Hit List: An In-Depth Investigation Into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination

by Richard Belzer

  And therein the problem lies.

  The pills were in a perplexingly moderate range. Too many of them for accident, too few for suicide. But enough to kill her.4

  Most of Dorothy’s medical records and many medical studies related to her death are available for study online at KilgallenFiles.com.

  In short, Dorothy overdosed—but the number of pills that were approximated in her system fall within a window of suspicion. It is just about a perfect amount. Seemingly too many for accident but far too few for intentional suicide.

  Because she had been drinking, the effect of the drugs was multiplied.

  She most likely died quickly, however she would have had trouble ­breathing—which may have been stressful to her body.5

  One necessarily needs to look at availability (access to the drugs themselves), presence of those same drugs (quantity), the actions of the drugs (the time that it takes them to

  1 Israel, Kilgallen, 422.

  2 Ibid.

  3 Parnau, The Kilgallen Files

  4 Israel, Kilgallen, 422.

  5 Parnau, The Kilgallen Files

  work), and the effects of the drugs (such as automatic regurgitation whence the body attempts to reject the toxins). All of those factors point to foul play in Dorothy’s death.

  As far as access to the drugs that were found in her body, Seconal was definitely available to Dorothy. Tuinal was located in the home, as her husband had a prescription for it, but was not a drug typically taken by Dorothy. The third drug, Nembutal, was not readily available to Dorothy and, oddly enough, was also the drug of which contents were found in the drinking glass that was placed near her. It should be noted that Seconal and Tuinol were not found in the drinking glass.

  The real question is how/why on the Tuinal and why the Nembutal in the glass?1

  An even larger issue than availability is the quantity in the time frame that they would have to have been taken.

  Even more suspicious than the drugs themselves is the quantity of pills.2

  It was medically estimated that Dorothy had the equivalent of 15 to 20 pills in her body, in a triple combination of Nembutal, Seconal, and Tuinol, combined with alcohol, which supercharged their effects.

  Yet it has been established that she was observed in a fine, coherent state a short time before her death occurred. She could not have taken that many pills—accidentally or otherwise—and still been walking around in a coherent state. Therefore, whatever did happen must therefore have happened very quickly.

  And an even larger issue is the sterility of the crime scene. There was no vomit or mess of any kind. That would simply not be possible if she had swallowed 15 to 20 pills and combined them with alcohol.

  Also worth considering is the nature of a drug overdose death, especially a barbiturate overdose. If Dorothy were drunk and had actually taken ­15-20 pills, her body would have probably attempted to reject the toxins. If she didn’t vomit, it is likely she would have either foamed or purged. Barbiturate overdoses aren’t necessarily calm, quiet and pretty deaths. There’s a CNS (central nervous system) shutdown—lungs, gasping for air or perhaps coughing. Maybe some thrashing about. Rarely do people die with their eyes closed and their mouths neatly shut. . . . Yet she was found in bed, tucked in, her eyes closed and her face peaceful, powdered and made-up.3

  Therefore, we know that she did not take them accidentally or intentionally without the crime scene having been cleaned up considerably. In fact, they may not have been taken by her at all. We know that she could not have taken that many accidentally, and nor can it be explained that they were taken intentionally. And we know that the crime

  1 Cassie Parnau, emails to author, 23 Nov. 2012.

  2 Ibid.

  3 Ibid.

  scene was staged, including considerable cleaning up of both the body’s state—the inevitable vomiting—and the body’s position—the fact that rather than being in the typically twisted or contorted position of a human body that had endured involuntary spasms, she was found propped up neatly in her bed. Or so her killers thought—because we know it was actually a bed that she never used, even to read.1 That room was simply a “showcase”; to convince showbiz visitors that she and her husband were still sleeping together, and it was actually kept in a constant pristine state, but never used.

  Conclusions Based On Evidentiary Indications

  We can utilize the same “Rule out method (R/O)” that we used in Dead Wrong to determine the true cause of death for Marilyn Monroe. In Dorothy’s case:

  • We can R/O Natural Causes: Although she had some substance abuse issues, the autopsy revealed that she had no cirrhosis of the liver; she was a healthy fifty-two-year-old woman.

  • We can R/O Suicide: On the night she died, she performed live on television and was great. As was customary, she went out for cocktails afterwards with people from the show. She socialized and was not depressed. She was also very excited about her upcoming book and told friends she had information that would “shock the world.” A friend, who said he talked to her earlier on the night that she died, was asked if she sounded suicidal: “No! No! The last time I talked to her, she was just normal.” She telephoned Western Union at 2:20 a.m. to arrange pickup of her column for the next day’s newspaper. The manager of Western Union stated: “Miss Kilgallen called me at 2:20 in the morning. She sounded great, as usual. She said ‘Good morning, Mr. Spiegel, this is Dorothy Kilgallen. Would you send a messenger over to the house to pick up my column and take it to the Journal-American? I’ll leave it in the regular place, in the door.’ I said ‘It’s always a pleasure’ and sent the messenger. It was there, as usual.”2

  She also had insufficient drug levels for an attempted suicide. It was literally just enough to kill her when combined with some alcohol. Had she actually wanted to commit suicide, there were many drugs in the home that had been prescribed to her husband, which easily could have taken.

