by Mark Shaw
Since husband Richard had fallen into depression due to his nightclub failures and alcoholism, Kilgallen was the family’s sole breadwinner. Her hairdresser Marc Sinclaire called Richard, “Mr. Kilgallen.” This label may have been a bit unfair. Competing with his celebrity wife and her ever-widening shadow had always been difficult for Richard.
As Kilgallen attempted to deal with a disappointing husband, she kept up with JFK’s planned trip to Dallas. She was unaware that as September 1963 welcomed fall temperatures, President Kennedy and his brother Bobby, the Attorney General, discussed the visit. RFK attempted to convince JFK of the importance of appearing with Vice-President Lyndon Johnson. He was concerned that the president might dump him from the 1964 ticket. To assure LBJ that JFK had no such intentions, the Texas trip became important.
While Dallas made plans to welcome the president, during the late summer months, Kilgallen and her husband Richard had quarreled over her public display of affection for Johnnie Ray. Richard forbade her to see him. Kilgallen was heartbroken. Madly in love with Ray and desperate for affection, she continued the affair despite her husband’s orders.
Always interested in JFK’s private life, Kilgallen returned to the entertainment side of his presidency. In an October 1, 1963 “Voice of Broadway” column written two years and thirty-eight days removed from her death, she mentioned “President Kennedy was reported to have told Cary Grant that he liked [Grant’s film] Charade so well he saw it twice.”
In her “Voice of Broadway” column fifty-two days later, on November 22, Kilgallen did not write about the president’s Dallas trip. Instead, she noted that underworld figures were circling a gambler playing a dangerous game.
The Broadway post-mortem reports about a big show business figure are startling. He’s said to have run up enormous gambling debts—ranging from $10,000 to $20,000—at every casino in Las Vegas, for a total estimated at $150,000. The shylocks are closing in on him, the gang boys are starting to display impatience, and some have blown the whistle to the Internal Revenue chaps, alleging that he’d acceptedunder-the-table cash in business deals. It all figured because he certainly is a swinger, but friends didn’t realize the amazing amount of trouble he was in until they began comparing coast-to-coast notes.
Kilgallen did not divulge the name of the “business figure.” Pressed by the authorities to do so, she refused.
That same morning, Kilgallen’s Journal-American’s front page had noted JFK’s Dallas appearance. One time zone to the west, The Dallas Morning News posted the headline “Storm of Political Controversy Swirls Around Kennedy on Visit.”
Kilgallen, watching television in the townhouse, saw JFK land in Dallas. The presidential motorcade headed toward Dealey Plaza. At 12:30 p.m. CST in front of the Dallas Book Depository, shots rang out toward the president’s limousine. When Texas Governor John Connally heard the gunfire, he shouted, “My God, they’re going to kill us all.”
Kilgallen was stunned when news reports confirmed JFK’s wounds. With tears in her eyes, she sat alone watching further television coverage. Like millions of Americans, she prayed that her beloved president JFK would survive.
Less than a four-hour drive away from Kilgallen’s townhouse at Robert Kennedy’s Hickory Hill home in McClean, Virginia, RFK, the second most powerful man in America, the one dubbed by White House associates, “Assistant President,” received a telephone call from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. He told Bobby about the assassination attempt. A few minutes later, Hoover called again. With an unsympathetic tone, he informed Bobby that JFK was dead.
In her townhouse, a distraught Kilgallen watched as CBS’s Walter Cronkite delivered sad news to the nation: “The President died at 1:00 p.m. Dallas time, 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time.” Continuing to monitor the television coverage, Kilgallen learned of the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald in connection with the assassination. At police headquarters after his arrest, police told the handcuffed Oswald he could cover his face with his hands if he wished to do so. To that suggestion, he told reporters, “Why should I hide my face? I haven’t done anything to be ashamed of.”
While Oswald was being interrogated, Kilgallen watched as LBJ took the oath of office on Air Force One. He became the 36th President of the United States. Besides him stood Jackie Kennedy, blood still visible on her pink Chanel suit.
