Dorothy Kilgallen

[Roy Wieselquist]

In her last days Dorothy was palling around with Joan Crawford, of Mommie Dearest and Pepsico infamy. JC really pushed herself onto DK at that time. That sure looks suspicious.

After DK wrote an article in 1957 about Frank Sinatra that was only slightly less than worshipful, His Mobster Majesty carried on a vendetta against her that only ended a few months before her death. The psychopathic anger of Old Brew Eyes is unappreciated; perhaps the press is still cowed. As an example having to do with our dear Jack: in a ridiculous fit of rage, FS took a sledgehammer to his fairly new helicopter pad when JFK had to end Frankie Snot's White House visits. And remember this bizarro-world event -- Frank, Jr. was "kidnapped" about two weeks after JFKA. The Mob was trying to divert some attention away from JFKA. Little Frankee loaned his "abductors" a few bucks for gas. What a phony put-up job that was. Frankie, Sr. and the Mob inured themselves to "offing" women (remember, Mafia PR holds that they only butcher the menfolk) when they murdered Marilyn Monroe 8/62 because she "mistreated" their hero Joltin Joe DiMaggio. They got away with it, and see what happens? They think they can get away with anything.

The importance of Margaret "Flo Pritchett" Smith cannot be overestimated. She was the only genuinely married woman JFK ever had an affair with. The wife of that East German officer doesn't count because everyone was running around with her; they were married in name only. Mary Pinchot Meyer was long-divorced from Cord, four or five years by the time MPM was trysting at the White House.

On a radio talk show a few years ago (2012 or 2013 I guess), I spoke with the author of a new DK biography. I can't find the book on the web now; maybe it was a minor publishing house. I can't remember her name or the title; twould take a while to find it in my notes. I'm pretty sure she wasn't Lee Israel. Anyway her book sounded tepid about Dorothy's murder. She didn't sound comfortable discussing Pataky, Crawford, or Sinatra as possible aids to Dorothy's demise. But she was sure as can be that DK believed JFKA was a massive right-wing plot and had quite a lot of evidence for that.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Roy Wieselquist

[Paul Brancato]

I think there is adequate evidence that Kilgallen was onto something and getting ready to break a story. The absence of any discovery of notes pertaining to her interview with Ruby after her death is for me enough proof that she was murdered.

[Myra Bronstein]

So... Does anyone know if Ron Pataky/Dr. A. Ron Pataky is still alive?

[Douglas Caddy]

http://nypost.com/2016/12/04/dorothy-kilgallens-tell-all-on-a-mafia-don-might-have-got-her-killed/

[Douglas Caddy]

https://stevenhager420.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/dorothy-kilgallen-is-a-key-to-the-jfk-assassination/

[Douglas Caddy]

Author's letter to Manhattan District Attorney:

http://www.thereporterwhoknewtoomuch.com/assets/docs/The-Reporter-Who-Knew-Too-Much-Manhattan-DA-Office -letter-Nov-27E.pdf

 

[David Andrews]

3 hours ago, Douglas Caddy said:

Author's letter to Manhattan District Attorney:

http://www.thereporterwhoknewtoomuch.com/assets/docs/The-Reporter-Who-Knew-Too-Much-Manhattan-DA-Office -letter-Nov-27E.pdf

 

I'm confused about Mark Shaw's last two bulleted points in his letter.  Shaw seems to claim that Pataky was her source for assassination info, to the point where she could hold that over his head.  Do people find this plausible?

If Pataky was a source on the assassination, is it probable that info was being fed to Kilgallen through him, by an intelligence service?  If she could threaten to expose him as a source, she may have been threatening greater than she knew.

Edited December 6, 2016 by David Andrews

[James DiEugenio]

That is a good point I think David.

I have not read the book, but it seems to owe a good deal to that fine Midwest Review article published a few years back. In fact, I do not think the Shaw book would exist if not for that article. If I recall correctly it was that article that first exposed Pataky as a person of interest.  I do not recall him from the Israel book.  In the first edition of Destiny Betrayed, I used that book and a Fort Worth Star Telegram article for my info on Kilgallen.  If I recall correctly neither mentioned Pataky, at least by name.

