Dorothy Kilgallen was a US gossip columnist and TV personality, when from London, on May 23, 1955, she sent an INS wire to the US claiming that "The Ministry of Flying Saucers is expecting world-wide response to the information they have released," that "the scientific and aeronautic authorities of Great Britain, after having examined the remains of a mysterious airship of conventional [sic] form - have come to the conclusion that these strange flying objects do not represent optical illusions, nor are they Soviet inventions, but that we have to deal with objects that really fly and that originate from some other planet."
She claimed that "this sensational information was submitted by a British official to Dorothy Kilgallen, correspondent of International News Service in London. He asked that his name be not revealed."
She added that "the official told the representative of INS that: "Judging from the investigations made up to the moment, we believe that the saucers carry diminutive navigators, about 1.20 meters tall. It is embarrassing to admit it, but these flying saucers come from some other planet."
Her mysterious informer "added that an airship of this type could not in any way have been constructed on Earth. It is known that the British Government is preparing some information regarding the examination made of the remains of what is assumed to be a flying saucer but they are not making it public in order not to alarm the public."
There were some wild speculations about the story, linked without reasons to various stories of UFO crashes and even to the assassination of President John Kennedy. More probably, Kilgallen just overheard the talk of some high-ranking UFO believer at a cocktail party and made the usual gossip-type deformed "sensational" news of it.
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[Ref. dk1:] DOROTHY KILGALLEN:
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OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION OF FLYING SAUCERS
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[Ref. ci1:] "THE CINCINNATTI ENQUIRER" NEWSPAPER:
Those "Little Men" On Flying Saucers? Real, Says KilgallenRemember the creepy stories about flying saucers and little men from outer space? Dorothy Kilgallen has run into a new one in London. Here is her dispatch to the New York Journal-American on what a British official thinks about those "little fellows." By Dorothy Kilgallen London, May 22 - British scientists and airmen, after examining the wreckage of a mysterious "flying ship," are convinced that these strange aerial objects are not optical illusions or Soviet inventions, but actually are flying saucers which originate on another planet. The source of my information is a British official of cabinet rank who prefers to remain unidentified. "We believe, on the basis of our inquiries thus far, that the 'saucers' were staffed by small men - probably under four feet tall," my informant told me today. "It's frightening but there is no denying the flying saucers come from another planet." This official quoted scientists as saying a flying ship of this type could not have been constructed on earth. The British government, I learned, is withholding an official report on the "flying saucer" examination at this time, possibly because it does not wish to frighten the public. When my husband, Richard Kollmer and I arrived here for a brief vacation, I had no premonition that I would be catapulting myself into the controversy over whether flying saucers are real or imaginary. In the United States, all kinds of explanations have been advanced. But no responsible official of the U.S. Air Force has yet intimated the mysterious flying ships had actually vaulted from outer space. |
[Ref. jn1:] JOHN NICHOLSON:
In an article about little green men, in a science-fiction magazine, John Nicholson wrote:
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Morris K. Jessup, in The Expanding Case for the UFO, mentions the 1950 report of a flying saucer wreck near Mexico City, the dead pilot described as twenty-three inches high [0.60 meters]. Several saucers are said to have been inspected by (anonymous) scientists, and thirty-four corpses, measuring between thirty-six and forty inches in height, were found in three of these crashed UFO'S. All the bodies are described as "well formed," as were the dead men, less than four feet tall (according to British sources describing a similar wreck), described in Dorothy Kilgallen's famous 1955 report. |
[Ref. ob1:] OTTO BINDER:
This author wrote:
Dead SauceriansPerhaps the most sensational claim was that of the 1955 reports from Norway and Germany: A disc about 100 feet wide was found partly submerged on the North Sea coast of Germany. The object was hauled to Helgoland, a small island, where scientists opened it to find seven dead saucerians, quite human in size and physique, who were badly burned. Maps, books, and various other artifacts were allegedly found. Matching the above is the news story written by the late Broadway columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, during a visit to England in May 1955: "I can report today on a story which is positively spooky, not to mention chilling." "British scientists and airmen, after examining the wreckage of one mysterious flying ship, are convinced that these strange aerial objects are ... actual flying saucers which originated on another planet." "The source of my information is a British official of Cabinet rank, who prefers to remain unidentified - 'We believe... that the saucers were staffed by small men, probably under 4 feet tall.'" |
[Ref. gt1:] GUY TARADE:
The author indicates that in Great Britain, on May 23, 1955, a person of of Minister rank declared to journalist Dorothy Kilgallen:
"We believe on the basis of our information that the flying saucers are controlled by small men, probably four feet tall (1,20 meters approximately). This is scary but undeniable, flying saucers come from another planet!"
