The Murder of Dot King

Dorothy "Dot" King aka Anna Marie Keenan

Dorothy “Dot” King, born Anna Marie Keenan in Manhattan, was reported as having been born in either 1894 or 1896. Her parents were Irish American, and she grew up in modest circumstances in New York City.

In her teens, Dot worked as a shop model in Manhattan dress salons, a position that placed her directly in view of wealthy customers and theatrical costumers. These workplaces connected her to the social environments of Broadway and the city’s upper social tiers. She entered into a brief early marriage to a chauffeur. The marriage ended after a few years, and afterward she pursued work and social life independently in New York.

John Kearsley Mitchell III

Dot appeared in the Winter Garden Theatre revue Broadway Brevities of 1920, which ran for 105 performances. Her theatrical career was limited, but she remained active within the social circles of performers, patrons, and society men who frequented Broadway nightlife during the early 1920s.

By 1923, newspapers had begun referring to her as the “Broadway Butterfly.” The phrase was used at the time to describe women who moved between theatrical, social, and financial elite circles in Manhattan. During this period, Dot was associated with John Kearsley Mitchell III, a young man from a prominent Philadelphia family and son in law of financier Edward T. Stotesbury. Their relationship was widely reported after her death, and investigators initially referred to Mitchell only by the alias “Mr. Marshall” in early questioning. He was not charged.

On March 15, 1923, Dot King was found dead in her West 57th Street apartment. A strong odor of chloroform was noted at the scene. Several pieces of jewelry known to have belonged to her were reported missing. Newspapers covered the case extensively, and it rapidly became one of the most publicized unsolved deaths of the decade. Theories at the time included robbery, blackmail, and personal entanglement. No suspect was ever formally charged, and the case remains unsolved.

Later accounts and retrospective articles sometimes placed her in the orbit of Arnold Rothstein, a known gambler and Prohibition-era figure. However, these mentions appear in rumor-based retellings rather than in original 1923 investigative reporting. They should be characterized as unverified rumor, not documentary fact.

Dorothy King was first buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. On January 22, 1925, her remains were disinterred and reburied at Calvary Cemetery in Queens. She was approximately twenty-six to twenty-nine years old at the time of her death, reflecting the uncertainty of her recorded birth year.