Kilgallen

Rating:
Summary: A fine biography--up to a point . . .
Review: . . . That point being the last chapter. Israel (author of the definitive Tallulah Bankhead biography) writes an incisive, well-researched and sympathetic book about journalist Kilgallen, who was often unfairly dismissed as a narrow-minded harpy. Fascinating stuff, and well-written, till Israel goes off the deep end in the last chapter and concocts all kinds of hare-brained murder scenarios (evidence indicates Kilgallen accidentally OD'd or perhaps commited suicide). Israel's dependence on Kennedy assassination buff Mark Lane explains some of this goofiness. But this should not overly detract from a wonderful book about an important cultural figure.

Rating:
Summary: interesting book; very opinionated but factual lady
Review: Even though she seems to be remembered as just a gossip columnist, DK knew many important persons and reported on their comings and goings at a time before we were "blessed" with E and other similar cable channels. Catch her on the What's My Line?" reruns and you'll see her charm, wit, and catch many bon mots traded with her cohorts.

Rating:
Summary: Death Certificate Says "Pending Further Investigation"
Review: I encourage people to buy a hardback copy of this 25 - year - old book because I have seen two pieces of evidence that make the Dorothy Kilgallen murder theory plausible. First I'll ramble on for a few paragraphs, then I'll describe those two pieces of evidence.

Of course, we don't have evidence that the "accidental" death of any celebrity really was murder. I believe Princess Diana was murdered, but I also believe that we will never get evidence of it. Dodi Fayed's father is chasing his tail.

So posterity needs to evaluate each mysterious death according to how plausible the murder theory is. Lee Israel puts in this book some evidence that a broken love affair with Johnnie Ray and the fall of the Hearst newspaper empire gave Dorothy Kilgallen trouble sleeping, and she *could have* mixed barbiturates with booze. But Lee also details the strange circumstances of Dorothy's death. Police and medical examiner reports say her body was found in a bed in which she never slept. Nobody slept in it. It was a showroom to convince celebrity houseguests who partied in the next room that everything was hunky dory in the 25 - year marriage of Dorothy and her husband Richard Kollmar.

There was no pill bottle on the bedside table or anywhere else in the death scene. Dorothy had fallen "asleep" while reading a new novel by Robert Ruark, even though she had said in her newspaper column four months earlier that the protagonist of the book dies in the end. She had discussed said novel with her hairdresser Marc Sinclaire some weeks before cops and doctors found the book in her dead hand. She had told Mr. Sinclaire that she had enjoyed the work after having finished reading it.

That's what you will find in this book. Now I'll add the two things I've seen while sight seeing. First, you can find Dorothy Kilgallen's death certificate at the National Archives in Maryland, a popular tourist site. In the section where the doctor makes the classification of natural causes, suicide, homicide, etc., the thing says "undetermined pending further investigation." Strangely, the deputy medical examiner of Brooklyn signed it "for James Luke," the chief medical examiner. Kilgallen died in the borough of Manhattan, and Dr. Luke had no reason not to sign it. He visited the death scene for 45 minutes, according to the Washington Post obituary. That Brooklyn deputy M.E., Dominick Di Maio, is still alive.

The second thing I've seen that's not in the book is a video interview with criminal defense attorney Joe Tonahill preserved at Lamar University in Texas. On it he says his last telephone conversation with Dorothy Kilgallen happened a short time before she died, "maybe a week before." They planned to participate in a radio talk show about the JFK assassination, but she died before the plans could materialize. Shortly before that conversation, Dorothy visited Miami to discuss Oswald, etc. on the talk show of a young Larry King. The same Larry now on CNN.

You won't find the death certificate or the Tonahill video interview in this book, but what it does have will hold you spellbound. Please buy it even if you pay 50 dollars.