Short Story Wednesday Review: Criminalities: Three Short Crime Stories and an Essay by Barry Ergang

 

An Earl Stagg review from the archive…

  

The first story is ”Jewel of Denial,” a gem originally published in the June 2005 issue of Mysterical-e.  Lainie Truscott is dismayed when guests at her bed and breakfast are robbed of cash and jewelry during the night. Lainie follows a hunch and takes a short trip to see if she's right. When she arrives at her destination, one surprising twist after another will leave you grinning, nodding your head, and thinking, “Well done, Mr. Ergang.”

 

Next up is “Vigilante,” which received a Derringer Award in 2007 for Best Story of the Year. Weissman is alone in a dark alley with a militant, tattooed skinhead. Their vast difference of opinion about the Holocaust is settled in the only appropriate manner.

 

The third story, “Brianna’s Way,” was an Editor’s Choice when it appeared in Flash Bang Mysteries Magazine. When his ex-wife's lawyer wants to talk to him, Rutledge agrees to the meeting out of curiosity. Brianna is accused of killing her second husband, the man she dumped him for. What does the woman who ruined his life want from him?

 

In the essay “Impossible Pleasures,” Mr. Ergang tells how in his youth, he became an “unregenerate, unapologetic fan of the mystery genre,” and discusses classic writers and stories. He was drawn in particular to the “locked door” or impossible crime” tales. These are the stories in which a crime is committed in a space such as a locked room with no way for the criminal to get in or out without being seen. If you're a fan of this type of story, you'll learn which authors, past and present, to look for.

For an excellent example of a locked room mystery, I recommend reading “The Play of Light and Shadow,” one of many published stories by Barry Ergang. You'll find it at: Amazon: https://amzn.to/4oVsJVG and Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/643316

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/47A9REr

 

Earl Staggs ©2016

 

Texas author Earl Staggs earned all Five Star reviews for his novels MEMORY OF A MURDER and JUSTIFIED ACTION and has twice received a Derringer Award for Best Short Story of the Year.  He served as Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Magazine, as President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and was a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars.  

http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com 

 

Short Story Wednesday Review: The Missing Sniper by Earl Staggs

 

From the massive archive….

 

Thanks to his gift, Adam Kingston knew he would get a phone call. Who was calling, why he would be called, he didn’t know. But, he knew it would be a call about someone dying somewhere and he would be involved. Hard to sleep when you know something is going to happen. Hard to sleep when you know for absolute certainty just enough to be worried.

 

The phone call finally comes by way of Sheriff Dillon Corbin of Mendes County, Florida.  Adam is on a master list of Law Enforcement consultants and the good Sheriff needs his help. Three weeks ago somebody tried to take out a State Senator.  While they know where the shots came from they knew nothing else and have no suspects. The shooter is still out there and may try again if he or she isn’t stopped.

 

Soon Adam is in Jacksonville, Florida with Sheriff Dillon working the case. The target, Senator Willy Thornton, has plenty of enemies because of his politics and the way he lives his life.  Business rivals, spouses of the women he has seduced and many others have good reason to want him dead.  Good thing Adam has a bit of ability with extra sensory perception and can pick up a few images along the way as he helps with the case.

 

Released from Untreed Reads last January, this is the short story that ultimately gave rise to Earl Staggs' powerfully good novel, Memory of a Murder.  This cozy style type read is full of twists and turns and on that will keep you very entertained as it moves through the pages.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4d0Ymax

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2012, 2024

Earl Staggs Reviews: From Hay To Eternity: Ten Devilish Tales of Crime and Deception by Sandra Murphy

From the archive comes this review by the one and only Earl Staggs when he considered this short story collection, From Hay To Eternity: Ten Devilish Tales of Crime and Deception by Sandra Murphy.

 

 

In the ten stories in this collection, Sandra Murphy exhibits her deliciously inventive imagination to create stories and memorable characters which will involve you and entertain you from beginning to end.

