His columns and exposés for the New York Post drew acclaim, including one that charged that the FBI bungled cases under J. Edgar Hoover's leadership.
Dufty took Billie Holiday's oral history and wrote Lady Sings the Blues in 1956, which in turn was made into a 1972 movie starring Diana Ross in the title role.
[5][6] Dufty credits the death of John F. Kennedy and an article by Tom Wolfe in New York Magazine with starting him on the way to good health.
After obtaining some literature from the Ohsawa Foundation in New York, and following its strict regime of vegetables and rice, Dufty transformed his body and mind.
Describing the frustrating search similarly pursued by Dr. Steven Gyland,[8] Dufty wrote,[2]: 89 In the 1960s, he met Gloria Swanson, a nutrition enthusiast who convinced him that white sugar was unsafe.