I assumed it was common knowledge. Maybe not. Both Pyne and Downey were chain smokers. Both died of lung cancer, although Pyne was much younger at the time of his death. I think Pyne was in his forties and Downey was in his sixties.
Tom Snyder was another talker who was taken down by smoking. Seems to go with the territory.
Pyne was before my time, attention-wise, but wasn’t Downey involved with the Kennedy Klan?