 

Here's a sampling.

 

In “Superstition,” a woman ponders them all:  stepping on a crack, walking under a ladder, a black cat crossing your path,  three black birds on your roof mean death, and more.  What is real and what is foolish imagination and silliness?  Once she figures it out, she knows what she must do. 

 

“The Chicken Pot Pie Fiasco,” concerns a large quirky family in the process of preparing their own traditional Thanksgiving meal. In this family, it's a huge chicken pot pie.  Our narrator, who manages too observe it all without getting involved due to his “stealth,” explains, “There’s one big pie, and if there’s some of the inside stuff left over, there are little pies for later. I like that part.”   Everyone adds their own favorite ingredients, but a surprise ingredient somehow gets added which no one expected.

 

For “The Space Heater vs. the Window Fan,” we meet a woman who only needs to get dressed and prettied up for her sister's wedding. Unfortunately, every necessary machine, from her computer to the local laundromat's equipment, refuses to cooperate and do its part, culminating in a major struggle with one particularly stubborn appliance.

 

The title story, “From Hay to Eternity,” takes on a darker turn and gives us a murder mystery.  It begins with the driver announcing, “Welcome to the hayride. Listen up! Find a seat on the bench or one of the hay bales and hold on. Our horse, Sam, sometimes rocks the wagon when he starts, but it will be a smooth ride after that.”

 

Riders on the haywagon include a cross section of local parents and children, along with a pair of feuding brothers and an attention-grabbing teenage girl wearing tiny cut-off jeans and a tight top  designed to “show what your momma gave you.”  Her goal is to turn the hayride into a photo op which will make her the next supermodel.  She has no idea that one photo will turn the hayride into something other than a smooth ride.  

 

There are six more stories in this collection and each one is a delightful gem. Sandra Murphy is an author to watch. Her stories will not disappoint.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3LzKzMb

 

 

Earl Staggs © 2017

 

Texas author Earl Staggs earned all Five Star reviews for his novels MEMORY OF A MURDER and JUSTIFIED ACTION and has twice received a Derringer Award for Best Short Story of the Year. He served as Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Magazine, as President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars.  http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com 

FFB Review: Short Stories of Earl Staggs Reviewed by Barry Ergang

We all lost a lot with the recent passing of Earl Staggs. Fortunately, the books  and the short stories live on. It seemed appropriate to remind you again of Barry Ergang’s 2011 review of the Short Stories of Earl Staggs. For the full list of reading suggestions check out  Todd Mason’s Sweet Freedom blog.

SHORT STORIES OF EARL STAGGS

Reviewed by Barry Ergang

In the interests of full disclosure, let me explain at the outset that Earl Staggs and I have been friends for a number of years, going back to when I joined the staff of the then-named Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine as an editorial reviewer and Earl was Managing Editor. No more than a year later, maybe less, some changes occurred with the staff, and Earl asked if I'd like to be one of three fiction editors. I accepted the position and, when a year or two after that Earl stepped down as M.E. to serve as Editorial Consultant for the renamed Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine, he offered me his former position and I accepted.

Prior to the publication of Short Stories of Earl Staggs, I had read some of Earl's short fiction as well as his excellent--and recommended--novel, Memory of a Murder. I correctly assumed, therefore, that reading this collection of fifteen stories, each of which is prefaced by an author's note about its origins, would be a satisfying experience.

The book opens with the Derringer Award-winning "All the Fine Actors," in which a hitman assassinates a local sheriff. Both he and his employer are aware that people too often aren't what they seem,  and both know the collection of his fee won't be an easy task.

"A Rainy Day Robbery" is a lighter-weight tale about the fictional Watango County, Texas Sheriff Mollie Goodall who, while trying to track down a thief, has to contend with a broken fingernail, every mention of which made me wince.

A tough former Baltimore cop, now living and working as a bail bondsman and sometime bounty hunter, returns to his hometown to pursue an escaped criminal and confront some people and issues from his past in "Baltimore Bounty." 

