by Mark Shaw
Pataky was quite friendly. He pronounced himself in good health. He complained about the rising costs of health care but otherwise claimed life was pleasant. Point by point, he then answered questions displaying a sharp mind while not displaying too much emotion. That is, until this author pressed him on certain inconsistencies in the statements he had given since Kilgallen’s death. Then Pataky appeared to lecture, to become defensive while attempting to ingratiate himself with cute quips. They included, “you sound like a nice guy” revealing a charming manner that seemed a bit excessive.116 117
Questioned about where he met Kilgallen in 1964, Pataky insisted it was in Salzburg, Austria during the 20th Century Fox press junket for three films. Instead of elaborating, he quickly added, “I never read Kilgallen [Lee Israel’s book]; Israel was such a fool” and “a real piece of work.” Pataky said people had told him “bits and pieces” about the book. This statement conflicts with a previous Pataky audiotaped interview where he mentioned, “what Israel said” in her book impossible unless he had read at least parts of the book.
His voice increasing in volume, Pataky then chastised those who believed he had something to do with the killing of Kilgallen as “Fools. someone with a ‘Bigfoot’ mentality.” Pataky emphasized, “I am telling you the truth about what I’ve said.”
Pataky called Kilgallen a “wonderful, wonderful friend,” and said, “We talked nearly every day.” He added that Kilgallen wanted more of a romantic relationship. However, he said, “This was about the time I got engaged to Anna Maria Alberghetti. I’d drop Dorothy off and go to P. J. Clarke’s or the Plaza and she’d ask, ‘can I go with you?’ and I’d say ‘no,’ you’ve got to do a column and it’s one o’clock in the morning.”
The former Columbus newspaperman acknowledged, “Kilgallen liked to write romantic-sounding things, little notes,” but “I stayed away from that.” He then said Lee Israel interviewed him at his Ohio home and that she appeared “angry.” He stated he felt Israel “was a dyke who had a crush on Kilgallen.” Pataky said Israel, whom he called “mentally-shorthanded” in another audiotaped interview, seemed surprised “that a Midwesterner like me would be so close to [Dorothy].”
When asked whether he could understand why people might suspect that he was involved in Kilgallen’s death, Pataky replied boldly, “WHY DO I GIVE A DAMN? [These people] need to get a life.” Regarding Marc Sinclaire, Pataky said, “He was a pain in the ass.” Asked why he believed this true, he answered, “Dorothy told me. He had every fault in the world for a hairdresser.”
Pataky, informed that Sinclaire stated Kilgallen had shared with him the romantic nature of the relationship, commented, “Dorothy would never; Dorothy would never have said that. Mark Sinclaire is a hairdresser. I rest my case.”
Asked if Kilgallen had confided in him about the JFK assassination, Pataky first admitted meeting Melvin Belli with Kilgallen “a couple of times in New York City.” He then acknowledged that she did confide in him, stating, “Sure, we worked on it. I think she was probably 50% researched on that. She was getting close, I can tell you…if you have 50% of your project finished, it’s all downhill from there. The other 50% is filling in the blanks, you know.”
Asked how he learned of Kilgallen’s death on November 8, 1965, Pataky insisted, “Stories that have been published have varied. I don’t have any use for gossip. And I became a center of gossip. Never did like gossips.”
Departing from his calm demeanor, Pataky’s voice level elevated when confronted with stories his mother Daisy in Columbus had told him about Kilgallen’s death. Raising his voice, he told this author, “THAT’S THE STUPIDEST THING I EVER HEARD OF. WHY WOULD I EVER SAY ANYTHING AS OUTRAGEOUSLY UNTRUE AS THAT?”
In a departure from when the true time of Kilgallen’s death was announced, mid-to-late afternoon of November 8, Pataky said he had heard about it “earlier in the day,” impossible since no announcement was made then. He said his mother called later. “It was a terrible event for her as well,” he said, “Dorothy had bought her gifts, small gifts, and we’d gone out to eat…[Mom] was very upset.”
