By: Meyer Wolfsheim

Dorothy Kilgallen, the intrepid journalist and television star who probed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was honored Saturday with a Manhattan street co-naming on the 60th anniversary of her mysterious death, the New York Post first reported.

Kilgallen, a trailblazer in a male-dominated newsroom, shattered barriers at the New York Evening Journal and New York Journal American. She wrote the syndicated Voice of Broadway column, covered sensational criminal trials — including the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and the murder trial of Jack Ruby, who killed JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald — and became a familiar face on television as a panelist on What’s My Line? The Post first reported that during her heyday, Kilgallen was celebrated as “the most powerful female voice in America.”

The corner of Park Avenue and East 68th Street, near the townhouse where Kilgallen lived, was officially named “Dorothy Kilgallen Way” during a ceremony attended by journalists, authors, and former entertainers. City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), who spearheaded the effort, told the Post first reported, “She never got her due. So many people don’t know who she was.” Holden credited books by Mark Shaw, The Reporter Who Knew Too Much and Denial of Justice, for inspiring the street-naming initiative.

Mark Shaw, author of the Kilgallen biography, attended the ceremony alongside actor Gianni Russo, who portrayed Carlo Rizzi in The Godfather. Russo recalled meeting Kilgallen in her younger years at Frank Costello’s Copacabana nightclub. “I thought she was the smartest woman in the world,” he said, recounting her wit and charm. Shaw has argued that Kilgallen’s death was suspicious, suggesting that she was murdered to halt her investigation into New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello’s potential role in the JFK and Oswald killings, a claim the Post first reported.

Kilgallen died on Nov. 8, 1965, under circumstances that remain controversial. She was found in her townhouse, sitting upright in bed, wearing the same makeup and hair accessories she had on television the night before. The city Medical Examiner’s office ruled her death an accidental overdose of sleeping pills and alcohol, and the NYPD closed the case without fingerprint analysis, according to Shaw. Her 18 months of research into JFK’s assassination, including two exclusive interviews with Jack Ruby, vanished the day she died, raising questions about possible foul play — a point emphasized in the Post first reported.

Throughout her career, Kilgallen challenged conventional narratives, openly questioning the lone-gunman theory of Kennedy’s death. She told friends she was about to break “the biggest story in American history” and reportedly feared for her life. Holden has pushed for the NYPD’s cold-case unit and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to reconsider her death as a homicide, even if potential suspects are no longer alive. “I’m doing this street-naming not just to celebrate Dorothy’s life, but to make people curious,” Holden said.