Jonathan Kwitny (March 23, 1941 – November 26, 1998) was an American

investigative journalist Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...

Biography

Kwitny was born in Indianapolis.
He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

's School of Journalism in 1962, and a master's degree in history at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

in 1964. Kwitny was married twice. His first wife, Martha Kaplan, a deputy New Jersey state attorney general, with whom he had two daughters, died in 1978. His second wife was the poet Wendy Wood Kwitny, with whom he had two sons. Jonathan Kwitny died of stomach cancer in 1998. His awards included the

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...

for television investigative reporting and the

University of Missouri School of Journalism The Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia is one of the oldest formal journalism schools in the world. The school provides academic education and practical training in all areas of journalism and strategic commu ...

's honor medal for career achievement. Kwitny was also the author of several books on subjects which ranged from the

Nugan Hand Bank Nugan Hand Bank was an Australian merchant bank that collapsed in 1980 after the suicide of one of its founders, Australian lawyer Francis John Nugan, resulting in a major scandal. News stories suggested that the bank had been involved in illeg ...

scandal to a biography of

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

Career

Kwitny's career in journalism began as a reporter for the

Perth Amboy Perth Amboy is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey. Perth Amboy is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 55,436. Perth Amboy has a Hispanic majority population. In the 2010 census, th ...

''News Tribune'' in 1963. In 1971 he joined ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', where his articles frequently appeared as front-page features. In 1987, together with producer Tom Naughton, Kwitny created a half-hour news program for New York's

WNYC-TV WPXN-TV (channel 31) is a television station in New York City, airing programming from the Ion Television network. Owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E.W. Scripps Company, the station maintains offices on Seventh Avenue in ...

called ''The Kwitny Report''. The show was carried on the PBS network and won the Polk Award for television investigative reporting in 1989, but was canceled that same year. At the time of his death, he was working for the Gannett newspaper company. Kwitny was the author of a number of

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...

books, including a biography of

. When Kwitny met John Paul in the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

for a private audience in 1998, the Pope's first comment to him was, "I have read your book."

Works

Books

* ''The Mullendore Murder Case'' (1974). On the murder of Oklahoma rancher E.C. Mullendore III. * ''Shakedown'' (1977). A novel. * ''Vicious Circles: The Mafia in the Marketplace'' (1979). On

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

involvement in

white-collar crime The term "white-collar crime" refers to financially motivated, nonviolent or non-directly violent crime committed by individuals, businesses and government professionals. It was first defined by the sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as "a ...

Extract
via

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

. * ''Endless Enemies: The Making of an Unfriendly World'' (1984). On

U.S. foreign policy The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...

.
''The Crimes of Patriots: A True Story of Dope, Dirty Money, and the CIA''
(1988). On the

scandal. * ''Acceptable Risks'' (1992). On unapproved treatments for AIDS. * ''The Super Swindlers: The Incredible Record of America's Greatest Financial Scams'' (1994) ** An update of ''The Fountain Pen Conspiracy'' (1973) * ''Man of the Century: The Life and Times of Pope John Paul II'' (1997). .

Book reviews

"Reinvestigating Watergate: The Elusive Glow of Truth."
Review of ''Secret Agenda'', by Jim Hougan. ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' (Jan. 3, 1985)
p. 9.

References

External links

Jonathan Kwitny
at

Spartacus Educational Spartacus Educational is a free online encyclopedia with essays and other educational material on a wide variety of historical subjects principally British history from 1700 and the history of the United States. Based in the United Kingdom, Spart ...

Personal file ''Personal File'' is the 92nd album by American music icon Johnny Cash. The two CD set was released posthumously on May 23, 2006, by Legacy Recordings. ''Personal File'' contains 49 unreleased tracks on two CDs recorded between 1973 and 1982. Given ...

at the

via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kwitny, Jonathan 1941 births 1998 deaths American male journalists 20th-century American journalists American investigative journalists The Wall Street Journal people Writers from Indianapolis Missouri School of Journalism alumni New York University alumni George Polk Award recipients Deaths from cancer in New York (state) 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers