The Latest on Kilgallen

[James DiEugenio]

By the woman who started the whole ruckus many years ago.

https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/incredible-life-and-mysterious-death-of-dorothy-kilgallen-1503

[Benjamin Cole]

9 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

By the woman who started the whole ruckus many years ago.

https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/incredible-life-and-mysterious-death-of-dorothy-kilgallen-1503

Excellent review by JD.

So, Kilgallen's Ruby/JFKA manuscripts disappear, the way the Enyart photos of the RFK1A disappear. 

BTW, oldies know that back then reporters collected paper notes in large manilla folders, sometimes accordion-style folders. 

How could a large clump of papers disappear? 

 

 

 

[Allen Lowe]

9 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

By the woman who started the whole ruckus many years ago.

https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/incredible-life-and-mysterious-death-of-dorothy-kilgallen-1503

Jim, I am currently about two-thirds through the book, which I find fascinating and frustrating. As you point out she accepts the body-alteration theories and the myth about the Kennedy brothers being intimately involved in the plots against Castro. IIRC she also buys into all the Marilyn Monroe b.s.; which is a pity as there is so much valuable info here - all hurt by the fact that she has literally no footnotes, so it's a bit of a struggle trying to match everything she says against the records. Still, it's a very valuable book.

[Joe Bauer]

Of course Killgallen's files instantly went missing. Standard operating procedure.

Taken by "men in suits" ???

Which means of course that it wasn't the New York PD that came in and took them away.

Of course, those men in suits were from agencies beyond the scope of the NYPD.

Why would such agencies instantly get involved in DK's death scene and grab her files...let alone know of their existence and location?

Killgallen's files being taken is one of the most obvious red flags suggesting something much more involved than Dorothy K. ending her life by over-boozing and over-pilling herself.

Why were those agencies even involved with DK. She had committed no crime.

This was a death scene of a New York City resident. The NYPD alone should have been task with any removal of DK's personal property.

Were Kilgallen's files ever seen again? Mark Shaw and maybe someone else claimed Killgallen's husband Richard Kollmar got them and destroyed them.

Remember when the naked Guy Bannister was found dead of a heart attack? His files were also quickly absconded with and never seen again as well. Men in suits. Agency men...of course.

[James DiEugenio]

6 hours ago, Allen Lowe said:

Jim, I am currently about two-thirds through the book, which I find fascinating and frustrating. As you point out she accepts the body-alteration theories and the myth about the Kennedy brothers being intimately involved in the plots against Castro. IIRC she also buys into all the Marilyn Monroe b.s.; which is a pity as there is so much valuable info here - all hurt by the fact that she has literally no footnotes, so it's a bit of a struggle trying to match everything she says against the records. Still, it's a very valuable book.

I totally agree Allen. If anything, I was being a little soft on her.  Because of respect for what she did oh so many years ago on the case.  The seven pages on MM are BS.  And not only are there no footnotes, there is no index. It was likely self published.

Edited June 6 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

But I have to add here, if the stuff she says about Clay Shaw and a Nash Rambler station wagon registered in Dallas is true, that is a real shocker.

I thought I knew everything there was to know about this guy.

Somehow, I missed that.  Whew.

Imagine trying to explain that one.

[Denise Hazelwood]

I chalk up most of the “suspicious JFKA witness deaths” to nothing more than chance and hype. However, the two that have truly bothered me are the Kilgallen and Pitzer deaths. I wonder if someone was told to “take care of her/him” and took that to mean “eliminate” her/him. I have no doubt that attempts were made to intimidate some outspoken individuals into silence (thinking specifically of the pot shots taken at Roger Craig and Jim Garrison, although the latter I’m not entirely sure about—was in the movie, at least). Intimidations and potential murders are not the tactics I want for my government to use, although a large segment of our current population seems fine with them. 

[Joe Bauer]

Frank Sinatra couldn't contain his personal hatred toward Dorothy Kilgallen.

Kilgallen had crossed a line with her linking Sinatra to the Mob.

Sinatra would publicly disparage Kilgallen in the most insulting way. His most famous and oft-repeated insult was calling her "Chinless Wonder."

Kilgallen had the same powerful enemies JFK had.

The Mob...and J. Edgar Hoover.

Hoover hated the Kennedy's and the Kennedy's hated Hoover.

I propose that both the Kennedy's and Kilgallen underestimated the threat of having these most powerful entities look upon them as mortal enemies.

JFK had even more powerful enemies. Way more.