The author notes that this statement was made following the fall on the Earth of flying ships.
[Ref. ls1:] LEONARD STRINGFIELD:
The case appears on Leonard Stringfield Crash Retrieval list as:
"May, 1947 - Spitzbergen, Norway"
Stringfield gives no stars (*) at all to this case, which means that the case can be "anything from hoaxes and disinformation to military rumors."
And:
"1949-55: (??) Spitzbergen - Nothing certain."
[Ref. jc2:] JEROME CLARK:
Jerome Clark set a number of facts straight in an editorial entitled "Somebody must be behind it" in 1991:
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Errors large and small litter the pages of Revelations, evincing Vallee's ignorance of any ufology but his own. Donald Keyhoe did not write The UFO Conspiracy, nor is Timothy Good the author of something called Beyond Top Secret. Benton Jamison is not "Benton Majison," and Detlev Bronk's first name was not "Detley." (For that matter, Leo Tolstoy's was not "Leon.") And whatever else page 216 would have you believe, CUFOS left Evanston, Illinois, years ago. Vallee's coverage of the crashed disc question is a disaster. He has the Ubatuba incident occurring in 1933 or 1934 when it is supposed to have taken place in 1957. He places the Spitzbergen event in May 1941-contemporary published accounts put it in the early 1950s, though it is almost certainly a hoax-and Dorothy Kilgallen is incorrectly identified as the source of the rumor. The celebrated Texas/Mexico incident is set in a year and location different from those its proponents have assigned it. |
[Ref. ct1:] JEROME CLARK AND MARCELLO TRUZZI:
In an article about the stories of captured saucers and aliens, these authors indicate that on May 23, 1955, newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen wrote that "British scientists and airmen, after examining the wreckage of one mysterious flying ship, are convinced that these strange aerial objects are ... actual flying saucers which originated on another planet."
[Ref. tb1:] TODD BIGGS:
Todd Biggs posted to the Internet ufology discussion group UFOupdates on February 26, 1994, a message entitled "History of UFO Crashes" indicating:
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May, 1947 - Spitzbergen, Norway A report by journalist Dorothy Kilgallen stated that British scientists and airmen were excavating the wreckage of a mysterious flying ship. The Swedish military acknowledged its extraterrestrial origin and reported 17 bodies were found. The story appeared as a tiny blip for only one day in the U.S. news media before it was silenced by the military. I personally saw this news story years ago. |
[Ref. vg1:] VAL GERMANNN:
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Feb., 1954 Dorothy Kilgallen reports that Flying Saucers will be the subject of a secret meeting of "world military heads this summer." See 1963. |
[Ref. br1:] OLE-JONNY BRAENNE:
This ufologist provides on Paranet on June 30, 1995, the following text:
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FIRST REPORT ON THE CAPTURED FLYING SAUCER! By E.W. Grenfell A report by Dorothy Kilgallen in Journal American (042) 22 May 1955, has often been used as corroborating evidence for the Spitsbergen crash story. However, Kilgallen did not mention Spitsbergen at all. In addition, her message was picked to pieces in the Washington Post (046) of 24 May 1955. |
He then specifies in a second Paranet message the same day:
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042 JOURNAL AMERICAN. 044 MIAMI HERALD. |
[Ref. jc1:] JEROME CLARK:
In his excellent "The UFO Book", Jerome Clark notes in an article on the topic of UFO crashes stories that on May 23, 1955, popular newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen wrote: "I can report today on a story which is positively spooky, not to mention chilling. British scientists and airmen after examining the wreckage of one mysterious flying ship are convinced that these strange aerial objects are not optical illusions or Soviet inventions, but are actual flying saucers which originate on another planet."
