Customer Reviews

Kilgallen: A Biography of Dorothy Kilgallen

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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.

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.

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.

Upon reading this book I came to find a few facts for myself. First, Ms. Kilgallen was quite fond of "stirring the proverbial pot" back in a day when such stirring was hardly acceptable. For this she should be rendered a pioneer of such journalistic endeavors, not the wicked stepdaughter she is, sadly, left to memory. In truth, this book reveals a tough-as-nails reporter that was vying ever-diligently to live up to her father's name and image while carving her own niche.

At a time when women were scarcely known to venture out of the home, Dorothy Kilgallen was honing skills as a writer and reporter, covering such events as the Sam Shepard trial and Grace Kelly's regal wedding and hosting her own "Voice of Broadway" column for many years in New York City. More than a TV personality and columnist, she was an icon to many an aspiring writer of both sexes; the shame of ti is that no one seems to pay her such a compliment. She was to females of the journalistic world what Deborah Harry and Madonna were and are for women in music - an innovator who kicked open doors and let her talent and drive lead her to unimagined and wondrous heights.

One gets a deep glimpse into her private life, which, as "friend" Johnny Ray oft said, is where the real Dorothy Kilgallen emerges as a soft, loving and emotionally-fragile woman searching for the perfect life in a sea of imperfectness. Further, she seems the type of woman you'd like to love and shield from the world, a far cry from her icy persona on "What's My Line?". The book makes use of her seemingly-perfect marriage by exposing it for what it really was: a fairy tale with a sorrowed span. The famous feuds with Sinatra, Paar, Gardner, a bevy of journalists and writers alike are also touched upon, as is the infamous Jack Ruby interview and her untimely death, making this not only an interesting read but essential one to find the real Dorothy. Trust me, she was worth "meeting".

I've seen it said that Lee Israel's diction is often overpowering, inducing a difficult read, though I don't see it that way. While some phrases and words definitely left my general scope in spots it did little to ruin an otherwise terrific reading experience. I feel it's certainly worth your money and time.

Dorothy Kilgallen may have been a lot of things, good and bad, to a great many persons through her life, but one thing's certain - she was far more interesting inside and out rather than simply the latter.

I'd like to echo praise of the book. I like it for the same reasons as the other reviewers. Mr. Nolen, you are right on target except for your identification of Dr. James Luke. When the NYC medical examiner's office handled Dorothy Kilgallen in 1965, Dr. Luke was associate ME, not chief ME.

But you are right about the strangeness of her death certificate. Why would Dr. Luke ask the man in charge of Brooklyn deaths to sign out a Manhattan death as "undetermined pending further investigation ?" Dr. Luke hardly had the day off. He visited Kilgallen's house while her body was still there.

Lee Israel did a great job investigating this by herself. When Anthony Summers investigated Marilyn Monroe several years later, he had the help of the BBC and the entire staff of "20/20" including the legmen for Barbara Walters and Geraldo Rivera. But Lee Israel worked almost entirely alone. She did such a great job that her text makes me sad that nobody picked up where she left off.

In 2006 Dominick Dunne is reviving the Kilgallen mystery in the April issue, but he's saying it's too late to know more than Lee. He says too many sources are dead. I hope he's wrong. Dominick is a great guy but he forgets that any of us can query his old friend Phyllis McGuire. I do thank you, Mr. Dunne, for showing Lee Israel's hard work to a new generation of young people. I mean that *sincerely* the way the McGuire Sisters expressed it in 1955.

It is likely that Dominick Dunne has never met Dr. James Luke. The good doctor probably never heard of Mr. Dunne's erstwhile company Four Star Pictures that he ran in the 1960s and 70s. Dr. Luke, who worked in Oklahoma for much of that period, lives today.

Also still alive are Dr. DiMaio (that Brooklyn deputy ME), Ms. McGuire and retired NYPD detective Jack Doyle along with God - knows - who - else. I hardly expect Mr. Dunne to investigate how much power and privilege they have in 2006, but I do thank him and I do thank Lee Israel.

