Although Kilgallen's reactions to the Warren Commission report remain accessible, her theory about who shot the president will never be known. She allegedly told friends and her lawyer, but not her newspaper readers, that she soon was going to reveal important new information on the murder of JFK. Possibly as a result of what Kilgallen learned from Ruby, she became a vocal critic of the Warren Commission investigation of the president's assassination. It lasted approximately eight minutes, according to Joe Tonahill. It occurred inside a small office behind the judge's bench out of earshot of the deputy sheriffs who were guarding Ruby and out of earshot of his lawyers and everyone else in the courthouse. (The newspaper was owned by the Hearst Corporation.) She never published anything from or even acknowledged (to her readers) her second conversation with Ruby. It resulted in the headline "Nervous Ruby Feels Breaking Point Near" in the New York Journal-American. Kilgallen's first conversation with Ruby after his arrest occurred while he sat at the defense table during a recess. Tonahill and other lawyers including Melvin Belli were busy trying to save Ruby from the electric chair and had no time to investigate that. One of Ruby's lawyers, Joe Tonahill, said years later that in the courtroom Kilgallen and Ruby made eye contact with each other in a way that suggested they may have met before his arrest. She secured two exclusive interviews with the defendant, who was being tried for the murder of alleged John F. #LEROY SANITARIUM TRIAL#Several months earlier, Kilgallen had visited Dallas, Texas to cover the murder trial of Jack Ruby. Kilgallen, who was among the guests, had her first conversation with the wrongly convicted Sheppard. Upon Sheppard's release from the penitentiary that was then located in Columbus, Ohio in July 1964, Bailey helped arrange for a "late-night champagne party" in Cleveland, according to a book the lawyer published in 1971. Lee Bailey secure a new trial for Sheppard. #LEROY SANITARIUM SERIES#Her knowledge of the judge's misconduct during the 1954 murder trial of Samuel Sheppard (his case was the basis for the TV series The Fugitive (1963)) helped F. Kilgallen's newspaper work consisted of much more than her "gossipy" syndicated Broadway column. Eventually, Kilgallen and Ray drank heavily together in public, a problem that may or may not have affected her performance on What's My Line? and her functioning with a typewriter. Kilgallen's relationship with singer Johnnie Ray started out as fun and secretive but later became disastrous when she competed with Ray's male lovers for his attention. Either they loved her and rooted for her or hated her and enjoyed watching another participant outsmart her. Game show viewers (Kilgallen was seen playing other games besides What's My Line?) seemed to have strong feelings about her. NBC News B-roll footage of Kilgallen's February 1964 visit to Dallas, Texas shows, however, that she was delighted when autograph seekers gathered around her. It allegedly bothered her that she was never as popular with the show's viewers as were her fellow panelists, especially Arlene Francis. She took the game more seriously than her more lighthearted colleagues did. Millions of Americans came to know and admire Kilgallen through the TV quiz show What's My Line? (1950). Their arrangement allowed both to carry on affairs as long as they did so outside of the expensive five-story neo-Georgian brownstone on Manhattan's East 68th Street that they both loved to decorate and furnish. Starting in 1945, Kilgallen and husband Richard Kollmar hosted a long-running early morning radio talk show called "Breakfast With Dorothy and Dick." Although the couple had two children who sometimes joined them talking on the radio, Dorothy and Dick "lived an early version of an open marriage," according to a biographer. In 1938, Kilgallen become a powerful and influential Broadway columnist. #LEROY SANITARIUM MOVIE#The book became the basis of the movie Fly Away Baby (1937). Her fame (she was the only woman) and her subsequent book about the race, "Girl Around the World," established her as a presence in the journalism profession. Kilgallen finished second out of the three newspaper reporters who participated in the race. She followed her father into the newspaper business and made her early reputation as a crime reporter (a novelty for women in those days) and for her participation in an around-the-world race using transportation that was available at the time (1936) to ordinary people, not aviators. Dorothy Kilgallen was the daughter of James Kilgallen, a colorful and popular newspaperman with the Hearst Corporation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |