Dorothy pointed to what had happened to Bill Hunter and Jim Koethe. Hunter and Koethe had been looking into the assassination, and both had visited Jack Ruby in jail.
On April 23, 1964, Hunter was shot dead by Creighton Wiggins, a police officer, in the press room of a Long Beach police station. Wiggins initially claimed that his gun had fallen and accidentally discharged, though this was proved impossible in court. Wiggins then claimed he and a fellow officer, Errol Greenleaf, were playing a game of quick-draw when he'd accidentally shot Hunter. Greenleaf alleged that his back was turned at the time and he didn't see what happened. Both were later convicted and sentenced to three years probation.
Jim Koethe moved forward and had planned to publish a book about the assassination, but his life ended on September 21, 1964. It was later determined that someone had broken into Koethe's apartment and killed him with a blow to the throat.
On November 7, 1965, Dorothy had plans to tape an episode of What's My Line. The show was taped live in the evening. According to her makeup artist and close friend, Mark Sinclair, she was in an upbeat mood and was her usual fun and kind self. The episode taping went forward without issue, and Dorothy headed out to grab a drink after the show, as was customary. Dorothy had no way of knowing this would be her final appearance on the show.
After the taping, Dorothy met with Bob Bach, a close friend, at an establishment known at the time as P.J. Clarke's. According to Bob's wife, Jean, after several cocktails Bob offered Dorothy a ride home. She allegedly requested to be dropped off at the Regency Hotel instead, possibly for a date, even maybe with the mystery man who many believed to have been Pataky.
She was witnessed entering the lounge at the Regency Hotel sometime between midnight and 2:00 a.m. A witness who worked at the Regency alleged that he saw Dorothy enter at approximately 1:00 a.m. The last person to report seeing her that night was Catherine Stone, who worked on What's My Line. According to her statements, Dorothy was entertaining an unknown man.
This mystery man, again, some believed to have been Pataky, though he denied seeing Dorothy the night she died as well as having been at the Regency at all that evening. It's important to note that at some point tensions had grown between Dorothy and Pataky. She began to feel that while she had let him in on some of her secrets in the JFK investigation, he may have been leaking that information to others, including journalists back in Ohio.
It's been said that Dorothy felt betrayed, and whether or not Pataky was able to convince her to meet him again, or perhaps to convince her that he had not been leaking information, we can't know for certain. It has been alleged that this also gave Dorothy a stronger feeling that Pataky may in fact have been spying on her.
The next morning, on November 8, at approximately 9:00 a.m., Mark Sinclair arrived at Dorothy's five-story townhouse in New York. He initially went to the 5th-floor bedroom where Dorothy slept every night, but she wasn't there. By what reason or how Mark ended up on the third floor, where he discovered Dorothy in the master bedroom, the bed she swore she wouldn't sleep in again after her husband's infidelity, is unknown. Interestingly, her husband was asleep in his usual room on the fourth floor. The two hadn't shared a bed in quite a few years.
Dorothy was sitting up in bed wearing a blue robe. She still had her makeup on, including false eyelashes, and a decorative hairpiece. A book was lying in the bed beside her. When Mark attempted to wake Dorothy, he discovered that she wasn't alive. The 52-year-old woman who had been dubbed the most powerful voice in America was dead.
From this point forward, contradictions and confusion about the scene, the possibilities, and the cause of death become hotly debated. The arrival of investigators has been debated, with some stating that they were called and arrived shortly after the discovery was made, and others suggesting that police actually didn't arrive until after they'd heard about Dorothy's death broadcast on local television stations.
Upon arrival, investigators found little to lead them to believe that Dorothy's death was related to foul play. There were no signs of a struggle. There was no bruising or marks on Dorothy's body. While authorities felt the scene didn't depict anything out of the ordinary, Mark and Claire disagreed.
First and foremost, Sinclair stated that the bedroom that Dorothy was found in was not a room she ever slept in. The blue robe that she was found dressed in he had never seen her wear before, and he had been there in the mornings to wake her up on many occasions. Sinclair also said that Dorothy never got into bed before removing her makeup, hairpiece, and fake eyelashes.
The book, The Honey Badger, written by Robert Ruark, had been found open in the bed by her side and was one which she had already read. In addition to this, her glasses were not located nearby, and she was unable to read without them. Sinclair also told authorities that Dorothy had told him that she'd been receiving threats. Despite these claims from Sinclair, investigators didn't feel that they signified anything of great importance.
