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Gerard O'Neill

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Gerard O'Neill
Born
Gerard Michael O'Neill

(1942-09-01)September 1, 1942
DiedAugust 22, 2019(2019-08-22) (aged 76)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Journalist, editor
Spouse
Janet Reardon
(m. 1968)
Children2

Gerard Michael O'Neill (September 1, 1942 – August 22, 2019) was an American journalist, newspaper editor, and writer. A long time investigative reporter for The Boston Globe, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting three times.

Life and career

Born in Boston, O'Neill graduated from Stoughton High School and Stonehill College; earning a degree in English at the latter institution in 1964.[1] He attended George Washington University Law School before earning a master's degree in journalism from Boston University in 1970.[1] For 35 years he was an investigative reporter and editor for The Boston Globe, and was notably one of the three original reporters on the Globe's " Spotlight" team.[1] He was first awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 1970 for a major investigation of corruption in Somerville, Massachusetts; an award he would receive two more times during his career.[2]

O'Neill's most notable piece of investigative reporting was in 1988 when he and journalist Dick Lehr published a story revealing that mobster Whitey Bulger was an FBI informant while still actively committing crimes. The two men would go on to write three books together, including two about Black Mass: The Irish Mob, the FBI, and a Devil’s Deal (2000) and Whitey: The Life of America’s Most Notorious Mob Boss (2013).[1] The former book was an Edgar Award[3] winner, and was made into a 2015 movie starring Johnny Depp as Bulger.[1][2]

O'Neill died on August 22, 2019, from interstitial lung disease at his home in Needham, a close-in suburb of Boston.[1]

Discover more about Life and career related topics

Stoughton High School

Stoughton High School

Stoughton High School (SHS) is a public high school the town of Stoughton, Massachusetts, United States. It serves students in grades 9 to 12 and is a part of Stoughton Public Schools. It has an average of 300 students per grade level. It is located on 232 Pearl Street in Stoughton, Massachusetts. The principal is Juliette Miller. SHS is known for their award-winning marching band and color guard, known as the Marching Black Knights.

Stonehill College

Stonehill College

Stonehill College is a private Roman Catholic liberal arts college in Easton, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1948 by the Congregation of Holy Cross and is located on the original estate of Frederick Lothrop Ames Jr., with 29 buildings that complement the original Georgian-style Ames mansion.

George Washington University Law School

George Washington University Law School

The George Washington University Law School is the law school of George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. Established in 1865, GW Law is the oldest top law school in the national capital. GW Law offers the largest range of courses in the US, with 275 elective courses in business and finance law, environmental law, government procurement law, intellectual property law, international comparative law, litigation and dispute resolution, and national security and U.S. foreign relations law. Admissions are highly selective as the law school receives thousands of applications. In 2020, the acceptance rate was 21%.

Boston University

Boston University

Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodists with its original campus in Newbury, Vermont, before being chartered in Boston in 1869. BU is a member of the Boston Consortium for Higher Education and the Association of American Universities. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity". The Boston University Terriers compete in the NCAA Division I.

The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes.

Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting

Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting

The Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting has been awarded since 1953, under one name or another, for a distinguished example of investigative reporting by an individual or team, presented as a single article or series in a U.S. news publication. It is administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City.

Somerville, Massachusetts

Somerville, Massachusetts

Somerville is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a total population of 81,045 people. With an area of 4.12 square miles (10.7 km2), the city has a density of 19,671/sq mi (7,595/km2), making it the most densely populated municipality in New England and the 16th most densely populated incorporated municipality in the country. Somerville was established as a town in 1842, when it was separated from Charlestown. In 2006, the city was named the best-run city in Massachusetts by The Boston Globe. In 1972, 2009, and 2015, the city received the All-America City Award. It is home to Tufts University, which has its campus along the Somerville and Medford border.

Dick Lehr

Dick Lehr

Dick Lehr is an American author, journalist and a professor of journalism at Boston University. He is known for co-authoring The New York Times bestseller and Edgar Award winner Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI and a Devil’s Deal, and its sequel, Whitey: The Life of America’s Most Notorious Mob Boss with fellow journalist Gerard O'Neill.

Whitey Bulger

Whitey Bulger

James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger Jr. was an American organized crime boss who led the Winter Hill Gang in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, a city directly northwest of Boston. On December 23, 1994, Bulger fled the Boston area and went into hiding after his former FBI handler, John Connolly, tipped him off about a pending RICO indictment against him. Bulger remained at large for sixteen years. After his 2011 arrest, federal prosecutors tried Bulger for nineteen murders based on grand jury testimony from Kevin Weeks and other former criminal associates.

Black Mass (film)

Black Mass (film)

Black Mass is a 2015 American biographical crime drama film about American mobster Whitey Bulger. Directed by Scott Cooper and written by Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth, it is based on Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill's 2001 book Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob. The film features an ensemble cast led by Johnny Depp as Bulger, alongside Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, Jesse Plemons, Peter Sarsgaard, Dakota Johnson, and Corey Stoll.

Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp

John Christopher Depp II is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for three Academy Awards and two BAFTA awards.

Interstitial lung disease

Interstitial lung disease

Interstitial lung disease (ILD), or diffuse parenchymal lung disease (DPLD), is a group of respiratory diseases affecting the interstitium of the lungs. It concerns alveolar epithelium, pulmonary capillary endothelium, basement membrane, and perivascular and perilymphatic tissues. It may occur when an injury to the lungs triggers an abnormal healing response. Ordinarily, the body generates just the right amount of tissue to repair damage, but in interstitial lung disease, the repair process is disrupted, and the tissue around the air sacs (alveoli) becomes scarred and thickened. This makes it more difficult for oxygen to pass into the bloodstream. The disease presents itself with the following symptoms: shortness of breath, nonproductive coughing, fatigue, and weight loss, which tend to develop slowly, over several months. The average rate of survival for someone with this disease is between three and five years. The term ILD is used to distinguish these diseases from obstructive airways diseases.

Source: "Gerard O'Neill", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, January 9th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_O'Neill.

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References
  1. ^ a b c d e f Seelye, Katharine Q. (August 23, 2019). "Gerard O'Neill, Boston Globe Investigative Reporter, Dies at 76". The New York Times.
  2. ^ a b Marquard, Bryan (August 23, 2019). "Gerard O'Neill, Spotlight editor who defined investigative reporting in Boston, dies at 76". Boston Globe. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
  3. ^ Leckey, Susan (2015). The Europa Directory of Literary Awards and Prizes. Routledge. p. 231. ISBN 9781135356323.


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