Journalist’s tell-all on mobster tied to JFK might have gotten her killed

NY Post ^ | 12-4-16 | Susan Edelman

[afraidfortherepublic]

On the night before her shocking death, Dorothy Kilgallen, a star panelist on the hit TV game show “What’s My Line?” correctly guessed the occupation of a mystery guest: a woman who sold dynamite. Modal Trigger

The glamorous, razor-sharp Kilgallen delighted viewers, but behind the scenes, the dogged and courageous reporter was hot on the trail of the biggest story of her life: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The morning after that show, on Nov. 8, 1965, the 52-year-old newspaper columnist hailed by The Post as “the most powerful female voice in America” was dead in her Manhattan town house. Her body was found sitting up in a bed, naked under a blue bathrobe, with the makeup, false eyelashes and a floral hair accessory she had worn on TV still on.

[afraidfortherepublic]

This was in the days before the Internet, and I didn't even know whatever happened to her. I remember her from What's My Line, and then she just disappeared. Her death (even if it were suspicious) wasn't likely to have been reported in West Coast papers, where I lived at the time and was busy keeping up with 4 small kids.

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Pretty sure the clintons are mobbed up be interesting to watch if either of them have an unfortunate demise...

[A_Former_Democrat]

I remember some of this story of the JFK connection but not the year of her death. Ironically, I thought of this as I watched Yul Brynner as the Mystery Guest on WML....hilarious if you want to. Get a good laff. Probably from 1958 or so.

I wonder what Dorothy knew and when did. She know it

[afraidfortherepublic]

She knew she was in danger. But the fact that it went unnoticed by me, who used to lap up every bit of news available — newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio — leads me to think that it was not treated as anything suspicious, or of particular interest, to the west coast where I lived at the time. If it was thought to be suicide, that probably wasn’t reported. Newspapers tended to be reticent bout that in those days. They probably just said that she “died at home”. Of course, in those days, I just thought she was terribly old.

[Jonty30]

Somebody isn’t going to be happy about not being paid back for failure to fulfill future promises.

[OrangeHoof]

Supposedly, Miss Kilgallen got Jack Ruby to spill the beans in a prison cell interview. Ruby was desperate to be transported from the Dallas jail to Washington DC and pleaded with Earl Warren of the Supreme Court earlier to let him attest to things he was too afraid to attest to while being held in Dallas. Warren decided he did not have jurisdiction and that there was no place where Ruby could be held. Ruby died of cancer in 1967, which he claimed was injected into him while he was in jail.