There was, however, one question which remains at the core of the debate surrounding Dorothy's death today. The notes she had compiled for her book about the JFK assassination were never located. The file which she kept either close to her or locked away has to this day never been located and was missing from her room when her body was found.
As previously mentioned, Dorothy had given a rough draft of some of the information to her friend Florence Pritchett Smith. In a strange turn of events, Florence herself passed away just two days after Dorothy's body was found. Florence's death was ruled to have been due to a cerebral hemorrhage, and it was said that at the time she was suffering from leukemia. What notes Dorothy provided to Florence were also never discovered.
Dorothy's husband Richard was questioned by authorities. According to his statement, which changed several times, he'd recalled Dorothy arriving home at approximately 11:30 p.m. Richard claimed that Dorothy was in good spirits and was heading to type up part of her column, and that that was the last he'd seen of her. Of course, witnesses place Dorothy out still at 1:00 a.m. the night before she was found, which seems to call Richard's accounting of events into question.
Examination of the scene found that in a glass beside her bed there were traces of Nembutal, a short-acting barbiturate which she was known to take. There was also an empty sleeping pill bottle. In what many consider a strange similarity and others dismiss as mere coincidence, Dorothy's body had been found in a similar state to that of Marilyn Monroe, whose ultimate cause of death was determined to be a lethal combination of alcohol and barbiturates.
When writing about Monroe's death in her own column, Dorothy had asked, "If she was just trying to get to sleep and took the overdose by accident, why was the light left on? Usually people sleep better in the dark." Dorothy's light was also found to have been left on the night she died, and much like Marilyn Monroe, her death too would be attributed to an accident related to a lethal mixture of alcohol and barbiturates.
Police determined at the scene that there were no indications of a homicide, nor did they believe this was a case of suicide, but purely an accidental death. Due to this determination, many steps of the investigation were either performed quicker than needed or outright ignored. For instance, they never dusted for fingerprints to determine whether or not Dorothy had entered the room alone that night, a point which many have argued about since.
The days after her death was discovered, Dorothy's body was removed from the scene so that the medical examiner could conduct an autopsy. During this period, her father James suggested to the public that it was possible she may have died as the result of a heart attack. Whether or not James believed this, had inside knowledge, or was simply attempting to cover up for the possibility that it was drug-related remains unknown, but he would eventually be proven incorrect.
Even Dorothy's autopsy had questions surrounding it. While she had been found to have been in good health and there were no indication that she had suffered a heart attack, her death was ruled to have been the result of acute ethanol and barbiturate intoxication. Interestingly, the medical examiner jotted handwritten notes beside this stating, "Circumstances undetermined." That note would become the source of much debate and controversy, as some felt that it suggested that while Dorothy's death may have come as the result of alcohol and pills, there was some question about whether or not Dorothy had taken the pills willingly.
The autopsy was conducted by New York City Medical Examiner Dr. James Luke, but curiously it's not Luke's signature which appears on her death certificate. The signature on the certificate belongs to Dr. Dominic. He was asked about why his signature was there and responded that he had no idea. He wasn't even working out of Manhattan at the time and played no role in the autopsy. The autopsy itself wasn't actually conducted in Manhattan where Dorothy died, but instead Brooklyn.
Another strange detail in the medical examiner's report was the presence of nicotine. According to the report, large quantities of nicotine were found in Dorothy's blood, but there was an issue with this. Dorothy Kilgallen was not a smoker.
While the cause of death had appeared to have been determined, there were some who disagreed with the findings that the death was purely accidental. Homicide investigator Jack Doyle, who had initially been involved with the case, stated that he didn't believe Dorothy's death was merely an accidental overdose. Doyle, among others, felt that the scene appeared staged.
Not long after making these comments, Doyle left the New York Police Department and moved away from the state. Doyle would move a total of six times, and it has been suggested that each of these moves was precipitated by an author or reporter contacting him to discuss the details surrounding Dorothy's death.
Another prominent voice involved in the case, Dr. Charles Umberger, toxicology director at the New York City Medical Examiner's Office, later stated that he suspected murder. This same man kept a beaker of fluid extracted from both Dorothy's brain and stomach due to the limitations of testing available at the time. This fluid would be stored on ice for the next 13 years before it would be examined more closely.
