Dick Lehr

Dick Lehr
Born (1954-05-03) May 3, 1954 (age 70)
Connecticut, United States
OccupationAuthor, journalist, professor of journalism
Alma materHarvard University
University of Connecticut
GenreNonfiction, crime, history
Notable awards
Website
dicklehr.com

Dick Lehr (born May 3, 1954) 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.

Life and career

Lehr grew up in Connecticut. He attended The Gunnery School, in Washington, Connecticut, and later attended Harvard University, graduating in 1976. While working for the Hartford Courant, Lehr received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1984.

Lehr was a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford in 1991-1992. From 1985 to 2003, he was a reporter at The Boston Globe,[1] where he was the Globe's legal affairs reporter, magazine and feature writer, and a longtime member of the Spotlight Team, an investigative reporting unit.[2] He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in investigative reporting.[3] He was a Visiting Journalist-in-Residence at The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University in 2007.[4]

Lehr left the Globe in 2003 and became a professor of journalism at Boston University College of Communication.[5]

Published works

In January 1989, he co-authored his first book, The Underboss: The Rise and Fall of a Mafia Family, with Gerard O'Neill published first by St. Martin's Press and later editions by PublicAffairs.[6]

In May 2000, Black Mass was released, which he also co-authored with O'Neill. Pulling from their investigations on the Spotlight Team, Black Mass detailed the illicit relationship between Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger and FBI special agent John Connolly.[7][8][9][10] The book became a New York Times bestseller[11] and won the 2001 Edgar Award for best fact crime. In 2015 the film adaptation of Black Mass premiered, with Johnny Depp playing the role of Whitey Bulger and Benedict Cumberbatch playing Whitey's brother Bill Bulger. In the movie, Lehr makes a cameo as a patron in a restaurant.[12][13]

Judgment Ridge: The True Story Behind the Dartmouth Murders was published in September 2003 by HarperCollins, co-authored with fellow Globe reporter Mitchell Zuckoff.[14][15]

In June, 2009, Lehr published his first solo project, The Fence: A Police Cover-up Along Boston's Racial Divide published by HarperCollins, a non-fiction narrative about the police beating of Michael Cox, an officer working in plainclothes who was mistaken for a fleeing murder suspect. It was the worst known case of police brutality in Boston history.[16][17] The Fence was an Edgar Award finalist for best non-fiction.[18] Lionsgate Television is developing a limited dramatic series based on the book.

In 2011, James "Whitey" Bulger was arrested in Santa Monica, California after successfully evading law enforcement for nearly two decades. After his capture, Lehr co-wrote with O'Neill the definitive biography of Bulger, Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss, which was published by Crown in February 2013.[19][20][21]

In 2014, Lehr authored The Birth of a Movement: How Birth of a Nation Ignited the Battle for Civil Rights published by PublicAffairs. In the book, Lehr recaptures the firestorm that ensued after the 1915 release of The Birth of a Nation, zeroing in on the parallel narratives of two men entrenched in the controversy: an African-American journalist and agitator William Monroe Trotter and D.W. Griffith who created the film.[22] In February 2017, Lehr was featured in a PBS documentary titled The Birth of a Movement as part of its Independent Lens documentary series.[23]

In 2014, Lehr began penning his first young adult novel, Trell, inspired by a series of articles he wrote from the Globe about the questionable conviction for first-degree murder (later overturned) of a young drug dealer, Shawn Drumgold. The novel was published by Candlewick Press in September 2017. In it, a Boston teen named Trell teams up with a Globe reporter to try to uncover the evidence to show her father was wrongfully convicted for murder.[24][25] Feature film rights were acquired by Tonik Productions.[26]

In 2020, Lehr completed his first World War II nonfiction narrative for HarperCollins, Dead Reckoning: The Story of How Johnny Mitchell and His Fighter Pilots Took on Admiral Yamamoto and Avenged Pearl Harbor. The epic true story chronicles the high-stakes operation undertaken in April 1943 to shoot down the iconic Japanese commander and architect of the deadly Pearl Harbor attack – a longshot mission hatched hastily at the U.S. base on Guadalcanal.[27][28]

In 2021, HarperCollins' Mariner Books published Lehr's riveting account of a secret plot by white nationalists in 2016 to bomb Somali refugees living in Kansas that was averted when a local man infiltrated the militia group for the FBI. White Hot Hate: A True Story of Domestic Terrorism in America's Heartland foreshadowed the growing far-right militia movement in the U.S. that culminated in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.[29] In November 2021, Lehr was featured in documentary about the bomb plot produced by George Stephanopoulos Productions and ABC News. The Informant: Fear and Faith in America's Heartland debuted on Hulu on November 1, 2021.

