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Revision as of 08:05, 4 April 2004 by Kingturtle (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Dorothy Mae Kilgallen (July 3, 1913 in Chicago, Illinois, USA-November 8, 1965 in New York, USA) was an American actress, reporter and television presenter. She was the daughter of James Kilgallen, a newspaperman. Her early working career was as a crime reporter for which she became famous, along with being a world race in which she was the only female contestant, a race which inspired her autobiography,Girl Around The World, which would then be turned into a movie Fly Away Baby. She also became a popular Broadway columnist and also co-hosted, with her husband, "Breakfast with Dick and Dorothy". In 1950, she was added to the American television gameshow What's My Line? where she became more popular on-air but her personality clashed with her co-hosts so they brought in Arlene Francis for the second episode to compliment her personality. Her reporting had also been a contributor in getting Dr. Sam Sheppard a new trial. She was a critic of the Warren Commission, parts of which she had published to the Journal American before its public release, and had also been able to get an exclusive interview with Jack Ruby. She claimed to have new information about the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, however, in 1965, she was found dead under suspicious circumstances. She had swallowed a combination of alcohol and seconal. It was not known whether it was a suicide or murder. Her notebooks containing the information she had also mysteriously disappeared.
At the time of her death, she had been married 25 years and left behind 3 children.