Theo Wilson (born Theodora Nadelstein, May 22, 1917 – January 17, 1997) was an American reporter best known for her coverage of high-profile court cases for the '' Daily News'' of New York. She reported on the trials of

Sam Sheppard Samuel Holmes Sheppard, D.O. ( – ) was an American neurosurgeon. He was exonerated in 1966, having been convicted of the 1954 murder of his pregnant wife, Marilyn Reese Sheppard. The case was controversial from the beginning, with extensiv ...

, Patty Hearst,

Sirhan Sirhan Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (; ar, سرحان بشارة سرحان ''Sirḥān Bišāra Sirḥān'', born March 19, 1944) is a Palestinian Jordanian man who was convicted for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy, a United States Sena ...

, Charles Manson, Jack Ruby,

Angela Davis Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of ...

, David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz and

Claus von Bulow Claus (sometimes Clas) is both a given name and a German, Danish, and Dutch surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (1907–1944), a German officer who, along with others, attempted to assassi ...

. She was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to Adolph and Rebecca Nadelstein. Adolph was the founder of Nadelstein Press. Her early publications include a story on the family's pet monkey for a national magazine, published when she was eight years old, and numerous poems, short stories, plays, and articles produced at

Girls High School Girls High School is a historically and architecturally notable public secondary school building located at 475 Nostrand Avenue in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It was built in 1886.''Brooklyn: a soup-to-nuts g ...

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 ...

. At the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

, she worked at '' The Kentucky Kernel'' as a columnist and associate editor. After graduating

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

in 1937, she was hired by the ''

Evansville Press Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the state's List of cities in Indiana, ...

'' in

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

and was soon promoted to tri-state editor. After working in Evansville, she moved to Indianapolis to marry television newscaster Bob Wilson and got a job on the

Indianapolis Times The ''Indianapolis Times'' was an evening newspaper that served the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, from 1888 to 1965 when the paper ceased publishing. History The ''Indianapolis Times'' began as the ''Sun'' in 1888, "the only one cent paper ...

. She later worked at the ''News Leader'' in Richmond, Virginia, where she began reporting on court cases, then at the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

bureau in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

and the '' Philadelphia Bulletin'' before she and her husband moved back to her hometown of New York in 1952 and she was hired at the '' Daily News.'' She covered many major trials for the ''Daily News,'' with enough of them taking place in California that the paper suggested she open a West Coast bureau. The

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

bureau opened in 1973 with Wilson as the primary correspondent. One problem that arose for her in Southern California was that like many New Yorkers, she did not drive. In 1976, when a school bus driver and the 26 children in his care were kidnapped in a small town 200 miles north of Los Angeles, she hailed a taxi to take her there. Following changes at the ''Daily News'', Wilson accepted a buyout in 1982. She continued to write as a freelance journalist, covering trials for newspapers and cable television shows. Wilson divorced Bob Wilson in 1960. They had a son, Delph, born in 1946. She later developed a relationship with fellow journalist

Doc Quigg H.D. "Doc" Quigg (November 22, 1911 – May 12, 1998) was an American journalist. Horace Dasher Quigg, Jr., was born in Marshall, Missouri to parents Horace Dasher Quigg, Sr., and M. Elizabeth Craig Quigg. The family moved to Boonville, Missouri ...

. Her memoir, ''Headline Justice'', was published in 1996. She died on January 17, 1997, in Los Angeles from a cerebral hemorrhage. Theo Wilson Square, an intersection in the Hollywood Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, where she lived for 25 years, was named for her in 1997.

Awards

* 1972:

Front Page Award The Front Page Award is an award given by the Newswomen's Club of New York The Newswomen's Club of New York is a nonprofit organization that focuses on women working in the media in the New York City metropolitan area. Founded in 1922 as the New Yor ...

for best news story on deadline

References

Journalists from New York City 1917 births 1997 deaths 20th-century American writers University of Kentucky alumni 20th-century American journalists American male journalists Girls' High School alumni {{US-journalist-1910s-stub