Public response to Dorothy's death was somber and respectful, though some felt that the autopsy results painted Dorothy as an alcoholic drug abuser, which many in her life disagreed with. Dorothy was known to throw back a few drinks, but it was never something that people felt was out of control or beyond normal means. As for the pills, Dorothy did have difficulty getting to sleep and was known to take prescribed pills to aid with this, but no one close to her has ever come forward to suggest that any kind of drug abuse was being conducted.
Her fellow panelists on What's My Line paid tribute to Dorothy in their next episode. A mass was held for Dorothy at St. Vincent Ferrer, located on Lexington Avenue. The mass and funeral drew in 2,600 people, including many well-known names and notable personalities, including but not limited to Joan Crawford and Edie Sullivan.
Dorothy's husband, parents, and children bid her goodbye, and she was laid to rest approximately 20 miles north of New York City at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, located in Westchester County. Her grave marker simply reads, "Dorothy Kilgallen Kollmar, beloved wife and mother."
Just hours after the funeral, Bob Bach, who had been with Dorothy the night before she died, met with Richard and asked him about the JFK investigation. According to Bach, Richard responded, "Bob, I'm afraid that will have to go to the grave with me."
While public grieving began drawing to a close, questions began to arise around the manner of Dorothy's death, spurring the NYPD to initiate a new investigation. In January of 1966, the investigation would last a total of eight months, and in September of 1966 the case was closed when investigators stated that they failed to find any signs of foul play.
Dorothy's name began fading from the news, and while there were a great deal of questions left surrounding her death, her life, and the investigation she launched into the JFK assassination, time moves on and people forget. Just five years after her death, Richard died on January 7, 1971, the result of an apparent suicide. Richard had been a heavy drinker throughout his life, and after Dorothy's passing he increased the volume of his consumption.
It was reported that he died in his sleep and that he had recently suffered a broken shoulder after falling in his home three days earlier. It's interesting to note that details about Richard's death are thin, with some blatantly stating suicide and others merely saying that he passed away. Regardless of the case, Richard was buried in the same plot as Dorothy, several feet above her. His name was not added to the grave marker.
In 1978, biographer Lee Israel was working on a book about Dorothy's life. Through her investigation, she discovered that the fluid that had been taken from Dorothy's body was still in storage with the New York State medical examiner, and so she pushed to have it tested. The results came back with an interesting determination.
While it had been known at the time that Dorothy had barbiturates in her system, the kind and quality was not previously known. New technology allowed for the ability to get finer detail, and it was determined that Dorothy died not as the result of a barbiturate but of multiple barbiturates, three in particular: amobarbital, pentobarbital, and secobarbital. These were three slow-acting sleeping pills, and this initiated a theory that Dorothy's death may have been the result of someone slipping the pills into her drinks during her night out and ultimately causing her death hours later.
Further documents later released also indicated that the glass found on Dorothy's bedside did contain barbiturates, but not in pill form, rather powder residue, suggesting that someone had opened capsules and poured them into the drink. Dr. Michael Baden, who later would become New York City's chief medical examiner, told Israel that the dosage of barbiturates in Dorothy's system was not indicative of an accidental overdose. In fact, it was the equivalent to taking 15 to 20 100-milligram Seconals.
Over the course of the next 40 years, the debate would ebb and flow. Occasional documentaries would be released discussing the conspiracy aspects of Dorothy's death. Articles, usually written around the anniversary of her death, called attention to the story, but the more years passed, the greater the distance grew between accounts of Dorothy's life and death, which were slowly being replaced with articles debating the veracity of conspiracy theories.
Somewhere in the mix, as the JFK theories grew more prominent, Dorothy's name began getting lost in the shuffle, and today this woman who was once an icon of female power and prowess has been gradually brushed under the rug. Dorothy's children went on with their lives, growing up remembering the woman who was their mother, while others considered Dorothy to be perhaps the woman who knew too much.
Due to the urging of author Mark Shaw and some information which he had released in a new book about Dorothy's death entitled The Reporter Who Knew Too Much, the Manhattan District Attorney announced in January of 2017 that they were going to take a look into accusations of homicide, more than 51 years after Dorothy was found deceased in her townhouse. The investigation would be re-examined for the consideration of possibly reopening it.