  • We can R/O Accident: The exotic combination of fast-acting barbiturates found in Dorothy’s body (three separate drugs which form a lethal combination) ensures that she could not have taken them accidentally or absent-mindedly. It is established that, at least as late as 2:20 a.m., she was her usual self and completely coherent. Yet she was dead by 4:00 a.m. In order to have been an accident, she would have had to mistakenly take at least five capsules of each of three different drugs in one hour. A mistake of 3 x 5 is not even within the realm of possibility.

  • It bears noting that it was common knowledge among her crowd that Dorothy’s regular drink was Vodka-Tonic. Tonic contains Quinine, which

  1 Ibid.

  2 Sara Jordan, “Who Killed Dorothy Kilgallen?,” October 21, 2007, Midwest Today: http://www.midtod.com/new/articles/7_14_07_Dorothy.html

  • is known for its ability to mask the bitterness of barbiturates when someone slips a person a lethal combination of drugs known colloquially as a “Mickey Finn” or “Knockout Drops.”

  Examination of the drinking glass contents found in her room revealed only one of the three drugs that killed her. The death scene was staged to look like she had gone to bed and died after taking medication, but there is no plausible explanation for how the other two drugs entered body.1

  Dorothy’s death had many signs of obvious crime scene staging:

  • Lividity markings that were “posterior involving the left neck and face” are a strong indication that Dorothy did not die in the position that she was found in, sitting propped up in bed as though she had been reading a book.2

  • Her body was found in a bed in which her close friends knew that she never slept. The master bedroom was strictly for the false pretense that she and her husband had a happy marriage; a fact which her killers had no way of knowing. If her family had acted to protect her reputation, as some have speculated, why would they place her in the wrong bed?

  • Typical death scenes in drug overdoses reveal unnatural body positions due to the involuntary muscle spasms. They also have vomit on the vic
tim, as the body attempts to reject the toxins. Dorothy reportedly had neither.

  • Like Marilyn Monroe, the pristine condition was far too neat. A blanket had been pulled up to her neck. Here’s how the friend who discovered her body described it:

  • “The bed was spotless. She was dressed very peculiarly like I’ve never seen her before. She always (was) in pajamas and old socks and her make-up (would be) off and her hair (would be) off.”

  • But “she was completely dressed like she was going out, the hair was in place, the make-up was on, the false eyelashes were on.”

  • She was dressed in a blue “matching peignoir and robe” which was something “she would never wear to go to bed.”

  • Her friend also noted that “a book (was) laid out on the bed. (But it) was turned upside down; it wasn’t in the right position for if she’d been reading . . . and it was laid down so perfectly.”

  • The home was very cold because the air-conditioner was on. That was completely unnecessary because it was cold outside and speaks to the fact that if the victim had simply gone to bed and died of too much medication, she obviously would have turned off the air conditioning first, just as she normally did.

  • Another mistake in the staging was that it was a book she had already read. Her friend remembered that Dorothy had told him that she had finished that particular book several weeks ago and she had then discussed the book with him.

  1 Parnau, The Kilgallen Files

  2 Cassie Parnau, email to author, 16 November 2012.

  • Although Dorothy needed and always used reading glasses to read a book, none were found in the room (another point that the death-scene stagers would have had no way of knowing).1

  • Dorothy was befriended during her last months by one Ron Pataky and the two became very close and “quite an item.” Some claim Pataky had links to U.S. intelligence. Lee Israel, author of the biography, Kilgallen, writes that prior to meeting Dorothy, Pataky “enrolled in a training school for assassins in Panama or thereabouts.” Pataky is believed to be one of the last to see Dorothy alive; the two would often rendezvous late at night to share drinks together. Israel paints a mysterious portrait of Pataky, although she acknowledges she found no direct links between him and the CIA. But when asked:

  “Do you believe that Ron Pataky murdered Dorothy Kilgallen?”

  Israel responded: “He had something to do with it.”2

  • Other sources have apparently verified that Pataky “. . . did graduate from one of the schools for assassins that later became the U.S. Army School of the Americas.”3

  • Three sources claimed:

  “…that Kilgallen went from the television studio for What’s My Line? (West 54th and Broadway) to P. J. Clarke’s (Third Avenue and East 50th Street) to the Regency Hotel (Park Avenue between 61st and 62nd). Her house was on East 68th between Madison and Park. Ms. Israel could not find a driver for Carey Cadillac—the limo company Kilgallen always used—to verify that Kilgallen was alive when she voluntarily entered her house.

  The three sources cited by Ms. Israel agreed that the only reason Kilgallen would go to the Regency was for a romantic rendezvous or a private conversation with a close friend. The Regency did not have one of those trendy nightclubs in 1965. It had a lounge where a celebrity would go for privacy—not to show off or be seen. Kilgallen knew the chances of finding an actor showing off there were slim to none. Remember, in that era actors wanted their names in her column.