She said her source was a "British official of cabinet rank who prefers to remain unidentified", and Clark notes that she had nothing more to say then or later, and nothing more has surfaced since to substantiate her story.
Clark reminds that retired British foreign officer and editor of Flying Saucer Review, Gordon Creighton, has claimed that Kilgallen got the story at a May 1955 cocktail party hosted by Lord Mountbatten, and that at least one of the crashes, she was told, took place during World War II.
However, according to ufologist Timothy Good, Mountbatten's private secretary Mollie Travis denied this claim.
[Ref. ky1:] KENNY YOUNG:
Kenny Young cites the short item by Todd Biggs linking the Kilgallen story to a UFO crash in Spitzbergen, and explains that despite exhaustive search in the archive of "The New York Journal" from April of 1947 through June of 1947, he found no such story. He confirms that the story appeared on May 23, 1955 in The Cincinnati Enquirer and provides a transcript of the article.
Rightfully, he concludes that the story did not surface in 1947 but in 1955, and that weak memory must have been the cause of mentions of 1947 and links between Kilgallen's 1955 article and a Spitzenberg UFO crash.
He adds that he found at tandq.enterprises.future.easyspace.com a segment entitled: "CASE HISTORY No. 1: The British Roswell," in which the author stated:
"Retired diplomat and intelligence officer Gordon Creighton said he believed Kilgallen's source [for the 1955 article] was Lord Louis Mountbatten."
He adds that Kilgallen's story "was backed up by Dr Olavo Fontes, a Brazilian UFO researcher of the 1950's."
[Ref. ky2:] KENNY YOUNG:
Kenny Young indicated that the recent discussion of "Dorothy Kilgallen and UFOs" on UFO Updates [see above] had Tony Spurrier and Geri and Alfred Webre provide an alleged 1962 CIA document dated two days before Marylin Monroe's death, telling that she had discussed a "secret air base" mentioned by President John F. Kennedy, which contained "things from outer space."
Kenny Young asked UFO Updates list members for assistance to determine if the alleged memo was genuine or hoaxed and to determine its origin.
[Note: there was no result. The memo was then published on Kenny Young's website, but I found no trace of the memo in the official electronic reading room of the CIA website or any reliable FOIA source such as The Black Vault.]