Shaw felt strongly that the DA needed to speak to Pataky, 81 at the time. Biographer Lee Israel felt similarly, stating to the press, "He had something to do with it." In addition to his suspicions of Pataky, Shaw has argued that Dorothy's death may have involved members of the Mafia, specifically Carlos Marcello.
Much like the 1966 investigation into Dorothy's death, this one too lasted eight months. In September of 2017, the New York District Attorney said that they had found no evidence to suggest that Dorothy's death was the result of a homicide. The DA's office said that they would be willing to examine any new evidence which could be provided in the future, but that at this time they simply didn't have anything to point them towards foul play. When asked for comment about what they did find, the DA's office elected not to respond.
Fifty-three years after the death of Dorothy Kilgallen, her name remains inextricably connected to conspiracy theories, after she herself spent the last years deeply investigating conspiracy theories surrounding the death of her friend President John F. Kennedy. The 1960s are known as a time of assassinations, with JFK being killed in November of '63, Malcolm X in February of '65, Martin Luther King in April of '68, and Robert Kennedy two months later in June of '68, along with countless others.
Does Dorothy Kilgallen belong on this list, or was her death sadly the result of an accident, a lethal combination of alcohol and barbiturates? There are three essential theories in the death of Dorothy Kilgallen.
The first theory argues that Dorothy's death was in fact the result of an accidental overdose, and that all of the conspiracy aspects of the case are misplaced, and that while there are mysterious details about her death, this does not necessarily imply that anything sinister had taken place. Many believed that in the absence of evidence which may have made things more clear, people have dug into a mystery that simply has no basis.
The second theory suggests that Dorothy's death was neither an accident nor a homicide, but may have been intentional. Supporters of this theory feel that Dorothy had crumbled under the pressure, found herself addicted to pills and drinking heavily while facing financial ruin and emotional distress, and that the brilliant woman elected to end her own life. Some have gone so far as to argue that Dorothy herself may have been responsible for some of the mysterious aspects, electing to do things out of the ordinary to raise questions about the manner of her death.
The third and final theory has several different aspects to it, but ultimately revolves around the premise that Dorothy was in fact murdered. Some believe that Dorothy may have been murdered by her husband Richard, whose career was trailing off and whose drinking may have only increased his jealousy of Dorothy's time in the spotlight. Others believe that Dorothy may have been targeted by the Mafia, who feared what information she might uncover in her investigation in connection to the assassination of John Kennedy and their potential involvement with covert agencies.
Yet others believe that Adam Ronald Pataky, the man alleged to have been Dorothy's secret boyfriend, may in fact have either murdered Dorothy for unknown reasons or perhaps even been working as a covert agent sent to infiltrate her inner circle. And the final aspect contends that Dorothy Kilgallen, having upset the intelligence agencies of the United States multiple times, had caused them to finally lash out, not knowing what information she may have uncovered, in an attempt to silence her and destroy all of her research.
The life of Dorothy Kilgallen was iconic and dramatic. This tough, smart, and tenacious woman broke down barriers and shattered the glass ceiling for women in the media. It was through her hard work, dedication, and intellectually driven and thought-provoking journalism that she would become an A-list celebrity, sharing drinks with singers, actors, and the royalty of Hollywood.
Despite the glitz and glam, her numerous appearances on television, and her few roles in film, Dorothy's first love was always journalism. She saw herself as a reporter, and for her contemporaries, they were in awe of her abilities and accomplishments. Dorothy was considered an incredible journalist with a unique style who brought new eyes to newspapers and new perspectives to stories.
She fought for what she believed in regardless of what public opinion might have been. She wasn't afraid to question the official story, to stand up to any authority which attempted to suppress her, up to and including her own government. She was an inspiration to women around the world and set the bar by which so many have since measured themselves in the world of journalism and investigative reporting.
She was a mother, a wife, a friend, a sister, and a daughter. Her family was remarkably proud of her achievements. They outlived Dorothy by many years, with her sister being the last to pass away in 2014. No matter what the question, they always had something full of pride and love to say about Dorothy.
Whether the victim of a conspiracy, an accident, or her own choices, Dorothy Kilgallen should be remembered for what she achieved and the way in which she lived rather than the manner in which she died. But perhaps the best way to honor Dorothy's memory is to ask the question she herself may have sought the answers to: to look for the truth regardless of the obstacles, as Dorothy herself may have done were the roles reversed.