Manhattan DA won’t investigate famed journalist Dorothy Kilgallen’s 1965 death — but Hollywood set to suggest foul play

NY Post ^ | 1/04/25 | Susan Edelman

[Libloather]

Manhattan authorities have refused to take a fresh look at the suspicious 1965 death of famed journalist and TV celebrity Dorothy Kilgallen — but Hollywood actress Jessica Chastain will star in a movie portraying the reporter’s ill-fated investigation of the JFK assassination as a “murder mystery,” The Post has learned.

Detectives with the NYPD and Manhattan District Attorney’s Office have brushed off a plea by City Councilman Robert Holden to dig into whether Kilgallen’s death was a homicide — not “accidental,” as authorities quickly labeled it at the time.

Kilgallen, a famed columnist for the New York Journal-American, was hot on the trail of a Mafia kingpin she suspected had planned the 1963 shooting of President John F. Kennedy when she was found dead in her Manhattan apartment.

The cause was quickly deemed a drug and alcohol overdose, aborting a probe of possible foul play.

Last year, Holden, (D-Queens), formally asked the NYPD and the DA’s cold-case unit to reopen the Kilgallen case, but got only “lip service,” he told The Post.

“I was told there was going to be an investigation, but it turned out there wasn’t,” he said.” They just looked at it on a superficial level and decided it wasn’t worth doing.”

A police spokesman confirmed, “The NYPD, along with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, declined to reopen the investigation.” The decision was not explained.

[twister881]

Believe she was offed by the Mafia — a good bit of evidence and unresolved circumstances. Met with a mob-related figure after Sunday’s “What’s My Line” TV show, found fully clothed in a recumbent position and in a spare bedroom of her NYC townhouse, transcript of her JFK exposé book missing, death cert issued by a mob-connected coroner. And do not forget Frank Sinatra and she had a long term feud. She maintained he was controlled by the Mafia, and he attacked her looks and journalistic abilities. Complicating factor to my thinking is that her husband Dick Kollmar was a serial philanderer, and she may have had affairs, as well.

[OldHarbor]

Yeah right

The FBI used sexual blackmail , just like the mob.

Why do you think Hillary Clinton stole hundreds of those FBI files, hmmm ?

Go back to sleep, sheep, bahhhhhh

[Blurb2350]

Yes, she was a very heavy drinker — an alcoholic — and used barbiturates. Her son was told by a doctor that she was kept in the hospital for three weeks following a nasty fall so she could be weaned off booze and barbiturates.

[norwaypinesavage]

I remember Kilgallen as a panelist on the TV show “I’ve got a secret”. It was a humorous show where guests would answer questions from the panel about their ‘secret’. If the panel could not guess the secret, the guest would win a small prize. The panel would wear blindfolds if the guest was a celebrity. I don’t recall any controversy about her death. This was back in the days when humorous shows on the networks were actually funny.

[Sacajaweau]

Always thought she was a dud. I’m 80 so probably have different outlook.

[Rockingham]

After interviewing Ruby in jail in Dallas, Kilgallen went to New Orleans and started pointing the finger at Carlos Marcello in her questioning of local sources. At the time, it was not widely known that Dallas was part of Marcello's territory and that Ruby, a long time Jewish mob associate, recruited strippers in New Orleans from clubs controlled by Marcello.

Supposedly, Ruby was hopelessly in debt to Marcello and other mob bosses and was told to kill Oswald, or else. As early as a month after the assassination, Ruby began to say that he wanted to tell the true story, even requesting a polygraph in order to establish his veracity. Earl Warren eventually met with Ruby in Dallas but denied his request to be taken to Washington for his safety so that he could tell the full story. After that, Ruby turned to Kilgallen.

By temperament, Kilgallen was a chatterbox with a poor choice in men. Back in New York, she claimed that she had the goods on who killed JFK and was going to blow the case wide open in a book. The notes and manuscript though disappeared after Kilgallen's death.

[FrankRizzo890]

And smart as a whip! You could see it in the way she worked things out.

[Fiji Hill]

There’s no evidence whatsoever that J. Edgar Hoover was homosexual. However, he had a lot of enemies—Communists, Nazis and gangsters—who would love to spread such a rumor.