"Battered" concerns Detective Sam Hollis's rabid determination to nail a longtime abuser who has finally killed his victim. Hollis has his own demons to deal with while trying to salvage his marriage.

After his sister's funeral, a visiting small-town cop arranges a meeting with her estranged husband, a wastrel pretty boy, in "Brother-in-Law." Ostensibly to discuss which of them as the woman's survivors gets what, the meeting has a much darker purpose.

The weakest story in the collection for me was "Caught On Christmas Eve," the tale of a twelve-year-old wannabe thief and the man who witnesses what he's up to at a department store's jewelry counter. Originally written for a Christmas anthology , it's predictable and sentimental--but redeemed by not being too soppy.

A contract killer who prides himself for being meticulous and thorough gets the shock of his life when a woman he killed walks into the restaurant in which he regularly dines. Before the evening is over, he's in for dyspepsia-inducing surprises in "Dead Woman Walking."   

"Fig Newtons and Heavy Bags" is the lightweight tale of two spinster sisters who aren't quite what they seem.

Another Mollie Goodall story, "Robbery On Christmas Eve," concerns the theft of church funds from a locked office. How the thief got in and out, as well as who the thief is, are the puzzles Mollie must solve.

In "Room Six," a small-town sheriff sets a simple trap to determine which of three wealthy, spoiled brothers murdered a nineteen-year-old woman.

"Silky's Getaway" is a brief comic tale about a professional burglar's encounter with a most unlikely obstacle.

Not without moral qualms, a cop exceeds standard procedural boundaries to dispense the justice the courts failed to in "Taking Richie Gold Down."

On her daughter's wedding day, Amanda Barnes is kidnapped by a man who has held a grudge against her for twenty years, a man who stirs up memories of her harrowing past in the tense and exciting "That Night in Galveston."

"The Chopsticks Clue" resulted, as the author explains in his prefatory note, from an editorial challenge. Homicide Lieutenant Sue Townes encounters her former partner Millie Walker, now a meter maid, while investigating a stabbing death at a Chinese restaurant. More interesting than the crime itself is the animosity Sue has toward Millie because of an incident in their past.

Sheriff Mollie Goodall makes another appearance in the comical "The Naked Man On the Roof" when she has to talk the titular character down from the roof of a deserted icehouse  (the fall from which wouldn't kill him), learn why he's despondent, and then solve a crime.

Chief of Police Harry Winfield learns from a pair of Dallas cops, to his surprise and disheartenment, that Pam Wilson is wanted for the murder of a prominent attorney in "The Waitress." She swears she didn't kill him but knows who does--but won't reveal the murderer's name lest she be forced to reveal things about herself she can't afford to reveal. Harry must determine where the truth lies.

Short Stories of Earl Staggs is a nicely varied collection of light and dark, humorous and serious, soft-boiled and hardboiled crime stories. The author writes in a smooth, accessible prose style, delineates characters nicely, and has an excellent sense of pace. To my friend and former colleague, the venerable Earl of Staggs, I say, "Well done, amigo. Give us more." To you who are reading this review, I say, "If you enjoy good short crime and mystery fiction, get yourself a copy of this collection, which is available in electronic and paperback formats, because the Earl Staggs byline always guarantees a pleasurable reading experience."

Barry Ergang © 2011, 2014, 2020

Among other works, Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang's own impossible crime novelette, The Play of Light and Shadow, is available at Amazon and Smashwords as is his recently released book of poetry, Farrago, and other entertaining reads. For more on Barry’s books as well as his editing services, check out Barry’s website.

Earl Staggs Reviews: HAUNTING DREAMS by Jan Christensen

I’ve read Jan Christensen’s novels and short stories for a number of years and she has never disappointed me.  Her characters shine as if they were people living next door, and her plots are believable and relatable.  She’s written three previous novels featuring Paula Mitchell, a private investigator in Springfield, Rhode Island. Her new one is HAUNTING DREAMS.   

