The Reporter Who Knew Too Much

by Mark Shaw

  Adding proof to the strong friendship with Costello, Sinclaire stated, “He gave her a diamond cross and she said, ‘I can’t wear [it] since it is so huge’ and so we broke it up and made it into earrings. She wore them a lot.”

  To understand how dangerous a man Costello was, singer Paul Anka, who knew the mobster from performing at New York City’s Copacabana, wrote of him, “He was something: very tough-looking guy, heavy-set, bulldoggish face with greased-back hair and a big cigar…he was the epitome of that whole Mafia thing. Everyone was scared shitless of him.”

  Why Costello, who made billions for the mob before he retired after being shot in 1957, was a friend of Kilgallen’s is a mystery. No information is available clarifying why the friendship existed and exactly when it started. Regardless, Kilgallen must have known of Costello’s lofty Mafia affiliation. She either disregarded it or, to give her the benefit of the doubt, used the relationship to discover information for her column or articles no other source could provide.

  For a woman of such high ethical standards, associating with the Mafia Don to the extent of inviting him into her circle of close friends is puzzling. Nevertheless, the friendship existed. Inspecting how it may have affected her death provides some clarity as to why she died, and how.

  * * * * *

  There certainly was some fascination, some glamour, attached to Mafia figures, including Costello, during Kilgallen’s era. In Five Families, author Selwyn Raab wrote, “Judges, important politicians, congressman, authors, and New York society and café figures had no qualms about attending soirees that Frank Costello frequently hosted in his penthouse at the Majestic Apartments overlooking Central Park. Tastefully decorated in art deco style, the only ostentatious notes in the apartment were a gold-plated piano and several slot machines.”

  Noted author Nick Pileggi told this author that gangsters like Costello were called “sportsmen” or simply “gamblers” notwithstanding their underworld connections. That makes it easy to disregard how dangerous a man Costello really was. This was especially true after he seized control of the lethal Charles “Lucky” Luciano crime family in New York City. That family was involved in robbery, theft, gambling and murder.

  Costello’s power (he commanded 300 soldiers) extended to New Orleans where Carlos Marcello ruled. During the 1940s, Kilgallen’s friend Costello expanded his illegal slot machine empire to New Orleans after, Pileggi said, “New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia banned slots from the city.” All the while, Costello continued to be involved in illegal gambling in Florida and Cuba with notorious crime boss Meyer Lansky. Costello also shared illicit revenues from illegal race wires with Bugsy Siegel in Los Angeles. After he was murdered, Costello’s partner was Melvin Belli’s client Mickey Cohen.98

  Costello, a handsome, dashing figure who boasted of bootlegging with Joseph P. Kennedy, had the nickname “The Prime Minister.” This was due to his acumen for “fixing” disagreements between the underworld crime families. He enjoyed more political influence with judges and politicians than any other mobster in the country while paying off police to ignore his gambling operations.

  Ralph F. Salerno, a New York detective during that era and an expert on organized crime, said of Costello, “A lot of politicians and judges owed their elections and positions to him.” Including NYC Judge Thomas Aurelio. Recall that he had faced disbarment charges due to his “friendship” with Costello, his promise to fix cases in return for the mobster’s support.

  Costello was smart enough to portray a legitimate side. He had his fingers in a poultry company and a chain of “MeatMarts.” According to sources, the Mafia Don was a silent partner in the popular Copacabana nightclub Kilgallen frequented. Another source declared that Costello actually was “the owner” of the Copa while using his friend Jack Entratter as the “front.”

  NYC Mafia Don Frank “The Prime Minister” Costello.

  Splitting hairs over what relationship Kilgallen had with Mickey Cohen’s partner and Carlos Marcello’s mentor Frank Costello is not as important as is the fact that she obviously knew him and he knew her. It is certainly plausible to believe that if Carlos Marcello and his band of thugs needed to orchestrate the death of the famous columnist, Costello, a Marcello loyalist who never hesitated to eliminate anyone threatening him or his friends, was the man to do it. He had access to vital information: where Kilgallen lived, her daily habits, and her close friends.

