[Culto]

From this post about Florence Pritchett, Lee Israel and John Simkin:

2. Throughout the Pritchett/Kilgallen-related threads at Education Forum John Simkin states that Kilgallen had given her notes of her Ruby-interview to Pritchett 'in case anything would happen to her...' The only available source which alleges this is Penn Jones' "Forgive my Grief II" of 1967:

Source
That's all there is..It was only some vague speculation by Penn Jones. The claims made by Penn Jones about Pritchett's autopsy (Mrs. Earl E. T. Smith) are false as well: there wasn't even an autopsy performed on Pritchett and the official cause of her death had been published right away by the New York Times: cerebral haemorrhage. Penn Jones could have known that.
He chose to create confusion about her cause of death...spinning again?

The game being played here is that Simkin is upgrading the potentially "suspicious" links between these two ladies in order to involve Pritchett's death more in the area of JFK-"conspiracy." As a historian, Simkin should know that in this case Penn Jones' assumptions about Kilgallen's notes are not useful at all as source for linking Pritchett's death with the JFK "murder-conspiracy." So the next question is of course:

WHY would John Simkin be so eager to connect Flo Pritchett's death with the JFK-"murder"?

Meet John Simkin:



From his bio at his Spartacus Educational site:

In 1987 Simkin established Spartacus Educational. He is the author of several books including Ghandi (1987), The Vietnam War (1988 , Race Relations in the United States (1988 , Slavery: An Illustrated History of Black Resistance (1988 , Hitler (1988 , Stalin (1987), The Roman Empire (1991), Making of the United Kingdom (1992), Expansion, Trade and Industry (1992), The Medieval Village (1996) and The Norman Invasion (1996).
In September, 1997 he established the Spartacus Educational website. After leaving the classroom he has produced online materials for the Electronic Telegraph, the European Virtual School, the Historical Association and the Guardian's educational website, Learn.
Simkin has been interested in the assassination of John F. Kennedy for over 25 years. In 2004 he created the Assassination of JFK website. This is an attempt to provide materials for students to carry out a detailed investigation into the killing.

Simkin is an experienced historian, who has been interested in the JFK assassination for decades. He and other members of Education Forum did some excellent, unique research on Florence Pritchett.
It all started on the JFK, Kilgallen, Earl and Florence Smith thread of 2004. This is from Simkin's post #3:

Posted 27 July 2004 - 06:43 AM

This information provides an interesting insight into the death of Kilgallen. Dorothy died on 5th [..8th..] November, 1965. Her friend, Florence died two days later.

It was later claimed that when Dorothy got the interview with Jack Ruby she gave her notes to Florence. These were never found. Could it be that the information that she thought would "break the case wide open" came from Florence's husband. Dorothy appears to have been well-informed about Cuba. She was the first person to suggest that the CIA and Mafia were working together in order to assassinate JFK.

All the books that refer to the Kilgallen case always refer to her friend as Mrs Earl Smith. None, as far as I can see, even give her name as being Florence Smith. I have found this is a common problem with books on the assassination of JFK. The fact that her husband was the ambassador to Cuba seems highly significant

And from his post#7:

Posted 28 July 2004 - 07:48 AM

Has anyone got a copy of Lee Israel's book, Kilgallen? It is not available in the UK. Does Israel say anything about the death of Florence Smith? Does he confirm that Dorothy Kilgallen passed her notes onto Florence. I believe Kilgallen visited Miami just before her death to appear on the Larry King television show. Earl and Florence Smith were living in Miami at the time. Maybe this was when Kilgallen passed on the notes to Florence.

This post is obviously from the very beginning of Simkin's Kilgallen/Pritchett research, for at the time he hadn't read the Kilgallen biography yet. That's why he assumed in this post that author Lee Israel was a man instead of a woman.