Paula shares an office with her BFF, lawyer Geri Smithfield, and shares her life with her boyfriend, Steve Grady, an IT Consultant.  Steve lends his expertise if Paula needs it in her investigations, but at the same time, he wishes she didn’t work in such a dangerous profession.

Although Paula’s experiences do not involve a lot of gunplay, I liked that HAUNTING DREAMS begins with a bang.  Literally.  Here are the opening lines:

Shouting from the restaurant’s kitchen caught everyone’s attention, and the clatter of cutlery, dishes, and people talking ceased.  I heard a gunshot, someone screamed, and everyone else scrambled to either get under a table or rush to the door. I rose from the booth, grabbed my gun from its holster at my side, and dashed toward the kitchen door.

In the kitchen, she sees a cook has been shot and sees the shooter run out the back door.  She follows but the shooter makes his getaway.  The victim is only wounded and will survive, and the restaurant owner hires Paula to take on the case and find out who shot his employee.

What seems at first to be a simple case turns out to be anything but.  Paula begins by checking out the victim and other employees as well as the restaurant owner.  She is unable to find a record of some of them prior to twenty years ago.  When a second employee of the same restaurant is shot and wounded, Paula still has no clue who the shooter is or what his motive might be.    

Paula then learns an enemy of hers from an old case has recently been released from prison and is stalking her.

There are more twists, turns, and surprises for Paula before she figures it all out, and you’ll enjoy watching her do it.  I said before I’ve never been disappointed by this author.  Trust me.  You won’t be either.

HAUNTING DREAMS

By Jan Christensen

November, 2019

Amazon Digital Services LLC

ASIN: B081K9HR85

355 pages

Available in ebook and print

Earl Staggs ©2019

Earl Staggs Earl Staggs is the author of the books, MEMORY OF A MURDER,  JUSTIFIED ACTION, among others,  as well as numerous short stories. He has twice received a Derringer Award for Best Short Story of the Year. Past president of The President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, Earl also served as Managing Editor of Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine. His website is at https://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com/  and by email at earlstaggs@sbcglobal.net

The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog: Guest Post: The Bastard Prologue by Earl Staggs

The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog: Guest Post: The Bastard Prologue by Earl Staggs: Please welcome back Earl Staggs to our blog with a guest post he originally did for PJ Nunn’s Bookbrowsing Blog back in August of 2015… T...

Guest Post: HISTORY'S RICH WITH MYSTERIES: BELLE STARR – Her Fabled Life, Her Unsolved Murder

It has been about two months since the last time our man in Fort Worth with hos post on Dorothy Kilgallen. Nice to have Earl back on the blog with another informative post.

HISTORY’S RICH WITH MYSTERIES

When I look at the past, I find stories about people which fascinate me, particularly those in which there is a curious mixture of fact, legend, and mysterious uncertainty. In this series of articles, I want to explore some of those stories. I think of them as mysteries swaddled in legend. While truth is always desired in most things, truth easily becomes staid and boring. Legend, on the other hand, forever holds a hint of romanticism and an aura of excitement borne of adventure, imagination and, of course, mystery.

  

BELLE STARR – Her Fabled Life, Her Unsolved Murder

by Earl Staggs

Belle Starr, according to legend, was a lovely lady who ruled outlaw gangs with her guns, her will and her personal favors. She has come down through history as an adventuress who rode with Jesse and Frank James, the Younger Brothers, and other famous outlaws of the day. According to the stories, she robbed from the rich and gave to the poor and cleaned out saloons and crooked poker games with six guns blazing.

 

Belle on Horseback

On February 3, 1889, two days before her forty-first birthday, she was gunned down on a dark country road near King Creek, Oklahoma. No one was ever convicted of her murder.

