This Saturday marks the 60th anniversary of Dorothy Kilgallen’s mysterious death, and in her honor, a street in Manhattan will be named after her. Kilgallen was a pioneering reporter and television personality who famously delved into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Before figures like Barbara Walters grabbed headlines, Kilgallen shattered the barriers in New York’s male-centric newspaper scene, working for the New York Evening Journal and the New York Journal American. She wrote a popular column called the Voice of Broadway and reported on high-profile criminal cases, including the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s baby and Jack Ruby’s trial, the man who shot JFK’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.
During her career, the New York Post dubbed Kilgallen “America’s most powerful female voice.”
“She never received the recognition she truly deserved. A lot of people don’t even know who she was,” stated City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens). He became familiar with her work through Mark Shaw’s books and successfully sought city council approval for the street naming.
The new name will grace the intersection of Park Avenue and East 68th Street, not far from where Kilgallen once lived—a glamorous journalist, a television panelist, a mother. If she were still around, the street would undoubtedly be called “Dorothy Kilgallen Way.”
Speakers at the ceremony will feature Shaw and actor Gianni Russo, who played Carlo Rizzi in “The Godfather.” As a young man, Russo worked for mobster Frank Costello and met Kilgallen among other celebrities at the Copacabana nightclub.
“She was the smartest woman I ever met,” Russo fondly remembered.
Though a known personality, Kilgallen has largely faded from public consciousness since her shocking death on November 8, 1965.
Known for her wit and charm, Kilgallen appeared on “What’s My Line?” just a day before her death, trying to guess the profession of a mysterious guest—a dynamite saleswoman.
On the day she was found dead in her townhouse, she was discovered on her bed, wrapped in a blue bathrobe, her makeup and hair still in the style she wore on television.
The City Medical Examiner concluded that it was an accidental overdose involving sleeping pills and alcohol, but Mark Shaw has criticized the NYPD for closing the case hastily, without even taking fingerprints.
What raised eyebrows was that Kilgallen’s extensive research into the JFK assassination—over 18 months of work and two exclusive interviews with Jack Ruby—vanished that day, likely confiscated by law enforcement.
Kilgallen, who openly challenged the “Oswald alone” narrative, was reportedly under surveillance by the FBI.
Shaw alleges that she was murdered to prevent her from exposing New Orleans mobster Carlos Marcello as the mastermind behind JFK’s and Oswald’s killings. Kilgallen had confided in friends about her intention to reveal what she claimed was “the greatest story in American history” and expressed fears for her safety.
Holden attempted to persuade the NYPD’s Cold Case Unit and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to label Kilgallen’s death a homicide, although the primary suspect has since passed away.
“This street naming celebrates Dorothy’s life, but it’s also a call to rekindle interest in her story,” Holden noted. “We need to investigate her death to unearth the truth and restore her legacy.”
