by Mark Shaw
Brennan told police he was sitting on a concrete wall as the presidential motorcade passed through the plaza. The wall was located a hundred feet from the book depository window. Brennen said he could see up into the 6th floor window where someone was holding a rifle. Believing this to be impossible, Kilgallen had her husband Richard stand at their townhouse window on an upper floor. He held a broomstick mirroring Oswald holding a rifle. She stood outside on East 68th Street at the same distance as Brennan described. When she returned to the townhouse, she informed Richard that her conclusion was correct: Brennan could not have seen into the window, could not have seen anyone holding a rifle.
The scientific aspects of the experiment were questionable, but Kilgallen’s obsession with continuing to probe every aspect of the JFK assassination was clear. She was the only journalist in the world actively disagreeing at the time with Hoover’s self-proclaimed “Oswald Alone” theory. Nothing could stop her from pursuing every lead through sources only a reporter of her stature could garner.
Concerned about surveillance, Kilgallen and Mark Lane carried on a clandestine relationship. She told him, “Intelligence agencies will be watching us. We’ll have to be very careful.” When they spoke on the telephone, it was from different telephone booths. They even used code names—hers was “Robinson,” his “Parker.” During meetings at Kilgallen’s home, Richard listened to their conversations.
Intent on keeping the debate alive, Kilgallen published a stream of allegations about the ineptness of the investigations, including that of the Warren Commission. This caused her to believe that any one, or all, of the 18 townhouse telephone lines could be tapped.
On September 3, 1964, Robert Kennedy resigned as attorney general. In a Journal-American column published ten days later, Kilgallen, fourteen months removed from her death, wrote:
This column owes a great debt of gratitude to the thousands of messages of congratulations that came after the stories on the Jack Ruby testimony before the Warren Commission. They came from William Randolph Hearst, Jr., Walter Winchell, editors and publishers all over the nation, rival columnists…and citizens in many states in the Union who hailed my paper and me for ‘courage’ in printing the articles.
Of course, there was courage involved, but mostly it was the simple urge to print the story…. Thank you very much, from an incorrigible reporter to whom the front page is quite a bit like the Star-Spangled Banner.
Eleven days later, Kilgallen’s Journal-American reported the Warren Commission report’s release. It concluded, among other matters:
“The Commission has found no evidence that either Lee Harvey Oswald or Jack Ruby was part of any conspiracy, domestic or foreign, to assassinate President Kennedy.”
There was “no direct relationship between Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby.”
“No evidence [existed] that Jack Ruby acted with any other person in the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald.”
Concluding, the Commission wrote, “On the basis of the evidence before the Commission it concludes that Oswald acted alone.”
Despite minimal information, one section of the report read, “Based on its evaluation of the record…the Commission believes that the evidence does not establish a significant link between Ruby and organized crime. Both State and Federal officials have indicated that Ruby was not affiliated with organized crime activities. And numerous persons have reported that Ruby was not connected with such activity.”
In her “Voice of Broadway” column, and to anyone who would listen, Kilgallen called the report, “laughable” and continued her assassination probe with Jack Ruby as the focal point. She learned of his three prison attempts at suicide in late 1964. First, Ruby stood 20 feet from a concrete wall. His face soaked with perspiration, he ran as fast as possible head first into the wall. He hoped to crack open his skull. He did not.
Ruby’s second attempt involved use of an electric light socket. A few burns on his hands were the result. The condemned man’s third try involved using his pants legs to hang himself. The knot he devised was not sturdy. A guard, always on watch, squelched Ruby’s intended plan.
Hearing of Ruby’s suicide attempt anguished Kilgallen. She continued to ponder the shocking statement Ruby made after appearing before the Warren Commission: “The world will never know the true facts of what occurred. My motives. The people who had, that had so much to gain and had such a material motive to put me in this position I’m in would never let the true facts come above board to the world.” Ruby’s admission only reinforced Kilgallen’s belief that Oswald’s killer was part of a conspiracy and cover-up.
