Kilgallen
Hearst columnist Dorothy Kilgallen died in November 1965 of an overdose before she could publish her book exposing suppressed facts about the Kennedy assassination. Her file of notes on the murder vanished.
Kilgallen visited New Orleans looking into the case weeks before her death. New Orleans at that time was swarming with mobsters -- including the powerful Carlos Marcello -- CIA operatives and assorted other federal agents, as America learned as a result of District Attorney Jim Garrison's investigation into a conspiracy against Kennedy.
A longtime family servant said later that federal agents swarmed the house before the city detective arrived, and was told to keep quiet about their carting off her papers. Though the man's family, who lived with him in the Kilgallen townhouse, vouched for him, it seems strange that James Kilgallen would have sat by idly accepting such activity -- unless he arrived after they left but before the city detective.
It has been conjectured that Marcello had Kilgallen killed, but her death also benefited numerous other power players in the Deep State of the era. On the other hand, her husband, Richard Kollmar, was not investigated by New York City police, though Kollmar had motive: a bad marriage and Kilgallen's rewrite of her will. Kollmar said at one point that he planned to destroy Kilgallen's JFK notes because they had already brought so much trouble. He didn't say what that trouble was.
An overlooked possibility for the coverup of the death circumstances may have to do with her parents' traditional Irish Catholicism. (In fact she had stayed married to Kollmar because in that era a divorce scandal could have wrecked her career, especially triggering the disappointment of many admiring Irish.)
Kollmar allegedly found her in the bedroom she never shared with him, her situation in bed appearing to have been staged. Rather than call the police right away, he called the columnist's devoted father, Hearst veteran James Kilgallen, who came over. The two men met an inexperienced young detective about two hours after death. A very cursory investigation was done and the Brooklyn medical examiner signed the death certificate, possibly implying a fast shuffle of some sort, her townhouse being in Manhattan.
What may well have concerned her father was the potential of death attributed to suicide. The family were devoted Catholics and it seems likely he was anxious to avoid such a taint. In those days, Catholics were told that suicides inevitably went to hell.
Hence one can conjecture that James Kilgallen used his clout with the Hearst press to arrange a skimpy investigation that dodged that possibility, rather attributing death to accidental overdose of sleeping pills potentiated by alcohol. As it turns out, one medical examiner later came to the conclusion that Dorothy Kilgallen had been murdered by overdose.
Be that as it may, it appears that there is a substantial likelihood that the senior Kilgallen's evident desire to avoid scandal scotched any chance of finding her killer(s), if any.
Ironically, Richard Kollmar, an alcoholic, killed himself a few years after his wife died.
My information on Kilgallen is from writer Mark Shaw.
Kilgallen visited New Orleans looking into the case weeks before her death. New Orleans at that time was swarming with mobsters -- including the powerful Carlos Marcello -- CIA operatives and assorted other federal agents, as America learned as a result of District Attorney Jim Garrison's investigation into a conspiracy against Kennedy.
A longtime family servant said later that federal agents swarmed the house before the city detective arrived, and was told to keep quiet about their carting off her papers. Though the man's family, who lived with him in the Kilgallen townhouse, vouched for him, it seems strange that James Kilgallen would have sat by idly accepting such activity -- unless he arrived after they left but before the city detective.
It has been conjectured that Marcello had Kilgallen killed, but her death also benefited numerous other power players in the Deep State of the era. On the other hand, her husband, Richard Kollmar, was not investigated by New York City police, though Kollmar had motive: a bad marriage and Kilgallen's rewrite of her will. Kollmar said at one point that he planned to destroy Kilgallen's JFK notes because they had already brought so much trouble. He didn't say what that trouble was.
An overlooked possibility for the coverup of the death circumstances may have to do with her parents' traditional Irish Catholicism. (In fact she had stayed married to Kollmar because in that era a divorce scandal could have wrecked her career, especially triggering the disappointment of many admiring Irish.)
Kollmar allegedly found her in the bedroom she never shared with him, her situation in bed appearing to have been staged. Rather than call the police right away, he called the columnist's devoted father, Hearst veteran James Kilgallen, who came over. The two men met an inexperienced young detective about two hours after death. A very cursory investigation was done and the Brooklyn medical examiner signed the death certificate, possibly implying a fast shuffle of some sort, her townhouse being in Manhattan.
What may well have concerned her father was the potential of death attributed to suicide. The family were devoted Catholics and it seems likely he was anxious to avoid such a taint. In those days, Catholics were told that suicides inevitably went to hell.
Hence one can conjecture that James Kilgallen used his clout with the Hearst press to arrange a skimpy investigation that dodged that possibility, rather attributing death to accidental overdose of sleeping pills potentiated by alcohol. As it turns out, one medical examiner later came to the conclusion that Dorothy Kilgallen had been murdered by overdose.
Be that as it may, it appears that there is a substantial likelihood that the senior Kilgallen's evident desire to avoid scandal scotched any chance of finding her killer(s), if any.
Ironically, Richard Kollmar, an alcoholic, killed himself a few years after his wife died.
My information on Kilgallen is from writer Mark Shaw.
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