Pataky complained about “half truths” that had been spoken through the years. Asked about Jane Horricks, the newspaper fashion editor, he confirmed that he shared a “glass cubicle” with her and a “third person named Ben Hayes, a columnist.” Pataky said he was alone in the office space since Hayes and Horricks had not arrived yet “that morning.” He added, “one of the copy kids came in and said, ‘Ron, is Dorothy Kilgallen dead?’ I said, ‘no,’ and about ten minutes later it came over the wire.”
After discounting “what has been said about me,” Pataky told this author, “I’m a very easy going guy. My nickname for 25 years was ‘The Happy Hungarian.’ I’m a very laid back guy. People asked, ‘Don’t you ever stop smiling?’”
Pataky was asked whether he was the “late date” Bob Bach believed Kilgallen had at the Regency Hotel bar a few hours before her death. Pataky emphasized, “I wasn’t there. I don’t have the luxury of knowing what he thought. You follow me?” He then added, “As well as I knew Dorothy and keep in mind, I knew her better and more intimately, without sex, than anyone we are discussing, and I can’t conceive of her even trying to give that impression [of me being the late date] although she did write little cute notes all the time that would lead anyone who read them to think something was going on. But that’s just the way she was; she was flirtatious in a non-sexual way.”
Queried about whether he had ever been in Kilgallen’s townhouse, Pataky said, “No, it was not my place to go there. I’d drop her off in a cab and she’d go right in the street level entrance.” He asserted that he “had no part of the [New York City] social life. I was single all those years and there were a lot of women, you know. [One time], producer Joe Levine called and said, ‘I’m giving a banquet at the Four Seasons in your honor. You are my new Jesus.” Pataky then laughed before adding, “The New York crowd was fine. Some of them were nice people but I’m just not a society person.”
Questioned about a nasty column he wrote about New Yorkers shortly after Kilgallen died, Pataky said, “Keep in mind, I was very hurt by [Dorothy’s] death. I was destroyed by it.” He then panned the so-called “sophisticated New York audience.” He alleged, “Eighty percent of them are from Dubuque [Iowa].”
When asked about Mafia Don Sam Giancana, Pataky replied, “I met him. He came to Columbus, Ohio to hear [girlfriend] Phyllis [McGuire] sing one night. I almost put my head in a noose. I was bird-dogging her. She was willing to play, you know. Dorothy got into the picture. But there was no romance between Phyllis and myself as it turned out.”118
Made aware of toxicology reports about the extent of the drugs in Kilgallen’s system by John Broich, and Drs. Baden and Hoffman after she died, Pataky emphatically denounced such analysis. He stated, “Number one, I’ve never heard about that until right now. Number two, I don’t believe one word of it. I have seen the truth run down, turned over and broken by fools. [You] shouldn’t follow the words of these fools.” Asked if Dorothy could have been the victim of foul play, he added, “No, I don’t believe there was foul play at all. I do not know if she took those pills. My first awareness of anything medical was that the doctors had found enough of this or that but not enough to kill her. But mixed with alcohol it could have stopped her heart.”
In a separate audiotaped interview, Pataky had provided a somewhat different explanation for Kilgallen’s death. After explaining that to believe anything Lee Israel had written was to believe that “police were crooked or stupid, the New York medical examiner’s office was either crooked or stupid, Dorothy’s own newspaper was either crooked or stupid, and that Kilgallen’s TV production company was either crooked or stupid,” Pataky provided his own insight. He said, “As a cold-hard fact, I would have to assume she committed suicide. I think that’s a fair assumption. Oh, no, I don’t mean committed suicide. I was thinking of othe
r than murder. My strongest inclination is that if I think about it at all, is that she OD’d. Took a little too many pills. Just a little too much whiskey…she was small…it would not take a lot to just quiet her down to where [her heart] stopped.”
Asked whether Pataky’s comments were “strange,” Marc Sinclaire, in his videotaped interview, answered, “Strange, but understandable…Accident, maybe, but it doesn’t look like an accident (drug overdose). The thing he mentions about the corrupt police department, well, from my own experience, let me give it to you this way. They didn’t report Dorothy’s death until the afternoon. Then they said her body was discovered around noon. How is that so when I’m at the house between 8:30 a.m. and nine? How is that so?”