Honors

Books

  • Lehr, Dick; O'Neill, Gerard (August 6, 2008). The Underboss: The Rise and Fall of a Mafia Family. PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-0-7867-2550-2.
  • The Fence: A Police Cover-up Along Boston's Racial Divide (2009)
  • Judgment Ridge: The True Story Behind the Dartmouth Murders (2009)
  • Lehr, Dick; O'Neill, Gerard (May 22, 2012). Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI, and a Devil's Deal. PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-61039-168-9.
  • Lehr, Dick; O'Neill, Gerard (August 27, 2013). Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss. Crown. ISBN 978-0-307-98655-9.
  • Black Mass: Der verhängnisvolle Pakt zwischen dem FBI und Whitey Bulger, einem der gefährlichsten Gangster der US-Geschichte (German Edition) (2015)
  • The Birth of a Movement: How Birth of a Nation Ignited the Battle for Civil Rights (2017)
  • Trell (2017)
  • Dead Reckoning: The Story of How Johnny Mitchell and His Fighter Pilots Took on Admiral Yamamoto and Avenged Pearl Harbor (2020)
  • White Hot Hate: A True Story of Domestic Terrorism in America's Heartland (2021)

References

  1. ^ "1995 Beating by Boston Police Highlights Dangers for Black Undercover Officers". The Washington Post. July 21, 2009. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  2. ^ Shea, Jack (December 16, 2015). "'Spotlight' highlights the role of investigative journalism". The Martha's Vineyard Times. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  3. ^ "Pulitzer Prize winners, finalists". The Boston Globe. April 8, 1997. Archived from the original on November 8, 2017. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  4. ^ "Dick Lehr | Schuster Institute | Brandeis University". Brandeis University. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
  5. ^ "Richard Lehr". Boston University. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  6. ^ "The Underboss Gerard O'Neill, Author, Dick Lehr, With St. Martin's Press". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  7. ^ Dershowitz, Alan M. "Two journalists explore the case of protected F.B.I. informers". The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  8. ^ "Nonfiction Book Review: Black Mass: The Irish Mob, the FBI, and a Devil's Deal by Dick Lehr, Author, Gerard O'Neill, Joint Author". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  9. ^ "BLACK MASS by Dick Lehr , Gerard ONeill". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  10. ^ Schwartz, Drew (September 17, 2015). "Talking to the Journalist Who Literally Wrote the Book on Whitey Bulger". Vice. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  11. ^ "Bestsellers". The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  12. ^ Palma, Kristi (September 16, 2015). "How the 'Black Mass' authors watched their book come to life on screen". Boston.com. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  13. ^ Hamedy, Saba (September 19, 2015). "'Black Mass' co-authors share experiences with taking book to Hollywood". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  14. ^ "JUDGMENT RIDGE by Dick Lehr , Mitchell Zuckoff". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  15. ^ "Judgment Ridge". The New Yorker. October 27, 2003. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  16. ^ Alix Spiegel. "Why Seeing (The Unexpected) Is Often Not Believing". NPR.org. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  17. ^ Pennington, Bill (November 16, 2013). "A Lesson in Perseverance for a Giants Running Back". The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  18. ^ "Nominees: The Edgar Awards". The Edgar. Archived from the original on August 19, 2009. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  19. ^ Connolly, John. "Review: Whitey – The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss, by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill". The Irish Times. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  20. ^ Davis, Paul. "BOOK REVIEW: 'Whitey'". The Washington Times. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  21. ^ "Book review: 'Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss' by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill". The Boston Globe. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  22. ^ Drabelle, Dennis. "Book review: 'The Birth of a Nation,' the racial debate over the film, by Dick Lehr". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  23. ^ "Birth of a Movement | Film about Controversy Around D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation". PBS. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  24. ^ "Children's Book Review: Trell by Dick Lehr". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  25. ^ "TRELL by Dick Lehr". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  26. ^ Siegel, Tatiana (August 1, 2018). "Tonya Lewis Lee Nabs YA Novel 'Trell' From Former Spotlight Team Reporter Dick Lehr (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
  27. ^ Holahan, David. "Review: Dick Lehr's 'Dead Reckoning' recreates thrilling WWII mission to get Isoroku Yamamoto". USA TODAY. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
  28. ^ Ford, Daniel (June 5, 2020). "'Dead Reckoning' Review: Taking Aim at a Target of One". Wall Street Journal.
  29. ^ Kifer, Andy. "The High Stakes in Dick Lehr's New Thriller". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
  30. ^ Papiernik, Dick (June 1992). "Editors on the move in Philadelphia, Florida; award winners announced" (PDF). The Business Journalist. Vol. 31, no. 1. Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. pp. 3–4. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
  31. ^ "Category List – Best Fact Crime". Edgars Database. p. 2. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  32. ^ "Award-winning author serves as Hill's writer-in-residence". The Hill. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
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