The Reporter Who Knew Too Much: The Mysterious Death of What's My Line TV Star and Media Icon Dorothy Kilgallen

This review of <i>The Reporter Who Knew Too Much: The Mysterious Death of What’s My Line TV Star and Media Icon Dorothy Kilgallen</i> must begin with a disclaimer (and add another one later). The reviewer is too quick to see conspiracy by tying the slimmest of threads together. Although finding myself less skeptical than I once was about the assassinations of the Kennedys, there is still a great deal of discomfort in my mind about the inadequacies of the Warren Commission Report and the belated release of certain papers related to JFK’s final hours. <i>The Reporter Who Knew Too Much</i> both feeds on that discomfort and adds a new mystery to the mix—the strange circumstances surrounding the death of Dorothy Kilgallen, television star and newspaper columnist/reporter. And, if nothing else, it answers some of the questions my younger self used to have as to why this woman in the fancy clothes was always on the <i>What’s My Line</i> game show and why she was so good at playing the game. Shaw uses his own interviews and those performed earlier by investigative journalists (cynics would call them sensationalists) to weave a plausible case for, most likely, a hit ordered by famed Mafia boss Carlos Marcello. Of course, I wouldn’t spoil that if it weren’t more complicated than that and Shaw only offered that possibility. It’s just that it makes the most sense to me out of all the scenarios. [DISCLAIMER: I once interviewed a novelist who lived in Marcello’s mob domain. The novelist is now dead so I can reveal what he shared with me “off the record.” There was a distinctive character in most of this novelist’s work (a recurring antagonist who sometimes acted as a patron). I asked him if said character was modeled on anyone in particular. “Off the record,” he told me that it could be fatal if he told me. Later, after he was assured I wasn’t going to print it, he said it was the New Orleans mob boss. So, I have to admit that my mind has a pre-disposed fertile receptivity to suggestions that Marcello may have ordered the death of Kilgallen as part of a JFK conspiracy cover-up. BTW, said author died of natural causes which even I have been unable to package into a conspiracy. (chuckle)] Even if one doesn’t buy into any of the nefarious possibilities presented by Shaw, the research points to a definitely botched toxicology report with pretty convincing (deliberate) incompetence and negligence in the investigation of the famous reporter’s death. The conspiracy comes in because Kilgallen had never been satisfied with the Warren Commission’s report, had leaked confidential material (the interview with Jack Ruby), had talked to Jack in confidence about the killing of Oswald, and had just met and was planning to meet again a secret source in New Orleans that would, in her own words, break the JFK story wide open. She died before that second meeting. Her death was ruled either suicide or accidental death by overdose. The timing was an inconvenient coincidence concerning what she was about to do during the week she died and the combination of barbiturates (two for which she was not prescribed of which one of those two would be fatal if mixed with her prescribed Seconal). Conspiracies loom concerning the thick JFK assassination file she carried around with her which was conspicuously missing and has never been found. And, it was strange that she was found dead in a bed in which she hadn’t slept for years on a floor of her Manhattan townhouse where she hadn’t slept for years. Plus, there was the “mystery man” with which she was seen only an hour or so before her death. And what I have shared here is merely the tip of the iceberg, the carefully qualified iceberg in which Shaw carefully paints a canvas of possibility, maybe even probability, without going over the line of false accusation or libel. Think the mafia is the only suspect? Consider Shaw’s presentation of the CIA (not chartered to spy on its own citizens) with a 20-page dossier on Kilgallen (having contacted more than 50 CIA offices in its compilation—p. 165) or the ever more villainous (the more one reads about him) J. Edgar Hoover not only detested but obsessed on Kilgallen. However, he doesn’t look like a good suspect to this reviewer since the bureau was still seeking the illusive JFK file that had disappeared in 1975, twenty years after her death (p. 178). <i>The Reporter Who Knew Too Much: The Mysterious Death of What’s My Line TV Star and Media Icon Dorothy Kilgallen</i> is as exciting (and cynics would argue as fanciful) as a fictional thriller novel. As in all conspiracy books, there are times that it seems like the author is pushing on a string of evidence to make his case. At other times, he seems to bend over backwards to be fair (perhaps, on attorney’s advice, but being a former attorney himself…). This book will be stimulating to anyone who is interested in those events of November, 1963 and any potential aftermath within the next couple of years. It is the perfect book for an aging baby-boomer like myself who will never forget that incredible image of the guy in the hat sliding between two policemen to shoot Lee Harvey Oswald point-blank.

