Selwyn Raab (born June 26, 1934 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

) is an American journalist, author and former investigative reporter for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. He has written extensively about the

American Mafia The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian American criminal society and organized crime group. The organization is often referred to by its membe ...

and criminal justice issues.

Early life and education

A native New Yorker, Raab grew up on

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

. He attended

Seward Park High School __NOTOC__ The Seward Park Campus is a "vertical campus" of the New York City Department of Education located at 350 Grand Street at the corner of Essex Street, in the Lower East Side/Cooperative Village neighborhoods of Manhattan, New York City. ...

and later graduated from the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

, where he received a B.A. degree in

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

in 1956. At City College he was campus correspondent for ''The Times'' and an editor of ''Observation Post'', a student newspaper.

Career

Raab got his first jobs as a reporter with the ''Bridgeport Sunday Herald'' newspaper in

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...

and ''

The Star-Ledger ''The Star-Ledger'' is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to ''The Jersey Journal'' of Jersey City, ''The Times'' of Trenton and the '' Staten Island Advance'', all of wh ...

'' newspaper in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.''New York World-Telegram and Sun''. He was originally assigned as an education reporter. On the education beat he covered declining reading and mathematics test scores, attempts to unionize teachers and racial integration disputes until he discovered that mob-connected contractors were behind a major scandal concerning improper construction and renovation which endangered the safety of thousands of students in the school system. In 1964, he discovered that Dr.

Chester M. Southam Chester Milton Southam (October 4, 1919 – April 15, 2002) was an immunologist and oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Cornell University Medical College; he went to Thomas Jefferson University in 1971 and worked there unti ...

of the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

was injecting sick patients with cancer cells, while telling them that they were normal human cells. Southam was eventually convicted of fraud, deceit and unprofessional conduct. Later as investigative reporter at the ''New York World-Telegram'', he was instrumental in finding evidence that exonerated George Whitmore Jr. of false charges for having slain Janice Wylie and Emily Hoffert in the notorious Career Girl murders in 1963. He also uncovered evidence that led to the dismissal of a third murder accusation against Whitmore.

NBC News (1966–1971)

While producer and news editor for

WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo station WN ...

television news, (1966-1971), Raab also wrote a book about the case, ''Justice in the Back Room'', published in 1967. The book was nominated for an

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

by the

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the Edgar Award ...

for Best Fact Crime Book in 1968.

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

bought the television rights, transforming Raab into a fictional detective named Theo Kojak, portrayed by

Telly Savalas Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas (January 21, 1922 – January 22, 1994) was an American actor and singer whose career spanned four decades. Noted for his bald head and deep, resonant voice, he is perhaps best known for portraying Lt. Theo Kojak on th ...

in the series ''

Kojak ''Kojak'' is an American action crime drama television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theodopolis "Theo" Kojak. Taking the time slot of the popular ''Cannon'' series, it ...

''. The series ran for five years. The series was spun off from the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

television movie, ''

The Marcus-Nelson Murders This is a list of episodes for the television series '' Kojak''. The first five seasons ( Pilot + 118 ep.) were aired on CBS from 1973 until 1978. CBS also commissioned a pair of TV movies in 1985 and 1987. ABC revived ''Kojak'' in 1989 for five ...

'', which won two

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

in 1973.

''The 51st State'' – WNET-13 (1971–1974)

In 1971, he became a reporter-producer at the public broadcasting television station WNET-13 on the news program ''The 51st State'', where he continued working on the Whitmore case. He proved that Whitmore was elsewhere on the day of the killings and helped clear him. It took seven more years to locate a witness whose testimony exonerated Whitmore in 1973 from an unrelated attempted rape conviction. Whitmore was released from prison after serving nine years for a "wrong man" conviction for attempted rape. Raab received a

New York Press Club The New York Press Club, sometimes ''NYPC'', is a private nonprofit membership organization which promotes journalism in the New York City metropolitan area. It is unaffiliated with any government organization and abstains from politics. While the c ...