“Dime Novels” were popular at the time to appease the public’s appetite for exciting, hell-raising stories about hard-riding, fast-shooting outlaws and heroes of the old west. Writers and publishers were happy to supply them, even if they were imaginative exaggerations of the truth. In this manner, history gave legendary status to the likes of Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody, Kit Carson, and others, including Belle Starr. Like the others, Belle’s exploits and adventures were more fiction than fact. The manufactured but fascinating and often fantastic stories became the myth and the legend. Hollywood bolstered her status as a genuine larger-than-life figure with movies starring beauties such as Gene Tierney and Elizabeth Montgomery as Belle.

Her legend began taking shape soon after her death. Most responsible was Richard Fox, publisher of National Police Gazette and a number of dime novels. His book, Belle Starr, the Bandit Queen, or the Female Jesse James: A Full and Authentic History of the Dashing Female Highwayman, published the year she was killed, was supposedly an official biography of her life. Another book called her the “Petticoat Terror of the Plains.”

In actual fact, there is no evidence that Belle was ever the leader of an outlaw band or robbed banks, trains, or stagecoaches. Even though she was fond of carrying a six-shooter (sometimes two), she was not known to have ever participated in any gunfights. She knew and spent time with the James boys and the Youngers, but her experiences outside the law were limited to a little rustling here and there, and providing a place for her outlaw friends to hole up from time to time.

Not that her life was dull and uneventful. Far from it. A year before her death, she told a reporter for the Fort Smith Elevator, “I regard myself as a woman who has seen much of life.”

She was born Myra Maybelle Shirley on her father's farm near Carthage, Missouri, on February 5, 1848. Her father did well as a farmer and in 1856, sold his farm and bought a livery stable. A blacksmith shop and an inn in the town square of Carthage. Belle graduated from Missouri's Carthage Female Academy, a private institution her father helped establish. 

Belle as a Young Girl

She was a bright student, with polite manners and enjoyed the life of a spoiled rich girl. She had a talent for playing piano and liked having an audience. She also loved the outdoors and spent a lot of time roaming the countryside with her older brother Bud, who taught her to ride a horse and handle guns.

Belle’s family and their lives changed drastically, however, when the Kansas-Missouri Border War, a bloody precursor to the Civil War, broke out in the late 1850’s. Belle’s brother Bud joined Quantrill’s Raiders and rose to the rank of captain, but was killed in 1864. The constant fighting and killing took its toll on local businesses and after Bud’s death, Belle’s father sold his interests in Carthage and the family moved to Scyene, Texas, a small settlement southeast of Dallas.

The James-Younger Gang robbed their first bank in Liberty, Missouri, in 1866 and fled to Texas where they stayed with Belle and her family. Belle had grown up with the James brothers and the Youngers back in Missouri. She also became reacquainted with Jim Reed, another family friend from Missouri. A romance blossomed, and they were married on November 1, 1866. Belle was then eighteen years old. They lived with Belle’s family in Scyene and Jim worked as a salesman in Dallas. In 1867, Belle and Jim moved to the Reed’s family farm in Missouri. The following year, Belle gave birth to her first child. They named her Rosie Lee but always called her “Pearl.”

There were rumors that Belle was seduced by Cole Younger during their time in Scyene and bore him an illegitimate child, but both Belle and Cole as well as historians denied it.

Jim Reed was not good at farming and eventually became a full-fledged outlaw with his own gang. He was wanted for allegedly killing a man in Arkansas, and he and Belle fled to California with their daughter Pearl. There, in 1871, Belle gave birth to a son she named Edward.

Jim fell in with the Starr gang, a Cherokee Indian family well-known for rustling and bootlegging. He was killed in August 1874 by a member of his own gang in Paris, Texas, where he and Belle had settled with their family. Belle left her children with her mother and traveled to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) and became involved with an Indian outlaw known as Blue Duck. 