More certain every day of her suspicions, Kilgallen was not shy about sharing them. She told friend Marlin Swing several times, “This had to be a conspiracy.” The same message was relayed to Johnnie Ray, What’s My Line? associate producer Bob Bach, and her makeup man, Carmen Gebbia. When asked about her conclusions by her lawyer Mort Farber, Kilgallen said boldly, “I’m going to break the real story and have the biggest scoop of the century.”
In a December 10, 1964 “Voice of Broadway” column, Kilgallen plugged the upcoming book by her friend Mark Lane. She wrote, “Mark Lane, the attorney who leads the opposition to the Warren Commission’s report on the assassination of President Kennedy, is studying thousands of pages of testimony in preparation for his book on the tragedy. Titled Rush to Judgment, it will be published by Grove Press in the spring, and promises to contain many hitherto unrevealed ‘surprises.’”30
Kilgallen never mentioned what the “surprises” were. With the assassination file31 in hand as the winter months of 1964/65 turn to spring and summer, Kilgallen traveled to Europe. In Zurich, she told friends she was writing Murder One while resting to improve her health. When she returned to the U.S., husband Richard and Johnnie Ray were impressed with Kilgallen’s appearance. Ray stated, “She was plumper. Her color was higher.”
Back on the trail with only a few more months to live, Kilgallen searched for more clues about Jack Ruby’s ties to a conspiracy. When she saw Mark Lane, Kilgallen told him she was going to visit Dallas again adding, “I expect I am going to learn a lot this time.”
In mid-June, Bob Bach booked Kilgallen on ABC’s Nightlife program. She expected to talk about the JFK assassination. In anticipation, she carried with her the hefty investigation file. To her displeasure, moments before Kilgallen went on the air, a producer warned her not to discuss the JFK assassination: it was “too controversial.” She argued that it was the only reason she had agreed to be a guest.
The next day, Kilgallen learned of a Texas hearing considering Jack Ruby’s sanity scheduled as part of the appeal process. Ruby told a Federal court judge, “I never had any defense…I never had any defense.”
On September 3, 1965, Kilgallen, three months before her death, published her final column about the JFK and Oswald assassinations. She wrote, “Those close to the scene realize that if the widow of Lee Harvey Oswald (now married to another chap) ever gave out the ‘whole story’ of her life with President Kennedy’s alleged assassin, it would split open the front pages of newspapers all over the world.”
Most importantly, Kilgallen sent a clear signal to anyone fearing her continuing investigation. She wrote, “This story is not going to die as long as there’s a real reporter alive—and there are a lot of them.” She did not identify who they might be. Perhaps this was a call for help. Perhaps some reporter would aid her cause. It did not happen.
As September appeared, Kilgallen spent time at Barbara Walter’s father Lou’s Latin Quarter nightclub located at Broadway and West 47th Street. Always wary of those who might spread rumors about her blurring the boundary between her job as an entertainment columnist and personal friendships, she apparently watched Johnnie Ray perform from backstage.
In October 1965, New York City was hit with a newspaper strike. Kilgallen appeared on the popular WPIX radio program Hot Line! hosted b
y noted author Gore Vidal. It featured Kilgallen and revered television producer and talk show host David Susskind. Social issues were the subject with mention of the JFK assassination prohibited.
Shortly thereafter, Kilgallen traveled to New Orleans. Her hairdresser Marc Sinclaire,32 prominent in New York Society circles to the extent of having his own press agent, described in a videotaped interview the bizarre set of circumstances regarding the visit: “She didn’t tell me why we were going. She just asked me if I could go with her, and I said ‘yes.’ She told me how I was to travel, where I was to go, what I was to do. And I’d never been to New Orleans before, so I didn’t know anything about it.” (Selected excerpts from Sinclaire video and audiotaped interviews may be viewed at TheReporterWhoKnewTooMuch.com)
Marc Sinclaire, Dorothy Kilgallen’s hairdresser and close confidant.
