Kilgallen: A Biography of Dorothy Kilgallen [Hardcover]

Lee Israel (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 485 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press (1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440045223
• ISBN-13: 978-0440045229
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #953,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Death Certificate Says "Pending Further Investigation", January 13, 2004

By 

Donald Nolen (Bethesda, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kilgallen (Paperback)

I encourage people to buy a hardback copy of this 25 - year - old book because I have seen two pieces of evidence that make the Dorothy Kilgallen murder theory plausible. First I'll ramble on for a few paragraphs, then I'll describe those two pieces of evidence.

Of course, we don't have evidence that the "accidental" death of any celebrity really was murder. I believe Princess Diana was murdered, but I also believe that we will never get evidence of it. Dodi Fayed's father is chasing his tail.

So posterity needs to evaluate each mysterious death according to how plausible the murder theory is. Lee Israel puts in this book some evidence that a broken love affair with Johnnie Ray and the fall of the Hearst newspaper empire gave Dorothy Kilgallen trouble sleeping, and she *could have* mixed barbiturates with booze. But Lee also details the strange circumstances of Dorothy's death. Police and medical examiner reports say her body was found in a bed in which she never slept. Nobody slept in it. It was a showroom to convince celebrity houseguests who partied in the next room that everything was hunky dory in the 25 - year marriage of Dorothy and her husband Richard Kollmar.

There was no pill bottle on the bedside table or anywhere else in the death scene. Dorothy had fallen "asleep" while reading a new novel by Robert Ruark, even though she had said in her newspaper column four months earlier that the protagonist of the book dies in the end. She had discussed said novel with her hairdresser Marc Sinclaire some weeks before cops and doctors found the book in her dead hand. She had told Mr. Sinclaire that she had enjoyed the work after having finished reading it.

That's what you will find in this book. Now I'll add the two things I've seen while sight seeing. First, you can find Dorothy Kilgallen's death certificate at the National Archives in Maryland, a popular tourist site. In the section where the doctor makes the classification of natural causes, suicide, homicide, etc., the thing says "undetermined pending further investigation." Strangely, the deputy medical examiner of Brooklyn signed it "for James Luke," the chief medical examiner. Kilgallen died in the borough of Manhattan, and Dr. Luke had no reason not to sign it. He visited the death scene for 45 minutes, according to the Washington Post obituary. That Brooklyn deputy M.E., Dominick Di Maio, is still alive.

The second thing I've seen that's not in the book is a video interview with criminal defense attorney Joe Tonahill preserved at Lamar University in Texas. On it he says his last telephone conversation with Dorothy Kilgallen happened a short time before she died, "maybe a week before." They planned to participate in a radio talk show about the JFK assassination, but she died before the plans could materialize. Shortly before that conversation, Dorothy visited Miami to discuss Oswald, etc. on the talk show of a young Larry King. The same Larry now on CNN.

You won't find the death certificate or the Tonahill video interview in this book, but what it does have will hold you spellbound. Please buy it even if you pay 50 dollars.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting book; very opinionated but factual lady, August 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Kilgallen: A Biography of Dorothy Kilgallen (Hardcover)

Even though she seems to be remembered as just a gossip columnist, DK knew many important persons and reported on their comings and goings at a time before we were "blessed" with E and other similar cable channels. Catch her on the What's My Line?" reruns and you'll see her charm, wit, and catch many bon mots traded with her cohorts.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoy A Mysterious Autopsy AND A Mysterious Love Affair, August 27, 2004

By 

Flower Child (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kilgallen (Paperback)

The previous reviewer, Mr. Nolen, wrote:

"That Brooklyn deputy M.E., Dominick Di Maio, is still alive."

[Dr. Di Maio signed Dorothy Kilgallen's death certificate even though she died in the borough of Manhattan. That's one of many mysteries surrounding her death that might have something to do with Kennedy's assassination.]

I'd like to add that not only is Dominick still alive, but a book he co-authored with his son Vincent, also a medical examiner, is still in print three years after its publication.

The title is "Forensic Pathology, Second Edition."

I can't really fault Lee Israel, author of the Kilgallen biography that I'm reviewing here, for not interviewing Dr. Dominick DiMaio. She had a tough job. Her publisher couldn't have advanced her all that much money because the market for biographies of female journalists was small in 1975 when she got the job. Stuff about Kilgallen's journalistic colleagues Theo Wilson, Clare Boothe Luce and Dickey Chappelle didn't come out until long after 1975.

While Ms. Israel's access to Dorothy Kilgallen's mortal remains was limited, she did a great job of communicating with the living. Newspaper colleagues and criminal defense attorneys opened up to Ms. Israel. In the book you will get fascinating stories of the demure, beautifully dressed Kilgallen doing her job in male - dominated courtrooms. I particularly enjoyed one man's description of Kilgallen: "She's a newspaperman in a 500 dollar dress."

Lee Israel also did a great job of documenting Kilgallen's love affair with pop singer Johnnie Ray that the Beautiful People of New York witnessed starting in 1957. Lee interviewed Johnnie in his home in 1976. She respected his privacy. Who cares what he did when Dorothy was busy covering a murder trial?

Dorothy Kilgallen and Johnnie Ray were an unlikely match in the Eisenhower era. It's wrong to judge this man based on what he said at press conferences. Back then record company executives and TV producers ordered celebrities to say nice simple things. Let's just say Johnnie's public persona and Dorothy's public persona were out of synch in 1957. He came across as a passionate gentle boy from a farm below a cloudy sky. Her image was that of a pushy reporter demanding to know what a total stranger did for a living or why a rich doctor would cheat on his wife with a tramp at 10 Downing Street in London or with a stripper in Dallas, Texas or what have you.

Lee Israel proves these two public figures loved each other nonetheless. Johnnie was permanently traumatized by Dorothy's death. Lee wisely avoids speculating why. Only they knew.