LBJ, TEXAS OIL, EXTREME RIGHT GROUPS, MOST OF OUR MILITARY COS, CIA, DULLES, BOP VENGEFUL EXPATRIATED CUBANS AND TENS OF MILLIONS OF EXTREME SEGREGATIONISTS.

It took only two of these dark power entities to off Kilgallen.

Kilgallen would not have allowed herself to over-dose on booze and pills.

Besides having two children in their twenties, she had a very young son only 12 years old ( Kerry ) whom she adored. She would not put her children in such a vulnerable state of losing her and she had enough self-control to know her limit. 

DK was only 52 when she died. She had not been diagnosed with any major and/or pain causing health problems like terminal cancer. She was never diagnosed with any serious mental illness. All common reasons that may have explained someone not caring enough to control their liquor and sedative drug intakes to the point of over-dosing.

Marilyn Monroe was of the latter mental afflictions. She was using drugs to cope...to a more and more debilitating degree. If Marilyn had a child or children...my guess is that her motherly instincts would have probably made her take better care of herself and her mind set...for her children's sake.

Kilgallen's real love for her children, especially her youngest son Kerry is just another logical reason to doubt her putting herself in a life and death risking state of overdosing. The woman was drugged to death by someone else. And we all know it.

Edited June 7 by Joe Bauer

[James DiEugenio]

If you read my review, Sara tells us that the prime suspect in the case, Ron Pataky, passed away in 2022.

This is what happens when you get a case that is first, kept oh so quiet, then covered up, and then just plain neglected.

I mean if it were not for the JFK critics, would anyone have ever paid any attention to it at all?  I doubt it.

[James DiEugenio]

Denise is I think at least partly correct on this. I think it has been exaggerated.

But there are several cases that I think are legitimately suspicious.

DK is one of them.  Another example is the Baron.  Another example is David Ferrie.

There are a few others.  But not nearly as many as some of the most extreme writers make of it.

The possibility that Pataky was with DK the night before, and that there was the presence of at least two drugs on her glass, maybe three--and this was covered up--merits suspicion. Plus the fact that as Lee Israel noted, there was no investigation by the police, that is they never brought everyone who saw her the night before into the station for inquiries?

Edited June 9 by James DiEugenio

[Benjamin Cole]

3 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Denise is I think at least partly correct on this. I think it has been exaggerated.

But there are several cases that I think are legitimately suspicious.

DK is one of them.  Another example is the Baron.  Another example is David Ferrie.

There are a few others.  But not nearly as many as some of the most extreme writers make of it.

The possibility that Pataky was with DK the night before, and that there the presence of at least two drugs on her glass, maybe three--and this was covered up--merits suspicion. Plus the fact that as Lee Israel noted, there was no investigation by the police, that is they never brought everyone who saw her the night before into the station for inquiries?

Eladio Del Valle was found slaughtered the same night Ferrie was found dead. 

Guy Banister said something to the effect, "If I am found dead soon, no matter the circumstances, it was murder."  I checked the actuarial tables. Men born in the year Banister was born, and who were alive in 1963, generally had another 10 years to live. 

If you want to read something spooky, read about barium acetate, murder and heart attacks. Creepy and easy to do. Banister died of a heart attack. 

 

[Tom Gram]

On 6/6/2024 at 5:39 PM, James DiEugenio said:

But I have to add here, if the stuff she says about Clay Shaw and a Nash Rambler station wagon registered in Dallas is true, that is a real shocker.

I thought I knew everything there was to know about this guy.

Somehow, I missed that.  Whew.

Imagine trying to explain that one.

I remember noting that Shaw had a Rambler of a similar color to the one seen by DP witnesses from the Garrison files. I think it was a ‘62 but I don’t recall. There’s a list of Shaw’s vehicles in one of the folders. 

I don’t remember anything confirming he had that car in ‘63 though, or that it was registered in Dallas. I’d like to see a source on that. 

[James DiEugenio]

She said she talked to the insurance agent.

And Ben, I agree that del Valle was one of the spooky deaths.  Especially since his body was found in the vicinity of Bernardo De Torres' house.

Edited June 9 by James DiEugenio

[Ron Bulman]

7 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

She said she talked to the insurance agent.

And Ben, I agree that del Valle was one of the spooky deaths.  Especially since his body was found in the vicinity of Bernardo De Torres' house.

In his White Caddy convertible with the red seats, stabbed, shot, chopped in the head with a machete outside Miami.  The same night Ferrie died in New Orleans.

[James DiEugenio]

Let us not forget, Bernardo was one of the first infiltrators into Garrison's inquiry.

Coincidence?  As Nagell would say, not hardly.