Concerning the overall plans, Sinclaire added, “We didn’t even travel on the same plane together. I went directly to my hotel, we talked [on the phone], and then I went over to her hotel and had dinner and then I went back to mine.” Sinclaire then said, “And the next morning, I was supposed to do her hair and make-up and she called me at my hotel and she said, ‘I want you to go to the airport, I’ve left a ticket for you, and I want you to go back to New York, and never tell anyone you came to New Orleans with me.’ And I said ‘okay’ and I left.” Summing up, Sinclaire added, “I knew enough not to ask any more. There were certain things where she drew a blank wall and she didn’t want me to know any more about it.”
In another videotaped interview, Sinclaire told a similar story, “[Six weeks before she died], she [Kilgallen] went down [to New Orleans] on a plane and I went down on another at the same time. And I stayed at a different hotel than she did. We were going to have dinner that evening and I’d done her hair …She called me and she said, ‘I want you to leave immediately. I don’t want you to tell anyone you were ever here with me. I don’t want anyone to know you were ever here with me. And don’t ask me any more questions’ and I got on the plane and flew back to New York.” He added, “I was upset. I didn’t know why she was sending me away. And she didn’t tell me until she got back.” Asked what he learned, Sinclair said, “I did know from Dorothy finally that there was a conspiracy [to kill JFK]. That it was a group of people, not one. She told me.”
Sinclaire added another strange element to the trip. Asked if he later viewed a New York City newspaper photograph of Kilgallen standing beside two men in New Orleans, he said, “Yes” and agreed that the newspaper was probably the Daily Mirror, a tabloid in circulation since the major New York City newspaper workers were on strike. Sinclaire then said he didn’t know who the two men were and never saw the photograph again. “It was a small photograph,” he said, “and she had on a suit and she was very well-done and I looked at it because she was in it and [the caption] said, ‘Dorothy Kilgallen in New Orleans.’” Asked his reaction, Sinclaire said, “I find it strange that she would be photographed in New Orleans especially after what she told me to leave and I find it strange that she was photographed at all—I don’t think she wanted to be photographed…I’m not sure now that I think about it, I’m not sure that photograph was posed for. I think it was caught.”
Recalling once again the New Orleans trip in an audiotaped interview, Sinclaire said, “I don’t know who she was meeting [in New Orleans]. She didn’t tell me much about that meeting, period, never did. And I knew enough not to ask anymore. There were certain things where she drew a blank wall; she just didn’t want me to know anymore about it. Maybe she was frightened at that point.”
A month later, as the day of her death neared, Kilgallen planned another trip to New Orleans. What’s My Line? make-up man Carmen Gebbia noted Kilgallen’s excitement and asked “Is it Kennedy?” She replied, “Yes, and it’s very cloak and daggerish. I’m gonna meet a source whom I do not know but will recognize who is going to give me information about the case.” In a videotaped interview with her second hairdresser Charles Simpson, he said Kilgallen told him…I used to share things with you…but after I have found out now what I know, if the wrong people knew what I know, it would cost me my life.”
Curiously, on November 4, 1965, four days before Kilgallen died, an Associated Press article appeared regarding an important development in Jack Ruby’s case. A portion read, “[Dallas] District Attorney Henry Wade said today his office is willing to recommend that Jack Ruby’s death sentence be reduced to life imprisonment.” Among Wade’s comments were, “There is an advantage to keeping Ruby alive for interviews and historical purposes. There are still a lot of unanswered questions.” Wade did not elaborate and no follow-up article appeared. Ruby’s sentence was never commuted to life imprisonment.
On Saturday, November 6, two days before she died, Marc Sinclaire spoke with the famed columnist. He recalled, “We talked for about an hour. Her life had been threatened.”
During the early evening hours of the 7th, Kilgallen readied herself for her final What’s My Line? program (www.youtube.comwatch?v=6gn6jS1UK78). When the program ended at 11:00 p.m., Kilgallen and Bob Bach sped by limousine to P. J. Clarke’s for a nightcap. She ordered her drink of choice, vodka and tonic. The table where the two sat was located near the rear exit. As midnight neared toward the day of her death, Kilgallen told Bach she had a “late date.” They parted when he walked her to her limousine.
