Get Our Extension

Paul Henderson (journalist)

From Wikipedia, in a visual modern way

Paul Henderson III (January 13, 1939 – December 7, 2018) was an American journalist and private investigator.[1] In both roles, he helped win the freedom of 14 wrongfully convicted people, with nearly all being murder cases. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 1982 as a reporter for The Seattle Times.[2]

Henderson was born in Washington D.C., but moved to Beatrice, Nebraska as a young child. He attended Wentworth Military Academy and Junior College in Lexington, Missouri, graduating in 1959. After three years in the U.S. Army, he continued his education at Creighton University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha.[1]

Henderson began his career as a journalist at the Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil (1962–1966), before moving on to the Omaha World-Herald (1966–1967), and The Seattle Times (1967–1985). While working in the newsroom as an investigative reporter at The Seattle Times in 1981, Henderson took a call from a man named Steve Titus.

Titus explained to Henderson that he was about to be sentenced for a sexual assault he did not commit. Henderson looked into the case and wrote a series of three stories entitled "One Man's Battle to Clear His Name, a story of rape, wrongful conviction and vindication," challenging the circumstantial evidence against Titus.[3] When officials followed up on Henderson's leads, they found a man who resembled Titus and who eventually confessed to the crime.[3] The report convinced a judge to reverse Titus' conviction.

Henderson won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for his series.[2] Titus died of a heart attack at age 36, just as he was on the verge of winning a major wrongful-conviction settlement.

Motivated by his experience with the Titus case, Henderson left the Seattle Times in 1985 to become a private investigator. Since 1988, Henderson had been an investigator for Centurion Ministries, a small nonprofit organization based in Princeton, New Jersey dedicated to vindicating the wrongfully convicted. They have helped free more than 30 people.

In addition to winning the Pulitzer, Henderson is also the winner of the C.B. Blethan Award (1977 and 1982), the Roy W. Howard Newspaper Award, Scripps-Howard Foundation (1982), and he was named an Outstanding Achiever by the American Academy of Achievement (1982).

Henderson died on December 7, 2018 at the age of 79[4] from lung cancer.[1]

Discover more about Paul Henderson (journalist) related topics

Journalist

Journalist

A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism.

Private investigator

Private investigator

A private investigator, a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators often work for attorneys in civil and criminal cases.

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.

The Seattle Times

The Seattle Times

The Seattle Times is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. The Seattle Times has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington state and the Pacific Northwest region.

Beatrice, Nebraska

Beatrice, Nebraska

Beatrice is a city in and the county seat of Gage County, Nebraska, United States. Its population was 12,459 at the 2010 census. Beatrice is located approximately 25 miles south of Lincoln on the Big Blue River and is surrounded by agricultural country.

Lexington, Missouri

Lexington, Missouri

Lexington is a city in and the county seat of Lafayette County, Missouri. The population was 4,726 at the 2010 census. Located in western Missouri, Lexington lies approximately 40 miles (64 km) east of Kansas City and is part of the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area. It is the home of the Battle of Lexington State Historic Site, and of the former Wentworth Military Academy and College, which operated from 1880 to 2017.

Creighton University

Creighton University

Creighton University is a private Jesuit research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1878, the university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2015 the university enrolled 8,393 graduate and undergraduate students on a 140-acre (57 ha) campus just outside Omaha's downtown business district. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".

Omaha World-Herald

Omaha World-Herald

The Omaha World-Herald is a daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, the primary newspaper of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. It was locally owned from its founding in 1885 until 2020, when it was sold to the newspaper chain Lee Enterprises by its most recent local owner, Warren Buffett, chairman of Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway.

Wrongful conviction of Steve Titus

Wrongful conviction of Steve Titus

The wrongful conviction of Steve Titus was a miscarriage of justice in which Steve Gary Titus (1949–1985), an American businessman, was convicted wrongly of rape. Titus was dismissed from his job after the conviction and, though the charges were soon dismissed, he became long term unemployed. The crime was later determined to have been committed by serial rapist Edward Lee King. Journalist Paul Henderson was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for his work on the case. Jack Olsen's book Predator examined the investigation of the crime and the life of the real criminal.

1982 Pulitzer Prize

1982 Pulitzer Prize

The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1982.

Princeton, New Jersey

Princeton, New Jersey

Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of which are now defunct. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 30,681, an increase of 2,109 (+7.4%) from the 2010 census combined count of 28,572.

Lung cancer

Lung cancer

Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancers are caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often exacerbated by cigarette smoking, or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged airway cells sometimes gain the ability to proliferate unchecked, causing the growth of a tumor. Without treatment, lung tumors can spread throughout the lung, damaging lung function. Eventually lung tumors metastasize, spreading to distant parts of the body, and causing varying disease. Lung cancers are classified based on the cells they originate from. Around 15% are small-cell lung cancers, while the remaining 85% are adenocarcinomas, squamous-cell carcinomas, and large-cell carcinomas.

Source: "Paul Henderson (journalist)", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, February 9th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Henderson_(journalist).

Enjoying Wikiz?

Enjoying Wikiz?

Get our FREE extension now!

References
  1. ^ a b c "Paul Henderson, Pulitzer Prize-winning Seattle Times reporter who championed the underdog, dies at 79". The Seattle Times. December 13, 2018. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
  2. ^ a b The Pulitzer Prizes. "1982 Pulitzer Prize Prizes". www.pulitzer.org. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
  3. ^ a b "The Seattle Times: Local news: Steve Titus Case". special.seattletimes.com. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
  4. ^ "Paul Henderson, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, dies". AP NEWS. 2018-12-14. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
Further reading
  • Predator: Rape, Madness, and Injustice in Seattle, ISBN 0-385-29935-4, Jack Olsen, 1991

The content of this page is based on the Wikipedia article written by contributors..
The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence & the media files are available under their respective licenses; additional terms may apply.
By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use & Privacy Policy.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization & is not affiliated to WikiZ.com.