  Bottom line: logic dictates that if Marcello, or Hoover persuaded Costello that Kilgallen needed to be eliminated and her JFK assassination file confiscated and destroyed, Costello, Kilgallen’s friend or not, could have set it up.

  Critics of this scenario may argue that all of this was simply coincidence. They would say that Marcello’s friend Mickey Cohen’s lawyer Melvin Belli just happened to become Jack Ruby’s attorney, that Kilgallen and Belli just happened to become fast friends during the Ruby trial, and that Kilgallen just happened to be the only reporter who interviewed Jack Ruby during his trial. They would add that she just happened to be the one who exposed the Ruby Warren Commission report testimony before it was officially released, and that Kilgallen just happened to be the “only serious journalist,” to quote Mark Lane, still working on solving the JFK assassination.

  Skeptics may also argue that Kilgallen just happened to possess a thick file full of 18 months’ worth of credible evidence from reliable sources, and that she just happened to tell friends days before her death that her life was in danger and “she would crack the case wide open.” They’d argue that Kilgallen just happened to be a close friend of mobster Frank Costello, that she just happened to visit New Orleans with Marc Sinclaire within a month of her death where she scared him with comments about their safety, that Kilgallen just happened to be making plans to visit New Orleans which just happened to be Marcello’s backyard so as to confirm her having connected Marcello, Oswald and Ruby.

  These critics may also suggest that Costello just happened to be Marcello’s mentor and good friend, Costello just happened to be connected to Mickey Cohen and Frank Sinatra, Kilgallen’s mortal enemy as well as Mickey Cohen, Belli’s client, and that it just happened that the very same JFK assassination file disappeared forever. They would suggest that Belli just happened to tell his friend Dr. Martin Schorr shortly after he learned of Kilgallen’s death “They’ve killed Dorothy; now they would go after Ruby” to which Belli just happened to mention later to secretary Carol Lind upon learning of Ruby’s death, “Maybe they injected him with cancer cells.” Most revealing is that Kilgallen just happened to die within days or arguably, months, of cracking the JFK and Oswald assassination cases wide open.

  Either coincidence or reality exists with common sense pointing toward the latter. This conclusion, based on motive, makes sense due to the proven links between Kilgallen and Ruby, Kilgallen and Belli, Kilgallen and Costello, Ruby and Marcello, Ruby and Belli, Belli and Cohen, and Cohen to Marcello and Costello. Those who feared Kilgallen and her JFK assassination file knew what Kilgallen’s friend Marlon Swing knew, “[Kilgallen] was a very powerful woman—people don’t have any idea of the contacts and power she had…Dorothy had favors she could call in from people all over the world.”

  Kilgallen, in effect, advertised she was on the brink of solving the JFK and Oswald assassinations based, it seems clear, on the realization she had uncovered a true Mafia hit operation using the word “conspiracy” to describe it. Recall Marc Sinclaire’s comment, “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.” If Kilgallen told Sinclaire, and boasted to others, as mentioned, that she “was going to crack the case wide open,” she imprinted a bullseye on her back as a likely target by those threatened with exposure due to her JFK and Oswald assassinations investigation. Certainly Marc Sinclaire knew of the danger. When investigative reporter Kathryn Fauble’s associate told him those at Goodson-Todman productions,
producers of What’s My Line?, refused to discuss Kilgallen’s death, Sinclaire wasn’t surprised, stating in his videotaped interview, “You could wind up dead.”

  Maybe Kilgallen believed she was invincible. She was certain that because of her high-profile status, of her star power, that no one could touch her. In her syndicated column of December 15, 1976 entitled “The Kilgallen Mystery,” Kilgallen’s rival Liz Smith wrote that Kilgallen told Mark Lane, “I’m going to break this case.” When Lane asked her whether she was afraid, she said, “That’s all inconsequential. They killed the President of the United States. The government’s not prepared to tell us how it happened or who did it. And I’m going to do everything I can to find out what happened.”

