William C. Gaines (November 1, 1933 – July 20, 2016) was an American journalist and professor of journalism. Gaines was a Pulitzer Prize-winning

investigative reporter 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 ...

for the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

''. He retired from the paper in 2001 and taught in the Department of Journalism at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

until his retirement and designation as an emeritus faculty member in 2007. He died on July 20, 2016, at the age of 82.

Early life and career

Gaines earned a bachelor's degree in broadcasting at

Butler University Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study in six colleges: the Lacy School of Business, College of Communic ...

in 1956. He served two years in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

working for

Armed Forces Radio The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which i ...

in Germany. In 1963, he became a reporter for the ''Chicago Tribune'', and then became an investigative reporter in 1974. From 1975 to 1999, Gaines taught an investigative reporting course each semester at Columbia College in Chicago. He was named to the Knight Chair in Journalism at the

in 2001, a post he held until he retired in 2007.

Pulitzer Prize

Gaines' first Pulitzer Prize came in 1976 as a member of an investigative team at the Tribune looking into unsafe medical practices at some Chicago hospitals. In 1988, Gaines and colleagues

Dean Baquet Dean P. Baquet (; born September 21, 1956) is an American journalist. He served as the executive editor of ''The New York Times'' from May 2014 to June 2022. Between 2011 and 2014 Baquet was managing editor under the previous executive editor J ...

and

Ann Marie Lipinski Ann Marie Lipinski (born January 1956) is a journalist and the curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. She is the former editor of the ''Chicago Tribune'' and Vice President for Civic Engagement at the University of Chicago. ...

won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for a series on the self-interest and waste that plagued the Chicago City Council. Gaines was nominated in 1979 for a series about the problems of the elderly. Gaines and David Jackson were nominated in 1996 for stories that probed questionable business dealings of the Nation of Islam.

Watergate informant "uncovered"

Gaines led a study with several of his students in 2003 to determine the identity of Watergate informant Deep Throat. Soon after the study, he set up a website, about the way in which he "uncovered" one of the great enduring mysteries of modern U.S. Politics. He came to the conclusion that Fred F. Fielding, a former senior partner at

Wiley Rein LLP Wiley Rein LLP (known as Wiley) is one of the largest law firms in Washington, D.C., United States. With 240 lawyers, the firm represents clients in complex regulatory, litigation, and transactional matters. Many of the firm's lawyers and publ ...

(then Wiley Rein & Fielding), a Washington, D.C. law firm, was Deep Throat. At the time of the Watergate scandal, Fielding was Associate Counsel for President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

from 1970 to 1972, where he was the deputy to

John Dean John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is an American former attorney who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal ...

during the

Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...

. On May 31, 2005, the actual Deep Throat,

W. Mark Felt William Mark Felt Sr. (August 17, 1913 – December 18, 2008) was an American law enforcement officer who worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1942 to 1973 and was known for his role in the Watergate scandal. Felt wa ...

, acknowledged his identity in an article in '' Vanity Fair'', exonerating Fielding. On his website
Deep Throat Uncovered
Gaines has written about a confrontation with John Dean about the identity of Deep Throat: : He declined to respond to Smithsonian Magazine. John Dean has been steadfast in arguing Fielding would not have lied to him about being a source for the Post, and Dean bet Professor Gaines $100 that Gaines was wrong. Gaines took the bet.

Publications

Gaines has written several books: *Reich, Howard and William Gaines (2004). ''Jelly's Blues: The Life, Music, and Redemption of Jelly Roll Morton''. Da Capo Press *Gaines, William (1998). ''Investigative Reporting for Print and Broadcast'' Wadsworth Publishing.

References

*Chamberlain, Craig (July 11, 2001)

U of Illinois News Bureau
Deep Throat Uncovered archive
*Bebow, John (March 2002)
Digging Deep for Deep Throat
''American journalism Review'' *Chamberlain, Craig (April 22, 2003)

U of Illinois News Bureau *Chamberlain, Craig (May 1, 2003)

U of Illinois News Bureau *Miner, Michael (June 10, 2005)

'' Chicago Reader'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaines, William 1933 births 2016 deaths American male journalists Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting winners Butler University alumni