In post #12 they found out about the infamous quote by Penn Jones Jr.:

Also strangely, Miss Kilgallen’s close friend, Mrs. Earl E.T. Smith, died two days after Miss Kilgallen. Mrs. Smith’s autopsy read that the cause of death was unknown.
Many skeptical newsmen have asked: “If Miss Kilgallen knew anything, surely as a journalist wouldn’t she have left some notes?” This is a legitimate question.
Possibly Mrs. Smith was the trusted friend with the notes. No one will ever know now

Once again, it's very important to notice here that this quote by Penn Jones is obviously speculation, nothing more than that. It's Penn Jones himself who makes it very clear: "possibly" Flo was given Dorothy's notes. It's just an assumption made by Jones, not based on any available data at all.

John Simkin, being an experienced historian, immediately recognized the value of Penn Jones' quote in his post #13:

Bob. I really appreciate all the work you put into that. It seems from this that it was pure speculation by Penn Jones that Kilgallen passed her notes onto Florence Smith.

It sure was, mr. Simkin. But now look at Simkin's next sentence of that same post #13:

However, there is evidence that Kilgallen did meet Smith a few days before she died. One source says that Kilgallen went to Miami to appear on a television show just before she was found dead. Florence Smith was living in Miami at the time. Maybe it was at this time that Kilgallen passed on her notes to Smith. However, I suspect Smith was also passing information to Kilgallen.

Apparently, Kilgallen appearing in a tv show (Larry King) in Miami is enough 'evidence' for historian John Simkin for a meeting between her and Florence Pritchett...

The source for the Kilgallen-Larry King interview in Miami was the Donald Nolen review of Lee Israel, Kilgallen, Amazon (14th January, 2004):

The second thing I've seen that's not in the book is a video interview with criminal defense attorney Joe Tonahill preserved at Lamar University in Texas. On it he says his last telephone conversation with Dorothy Kilgallen happened a short time before she died, "maybe a week before." They planned to participate in a radio talk show about the JFK assassination, but she died before the plans could materialize. Shortly before that conversation, Dorothy visited Miami to discuss Oswald, etc. on the talk show of a young Larry King. The same Larry now on CNN.

Furthermore, Florence couldn't have been living in Miami (or rather: Palm Beach) a few weeks or days before her death, for
she was (supposed to be) bedridden in her New York apartment from August '65 until her death in November '65, one day after Kilgallen reportedly died.

The next sentence of Simkin's post #13:

I am surprised that Penn Jones says that it is not known how Smith died. The obituary in the New York Journal American (9th November, 1965) makes it clear she died of a cerebral hemorrhage. This was the cause of death that also appeared in the New York Times. Earl Smith later claimed that she was suffering from leukaemia but he kept it a secret from her.

Penn Jones also does not appear to know that Florence was a long-term lover of JFK. That is probably because she was known by the name Florence Pritchett rather than as Florence Smith.

Indeed, it's quite suspicious that Penn Jones chose to ignore the cause of Pritchett's death as it was published in mainstream media like the New York Times. The quote that Earl kept his wife's illness a secret from her (and her friends) is from Sally Bedell Smith's book " Grace and Power," which was published in 2004. Flo's son Earl Jr. was probably Bedell's source.

Then John Simkin decided to start a new thread about Dorothy Kilgallen: Dorothy Kilgallen, The Key Witness

And this was the very first sentence written by Simkin in that new thread:

Posted 12 September 2004 - 05:03 PM

In July members of the forum managed to identify the friend that Dorothy Kilgallen passed her notes on her JFK article (Florence Smith/ Florence Pritchett) that she was writing when she was murdered.

Although Simkin concluded in July that Jones' claims about Kilgallen giving her notes to Pritchett were "pure speculation," he is now presenting it as a given fact that indeed she had given her research notes to Flo Pritchett! As an experienced historian, Simkin should have added to this statement that it was just speculation by Penn Jones, not based on any available facts at all. And there certainly is a pattern in Simkin's presentation of this particular speculation by Penn Jones as "fact" throughout his entire Kilgallen/Pritchett research.