The Reporter Who Knew Too Much

Mark Shaw's nonfiction book, The Reporter Who Knew Too Much: The Mysterious Death of What's My Line TV Star and Media Icon Dorothy Kilgallen about the life and suspicious demise of the multi-talented journalist/TV personality is both revealing and intriguing. This biographical read focuses heavily on Kilgallen's extensive investigation into the JFK assassination and subsequent murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. As Shaw points out, evidence she may have found concerning a possible conspiracy might have made the tenacious reporter a target of foul play. Over all I enjoyed this book and found Shaw's direct, unpretentious style of writing to be refreshing. However, the second half of the book could be somewhat longwinded, repetitive and, at times, overly technical when it came to the details of Kilgallen's death and the response of the medical examiners office. Of course, it is important to include the results of tests and other key facts as well as any suspicious activity related to the case but I felt it would have been easier to follow if the author had summarized more of this information. The Reporter Who Knew Too Much should appeal to fans of many different genres, including, celebrity bios, true crime, 20th century American history and feminist literature. Dorothy Kilgallen, alone, is a fascinating subject for a biography and this is not the first book devoted to her. She was a complex woman. Kilgallen was a religious, tenderhearted loving mother and genteel lady and at the same time a tough, gutsy, super ambitious reporter who socialized with mobsters and carried on a long-term extra-marital affair with singer Johnnie Ray. She was a woman with lots of fans and more than her share of enemies. It may seem like a shame that Kilgallen is best remembered today for her long stint as a regular panelist of the game show What's My Line? instead of her amazing career as a journalist and how much she accomplished as a woman in what was considered a man's business at the time. But due to the timeliness of the profession, few journalists, even the most revered, achieve immortality in the in the public eye. What's My Line? which continues to be popular in reruns decades after its cancellation helps to keep Kilgallen's legacy alive.