A fascinating biographical portrait of the greatest woman reporter of the 20th century who arrived at the pinnacle of her career with her coverage of the Jack Ruby trial for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald for supposedly killing Jack Kennedy on November 22, 1963. She was friends with Kennedy and instinctually “knew” something was not right from the beginning. When Oswald was shot, it was confirmed in her mind and lead her to cover the trial of Ruby and on into her determined odyssey to ferret out information and to solve this massive case with all its cover-ups and lies and denial of justice. Fascinating and an absolute page turner of course but better for it speaks the truth. Over a period of 18 months Kilgallen poured herself tirelessly into investigation and gathering information on everybody involved directly and indirectly involved. The more she discovered the more she realized how many heads she was turning and what great danger she was in. This reads like a murder mystery (and of course it really is) but it is the Truth in spades. On the morning of November 8, 1965 she was found sitting up in bed, dead, by her hairdresser, poisoned, with basically incomplete leads as to who had killed her and how many were behind it. The greatest woman reporter was gone, as well as the most well regarded Hollywood and theater columnist and of course the most brilliant panelist from the “What’s My Line?” gameshow. Shaw is an excellent author and as this book is so relevant to us who lived through this time, this book is a great and informative read deserving all 5 Stars and more. I most highly recommend this book to you. Note: I read this when it first came out but had not reviewed it until now. Shaw’s new release “Denial of Justice” has just come out and I have just finished reading it and will review it shortly. Incidentally it also rates 5 Stars!

I ordered paperback, but I received the 2017 version, not the 2025 with cover one picture "includes new material! sticker. I wonder what I will miss. I am a 1/3 through book and enjoying it so far. So far 4 or 5 stars for the material and history, but one star for Amazon.com sending me an older version.

It is readily apparent that the author of this book, Mark Shaw, has the mindset of a defense attorney, not an investigative reporter. He is Dorothy Kilgallen’s champion. That being said, after reading the book, I think he makes a compelling argument that Dorothy Kilgallen’s death in 1965 was not accidental or suicide. He presents surprising evidence through interviews with those close to Kilgallen, examination of autopsy findings, and analysis of the known facts. All he’s missing is a smoking gun. Who would want to murder Kilgallen? Apparently, a lot of people. As a prominent journalist, she made enemies left and right. She had questioned publicly in her newspaper column J. Edgar Hoover’s conclusion that there was a single shooter, Oswald, in JFK’s death. She had information about the president’s assassination before the Warren Report was released. She stonewalled the FBI about her sources. She was investigating the Jack Ruby (Oswald’s killer) connection to underworld crime bosses. She went after popular celebrities such as Frank Sinatra. Most revealing was that she had let people close to her know that she was about to uncover a conspiracy in the JFK assassination. On the actual day of her death, her hairdresser was scheduled to make an early morning visit to her townhome to help her get ready for a trip. He found her body in a bed off the dressing area (not in her regular bedroom.) She had the covers up to her chin, her hairpiece was in place, full makeup and false eyelashes on, and in pajamas she never wore. Two glasses were on her bedside table. Toxicology reports showed Seconal, Tuinal, and Nembutal (all barbiturates) in her bloodstream. (Although she regularly took a couple of Seconal to help her sleep, she had no prescriptions for the Tuinal and Nembutal. She had consumed alcohol. A book was found upside down next to her, not in a natural position for her to have been reading it before drifting off to sleep. Although it is clear she died much earlier, the autopsy findings listed noon as the time of death. She was on the verge of interviewing someone who would help her solidify important evidence. And the biggest giveaway that her death wasn’t of natural causes? Her file, the one she had amassed with information about all her interviews, dates, and facts about the Kennedy assassination, was missing, never to be seen again. Shaw has done a remarkable job in carefully detailing Kilgallen’s movements close to her death, as much as could be known. He presents a glowing image of a talented journalist at the height of her career who had little reason to commit suicide. The questions he raises shouldn’t be discounted. He carefully outlines who he thinks was involved in her death and why. I highly recommend this book to all true crime fans, history buffs, and mystery readers. You won’t be disappointed.