Continuing his interview with this author, Pataky then mentioned with no question being asked, “I was a policeman for six years and I’m very careful about things that are written. Like a source said this and that.” Pataky then returned to the subject of whether he met Kilgallen at the Regency Hotel bar during the early hours before her death. “What does ‘I had a feeling’ mean?’” he asked referring to Bob Bach’s being “under the impression” that Kilgallen was going to meet Pataky. He then said, “Put yourself in my shoes. I was in Columbus, Ohio, dozens of people knew it; it was a newspaper office for Christ’s sake. When I read that Marc Sinclaire said something, if he said it, and I know it not to be true, I get angry.”
Asked whether New York City police contacted him after Kilgallen’s death, Pataky replied, “I had calls from New York. So did a few other people at the paper. The obviousness of it all was that they said, ‘[Ron] was in Columbus. Are you crazy?’”
Regarding his not attending Kilgallen’s funeral, Pataky said, “I could not have gone; no, I couldn’t have gone. The most important thing in my life had been removed.” He added:
Keep in mind. We spoke nearly every day. And at length. I helped her with many projects and she helped me. She’d call and say “Let me read something to you.” [One was] the lead to the Jack Ruby story. And she said, “I don’t like [the lead] very well. What do you think?” And I said, well, it’s a little dry. Why don’t you try to make it a little mysterious? [Like] two unidentified men sat in a nightclub talking in hushed tones. She had told me this is what happened, part of the [Jack Ruby story]. One was Jack Ruby talking in a nightclub but she didn’t make it sinister enough given the nature of the story. I just rattled that off and she said, “let me get that down.”
When asked about how Kilgallen felt about Jack Ruby, whether she got “angry” when speaking about him, Pataky ignored the question. He said, “[We] had a warm and wonderful relationship. Easily the best friend I have ever had.” Confronted with the allegation that he had had a violent altercation with Anna Maria Alberghetti, Pataky denied it asking, “Where was this alleged to have happened?…There was never, ever a problem there.” He did acknowledge the incident with NFL football player Ron Otis in Columbus stating, “Oh, yeah, that happened. It was a twenty-five dollar fine [by the court].”
Asked once again if the New York City authorities had contacted him, Pataky said loudly, “They talked to me…to some other people to confirm that I was in Columbus and I WAS. EVERYONE KNEW IT.” Pataky also confirmed again that he talked to Kilgallen nearly every day. When confronted again with his being at the Regency Hotel bar with her during the early morning hours of November 8, he stated, “I don’t care what people say. Let’s deal with fact. [And] I’m not sure that there was a guy [with her.]” When told that several other people had seen the man, he said, “She went from P.J. Clarke’s to the Regency? Are you convinced of that? Let me give you an old man’s wisdom. Some people say things like that to get themselves into the limelight.”
Pataky, called by Kilgallen’s friend, record producer Dee Anthony, “a smooth talking guy,” admitted he had been to the Regency Hotel bar “more than twenty times” with Kilgallen. “I’d always said ‘hi’ to the bartender,” he explained, “[I’d have thought] someone would talk to him. He’s sort of the hairdresser of the booze business. They know everything.”
116 On the day after the October 22, 2014 interview, Mr. Pataky called this author. It was clear that he had researched my background and credentials. He alluded to people I had written about whom he knew from his newspaper days. He was quite friendly and promised to send me a book he thought I would enjoy. He also provided me with his Website address (nembula-series.us). It references “Ron Pataky’s Internationally-Acclaimed Photographic Art Form.” Mr. Pataky asked if I knew that his artwork had been praised by many celebrities including four ex-presidents. Among the celebrities mentioned are Sir Laurence Oliver, Vincent Price, George Lucas, John Glenn, and Diane Feinstein.
117 On October 27, this author sent Pataky an email through the address Pataky had provided. Several follow-up questions were asked including how the police knew how to contact him, if they did, following Kilgallen’s death and why they wanted to talk to others at the newspaper as to whether he was in the office on the morning of Nov. 9, 1965. Pataky was also asked to comment on another poem displayed on the internet that was attributed to him that appeared to be directly connected to Kilgallen. Pataky did not respond to that email. On November 5, 2014, a copy of Pataky’s self-published book, Behold: The Funniest Funnies Ever, arrived at my San Francisco office. He also sent a copy of a brochure promoting “The Nebula Series Photographs: An American Art Form.”