Belle and Blue Duck

Belle married Sam Starr in 1880, and they settled in Indian Territory. She learned the ins and outs of fencing stolen goods for rustlers and bootleggers as well as the art of harboring her outlaw friends from the law. Her illegal activities proved to be quite lucrative for her. Belle always harbored a strong sense of style, which would become a part of her later legend. She was also a crack shot and enjoyed riding sidesaddle dressed in a black velvet riding habit and a plumed hat, and carrying two pistols with cartridge belts across her hips.

In 1883, Belle and Sam were arrested for horse theft and served nine months in the House of Corrections in Detroit, Michigan.

On December 17, 1886, Sam Starr was involved in a gunfight with a police officer and both men were killed. The happiest period of Belle’s life, as she called it, abruptly ended. To maintain her residence on Indian land, Belle married Jim July Starr, a relative of Sam’s, who was fifteen years younger.

Dime novels, scandal magazines, and gossip kept her name alive over the next couple years.

On February 3, 1889, two days shy of turning forty-one, she was ambushed and killed while riding home late at night.

Statue of Belle

In one version of the story, she had been attending a dance where a man asked her to dance. When Belle refused, he became enraged and followed her. When she stopped to give her horse a drink, he shot her.

There were other suspects, including both her children. One source suggested her son, Edward, may have been her killer because she beat him for mistreating her horse. Her daughter Pearl was considered a suspect because she never forgave her mother for refusing to let her marry the man she loved.

Edgar J. Watson, one of her sharecroppers, was another suspect. He was a wanted man in Florida with a price on his head, and he was afraid she was going to turn him in. Watson was tried for her murder but was acquitted.

Officially, there were no witnesses to how it actually happened, and no one was ever convicted of the crime. The murder of Belle Starr, the “Bandit Queen,” remains an unsolved mystery in the pages of history.

 Her grave site is near Eufair Lake, southeast of Porum, Oklahoma. A horse was engraved on her tombstone, along with these words:

Belle's Tombstone

Shed not for her the bitter tear,
Nor give the heart to vain regret
Tis but the casket that lies here,
The gem that filled it sparkles yet.

Earl Staggs ©2018

Earl Staggs is a three-time winner of the Derringer Award for Best Short Story of the Year and earned all Five Star reviews for his novels MEMORY OF A MURDER and JUSTIFIED ACTION. He served as Managing Editor of Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, as President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars. He invites any comments via email at earlstaggs@sbcglobal.net

He also invites you to visit his blog site at http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com to learn more about his novels and stories.

Guest Post: HISTORY'S RICH WITH MYSTERIES: DOROTHY KILGALLEN -- Did She know Too Much? by Earl Staggs

Our man in Fort Worth, Earl Staggs, was last here back in mid April with his take on the Dean Corll murder case. Today he considers the murder of Dorothy Kilgallen.

HISTORY'S RICH WITH MYSTERIES 

When I look at the past, I find stories about people which fascinate me, particularly those in which there is a curious mixture of fact, legend, and mysterious uncertainty. In this series of articles, I want to explore some of those stories. I think of them as mysteries swaddled in legend. While truth is always desired in most things, truth easily becomes staid and boring. Legend, on the other hand, forever holds a hint of romanticism and an aura of excitement borne of adventure, imagination and, of course, mystery.

DOROTHY KILGALLEN -- Did She know Too Much?

Earl Staggs

On November 8, 1965, well-known journalist and TV personality Dorothy Kilgallen was found dead in her Manhattan townhouse. A medical examiner declared her death accidental, caused by a combination of sleeping pills and alcohol.

Many people believe, however, she was silenced as a result of her investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and her plan to publish evidence which would prove that Kennedy's death was the result of a major conspiracy.

Dorothy Mae Kilgallen

Dorothy Mae Kilgallen was born on July 3. 1913 in Chicago. She began her career as a newspaper reporter at the age of eighteen. By 1938, when she was twenty-five, she began her column "The Voice of Broadway" in the New York Evening Journal, which eventually was syndicated to more than 200 papers. In 1950, she began a fifteen-year run as a panelist on the popular TV show, “What's My Line.”

