Harry J. Karafin (September 4, 1915 – October 23, 1973) was an American investigative journalist associated with ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

''. He was a reporter at the ''Inquirer'' for 24 years (having worked his way up from copyboy, beginning in 1939), and in the 1950s and 1960s was considered the paper's star reporter as well as the city's best-known journalist, known for exposing corruption (partly through privileged access to

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...

files). Together with a colleague, Karafin was one of three finalists for the 1965

Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting The Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting has been awarded since 1953, under one name or another, for a distinguished example of investigative reporting by an individual or team, presented as a single article or series in a U.S. news publicat ...

. He was dismissed in 1967 after a ''

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

'' magazine article exposed his willingness to accept payment from potential reporting subjects in order to avoid negative coverage. Karafin was convicted on 40 counts of blackmail and corrupt solicitation in 1968 and sentenced to 4-to-9 years; he was additionally convicted of

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

in 1971 in relation to statements in the 1968 trial, with a concurrent 2- to 7-year sentence. The perjury conviction was overturned by the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. Harry died in prison in 1973.Paul McLeary, ''

Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, ana ...

'', 10 April 2006
Where’s Harry Karafin Now That We Need Him?
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karafin, Harry J. 1915 births 1973 deaths American extortionists American investigative journalists American white-collar criminals The Philadelphia Inquirer people Journalistic scandals 20th-century American non-fiction writers