The alleged August 3, 1962, CIA Memo said:
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY Wiretap of telephone conversation between reporter Dorothy Kilgallen and [illegible] alone (?) friend Howard Rothberg (A) from wiretap of telephone conversation [gap] of Marilyn Monroe and Attorney General Robert Kennedy (B). Appraisal of Contents: [-] 1. Rothberg discussed the apparent [illegible] of subject with Kilgallen and the [illegible, Marilyn Monroe] breakup with the Kennedys. Rothberg told Kilgallen that she was attending [illegible] Hollywood parties hosted by the [inner circle?] among Hollywood elite and [illegible] and was becoming the talk of the town again. Rothberg indicated in so many words, that she had secrets to tell, no doubt, arising from her trists [sic] the President and the Attorney General. One such [Illegible] mentions visit by the President at a secret air base for the purpose of Inspecting things from outer space. Kilgallen replied that she knew what might be the source of the visit. In the mid-fifties, Kilgallen learned of secret effort [sic] by US and UK governments to identify [illegible] origins of crashed spacecraft and dead bodies, from a British government official. Kilgallen believed the story may have come from the [Illegible] in the late forties. Kilgallen said if that the story is true, it would [Illegible] terrible embarrassment [Illegible] Jack [i.e. John Kennedy] and his plans to have NASA put man on the moon [President John F. Kennedy's speech of May 25, 1961]. 2. Subject repeatedly called the Attorney General and complained about the way she was being ignored by the President and his brother. 3. Subject threatened to hold a press conference and would tell all. 4. Subject made references to [bases?] in Cuba and [knew?] [Illegible] of the President's plan to kill Castro. 5. Subject made reference to her [secret diary?] and what the newspapers would do with such disclosures. 514 - 32/ J -12 [Illegible] STAMP: TOP SECRET |
[Ref. jb1:] JEROME BEAU:
In his chronology for the year 1947, Jerome Beau notes that on May 7, 1947, English scientists and aviators examine the remains of a flying object in Spitzberg (Norway), and that according to the dispatch, they are convinced that the apparatus comes from another planet and that these saucers were controlled by men of small size, of less than 1.20 meters. 17 bodies are said to have been found.
Jerome Beau notes that the story comes from a dispatch that appeared one day only in news in the U.S. before to have been silenced by the military, and that this comes from "several sources among which Dorothy Kilgallen."
[Ref. cr1:] DAVE CLARKE AND ANDY ROBERTS:
The authors study and discuss the rumors started in Britain about Lord Mountbatten being secretly aware of a crashed saucer recovery in Great Britain.
They present Mountbatten as a man with an interest in flying saucers, who turned from mildly skeptic to someone convinced that UFOs are some sort of space animals, making up his opinion between the 50's and the 60's not as someone who would be into some "big secret" but just like anybody could form an opinion.
They indicate that in 1955, Dorothy Kilgallen, a syndicated columnist from the London office of the news agency International News Services (INS) produced a story claiming that scientists and airmen were examining the remains of a "mysterious flying ship" that crashed in Britain and were convinced that "these strange flying objects are not optical illusions or Soviet inventions, but are flying saucers which originate on another planet."
The authors indicate that later, claims that the saucer was piloted by little men were added.
The authors explain that Kilgallen collected many such gossips at cocktail parties where she mixed with aristocracy, royalty and military top brass. The authors explain that the rumor also spread that Lord Mountbatten was the secret source in Kilgallen's story, and that this was plausible since she could have met him many times at these cocktail parties. However, once asked about it in 1957 by ufologist Ted Bloecher, he replied that he has no knowledge that the British government recovered any saucer or little men.
Ufologist Gordon Creighton wrote a letter to Kilgallen asking for more details, and because she did not answer, rumors said that she had been "silenced", the authors saying that "the fact that she never made any further comment on the story was enough to establish its authenticity in the opinion of the UFO believers."
The authors note that author Nick Redfern found in CIA and FBI documents that Kilgallen was closely watched, as she had contact with important British and Foreign people, and US Intelligence viewed her a a potential intelligence source.
They conclude that if her story is not purely a "silly season" invention, it could be "a piece of deliberate disinformation planted by the intelligence services."
[Ref. uc1:] UFO CASEBOOK:
B. J. Booth of UFOcasebook indicates that some stories of UFO crashes Others are based mostly on legend and folklore, two of them, based primarily on legend, involve the same place, Spitzbergen, Norway, at two cases have different dates, 1946 and 1952, and there is not enough verifiable evidence to support either of these events.
He explains that the 1946 Spitzbergen UFO Crash starts with a story about General James H. Doolittle was sent to Sweden by the Shell Oil Company in 1946, supposedly to investigate the mystery of the "Ghost Rockets." The author does not understand why an oil company would investigate UFOs.
There are a number of Internet sites which claim that there was a short lived article published in America of a UFO crash in the Norwegian city about this time, and some people claim to have seen the article.