Lee Israel did a one-woman investigation into the life and death of columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, and found some extremely interesting bits of information. Every answer seemed to raise two more questions, however, and like many other mysterious deaths in the entertainment community, I suspect that this one will also go unsolved. I'd love for someone to pick up where Lee Israel left off and see if there's more that can be uncovered now that there are few identities to protect. Who was the "Out of Towner," for instance? The only family member who would cooperate with her was Kilgallen's younger son, and that was because he was so small when she died that he wanted to know more about his mother. Kilgallen's father, sisters and other children were still alive at the writing of this book, but declined to participate.

Having only ever seen Dorothy Kilgallen on What's My Line? and having never read any of her columns, I was fascinated by her investigations into the JFK assassination, and not terribly surprised that she was found dead when she was getting too close for comfort for those who had something to hide. She is one of many who have gotten too close to the truth about the JFK assassination, and the price she paid is not an unusual one.

I really can't add anything to what the other readers (who liked this book) have written, suffice it to say that I found it fascinating, detailed, and not at all sensational. Ms. Israel is a fantastic writer and her comments, conclusions, and questions are all those of a very bright, inquisitive, and determined woman. To be honest, toward the end, the story started making me uneasy. Ms. Israel described Dorothy's five-story townhouse as, "...that house of lies, and pills, and darkness, where power could buy cover and get more than it paid for, where an overdose was an assumed eventuality." Actually the uneasy feeling creeps up on you, and you're not aware of it until you're well entrenched in the story. Something, clearly, happened to Dorothy that has never seen the light of day. If you doubt me, read the book. All her papers re the Kennedy assassination... gone. Where? How? We don't know. All the papers in the police report... gone. A lot of hemming and hawing when Israel tries to pin people down. Then there's the "Out-of-towner," whom Israel does not name but who apparently had some sort of part/knowledge in the circumstances under which Dorothy really died. Clearly, it wasn't suicide.

This is a Kitty Kellyesque biography of one of the more troubled celebrities of the 20th century. I am a huge "What's My Line" fan and have read bios/memoirs of Bennett Cerf, Fred Allen and Arlene Francis. This pretty much completes the quartet since nothing is available on John Charles Daly. The book provides detail on the professional triumphs and the personal problems. Both were so much a part of the Dorothy Kilgallen story. It certainly discusses her untimely death in 1965 and the on-going controversy surrounding it 4 and half decades later. It's an interesting look behind the curtain of New York cafe society from the 1930's to the 60's.

The Kilgallen case is similiar to the case of Marilyn Monroe. In the case of Ms. Monroe:

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* The toxicology report showed high levels of Nembutal (38-66 capsules) and Chloral Hydrate (14-23 tablets) in Monroe's blood.

* Police noted that the bedside table had numerous pill bottles but the room contained no glass to wash down the pills and the water was turned off. (no, that's not suspicious!)

* The pathologist Dr. Thomas Noguchi could find no trace of capsules, powder or the typical discoloration caused by Nembutal in Monroe's stomach or intestines, indicating the drugs that killed her had not been swallowed.

* Monroe was found lying face down but lividity on her back and the posterior of her arms and legs indicated she had died lying on her back.

* Eunice Murray, Monroe's housekeeper, claimed that she couldn't open Monroe's bedroom door the night she died because it was locked, but she also had a spare key. (so why did she not use it?) Police noted that Murray appeared quite evasive and extremely vague and she would eventually change her story several times.

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It's clearly obvious that the death scene was faked, and Monroe did not swallow all of those pills . . .

It seems Killgallen was killed in a similiar manner.

This is an interesting and informative book about Dorothy Kilgallen's life and gives a good flavor for the times in which she lived. The author's writing style leaves something to be desired, as it detracts from the information she is conveying to the reader. Two excerpts: ". . . her breasts seemed finally to be self-governing." And "Her tart and contumelious views were not noticeably affected . . . " The language is somewhat affected as well. Nonethless, I would recommend the book to anyone specifically interested in Dorothy Kilgallen. Another author might have been able to provide a more modern perspective and, thus, more insight into the life of this very intesting woman who was full of contradictions.