I was mildly curious about Dorothy Kilgallen's death and had never read anything on it before, so I chose this book. I was easily pleased, not knowing one thing about her. So even the plain biographical facts on her were interesting to me. However, the book became very slow and tedious. The author took up most of the book with giving his possible actions of a list of persons and scenarios that were meaningless padding. Things could not be proven; people were dead. I don't know who the editor was on this book, or if there was an editor on this book, but it was so full of errors. That alone was distracting and looked unprofessional. I think he made up a few words, too. Somewhere in the page 200 range, he finally narrows down to one interesting subject. The reading then perks up, because he's not going on an "If" tangent. It then becomes a "maybe", that may not be true but is at least better than imagining possibilities. The man in question is still alive and in his 80's. I don't know why the man would give interviews at all if he were guilty. I don't think, as the author claimed, this man was on the verge of confessing all to him during one interview. Most of the evidence Mr. Shaw has on the Kilgallen case is heresay. Out of those still alive, many refuse to speak to him. He raises some good issues about the case. It does look like Dorothy Kilgallen's death is suspicious. The time she was discovered until the time the police came was incredibly long. Things he learned from the Medical Examiner's office past employees do not jell. It appears obvious that Mr. Shaw cares a great deal about Kilgallen's reputation from her death branding her a drunken drug addict. She seemed to be anything but that. He respects who she was and wants justice for her death, if it was a murder. He does go overboard in his praise of her, repeating about the same slew of words to describe her frequently, which becomes irritating. He also describes JFK as a very close friend of Kilgallen's, with nothing to back it up. One day she was on a public White House Tour and JFK appears and takes a look at her son's papers he was carrying that were letters to the President from kids in his class. The President looked through them until he found Kilgallen's son's. Then another time Kenny O'Donnell calls Kilgallen and JFK walks in the room and asks O'Donnell who he's talking to, and O'Donnell says, "Dorothy Kilgallen", and JFK says, "Tell her I said 'hi'." These things make them real close friends? Knowing how JFK worked in politics, someone on his staff probably told him that Dorothy Kilgallen was on the White House tour, and he knew it wouldn't hurt publicity any if he happened to show up and somehow give her some attention, which he did through her son's paper. Two poems written by the author's possible suspect Shaw points out as possible or probable evidence that his suspect did kill Kilgallen. At the death scene (in Kilgallen's townhouse) there were people there before the police, like Joan Crawford. What in the heck was she doing there? The author left it there with a dull thud. Later, he makes brief mention that Crawford was part of Kilgallen's inner circle and later still uses a quote Crawford gave about Dorothy, "her close friend". This is one example, like her close friendship with JFK he gives, of leaving us in the lurch. Was Crawford a close friend? I looked it up online and read that Crawford had a lunch date with Dorothy the day she was found. It could have been interesting if Shaw tried to contact Christina Crawford (I think she's still living) or one of her other adopted children to dig further into their "close friendship". I do applaud Mr. Shaw for his caring about what happened to Dorothy Kilgallen. I wish him luck in his efforts to do what he is trying to do. But after two books and no victory, it has been over 50 years. He put out everything out there that he had. Maybe time to let go and let God?

As a kid, I loved to watch the glamorous women and dashing men of the popular game show, "What's My Line?" Regular panelists included Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis, and Bennett Cerf. The moderator was John Charles Daly. They were joined each week by a fourth celebrity panelist. The object of the show was for the panel to guess the occupation of the contestants by asking a series of questions that could be answered by either yes or no. Each show featured three contestants, one of which would be a celebrity (for whom the panel wore masks and the famous person disguised his/her voice). What the preteen me knew of Dorothy Kilgallen was that she was beautiful, wore luxurious clothes, asked very smart questions, and she was a TV star. I never knew she was a weekly newspaper columnist (even though they introduced her as such; it never sunk into my young brain) or especially that she was a top-notch investigative reporter. At the height of her fame, she was covering infamous trials such as the case of Dr. Sam Sheppard, who was convicted of murdering his wife. Ms. Kilgallen wrote an article saying the guilty verdict was a miscarriage of justice. Years later, she played a role in Dr. Sheppard's exoneration. I recall having heard as a teenager that Ms. Kilgallen had died at the age of 59. The media attributed her passing to a fatal combination of alcohol and drugs, much like the sad death of Marilyn Monroe. I was despondent that Ms. Kilgallen had died and was disappointed that I would not see the clever woman on the game show again. Since I did not know she was an investigative reporter, I didn't realize until I read this book, "The Reporter Who Knew Too Much," by Mark Shaw, that Dorothy Kilgallen was investigating the assassination of President Kennedy and the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. Kilgallen rejected the Warren Commission's and J. Edgar Hoover's theory that Oswald acted alone. She particularly didn't buy the story that Jack Ruby could single-handedly manage to get himself into position to shoot one of the most heavily-guarded prisoners of the 20th Century. She had information indicating Ruby knew Oswald and that Ruby had contacted a mob-friendly lawyer for representation BEFORE JFK was shot. Kilgallen had revealed to confidantes that she was close to breaking the story that the assassination and murder were mob hits. Mark Shaw builds a convincing case that Kilgallen herself was murdered in a mob hit by someone she trusted who had access to her. The death scene made no sense, the autopsy was sloppily conducted, her time of death was misreported, her toxicology report did not tell a complete story, and there was mob influence at the medical examiner's office. This book enthralled me because it told me so much I never knew about (and some I wish I didn't) Ms. Kilgallen, but also, because even as a kid, I didn't believe that Jack Ruby wasn't being paid to silence Oswald so he couldn't reveal any potential co-conspirators. Shaw links RFK, Marilyn Monroe, JFK, Oswald, Ruby, and Kilgallen in a fascinating read you won't want to miss.

Mom enjoyed the book.

Very good, but a bit repetitive. Would recommend to anyone who was alive when JFK was assassinated. A lot of information about Dorothy Kilgallen I never knew.

It's a book, I read it!

Really good book. I had never heard of Dorothy Kilgallen, another victim of the kennedy assassination but she led an extraordinary life. And she was getting oh so close to the truth...well written, would recommend this to anyone interested in JFK and the corruption of the American government and Secret Service (CIA).

100 %Great

Perfeito

One more interesting story of a JFK reporter/investigator/witness who was taken out by the powers that be (CIA, Mafia, LBJ). Account rings true. In the day, so many people looking into this world changing event had very limited knowledge of the danger that they were in. The 1960s were such a time of upheaval.