The link with the story by Kilgallen is that the only redeeming part of this particular case is that it was reported by Dorothy Kilgallen, celebrity for her years appearing on the "What's My Line?" TV game show. She claimed that someone in the upper echelon of the British government informed her that a UFO had crashed near Spitzbergen, and was under investigation by the British and American military. Supposedly, this informant was Lord Mountbatten.
Some investigators claim that since no mention of the name Spitzbergen was found in the reports, that the location's mention was to cover up a crash in Great Britain, but a crash in Great Britain during the same time period has no basis in fact either.
In addition to being a game show regular, Kilgallen also was a journalist of a sort, having written "gossip columns," but she also was well known for covering hard current events. She had covered the headline grabbing Lindbergh kidnapping story. In the 1950s, she had covered one of the top stories of her time, the Sam Sheppard murder trial.
Her last real claim to fame was in the 1960s when she got an interview with Lee Harvey Oswald killer Jack Ruby. This interview was carried by the "Los Angeles Examiner." She told friends that she had information that would "break the case wide open."
On 8th November, 1965, Dorothy Kilgallen, was found dead in her New York apartment. She was fully dressed and sitting upright in her bed. The police reported that she had died from taking a cocktail of alcohol and barbiturates. The notes of her interview with Ruby and the article she was writing on the case had disappeared. Luckily, she had given a friend a draft of her interview. Kilgallen was probably fearful for her own life, since several other writers who had worked on the Oswald / Ruby case had died under "unusual circumstances."
Kilgallen's reputation and notoriety was the only thing that kept the weak story of the Spitzbergen crash of 1946 alive. The last hope of further research into the Norwegian crash died along with her, as her sources were never verified.
Ufocasebook adds notes by Roy Lawhon concerning the other Spitzbergen UFO Crash of 1952:
The story first appeared in the German newspaper "Saarbrücker Zeitung" in June 1952. The article, entitled "Auf Spitzbergen landete Fliegende Untertasse", was soon picked up by several other German newspapers, with many of them citing "The Stuttgarter Tagerblatt" as the original source.
The story was that jets of the Norwegian Air Force spotted a crashed UFO while flying over Spitzbergen on maneuvers. The craft was disc-shaped with a series of jets around the rim of the disc to make it spin.
According to the first article about the crash, the craft was an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle with Russian writing on the controls, but as the story was embroidered with each retelling, it soon acquired seven alien crewmen who were burned to death in the crash.
[Ref. jb2:] JEROME BEAU:
Jerome Beau indicates that Dorothy Kilgallen (1913-1965), was an American journalist for International New Service.
He indicates that she is more known today as panelist of the television game "What's My Line?" in the 1950s and 1960s, though she was also a renowned journalist who held a gossip column but also covered "hard" stories such as for example the Lindbergh kidnapping and in the 1950's, the attempt at murder of Sam Sheppard.
She published on May 22, 1955:
"British scientists and aviators, after having examined the wreck of a mysterious flying ship, are convinced that these strange aerial objects are not optical illusions nor Soviet inventions, but are flying saucers coming from another planet."
"The source of my information is a British person in charge on the level of the Cabinet preferring to remain anonymous. "We think, on the basis of our investigation to date, that the saucers were controlled by small men - probably less than 4 feet tall. This is alarming, but one cannot deny that the flying saucers come from another planet."
"The quoted official scientists say that a flying ship of this type could not be built on Earth. The British government, I learned, keeps an official report on the examination of the "flying saucer" currently, perhaps because they do not wish to frighten the public."
Jerome Beau indicates that it was then supposed that the story referred to the "Spitzenberg crash", but that it "will be concluded that this story was in fact a case of disinformation."
He indicates that it was said that this report had appeared in the Los Angeles Examiner, and that only the reputation and notoriety of Kilgallen maintained "the weak story of the crash of Spitzbergen of 1946" alive. As her sources were never checked, the last the hope of other research on the Norwegian crash died with her.