Kilgallen paced the floor and began chatting with friends on the telephone. Meanwhile, at 4:45 p.m. EST at his Virginia home, a distraught RFK told his press secretary Ed Guthman, “There’s so much bitterness; I thought they would get one of us, but Jack, after all he had been through, [I] never worried about it.…I never thought it would happen. I thought it would be me…there’s been so much bitterness and hatred....”
Unaware of Bobby’s statement while seeking details about Oswald, Kilgallen called contacts in Dallas. Her investigative reporter instincts on high alert, she began to question why JFK was killed.
Despite the late hour on the east coast, Kilgallen watched the midnight press conference with Oswald in Dallas. The media gathered to learn more facts about JFK’s assassin. He had stated, “I didn’t kill the President, I didn’t kill nobody.”
As the news conference commenced, Kilgallen heard D.A. Henry Wade say Oswald was a member of the anti-Castro Free Cuba Committee. Seconds later, Kilgallen listened as someone in the back of the room shouted, “Henry, that’s Fair Play for Cuba Committee.” He turned out to be Jack Ruby, owner of the Carousel strip club in Dallas.
Early the next morning, Kilgallen held young Kerry in her arms. Mother and son wept over JFK’s death. In her column, Kilgallen recalled the visit with her son to the White House. In her column, she wrote, “The picture that stays in my mind is the one of this tall young man bending over a small boy, carefully scrutinizing envelopes until he came to the name ‘Kerry Ardan Kollmar—Grade 3B.’ This is the man who was assassinated in Dallas.”
CHAPTER 11
At 11:15 a.m. on November 24, Dorothy Kilgallen watched television coverage of the transfer of Lee Harvey Oswald from one jail to another. Emerging from an elevator, two detectives flanked the grim-faced man. One journalist shouted, “Here he comes.” Loving the president as she did, Kilgallen glowered at the alleged assassin.
Kilgallen noticed Oswald handcuffed to the left wrist of a detective, J.R. “James” Leavelle. He wore a white suit and a gleaming white Stetson hat. Detective L.C. Graves held Oswald’s left arm. No officers were directly in front of him.
Behind Oswald’s entourage, several police looked on. Eager to display to the world the alleged killer of JFK and of Dallas Policeman J. D. Tippit, police welcomed the swarm of reporters and photographers. All gathered for the photo-op.
As bright lights showered him, Oswald, arguably the most hated man in the world, smirked at three journalists shouting questions. He was snarly and silent. Beads of perspiration pockmarked his shiny forehead. The plan, according to police, was to transport Oswald in an armored car to the more secure county jail.
Pen and paper in hand, Kilgallen’s eyes focused on Oswald’s sullen expression. The prisoners’ bruised, unshaven face reflected his struggle with police during his arrest. Kilgallen watched Oswald sneer as flashbulbs popped and floodlights glared in the background. She wondered what his motive was for killing JFK.
Television camera operators focused on the hectic scene. Millions of viewers, including Kilgallen, glared at Oswald. At exactly 11:21 a.m., they heard reporter Ike Pappas ask, “Lee, do you have anything to say in your defense?”
A second later as Kilgallen’s eyes scanned the scene, a stout man wearing a nap-brimmed gray fedora, edged closer to Oswald. While he approached, JFK’s alleged assassin’s face seemed to register a glimmer of recognition. Conspiracy buffs later claimed Oswald, a white shirt peeking from under his dark crew neck sweater, recognized the man later identified as Jack Ruby. Others maintained that Oswald’s expression was an acknowledgment of
a pistol the assassin suddenly pointed at Oswald’s midsection.
Like millions of others, Kilgallen watched in disbelief as the man, from a distance of about fifteen inches, pulled the trigger. The gunshot caused Detective Leavelle, his eyes reflecting disbelief, to recoil in horror. Robert Jackson snapped his Pulitzer-prize winning photograph at this moment.
Kilgallen screamed as Oswald moaned in anguish. His eyes gazed upward. He crumpled to the ground. The television image of the second assassination spread across the planet. Kilgallen watched as Detective Graves freed his hand from Oswald’s arm. The detective grabbed the shooter and wrestled him to the ground like a defensive lineman tackling the fullback.
