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Kitty Kelley

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Kitty Kelley
Kelley at Borders Books and Music in Chicago, April 2010Kelley at Borders Books and Music in Chicago, April 2010
Born (1942-04-04) April 4, 1942 (age 82)
Spokane, Washington
OccupationJournalist, writer
Notable worksThe Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty (2004)
Oprah: A Biography (2010)
Notable awardsPEN Oakland Censorship Award

Kitty Kelley (born April 4, 1942) is an American journalist and author of several best-selling unauthorized biographies of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan, the British Royal Family, the Bush family, and Oprah Winfrey.

Although Kelley has been called "the consummate gossip monger, a vehicle for all the rumor and innuendo surrounding her illustrious subjects" she maintains, "I am an unabashed admirer of transparency and believe in the freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment" and, to that end, her writing is about "moving an icon out of the moonlight and into the sunlight".

Early life

Born in Spokane, Washington, Kitty Kelley received a B.A. in English from the University of Washington. She worked at the New York World's Fair in 1964 and went on to become a receptionist/press secretary for Senator Eugene McCarthy.

Following four years as a press assistant to McCarthy, Kelley worked for two years as the editorial page researcher for the Washington Post. Since then, she has had a full-time career as a freelance writer. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, People, Ladies Home Journal, McCall's, Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune.

Alleged theft & house arrest

In the Spring of 1962 about a dozen sorority sisters at the University of Arizona at the time Kelley was a student there suspected that Kelley was a kleptomaniac. University security chief David Paxton dusted valuable items on campus with “invisible powder”. Explaining the process, Nassau County Police detective Thomas Kubic of the Scientific Investigation Unit explained that in all likelihood, the powder was probably “Sneak Thief Powder”, which he described as “an almost foolproof tool in the fight against sticky fingered thieves” because once a thief touches it, a glow on the thief’s hand will appear when placed under ultra-violet light. Former Sue Nelson (later Mrs Sue Jean Tucson), who was in Kelley’s 1959 Gamma Delta Pledge class was quoted as saying:

“Just as soon as one of the girls reported jewelry taken from her room, a call went out to all sorority sisters to assemble in the main hall…The campus police took the girls, one by one, into a room and sat them at a table. They were asked to place their hands on a desk, under an ultra-violet-ray lamp. Then the rooms fluorescent lights were dimmed. Anyone whose hands had come into contact with any article dusted with powder would glow in the dark under the lamp.”

The young women passed through uneventfully, then along came Kelley who “broke the darkness of the room with telltale luminescence”, causing other students to refer to her as “The Golden Fleecer”, and resulting in Kelley immediately being placed under house arrest and being escorted by campus police. Under scrutiny from campus security, Kelley placed items from her drawers and closet (wristwatches, rings, pendants, brooches, bracelets etc.) on her bed and twenty-eight coeds were brought to Kelley’s room and identified items that belonged to them.

Aftermath

Following the theft allegations against Kelley, University security chief David Paxton and University of Arizona regents began laying the groundwork to have Kelley removed from the school. Kelley was told that she would be turned over to the Tucson police Department, arrested, fingerprinted, mugged and booked on charges of theft, and then incarcerated in the city lockup until a judge would impose bail and turn the case to the District Attorney. Kelley left the University of Arizona after being told that if she left the campus right then and there and promised never to return, charges would not be made against her.

Alleged post-scandal breakdown

After Kelley left the University of Arizona in disgrace, her parents refused to let her live with them and sent her to live in Seattle with her maternal grandparents (the Martins). It was here that Kelley suffered a breakdown and used a wheelchair during some of that time.

Alleged credential falsification

When Kelley submitted details of her biography to publisher Lyle Stuart for the jacket cover of Jackie Oh! she listed one of her credentials as having been an editorial writer for the Washington Post, however the Washington Post claimed they had employed her as an editorial researcher and secretary. In a letter biographer George Carpozi Jr. sent to Kelley, her agent and lawyers on December 7, 1988, he asked "Can you explain why you described yourself as an editorial writer when, in fact, you were not?" As of 1990, Kelley had not responded.

Books

Jacqueline Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra biographies

Kelley's first celebrity biography was Jackie Oh! (1978), a life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, which was written at the request of Lyle Stuart, who launched the book into the New York Times Best Seller List. In the book, Kelley describes John F. Kennedy's womanizing and includes "revelations" about Onassis's love life, her depression and electric shock treatment. Kelley's publisher Lyle Stuart was later quoted saying "at the time I believed her shock-treatment story. Looking back, I feel I was had and the whole thing was a fable. I doubt that it ever happened. And knowing how she makes things up, I believe she was sure she could get away with it because no one would sue." Journalist Michael Crowley stated Jackie Oh! contained "core truths—including an unflinching look at JFK that showed him to have been 'more of a Romeo than has been previously revealed.'"

This book was followed by Elizabeth Taylor: The Last Star (1981).

Kelley's next book, His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra (1986) was declared "an act of bravery." Kelley discussed Sinatra's marriages, affairs and his links to the Mob. Sinatra filed a $2 million lawsuit to prevent it from being published but subsequently dropped it.

In the book, Kelley claimed to have interviewed actor Peter Lawford on several occasions including November 5 and 6 of 1984, even though Lawford lay on his death bed on these dates. Kelley also claimed to have interviewed Lawford on January 5, 1985, even though the actor had died in December 1984.