An hour later, Kilgallen entered the nearby Regency Hotel bar. She sat in a booth near the back. Kurt Maier, the piano player, recalled her still being in the bar at 2:00 a.m. Kilgallen was, he said, joined by a man.
Hours later, Dorothy Kilgallen, “the most powerful female voice in America,” was found dead, at age 52, lying in a bed at her East 68th Street townhouse. Her JFK assassination file was missing. It disappeared, and has never been recovered.
30 Mark Lane’s book, Rush to Judgment, was released in 1966 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
31 Kilgallen friend Jean Bach said of the file, “We wondered about the folder she had. She brought it to the What’s My Line? dressing room and said, “here’s all the stuff I’ve learned. I’m working on it and nobody can have a look at it.”
32 Sinclaire’s name often appeared in the NYC newspapers. Besides Kilgallen, he did the hair of Phyllis Cerf and when they visited the U.S., Princess Margaret and her husband, Anthony Armstrong Jones, the Earl of Snowden. Kilgallen mentioned Sinclaire in her “Voice of Broadway” column, writing, “The newest coiffure rage in Paris is ‘the Maure’—a more elaborate and sophisticated version of the ponytail. New York hairdresser Marc Sinclaire has been doing it for months only he calls it ‘the Tom Jones’ in tribute to the hairdos worn by lovelies in the English film of that name.” In the videotaped interview, Sinclaire notes that European hairstylists were copying his creation during “the year of the hairdresser.” During that year, he said, “We were almost celebrities in our own right.”
CHAPTER 19
The Journal-American published news of Dorothy Kilgallen’s death in its late afternoon edition of Monday, November 8, 1965. The short article stated, “Jim Kilgallen said his daughter apparently suffered a heart attack, her first.”
Kilgallen’s final “Voice of Broadway” column appeared on its usual page. A side note indicated she wrote it, “early in the morning.” The Hearst syndicate repeated the news in small towns and large city publications across the country. Readers reacted with anguish over news of Kilgallen’s death. The accomplished woman whose words had been woven into America’s fabric, who had touched people’s way of life on a daily basis for years on end would do so no more, struck down as she was in the prime of life.
Tributes to Kilgallen pored across the newswires. Louis Sobel, after opening his column with “Shocking, Shocking, Shocking—the Sudden death of Dorothy Kilgallen,” wrote in the Journal-American:
Dorothy Mae Kilgallen was a newspaper woman considered so eminent in her field t
hat her untimely death at 52 tugged Page One coverage from most of the country’s newspapers and two-column obituary in the conservative New York Times.…Indeed, few newswomen have received as much attention in their lifetime from national news magazines—such as Time and Newsweek—as did this slender but aggressive girl reporter.
Writing for the Hearst Headline Service, noted columnist Bob Considine said:
It seems to me that when a reporter dies, all of us are reduced.…I saw more of Dorothy Kilgallen in her role of reporter than in her role as a historian of New York night life. To me, she was one of the finest reporters I ever knew. On a straight, going-away, give-and-take news story, Dorothy could give the ablest man reporter one hell of a contest. She had a keen ear for the fumbled testimony dropping from the lips of a witness, a murderer or a supplicant. No one should ever underestimate the value of a keen ear. Keen ears have passed down every truth by which we live. She had the keenest.
Because of her television fame, her good clothes, the fact that she sometimes arrived at an assignment in a limousine, some of her contemporaries thought of her as a dilettante. She was not. She was a reporter.
A reporter who became a part of every story that she ever covered. She was as interested in the accused in a trial as she was in the prosecution and the judge and gave them equal time and attention. She did enormous favors for reporters of lesser renown and means that she worked with. She came from the ablest newspaper stock possible, Jimmy Kilgallen, and she did him proud.