The Big Story - 1947-10-15 Bobby-Sox Kid from Bayonne [Dorothy Kilgallen, NY Journal American]

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English · Radio

The original event of this episode was in August 1936, a brutal hatchet killing of Gladys MacKnight's mother that she perpetrated with her boyfriend, Donald Wightman. Both were convicted. The story received national coverage. Dorothy Kilgallen covered the story when she was a young reporter for the New York Journal , a few years before she became a famous columnist there. Her father, James Kilgallen was a reporter for the International Press wire service, and was assigned to the same story. Helen MacKnight was 47, and she annoyed 17-year-old Gladys when she refused to change the time of the dinner meal one afternoon to accommodate her plans for tennis with her 18-year-old boyfriend. Tensions had been building up over a couple of years as Helen did not like Donald or their relationship. This particular day, the situation exploded. Gladys struck her mother repeatedly with an axe while Donald held her steady. At their trial, they concocted a story that they were defending themselves when Helen came at them with a knife. The jury deliberated three hours and returned second-degree murder verdicts against both of them, spared of the death penalty by the jury because of their age. Neither served their full sentences of almost 30 years. Gladys earned parole in 1943 and Donald in 1945. The parole boards allowed them to be released only if they joined the military or similar service; it was the time of WW2, and recruiting was still an urgent need. Both left New Jersey, with Gladys eventually in northern California and Donald settling and starting a family in Florida. Gladys was in the Army Medical Corps and served as Sergeant of her unit. She later worked with a health insurer and retired from a management position with a union’s welfare and trust fund. She died in 2001 at age 82. Donald joined the Merchant Marines and after his time there, he worked in the airline industry in Florida and England. In his retirement in North Carolina, he volunteered in Veterans Administration programs, with the Red Cross, and in church activities. He died in 1990 at age 72. For more about Dorothy Kilgallen, multiple biographies have been published over the years. One of them can be read at The Internet Archive. It is Kilgallen by Lee Israel https://archive.org/details/kilgallen00isra/page/n3/mode/2up

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.