  Wile she soft-pedaled threats, it seems clear that at some point as the tragic weekend in November approached, Kilgallen changed her mind. Recall that she had told Marc Sinclaire and Charles Simpson, “…after I have found out now what I know, if the wrong people knew what I know, it would cost me my life.”

  Kilgallen was right since the “wrong people” apparently did find out what she knew arguably from someone close to her, possibly a “plant” who leaked confidential information. Identifying the person who may have been responsible requires returning to the “wrong” bed in the “wrong” bedroom where Kilgallen was found wearing false eyelashes, a hairpiece and makeup she never wore to bed, to examine whether she was alone and or in the company of someone intending to harm her.

  94 Following the release of his book, Cry, Johnnie Ray’s biography, Whiteside reported being stalked regarding the information he wrote about Kilgallen. Ray would not divulge to this author the names of those who harassed him.

  95 That Kilgallen was featured in a ten-part series by the Post Daily Magazine only enhances the celebrity status she enjoyed at the time. Checking the Post’s articles in the 1960s reveals no indication any other public figure, let alone a woman, was given such widespread coverage.

  96 The Post writers apparently did not want to expose P.J. Clarke’s on 3rd Avenue and 55th Street as the bar. There is no question that it was the one they alluded to in the stories.

  97 Besides the friendship between Kilgallen and Costello, the Mafia Don enjoyed a relationship with J. Edgar Hoover. Reports, including one from respected columnist Westbrook Pegler, confirmed that Costello and Hoover met frequently in New York City’s Central Park where Costello gave the Director horse racing tips based on the races being fixed. The two men also frequented the Stork Club and one report from Hoover’s friend and presidential crony George Allen said that once Hoover and Costello met in a Waldorf barbershop with Hoover telling the gangster, “You stay out of my bailiwick and I’ll stay out of yours.” Whether Hoover could have made a deal with Costello to silence Kilgallen for both of their benefit, or for just Hoover’s, is possible, but no evidence currently exists pointing in that direction. If a deal was made, Hoover could have promised to turn a blind eye toward a criminal allegation against Marcello in return.

  98 Mickey Cohen was quoted in his FBI file as saying, “With respect to the notorious Frank Costello, Cohen says he considers Costello to be a ‘fine gentleman.’ He added, ‘Frank is a really beautiful and kind human being; really a good man.’” Another entry stated, “Costello was in LA for secret meetings with underworld figures including Mickey Cohen.”

  CHAPTER 30

  Based on hairdresser Marc Sinclaire’s eyewitness observations about Dorothy Kilgallen’s death scene, it is tempting to believe that someone with evil intentions had to be with her in the townhouse’s third floor Master bedroom. However, this does not necessarily have to be true. She could have been alone.

  Examining which theory makes more sense requires consideration of eyewitness accounts of Kilgallen’s time at the Regency Hotel bar. As noted, it was located just six blocks from her townhouse. The key is to focus on a “mystery man” she met during the wee hours of November 8, the day she died.

  Several people saw the “mystery man.” However, since Kilgallen sat in a dark corner booth with the man, descriptions are for the most part incomplete.

  Fortunately, a firsthand account is preserved on videotape by an associate of investigative reporter Kathryn Fauble. The eyewitness is Katherine Stone, a contestant on Kilgallen’s final What’s My Line? program.

  The attractive Stone, wearing a low-cut black dress and sporting a pixie haircut, attempted to stump the panel but Kilgallen was too sharp for her. After Tony Randall, Arlene Francis and Bennett Cerf were baffled, Kilgallen guessed that Stone’s occupation was selling dynamite. (www.youtube

  .com/watch?v=PSTgYIABk6w).

  Katherine Stone, a What’s My Line? contestant and one of the last people to see Kilgallen alive, points to the booth at the Regency Hotel Bar where Kilgallen was engaged in conversation with the “mystery man.”

  Stone, who resided in Madisonville, Kentucky, was asked to join the What’s My Line? staff at the Regency Hotel piano bar located on a lower level. She recalled in the 1999 videotaped interview that Kilgallen had left the television studio alone in a CBS limousine before Stone and her friends were transported to the Regency in another limousine.