  Then you have something that’s not in the Israel book. One of the What’s My Line? contestants that night was a Kentucky woman who saw Kilgallen with a man at a banquette table in the Regency Hotel lounge. A cocktail party was going on in the lounge. That’s why the Kentucky woman was there. Kilgallen and her male companion paid no attention to the cocktail party. They were not affectionate or romantic, either. ‘They were talking serious business of some kind,’ said the tourist from Kentucky in 1999.”4

  1 Sara Jordan, “Who Killed Dorothy Kilgallen?,” October 21, 2007, Midwest Today: http://www.midtod.com/new/articles/7_14_07_Dorothy.html

  2 John Simkin, 20 December 2005, Spartacus Educational: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKpataky.htm

  3 Jonathan Wendland, “Florence Pritchett: The Forgotten Witness,” March 14, 2005, The Education Forum: http://educationforum.iphost.com/index.php?showtopic=2358&st=15

  4 Jonathan Wendland, Florence Pritchett: The Forgotten Witness, March 16, 2005, The Education Forum http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2358&st=15

  Although it’s also possible that the staging was an attempt to cover-up a suicide or accident, it certainly does not appear likely. The job was very professional.

  Conclusion

  Dorothy Kilgallen was murdered; probably done as a National Security ­Assassination. Notes for her upcoming JFK book, including the backup copy she had reportedly entrusted to a friend, completely disappeared from the face of the earth (her book was eventually published—but notably absent was her “breakthrough” on JFK).

  RESOURCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

  There are two incredibly valuable resources in the case of Dorothy Kilgallen, available online:

  The Kilgallen Files, an ongoing study group led by author and researcher, Cassie Parnou, at: http://kilgallenfiles.wordpress.com

  Sara Jordan’s “Who Killed Dorothy Kilgallen?” in Midwest Today, at:

  http://www.midtod.com/new/articles/7_14_07_Dorothy.html

  Victim

  Florence Pritchett Smith

  Cause of Death

  Cerebral Hemorrhage

  Official Verdict

  Natural Causes

  Inconsistencies

  None apparent, except for the unfathomable “coincidence” that:

  1. She had reportedly been entrusted with Dorothy Kilgallen’s highly confidential notes for her upcoming book on the JFK assassination;

  2. She died the day after Dorothy.

  3. The JFK notes (of both) disappeared.

  11

  Florence Pritchett Smith (also known as Mrs. Earl

  E. T. Smith),

  November 9, 1965

  The evidence appears to support the point that Florence Pritchett Smith suffered from leukemia.

  Little is known about her death, except that she died of a cerebral hemorrhage, apparently as a result of leukemia. However, the fact that it was known to several people that she had been entrusted with a “back-up copy” of Kilgallen’s notes—actually the chapter of her book that focused on the JFK assassination—and, just like Kilgallen’s entire manuscript, they suddenly vanished, speaks very loudly of foul play afoot. If

  Kilgallen’s death was accidental and Smith’s death was natural, there is no adequate explanation for one very important thing—why did all of Kilgallen’s work she’d been doing on the JFK cover-up completely disappear?

  Victim

  Betty McDonald

  Cause of Death

  Strangulation

  Official Verdict

  Suicide

  Actual Circumstances

  Found hanging in her jail cell, at 4:45 a.m., about two hours after her arrest for fighting with another woman. She was hung by use of her own trousers around her neck.

  Inconsistencies

  None apparent

  12

  Betty McDonald (a.k.a. Nancy Jane Mooney),

  February 13, 1964

  Betty McDonald worked as a dancer in Jack Ruby’s night club and provided the alibi for a man accused of shooting a key witness to the JFK assassination.

  Betty McDonald (a.k.a. Nancy Jane Mooney),

  February 13, 1964

  As far as it concerns the events surrounding the JFK assassination, the facts on the death of Betty McDonald are actually more about the facts concerning a man named Warren Reynolds. We’ll explain.

  When Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippit was shot and killed in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas very shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy, a Da
llas resident named Warren Reynolds was standing right in the path of the fleeing gunman leaving the Tippit crime scene. Mr. Reynolds chased after the gunman for at least a block and saw his face up close. He got a good look at the guy but, to put it plainly, it wasn’t what the authorities wanted to hear.

  Jack Ruby at his nightclub, The Carousel Club in Dallas, with three of his strippers.

  Reynolds told police that the man who shot Tippit was not Lee Harvey Oswald. He was subsequently shot at, harassed, and almost had his ten-year-old daughter kidnapped. Finally, he changed his story and told the authorities what they wanted to hear—and who could blame him at that point?

  Betty McDonald, also known as Nancy Mooney, was a stripper at Jack Ruby’s night club. When police arrested the man accused of shooting Mr. Reynolds, Betty McDonald gave the man an alibi, saying she had been with him at the time of the shooting.

  McDonald was arrested a short time later on a different matter, and was found dead in her jail cell, apparently having either hung herself or having had some assistance in the process. It was ruled suicide, but it could have been murder. In any case, its linkage to the JFK assassination seems peripheral.

  Warren Reynolds witnessed the shooting of Officer J. D. Tippit and ID’d the shooter as looking nothing like Lee Harvey Oswald. But after being threatened repeatedly and even shot at, he was coerced into changing his testimony to fit the official version.