In that article, I do not think they said he was a source for info.

Edited December 7, 2016 by James DiEugenio

[Ron Ecker]

If someone was feeding Kilgallen assassination info through Pataky, I would guess it was someone with knowledge of the conspiracy who wanted to expose it. And for some reason picked Pataky as the conduit. It would be nice to know who that was.

 

 

[Micah Mileto]

Does anybody know if the new book is worth it? Does Mark Shaw make good stuff, besides the Bible woo-woo?

Edited December 7, 2016 by Micah Mileto

[James DiEugenio]

Again, not having read the book, what is the evidence for that Ron?

 

I don't recall it from the Midwest Review article.  Is my memory failing me?  Am I wrong?  Is that article still around?

 

Edited December 7, 2016 by James DiEugenio

[Ron Ecker]

5 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Again, not having read the book, what is the evidence for that Ron?

 

I was really just responding to David Andrews' suggestion in his above post:

"I'm confused about Mark Shaw's last two bulleted points in his letter.  Shaw seems to claim that Pataky was her source for assassination info, to the point where she could hold that over his head.  Do people find this plausible?

"If Pataky was a source on the assassination, is it probable that info was being fed to Kilgallen through him, by an intelligence service?  If she could threaten to expose him as a source, she may have been threatening greater than she knew."

 

 

 

[David Andrews]

19 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

That is a good point I think David.

I have not read the book, but it seems to owe a good deal to that fine Midwest Review article published a few years back. In fact, I do not think the Shaw book would exist if not for that article. If I recall correctly it was that article that first exposed Pataky as a person of interest.  I do not recall him from the Israel book.  In the first edition of Destiny Betrayed, I used that book and a Fort Worth Star Telegram article for my info on Kilgallen.  If I recall correctly neither mentioned Pataky, at least by name.

In that article, I do not think they said he was a source for info.

The Midwest Today article is also inconclusive as to whether Pataky was the "Mystery man" Kilgallen was seen with at the Regency Hotel lounge on the night of her death.  The sole recorded witness did not describe a younger man.  There are suppositions by her friends, and circumstantial evidence, that she was going to meet Pataky that night.

Link to article:

http://www.midtod.com/new/articles/7_14_07_Dorothy.html

This article suggests Kilgallen had been fed info before.  There's some good info and leads in this guy's work on other subjects (particularly the Lincoln assassination), but as a historian/journalist he's fast and very loose:

https://stevenhager420.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/dorothy-kilgallen-is-a-key-to-the-jfk-assassination/

Edited December 7, 2016 by David Andrews

[Paul Brancato]

I assumed that it was Ruby that supplied Kilgallen with the info that started her on the search.

[David Andrews]

34 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

I assumed that it was Ruby that supplied Kilgallen with the info that started her on the search.

Well, yes - but someone slipped her Ruby's Dallas WC testimony to Warren and Ford, which I think prompted her Ruby interview.  (Do I have the chronology right?)  Her advance copy of the testimony caused a major uproar. 

The Ruby interview itself is slippery - some say it was eight minutes privately in an jail interview room, some say it was eight minutes over the courtroom rail, with Joe Tonahill shooing rubberneckers away.  Tonahill's motives have been questioned before.

My point is, Shaw's letter (and book) seem to say that Pataky - a Midwest journalist, but with an entrée into higher circles - was feeding her info on Dallas, to the point that when some contretemps between them occurred, it became an "If I'm going down, you're going down first" situation.  So one needs to know how and what was communicated, where it came from, and who wanted it told.

The sad thing here is that if Kilgallen died for this, it may well be information that has since been discovered by committees and researchers, and was only big news when Kilgallen was the reporter who had it within a couple years of the crime.

Given Ruby's WC testimony, I'm surprised that the John Birch Society Did It faction isn't all over this... 

Edited December 7, 2016 by David Andrews