Graves grasped the revolver so the man could fire no more. Oswald was in cardiac arrest, with wounds to his kidneys, spleen, and aorta. The main suspect in the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy died a short time later at Parkland Memorial Hospital.
A shocked Kilgallen watched as police arrested the assailant. She walked around her townhouse in disbelief. Two assassinations in three days, she told herself. Something doesn’t make sense. Something’s very wrong.
* * * * *
While Dorothy Kilgallen attempted to make sense of the strange turn of events in Dallas, famed attorney Melvin Belli enjoyed lunch with friend J. Kelly Farris at Scoma’s Restaurant at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. A waiter told Belli that Ruby killed Oswald. Belli, dubbed by Life Magazine the “King of Torts” for his prowess as a personal injury attorney, boasted, Farris told this author, “Well, since Oswald’s dead, I’ll have to defend Ruby.” Perplexed by the comment, Farris asked Belli to elaborate. He did not do so.
Certain the killing of Oswald confounded logic, Dorothy Kilgallen began to investigate the man she learned was Jack Ruby. She wondered why he was present in the Dallas Police Department basement for Oswald’s transfer. Within minutes, she reached out to contacts in the department looking for answers.
Meanwhile, Jack Ruby, while being led to his jail cell, asked Detective Don Ray Archer if Oswald was dead. Recalling the conversation, Archer said:
[Ruby’s] behavior to begin with was very hyper. He was sweating profusely. I could see his heart beating.…He asked me for one of my cigarettes. I gave him a cigarette. Finally, after about two hours had elapsed, the head of the Secret Service came up and I conferred with him and he told me that Oswald had died. This should have shocked [Ruby] because it would mean the death penalty. I returned and said, “Jack, it looks like it’s going to be the electric chair for you.”
Instead of being shocked, he became calm, he quit sweating, his heart slowed down. I asked him if he wanted a cigarette and he advised me that he didn’t smoke. I was just astonished at this complete difference of behavior from what I had expected. I would say his life had depended on him getting Oswald.
On the morning of November 25, Kilgallen, ever inquisitive about the assassinations, made plans to visit Dallas. At the same time, J. Edgar Hoover issued a memo to the Dallas Police Department. It stated that FBI headquarters in Washington D.C. should receive all DPD files. In essence, Hoover and the Bureau had taken over the investigation.
Unbeknownst to Kilgallen, Hoover also called White House aide Walter Jenkins. He told him, “The thing I am most concerned about and so is Mr. Katzenbach, is having something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin.” Hoover instructed aide Clyde Tolson to “prepare a memorandum to the Attorney General setting out the evidence that Oswald was responsible for the shooting that killed the president.”
On November 25, 1963, less than two years until Kilgallen’s death, JFK’s funeral took place in Washington D.C. Representatives from 90 countries attended. Kilgallen, watching on television, wept at the death of her friend.
All the while, Kilgallen’s suspicions consumed her mind as to whether Oswald acted alone. She also kept wondering how Ruby was able to kill Oswald so quickly after his arrest.
At her home office desk in the “Cloop,” Kilgallen typed columns focused on President Kennedy and wife Jackie. She praised the president for his dedication to civil rights and Jackie for being such a credit to the long line of first ladies. Using her powerful reputation, Kilgallen gathered information from Dallas sources. They promised secret police department files.
Meanwhile, at his home in Virginia, Robert Kennedy walked the grounds with his favorite dog, Brumus, a black Newfoundland. RFK’s head bowed. He was stricken with grief. He had lost his brother, his best friend.
The next day, Kilgallen read a press release from J. Edgar Hoover at FBI headquarters: “Not a shred of evidence has been developed to link any other person in a conspiracy with Oswald to assassinate President Kennedy.” Kilgallen shook her head in disbelief. Hoover, it appeared, was intent on closing any government investigation before it began.