  Commenting on what happened when she entered the cocktail lounge, Stone said, “When we walked in, there was this big beautiful, long baby grand piano, it was over there on the left, and then over to the right, way back in the corner was sort of like a curved booth.” Pointing to that area in a photograph, Stone said, “This is where [Dorothy] was, definitely in that corner, right there.” (Excerpts from Stone’s interview may be viewed at TheReporterWhoKnewTooMuch.com)

  Continuing, Stone added, “And the man was sitting right next to her and I mean close because they were talkin’ where they didn’t want anybody to hear or what, you know. I could see they both had a drink. There wasn’t any laughing, people jokin’, this and that and the other. They were talkin’ and the reason I know this is for the fact I kept an eye on her ‘cause I wanted to talk to her afterwards to tell her, you know, that I enjoyed being there, happy she guessed my line, so on and so forth. In other words, you wouldn’t have felt like going up there. I knew they were talking business, serious business of some kind. I had that feeling.”

  Stone admitted she was standing in a group with others and that these people “were enjoying their cocktails” but “I had my eye on Dorothy. I’d look over and what to see what was going on ‘cause I wanted to talk to her. So that’s the reason I was paying so much attention and I wasn’t having many cocktails, you know.”

  Stone believed Kilgallen was wearing the same clothes in the bar she wore on the WML? program “since she wouldn’t have had time to go home and change.” Stone said she was told the piano player was a favorite of Kilgallen’s stating, “she liked his playing but when he finished a song she never clapped. The way she was acting, it was strictly business with her that night; no giggling or laughing.”

  Asked during the interview if she could identify the man, Stone, unfamiliar with Kilgallen’s private life, said she did not know. However, she “had the impression he was younger than Kilgallen.”99

  Once the famous television star’s death was reported to be a drug overdose, Stone said, “people wanted to know if I thought she killed herself from drugs and pills and I told them I didn’t believe she overdosed. She was as sharp as could be on the program and looked normal at the cocktail lounge. I thought maybe this man might have done something to her, that he might have killed her.” Stone agreed that maybe “the man gave her something, got her out of there.”

  Asked by the interviewer if perhaps Kilgallen had been “slipped a Mickey Finn,” [drugging a drink to render someone senseless], Stone agreed, stating, “This could have happened.”100

  Press agent Harvey Daniels, whose clients included the Regency Hotel, corroborated Stone’s recollections of Kilgallen being with a man in the Regency Hotel bar at 1:00
a.m. He saw Kilgallen and said she was “bright, cheery and a little high.” When Daniels left a half hour later, he assumed Kilgallen was still sitting in the dark corner with the man. Apparently, Kurt Maier, the piano player in the bar also confirmed the presence of a man with Kilgallen. Neither Daniels nor Maier provided any description of the man.

  If a “Mickey Finn” was not the instrument of poison used to end Kilgallen’s life, then one must turn to the two barbiturates discovered by Dr. Luke (Seconal and Tuinal) and the three barbiturates that were discovered in her blood stream by Broich—Seconal, Nembutal, and Tuinal. These drugs may serve as guideposts for analyzing what caused Kilgallen’s death, and how administration of the drugs may have happened. A question also exists as to why Broich found traces of Nembutal on one of the glasses positioned on the nightstand by Kilgallen’s deathbed.

  The starting point is to examine the composition of the three drugs in more detail. Each is designated today as a Schedule II narcotic requiring a prescription. All three are barbiturates, among the most frequently employed of the hypnotic and sedative drugs used at the time.

  Secobarbital sodium, Seconal, also known as a “Redbirds,” “Reds,” and “Red Devils,” due to having been marketed in red capsules, is a white, odorless, hygroscopic powder. It possesses a bitter taste. The drug is very soluble in water and in alcohol. It is a “short-acting” barbiturate. This means the drug is activated within a person’s blood stream in 40 minutes or so dependent on one’s weight. Without doubt, the effects of Seconal, commonly known as sleeping pills are very safe if taken in the proper dosages. When alcohol is mixed with the drug, the Seconal is metabolized more quickly.