She interviewed the assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby, in 1965 for the Los Angeles Examiner, and told friends to have information that would "break the case wide open."
She was found dead in her apartment in New York, entirely dressed and sat in hers bed on November 8, 1965, the police force reporting that she had taken a cocktail of alcohol and barbiturates.
Jérome Beau indicates that a source is: "Dorothy Kilgallen: Mysterious Death?"
[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:
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10. Location. Spitzbergen Island Norway Date: May 1947 Time: unknown A news story indicated that British scientists were digging up a strange aircraft that had crashed in an isolated area. Military authorities confirmed the extraterrestrial origin of the craft and indicated that they had found 17 bodies in the wreckage. Military authorities quickly silenced the story. No other information. HC addition # 2758 Source: Todd Biggs, Phoenix Foundation, quoting Dorothy Killgallen Type: H Report of recovery of crash UFO and its occupants. HSI: "7" ROS: "7" Comments: many researchers including UFO crash specialist Anfalov have discredited this report. |
[Ref. rs1:] ROMAGNOLI STEFANO HOME PAGE:
An article on UFO crashes indicates that another person who continued the work of Scully [of spreading stories of crashed saucers] was Dorothy Kilgallen, journalist and freelance collaborator of the Hearst press group.
"Indications received from Simon Mason Newton", lead to designate General Marshall as the main coordinator of the operations of recovery of the discs, which confirms statements by Major Lord Dowding, chief of the RAF. According to Dowding, General Marshall had dealt in person with the recovery of an object fallen in 1948 in septentrional Mexico. The intervention of the military Armed Forces was officially justified as aiming at recovery of a "missile gone out of control". [...]
[The affair mentioned by the author is the one known as "Tomato man", another file. See the "points to consider."]
[Ref. ik1:] ISAAC KOI:
The ufologist notes that on May 23, 1955, in Britain, appeared the article by Dorothy Kilgallen of the New York Journal-American, published in various American newspapers, claiming she had been told by "a British official of cabinet rank" that British scientists and airmen had "examined the wreckage of one mysterious flying ship" and are convinced that "these strange aerial objects are not optical illusions or Soviet inventions, but are actually flying saucers which originate on another planet."
Isaac Koi notes that the complete text of the article in the Journal-American was presented by Morris K. Jessup in his "The UFO Annual", 1956, at pages 178-179 in a part entitled "May", unnumbered section entitled "Saucer Really from Outer Space" of the Citadel hardback edition.
Koi provides a bibliography of discussions on Kilgallen's article:
[Ref. in1:] ON THE INTERNET:
Numerous websites publishing a more or less similar list of UFO crashes indicate:
"Spitzbergen, Norway, May 1947. English scientists and military personal, British and Norwegian, are said to have examined the remains of a vehicle controlled by beings of small size (Source: Dorothy Killgallen)."