CHAPTER 12
At the Journal-American offices, readers flooded Dorothy Kilgallen’s desk with various theories about the JFK assassination. In her “Voice of Broadway” column, she wrote, “I wish I could acknowledge all of [the letters], but it is impossible so I hope those who wrote to me in the days following my columns on President and Mrs. Kennedy will accept my heartfelt thanks now.”
While Kilgallen pored over the correspondence, Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Bill Alexander spoke with friends. He told this author he was surprised JFK was dead, telling the friends, “I had heard RFK was going to be killed because as many people as he had screwed, ones like local law enforcement that he stepped all over, or with people he hadn’t kept his word with, underworld people like [Carlos] Marcello, politicians and the like. He just had too many enemies, many more than his brother.”
As Alexander ruminated about JFK’s demise, Kilgallen continued to receive information about Oswald and Ruby from her Dallas contacts. An assassination investigation file she had created thickened. Kilgallen was determined to probe the DPD and FBI investigations. She wanted to make certain the public learned all of the facts.
In the Journal-American, Kilgallen read the Page Five headline, “Famous Attorney Melvin Belli to Represent Jack Ruby.” Kilgallen was suspicious and used her San Francisco contacts to investigate. She learned Belli’s practice focused exclusively on civil cases instead of criminal matters. He had not tried a murder case in years. He had never tried a capital murder case like Ruby’s. The information made her wonder why Belli had been retained to represent Oswald’s killer. Kilgallen made plans to attend Ruby’s trial.
At her townhouse, Kilgallen watched television coverage of Belli arriving at the Dallas airport. Reporters flocked to his side. He announced his representation of Ruby by telling the media Earl Ruby, Jack’s brother, had hired him to represent Jack.19 Belli never mentioned his mobster client and friend Mickey Cohen. Belli also failed to tell reporters he had represented Ruby’s close friend and Cohen’s girlfriend, stripper Candy Barr,20 at the request of Cohen, before Judge Joe Brown a few years earlier. He was the same judge who would oversee the Ruby trial. Reporters thus neglected to connect Belli with Cohen or Barr. They missed the opportunity to question whether, due to Belli’s friendship with, and representation of, a dangerous underworld figure, the Mafia could have been involved in the JFK and Oswald assassinations.
On the 29th, Kilgallen noted with interest President Lyndon Johnson’s formation of the Warren Commission. It would investigate the JFK assassination. Kilgallen examined the list of Commission members. She began background checks on each.
Without exception, every journalist focusing on what had happened in Dallas appeared satisfied with J. Edgar Hoover’s official statement that it was Oswald and Oswald alone who assassinated JFK. Kilgallen had strong beliefs to the contrary. Ever defiant when she believed any sort of cover-up happened, Kilgallen decided to question the official investigation with the dogged determination she had employed during other high profile cases including the trial of Dr. Sam
Sheppard.
With this in mind, her November 29 Journal-American column, entitled “The Oswald File Must Not Close,” was a call to action loud and clear. Troubled by the circumstances surrounding the assassinations, the column launched what would become a full-scale investigation on her part. It would last until the day she died.
At the outset, Kilgallen’s strong words aimed at the new president. She wrote:
President Lyndon Johnson has been elevated so swiftly to his new high post that in one sense, he has been snatched up into an ivory tower. As Chief Executive, he is no longer in a position to hear the voices of ordinary people talking candidly. If he could walk invisible along the streets of the nation and listen to ordinary people talking, he would realize that he must be sure that the mystery of Lee Harvey Oswald is solved and laid before the nation down to the smallest shred of evidence.
The next six words Kilgallen used were most revealing. They were in complete opposition to those offered by Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry and J. Edgar Hoover, cheerleaders for the “Oswald Alone” theory. Kilgallen wrote, “If Oswald is President Kennedy’s assassin, he is the most important prisoner the police in this country had in 100 years and no blithe announcement in Dallas is going to satisfy the American public that the case is closed.”
Continuing, Kilgallen wrote, “President Johnson has directed the FBI to look into every aspect of the case, but he must go a giant step further. He must satisfy the public’s uneasy mind about this peculiar assassination of the assassin or he will start his term in office by making a dire political mistake that can cost him the 1964 election.” In the next paragraph she added: