47. Kilgallen by Lee Israel

Category: 50 Books

I really enjoyed this biography of Dorothy Kilgallen. I had no idea that her life was so interesting. I thought she was just a gossip columnist, but turns out she was a decent reporter as well. In fact, she started out her career reporting on murders and trials. She even covered the Sam Sheppard trial.

As biographies go this one was great. It was informative yet dishy (love the dish!). The author shows a great respect for her subject but doesn’t try to candy-coat anything either. I didn’t really like DK at first. She came across as shallow, but not exactly shallow because she seemed too smart for that. There was something about her though that was bothering me. There was a self-centeredness about her, but at the same time she seemed unaware of it, so in a way it was like you couldn’t blame her for it. I was having a hard time coming up with a word to describe all of this, and about three-quarters of the way through the book Ms. Israel described Dorothy as not having a worldview. And that’s it exactly! It seems odd that such a good reporter would be like that, but there you go.

She was definitely a busy person. Worked all day partied all night. I’m suprised she wasn’t sick all the time. I think it’s a shame that she was not used more for serious reporting, but maybe she enjoyed what she did, and it made more sense with her lifestyle.

Her death was intriguing. The fact that the FBI had a dossier on her was shocking to me, but maybe it shouldn’t have been seeing as how Hoover was probably one of the most paranoid people who ever lived. Still, I’m not sure I believe that Dorothy was murdered because she was going to write something about the JFK assassination. It’s conceivable, I guess. The fact that it was a sloppy investigation doesn’t immediately scream, “conspiracy!” to me, but I’m one of those people who is always suprised when something actually works. So a botched investigation of a famous person’s murder, while annoying as all get out, seems almost par for the course. (Or maybe that’s what they want me to think?) **gasp** 

To me the most curious thing about it was that her interview with Jack Ruby was never found/published/seen again. Not even by the FBI who came around years after her death looking for it. That was odd.

The biography was well-written. It also had some snark to it, which is always welcome, if you ask me. Lots of times biographies (as well as true crime) while popular reading, are not actually written well. So it’s always a bonus when you come across one that’s actually enjoyable and not just, “and then this happened. then this and this. there was a marriage, some kids, a death. blah blah blah here’s some pictures.” It’s always nice when an author takes care in writing his/her sentences. Like so,

“Dorothy’s dossier does not indicate which tale told by what idiot signified anything, or whether or not the FBI came in, after the broadcasting room was empty, to collect Richard’s cigarette butts. But the very fact that they were surveilled while surveilling the subject of surveillance indicates that she was not ipso facto, the political basketcase that the bureau thought her to be.” (p.228)

See? Like that. Isn’t that fun? Good times.

Oh, and this book, like The Executioner’s Song, had me feeling extra nosy at the end. Where in TES I was wondering, “What happened to Nicole?” at the end of this one I was all, “Just who was the mysterious Out-of-Towner?”

Speaking of The Executioner’s Song, a couple of posts ago I mentioned how crazy it was that my reading choices of late have all criss-crossed each other? Well, this book was no different. In it, Lillian Hellman, Suddenly, Last Summer, and Lawrence Schiller were all mentioned. And Lawrence Schiller just happend to be one of the main players in TES. wild!

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