Over a career spanning more than three decades, Dorothy became a household name. During those years, she married and had three children, was one of the first to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, had a long-standing feud with Frank Sinatra and, alledgely, an affair with pop singer Johnnie Ray. In 1953, she was was one of the notables who attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. She was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and Ernest Hemingway called her, "The greatest female writer in the world."

Dorothy Mae Kilgallen on What's My Line?

In addition to providing news and gossip about the New York theatre world as well as Hollywood celebrities and their scandals, she dealt with political news and major crime stories. One of those stories concerned the 1954 case against Sam Sheppard, which inspired the top-rated TV drama, “The Fugitive.“ Sheppard was convicted of killing his wife, but Dorothy was so convinced of his innocence, she pursued the case for years. Eventually, partly because of information she provided, Sheppard was retried and vindicated.

After her good friend, President John F. Kennedy, was killed, Dorothy did not accept the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvery Oswald was the assassin and that he acted alone.

She wrote:

“It seemed to me after reading the testimony three times that the Chief Justice and the general counsel were acutely aware of the talk both here and in Europe that President Kennedy was the victim of a conspiracy. They took pains to prove to themselves and the world that no conspiracy existed.

She covered the Jack Ruby trial and interviewed him twice. Much to the consternation of J. Edgar Hoover, she obtained and published a copy of Ruby's testimony to the Commission.

In her column of November 29, 1963, she wrote:

"The case is closed, is it? Well, I'd like to know how, in a big, smart town like Dallas, a man like Jack Ruby — owner of a strip tease honky tonk — can stroll in and out of police headquarters as if it was at a health club at a time when a small army of law enforcers is keeping a "tight security guard" on Oswald. Justice is a big rug. When you pull it out from under one man, a lot of others fall, too."

After her second interview with him, she wrote:

“Jack Ruby’s eyes were as shiny brown-and-white bright as the glass eyes of a doll. He tried to smile but his smile was a failure. When we shook hands, his hand trembled in mine ever so slightly, like the heartbeat of a bird.”

Dorothy with Ernest Hemmingway

According to those close to her, she carried the documentation of her investigation in a dossier which she kept with her at all times under lock and key. She claimed she had a deal with Random House to publish a boo which would reveal the truth about the Kennedy assassination.

She reportedly told close friends, This has to be a conspiracy! I'm going to break the real story and have the biggest scoop of the century." Her hairdresser, Charles Simpson, said she told him, "If the  wrong people knew what I know about the JFK assassination, it would cost me my life."

Former criminal defense lawyer, Mark Shaw, author of 25 books and legal analyst for USA Today, ESPN, and CNN, contends in his book, The Reporter Who Knew Too Much, that a New Orleans mafia don ordered her death because he feared her investigation would finger him as the mastermind behind the assassinations of both JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald. In his scenario, Dorothy was poisoned and the crime scene staged to look like an overdose.  

Other authors, notably Gerald Posner and Vincent Bugliosi, in their books, Case Closed and Reclaiming History respectively, sided with the Warren Commission and its conclusion that Oswald killed Kennedy and that he acted alone.

So, were left with two competing mysteries. Was Oswald the lone assassin and there was no conspiracy? Or, was there a conspiracy and Dorothy Kilgallen was killed because she could prove it?

The dossier Dorothy was said to have accumulated throughout her eighteen-month investigation was never found. 

Author Mark Shaw said, "Whoever decided to silence Dorothy, I believe, took that file and burned it." 

Which means, we'll probably never know for sure.


Earl Staggs ©2018

Earl Staggs earned all Five Star reviews for his novels MEMORY OF A MURDER and JUSTIFIED ACTION and has received a Derringer Award for Best Short Story of the Year three times.  He served as Managing Editor of Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, as President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars.  He invites any comments via email at earlstaggs@sbcglobal.net

He also invites you to visit his blog at http://earlstaggs.wordpress.com to learn more about his novels and stories.