Mark Shaw - The Reporter Who Knew Too Much: The Mysterious Death of What’s My Line TV Star and Media Icon Dorothy Kilgallen

A POST HILL PRESS BOOK

The Reporter Who Knew Too Much:

The Mysterious Death of Whats My Line TV Star
and Media Icon Dorothy Kilgallen

2016 by Mark Shaw

All Rights Reserved

Cataloging-in-Publication data applied for.

ISBN: 978-1-68261-097-8

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-68261-098-5

Cover Design by Quincy Alivio

Cover Photograph courtesy of Corbis Images

Interior Design and Composition by Greg Johnson/Textbook Perfect

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Post Hill Press

posthillpress.com

Published in the United States of America

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Wherever Dorothy Kilgallen goes fame precedes her, envy follows her and a crowd looks on. She is one of the communication marvels of the age.

New York Post Daily Magazine , 1960

Justice is a big rug. When you pull it out from under one man,
a lot of others fall too.

Dorothy Kilgallen

C ONTENTS

I NTRODUCTION

O n the blistering cold, windy day of November 11, 1965, nearly 3,000 mourners gathered inside the St. Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic Church on New York Citys Upper East Side. Another 1,500 huddled outside to pay respects to the famous Whats My Line? television star, radio personality, celebrated journalist, revered investigative reporter and author Dorothy Kilgallen. Those present and millions across the country were still reeling from her death, an unexpected tragedy.

Honorary pallbearers included publisher William Randolph Hearst, Jr. and Whats My Line? moderator John Charles Daly. Among the celebrities attending were actress Joan Crawford, Ed Sullivan, jazz pianist Bobby Short, film producer Joseph E. Levine, and actress Betty White. Flower arrangements were present from Bob Hope, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and New York City Mayor John Lindsey whose sympathy card included the words, Dorothy will be missed, not only by those who knew her, but also by the millions whose lives she reached daily. The day before the funeral, United Press International reported, 10,000 people walked past Dorothy Kilgallens covered African mahogany coffin for viewing at the Abbey Funeral Directors at 888 Lexington Avenue.

On November 8, Kilgallen, called by Ernest Hemingway, One of the greatest women writers in the world, had been discovered dead in her lavish East 68th Street New York City townhouse. The NYC medical examiner issued a report stating Kilgallen, 52 years of age, died of Acute Ethanol and Barbiturate Intoxication; Circumstances Undetermined. Despite this depiction pointing to accidental death, some believed Kilgallen committed suicide. However, a third possibility remained, that she was murdered, that the woman called the most powerful female voice in America was silenced because she was the reporter who knew too much.

The likelihood Kilgallen, one of the most courageous journalists in history, the larger-than-life true Renaissance woman and first female media icon whose accomplishments rival modern day legends like Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walters, and Diane Sawyer, was the victim of foul play, must be considered. During the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, the college dropout-turned-feisty-journalist with the light-up smile, Irish wit, and high society manners who achieved phenomenal success in a mans world, made enemies ranging from show business celebrities to government officials to those in the underworld. Years of Kilgallens scathing Journal-American Voice of Broadway columns, ones that could further or inhibit a career, triggered hatred from television, film and Broadway personalities experiencing her wrath. These columns, focused on the rich and famous, were syndicated by the Hearst chain to more than 200 newspapers across America with Kilgallens loyal readers glued to every word.

Kilgallen also upset government officials through dogged investigative skills exposing secret documents before their official release. To those in the Mafia, she was a constant threat since Kilgallen wrote poison-pen Journal-American stories aimed at those who believed they were above the law including archenemy Frank Sinatra. These dangerous men knew CBS music producer Marlon Swings statement was true: [Dorothy] was a very powerful womanpeople dont have any idea of the power and contacts she had.

More than anything, it was Kilgallens strong belief in justiceher determined pursuit of the truththat triggered condemnation, vows of revenge and death threats. Fellow Whats My Line? panelist and Random House co-founder Bennett Cerf said, A lot of people knew Dorothy as a very tough game player; others knew her as a tough newspaper woman. When she went after a story, nothing could get in her way.

By re-visiting the remarkable Kilgallens trailblazing thirty-fiveyear journalistic career, it is possible to provide a plausible scenario as to how, and why, she died. The primary questions concern whether the justice Kilgallen demanded for those she wrote about was, in fact, denied her by police, public officials, and journalistic colleagues. In addition, whether there was a diabolical plan conceived to cover up Kilgallens search for the truth about what arguably is the greatest murder mystery in history, the JFK assassination.

The answers lie in the numerous clues present at Kilgallens death scene. Such clues should have triggered a full-scale probe since it is apparent based on new evidence uncovered by this author that Dorothy was screaming from the hereafter, Investigate! Investigate! Investigate!

C HAPTER 1

A ny re-investigation of Dorothy Kilgallens death begins where a crack detective would startwith a background check of the deceased. Learning about Kilgallens roots and the part they played in her ascendance to celebrity status is essential to learning the truth about how she died.

Dorothy Mae Kilgallen was born during a violent rainstorm on July 13, 1913 while her family lived in a low-rent apartment at Garfield Boulevard and Morgan Street in Chicago. Her father Jim, a tadpole of a man also called Jimmy or Kil, worked as a Hearst newspaper chain reporter and met her mother Mae, a lovely redhead, when she aspired to become a singer in Denver. The couple chose the name Dorothy since it meant Gift from Heaven.

Kilgallen was sufficiently precocious that at age 15 months, she appeared in a local Elks Club production of One Thing After Another . Billed as Tootsie, Kilgallen impressed the audience.

Kilgallens interest in the creative world stirred when Jim and Mae took the youngster to a stage play. It starred an actor named Fred Stone, a circus and minstrel performer who became a vaudevillian and then appeared on Broadway. Kilgallens enthusiasm for the stage drove her to begin writing, producing and starring in plays with neighborhood friends.

Despite her early interest in the theater, by the time she turned eight, Kilgallen yearned to be a reporter like her father. She admired his growing reputation as a tenacious journalist. Jims editor said, When he got hold of a story, Jim was just like a bulldoghed get his teeth in it and never let go.