The book was number one on the New York Times Best Seller List and hit best-seller lists in England, Canada, Australia and France. William Safire of the New York Times said "His Way...turns out to be the most eye-opening celebrity biography of our time." In the Washington Post, Jonathan Yardley, wrote that "His Way is such an improvement over her two previous books ... that comparisons border on the pointless."

People magazine story

In 1990, Kelley wrote a piece for People magazine based on interviews she had conducted with Judith Campbell Exner, a former girlfriend of Frank Sinatra's who claimed to have had an affair with John F. Kennedy. Exner told Kelley that she had arranged ten meetings between Kennedy and Mafia gangster Sam Giancana, and they discussed having the "mob" kill Fidel Castro. It was subsequently revealed that Exner had been paid $50,000 to talk with Kelley and had not mentioned these "revelations" in her own autobiography, published years earlier. A former FBI agent said that Giancana had been under a federal wiretap, so these multiple meetings with Kennedy would have been impossible to cover up.

Nancy Reagan biography

In 1991 Kelley published Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography. She was paid $3.5 million to write the book. The book claimed that Reagan had had affairs with Frank Sinatra, that she frequently relied on astrology, that she had lied about her age, and that she had a very poor relationship with her children, even alleging that she hit her daughter, Patti. The reliability and sources were questioned. Slate magazine said that Kelly's book "was no more dishonest than the Reagans' own carefully groomed Norman Rockwell facade." According to Newsweek, "Despite her wretched excesses, Kelley has the core of the story right. Even her staunchest defenders concede that Nancy Reagan is more Marie Antoinette than Mother Teresa."

Former President Ronald Reagan issued a statement saying the book "has no basis in fact and serves no decent purpose."

British royal family and the Bush family

In September 1997, Kelley wrote The Royals (Warner Books, New York, ISBN 0-446-51712-7) about the British royal family. Kelley stated that the Windsors obscured their German ancestry and described scandals surrounding the members of the royal family.

The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty was published in September 2004. Kelley announced plans for the book shortly after George W. Bush's election in 2001 and worked on it for four years.

Oprah Winfrey biography

On December 13, 2006, Crown announced it would publish Kelley's unauthorized biography of Oprah Winfrey. The book, Oprah: A Biography, was released on April 13, 2010. The New Yorker declared the biography "one of those King Kong vs. Godzilla events in celebrity culture." Oprah dismissed the book as a "so-called biography".

Capturing Camelot

Kelley's most recent book — something different for her — Capturing Camelot: Stanley Tretick's Iconic Images of the Kennedys was published by Thomas Dunne Books in November 2012.

Perception of Kelley

Barbara Walters said books like Kelley’s are all about finding dirt, not the truth. The New York Times claimed that Kelley "just aims for the jugular." Time magazine reported that most journalists believe Kelley "too frequently fails to bring perspective or analysis to the fruits of her reporting and at times lards her work with dollops of questionable inferences and innuendos." Joe Klein described Kelley as a "professional sensationalist."

Awards and honors

Kelley won the 2005 PEN Oakland Censorship Award and the Outstanding Author Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors for her “courageous writing on popular culture.” She received the Medal of Merit from the Lotos Club of New York City.

References

  1. ^ Crowley, Michael (September 15, 2004). "Kitty Kelley: Colonoscopist to the Stars". Slate. Retrieved 2008-08-05.
  2. "Q&A with Kitty Kelley". Washington Independent Review of Books. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
  3. ^ "The Family by Kitty Kelley: Bio". Randomhouse.com. 1998-03-23. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
  4. Poison Pen by George Carpozi Jr. pg 335
  5. ^ Poison Pen by George Carpozi Jr. pg 335-336
  6. Poison Pen by George Carpozi Jr. pg 339-340
  7. Poison Pen by George Carpozi Jr. pg 340
  8. Poison Pen by George Carpozi Jr. pg 353-357
  9. Poison Pen by George Carpozi Jr. pg 140
  10. "Unauthorized, But Not Untrue - Kitty Kelley". The American Scholar. 2008-04-22. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
  11. Poison Pen by George Carpozi Jr. pg 357
  12. William Safire, "The Truth About Frank," New York Times 9/29/86
  13. "The Dark Side of Camelot," http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20098379,00.html
  14. Bruni, Frank (September 16, 2004). "For the Queen of Exposé, Four Walls That Won't Talk". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-05.
  15. Goldberg, Bernard (2005). 100 People Who Are Screwing up America (paperback ed.). New York: Harper Collins. p. 99. ISBN 0-06-076129-6. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  16. "Oprah gets 'vicious' biographer". BBC News. December 14, 2006. Retrieved March 26, 2010.
  17. Collins, Lauren. "Kitty Kelley takes on Oprah Winfrey". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
  18. Shea, Danny (April 19, 2010). "Oprah Dismisses Kitty Kelley Book: 'So-Called Biography'". Huffington Post.
  19. Greg Tobin, The Kennedys, New York Times Book Review, December 2, 2012
  20. "Kitty Kelley discusses Oprah bio". The Washington Post. April 28, 2010. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  21. http://www.feedcry.com/archive/aid/655827
  22. "Meeeow! The Saga Of Kitty". Time. April 22, 1991. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  23. Klein, Joe (September 20, 2004). "All You Have To Do Is Believe". Time. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  24. "PEN Oakland Awards". Penoakland.com. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
  25. "Awards History 20120401/0206E". ASJA.org. Retrieved 2012-04-01.

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