Award for Outstanding Television Journalism for his work on the case. His work was also nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in News Feature Reporting Within a Regularly Scheduled News Program for the feature ''Shooting Gallery'' aired on December 18, 1973 (WNET). He became Executive Producer of ''The 51st State'' until he left for ''The New York Times'' in 1974.

''The New York Times'' (1974–2000)

In 1974, Raab became a metropolitan staff reporter for ''

'' where he covered criminal justice and government corruption stories, particularly those that involved the

. During this period, he exposed perjured testimony and police and prosecutorial misconduct surrounding the triple murder convictions of boxer

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (May 6, 1937 – April 20, 2014) was an American-Canadian middleweight boxer, wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for murder, until released following a petition of habeas corpus after almost 20 years in prison. I ...

and his co-defendant, John Artis, which led to the ultimate dismissal of all accusations against them. Both men were cleared after serving lengthy prison sentences.

''Five Families'' (2000–present)

Raab left the ''Times'' in 2000. His book, the ''New York Times'' Bestseller, ''Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires'' was published in 2005. He is a consultant on organized crime for TV documentaries, primarily on the

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

and

Biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

channels. He was involved as a consultant for the six-part series ''Inside the American Mob'', being interviewed with prominent

Cosa Nostra The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") by its members, is an Italian Mafia-terrorist-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society originating in the region of Sicily a ...

members as well as current and former FBI agents, US Attorneys and detectives who were heavily involved with the pursuit of the Mafia and giving first-person accounts of major events involving the mob. He was an adviser on scripts for the 10-part television series, '' The Making of the Mob: New York'', based partly on ''Five Families'', which premiered on June 15, 2015, on

AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** ...

. He was also featured in the 2018

Audioboom AudioBoom PLC is an on-demand audio and podcasting distribution platform. AudioBoom offers business-to-business services to the radio, media and podcast industries. AudioBoom's platform has been used to power on-demand audio for businesses incl ...

podcast ''Mafia''.

Awards and honors

*University of Missouri School of Journalism Award for Magazine Writing (1970) *

Sigma Delta Chi Award The Sigma Delta Chi Awards are presented annually by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) (formerly Sigma Delta Chi) for excellence in journalism. The SPJ states the purpose of the award is to promote "the free flow of information vital ...

for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism from the

Society of Professional Journalists The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, letter ...

(1971, 1972) *The

Award for Outstanding Television Journalism (1973) *New York State Associated Press Broadcaster Association Award (1973) *The New York Press Club Best Feature Story Award (1984) *The

Heywood Broun Heywood Campbell Broun Jr. (; December 7, 1888 – December 18, 1939) was an American journalist. He worked as a sportswriter, newspaper columnist, and editor in New York City. He founded the American Newspaper Guild, later known as The Newspaper ...

Memorial Award from the

American Newspaper Guild The NewsGuild-CWA is a labor union founded by newspaper journalists in 1933. In addition to improving wages and working conditions, its constitution says its purpose is to fight for honesty in journalism and the news industry's business practices ...

(1974) *Page One Award from the Newspaper Guild of New York (1975) *New York City Patrolmen's Benevolent Association Award (1985) *Townsend Harris Medal for "Notable Achievement" from the

(2009)

Bibliography

*''Justice in the Back Room'' (1967) *''Mob Lawyer'' with

Frank Ragano Frank Ragano (January 25, 1923 – May 13, 1998) was a self-styled "mob lawyer" from Florida, who made his name representing organized crime figures such as Santo Trafficante, Jr. and Carlos Marcello, and also served as lawyer for Teamsters lea ...

(1994) *''Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires'' (2005)

Filmography

References

External links

* –

CUNY TV , mottoeng = The education of free people is the hope of Mankind , budget = $3.6 billion , established = , type = Public university system , chancellor = Fél ...

''Fresh Air'' interview with Selwyn Raab
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raab, Selwyn Living people 1934 births American investigative journalists The New York Times writers Non-fiction writers about organized crime in the United States City College of New York alumni American male non-fiction writers Seward Park High School alumni People from the Lower East Side