[Ref. gf1:] GEORGE FILER:
Dorothy Kilgallen Claims UFO CrashedDorothy Kilgallen was an Irish-American journalist and television game show panelist, perhaps best known nationally for her syndicated newspaper column The Voice of Broadway and her role as panelist on the television game show What's My Line? On November 8, 1965, Dorothy was found dead in her New York City home at the age of 52. She had, apparently, succumbed to a fatal combination of alcohol and seconal. It is not known whether it was a suicide, murder or an accidental death. Her death certificate cites the cause of death as "undetermined". Because of her open criticism of the Warren Commission and other US government entities, and her association with Ruby and recent interview of him, some speculate that she was murdered by members of the alleged JFK conspiracy. Kilgallen had become a friend of Marilyn Monroe and the break up with the Kennedy's, the rumor was she had secrets such as the visit by the President at a secret air base for the purpose of inspecting things from outer space. In the mid-fifties Kilgallen learned of secret effort by US and UK governments to identify the origins of crashed spacecraft and dead bodies, from a British government official. In May of 1955 she made the following statement in an International New Service cable that was later published in the Los Angeles Examiner. "I can report today on a story which is positively spooky, not to mention chilling. British scientists and airmen, after examining the wreckage of one mysterious flying ship, are convinced these strange aerial objects are not optical illusions or Soviet inventions, but are flying saucers which originate on another planet. The source of my information is a British official of cabinet rank who prefers to remain unidentified. "We believe, on the basis of our inquiry thus far, that the saucers were staffed by small men ---probably under four feet tall. It's frightening, but there is no denying the flying saucers come from another planet." This official quoted scientists as saying a flying ship of this type could not have been constructed on Earth. The British Government, I learned, is withholding an official report on the 'flying saucer' examination at this time, possibly because it does not wish to frighten the public." I believe the most likely source was Lord Mountbatten. He was first Sea Lord (1955-1958) and Chief of Defence Staff (1959-1965). Mountbatten was murdered while sailing near his holiday home in Ireland in 1979. His experience in the region and in particular his widely known Labor sympathies led to Clement Attlee appointing him Viceroy of India after the war. In his position as Viceroy, Mountbatten oversaw the granting of independence to the Partitioned India as India and Pakistan " I had dinner with Prince Phillip due to his interest in UFOs at Sculthorpe RAF Base. He told me his nephew Mountbatten had seen UFOs while in the Navy. |
At the beginning of her professional career, Kilgallen covered subject of serious topicality such as the affair of the kidnapping of Charles Lindberg's son or the Sam Sheppard affair - which would inspire the TV serial "The Fugitive" and sequel movies. In 1936, she made a trip round the world, in a competition with others journalists, and came second whereas she was the only participating woman; she told the adventure in her book "Girl Around The World."
Dorothy Kilgallen |
In 1945, she co-hosted the radio talk show Breakfast with Dick and Dorothy with her husband, Richard Kollmar on WOR Radio every morning, the show originated from the couple's Park Avenue apartment in New York and featured the couple talking about news, gossip, and their family. Basically, she was now a media celebrity. She actually has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
She also wrote gossips columns in Cosmopolitan, Colliers and "The Voice of Broadway" in the Washington Post:
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The articles are purely gossips, mainly about Hollywood stars romances and split. The column would tell about tensions in Brigitte Bardot's couple, about the King of Italy's nephew decided to marry an actress and similar playboys frasques, about new movie gimmicks and all sorts of futile tidbits generally without any better specified sources than "I have been told by a dear friend that..."
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From 1950 to her death in 1965, she was one of the six panelist of the 30 minutes quiz show "What's My Line" hosted by John Daly on black and white US TV. The panelists were blindfolded and had to guess the identity of a celebrity who dropped by, such as Warren Beatty, James Cagney, Bette Davis, Walt Disney, Ronald Reagan, Alfred Hitchock, Elizabeth Taylor... |
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On February 15, 1954, Dorothy Kilgallen had already shown some interest for the topic of flying saucers and wrote in her column: "Flying saucers are regarded as of such vital importance that they will be the subject of a special hush-hush meeting of world military heads next summer."
The claimed link between Killgallen and Jack Ruby is told about in Lee Israel's "Kilgallen: An Intimate Biography of Dorothy Kilgallen", 1979. Basically, when she returned to New York after having talked to Jack Ruby, she told friends that she had discovered that Ruby and the Officer J.D. Tippit had been friends, that they had been seen together in Ruby's Carousel Club at a meeting two weeks before the assassination of John Kenney in the company of Bernard Weissman, the man who had placed the "JFK-Wanted for Treason" newspaper advertisement in Dallas newspapers on November 22, 1963. The story makes of Kilgallen one of the many people who were allegedly murdered because they knew too much on the assassination, and talked too much.
At least, there is no doubt that she claimed in the newspapers that a source she refused to disclose - she answered FBI requests that she would rather die than reveal the source, and insisted that journalists have the right not to reveal their sources - had given her a transcript of an alleged Jack Ruby interview, and she really died soon afterwards. It must be noted that Warren commission documents also indicate that Kilgallen refused to let representatives of the Warren commission analyze the transcript to determine if it was genuine or what their origin was - apparently, the alleged papers were never shown but only cited by Kilgallen. (Ref. 124-10371-10182 (16-Nov-1964) Admin folder-F11: HSCA Administrative Folder, Outgoing Commission Vol X pg 135.)
It is a known historical fact that FBI director Hoover maintained files on just any Hollywood celebrity or politician and looked for any information that he could use to get these people under control. Obviously Hoover was not that found of her, or did not view her as a reliable source, handwriting on one early FBI memo that "She is just wacky as she can be" after she wrote in her column the gossip that he would appear in a political meeting; which he would not do, being a government servant, expected to remain neutral in politics.
The FBI has declassified this file, at http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/dorothykilgallen.htm
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The claims by Nick Redfern and others that the FBI was using Kilgallen for "UFO disinformation" are totally unsupported; Kilgallen published gossips, mainly on Hollywood stars, sometimes on stuff such as some unnamed actor having told her in confidence that he was a communist, and obviously the FBI was only interested in information about communists they might pick up, while at the same time they obviously viewed her as unreliable, to say the least, and took care not to approach her as they knew she would tell all about it in her next columns. This all has nothing to do with any "UFO disinformation."
However, the article she wrote about a saucer recovery in Britain is the topic of this file, and, unfortunately, as the article is available, it is established that it contains absolutely nothing that might qualify as relevant information to support most of the later elaborations:
All there is is that she apparently heard from some official - and probably at some cocktail party just like Clark, Clarke and Roberts suggest - some vague talk about a flying saucer that has been recovered, and vague talk about the occupants of flying saucers being small men.
What also very likely happened is that, apparently, someone wrote on the Internet that people had seen the newspaper articles about the crash. This was then interpreted as people having seen a 1946 or 1952 newspaper article of the Spitzenberg crash by Kilgallen, but I highly suspect that it is a wrong interpretation and it actually initially only meant that people remembered to have seen Kilgallen's 1955 article. This is obviously very plausible: I found it in the Blue book archive and it is now the first piece in this file, however, it is not an article about the so-called Spitzenberg crash or any such "listed" crash, but just an article about an undated undetermined crash apparently in Great Britain.
Needless to say, this could be echoes of Frank Scully's stories, which were a hoax the American author believed, or any other such similar story - those of the UFO crash(es) in Spitzbergen also being without base. All the rest has no base.
| Id: | Topic: | Severity: | Date noted: | Raised by: | Noted by: | Description: | Proposal: | Status: |
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| None. | ||||||||
Dubious rumors with no verifiable base. Insufficient information.
* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.
/ = Source I own but lent.
| Main Author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | Private correspondent [S]. |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | March 4, 2007 | Creation, [dk1], [ci1], [jn1], [ob1], [gt1], [ls1], [jc2], [ct1], [tb1], [vg1], [br1], [jc1], [ky1], [ky2], [jb1], [cr1], [uc1], [jb2], [rs1], [ik1], [in1], [gf1]. |
| 0.2 | Patrick Gross | March 4, 2007 | First published. |
| 0.2b | Patrick Gross | March 7, 2007 | Error correction: The sentence under [ky2] read "[...] an alleged 1962 CIA document dated two days before Kilgallen's death [...]", changed to "[...] an alleged 1962 CIA document dated two days before Marylin Monroe's death [...]". Error found and reported by private correspondant [S] on March 7, 2007. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | February 11, 2008 | Conversion from HTML4 to XHTML Strict. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | September 27, 2018 | Addition [ar1]. |