118 In late February 2016, this author corresponded with Phyllis McGuire through respective letters. Ms. McGuire was cordial but did not answer questions regarding any relationship with Ron Pataky, the encounter where he and Sam Giancana met in Ohio or her quote in Vanity Fair regarding facts she knew about Kilgallen’s death.
CHAPTER 34
Considering Ron Pataky’s statements during the several interviews provided through the years points to less than candid responses about important facts regarding his relationship with Kilgallen and her death. Kilgallen’s hairdresser Marc Sinclaire certainly suspected Pataky of being involved in the hairdresser’s death stating during his videotaped interview, “Yes, I think Pataky knows [who killed Kilgallen] I don’t think he did the actual work, but whoever his employers were did [kill her].”
Ron Pataky in late 2005.
Sinclaire’s suspicions as to Pataky’s culpability in Kilgallen’s death ring true when considering the newspaperman’s behavior after she died. In addition to not attending the funeral for a woman he called “his best friend” who had been “removed” from his life without specifying who “removed” her, just five days after that funeral on Thursday, November 11, 1965, instead of mourning her loss or having attended the funeral, Pataky was partying in New York City. The proof comes from nationally syndicated columnist Earl Wilson’s November 17 column. It detailed actress Mia Farrow’s appearance a day earlier, the 16th, at Arthur, a new nightclub in NYC owned by Richard Burton’s former wife Sybil. She was there to watch a CBS documentary featuring Frank Sinatra. Earlier, Kilgallen had reported the budding romance between Farrow and Sinatra.
Wilson wrote, “Mia proceeded to Arthur with Sheila MacRae, Jack Carter, Jack E. Leonard, drama critic Ron Petaky [sic], [and] her mother Maureen O’Sullivan, and broke out and danced.” This meant Pataky, while he deliberately avoided attending the funeral of the “most important person in my life,” was in New York City days after Kilgallen’s death and funeral enjoying the New York City nightlife.
In addition, despite calling Kilgallen his “best friend,” one whom he admitted talking to on a constant basis, and seeing frequently when he was in New York City, the one with whom he had traveled abroad with, the one who confided in him during her JFK assassination investigation, and the one whom he invited to visit him in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio to the extent of meeting his mother, Pataky never wrote a “tribute” column about Kilgallen. In fact, he never wrote any column about her shortly after she died or anytime
in the future.
Curiously, instead of doing so, he landed in New York City in party mode and then, instead of basking in the glow of the evening he spent with stars abounding all around him, and relishing mention of Wilson’s prestigious column, Ron Pataky wrote a seething column entitled “Arthur – (Heaven Help Us) – Another ‘In’ Dump of Dumps.” The Columbus Citizen-
Journal published it on the 17th, the same date Wilson’s column ran nationally.
In the column, Pataky called Arthur a place where “real New York mingles with unshaven, unkempt girls and their frowzy-haired dates.” He said the bar was “a dump” where “you can find stars (there to be seen), columnists (there to see), and the scum of the city (there to say they’ve been there).” He then attacked patrons calling them “cancer this decade calls culture,” while adding, “In truth, New York audiences are the stupidest collection of dull clods ever to set foot in a club or theater.” He ended the article by criticizing “BIG people” who lure “idiotic phonies” to places like Arthur’s.
One may only speculate on why Pataky visited New York City shortly after Kilgallen’s death, but the viciousness of his column points to continuing disdain for New Yorkers, and “BIG people” columnists like Kilgallen. Not only had Pataky avoided writing a column about Kilgallen and her remarkable life, but instead chose to write the scathing column. Instead of displaying feelings of sorrow about the loss, he struck back at her and her kind, the “BIG people,” many of whom had syndicated columns, a stature he never achieved.
Pataky’s inconsistent statements and ones conflicting with uncontroverted evidence to the contrary indicate he may know more about Kilgallen’s death than he is willing to admit. But it is two poems Pataky wrote in his own hand many years after Kilgallen died that appear to signal his complicity since each points to the words being about Kilgallen and certain matters involving her death.