Selwyn Raab
{{Short description|American journalist, author and investigative reporter (1934–2025)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Selwyn Raab
| image = Cropped_Photo_of_Selwyn_Raab.jpg
| image_size = 180px
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1934|6|26}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2025|3|4|1934|6|26}}
| death_place = New York City, U.S.
| occupation = Journalist, writer, investigative reporter
| years_active = 1955–2025
| language = English
| alma_mater = City College of New York
| genres = {{Plainlist |
- Biography
- History
- Case studies }}
| subjects = {{Plainlist |
- Organized Crime
- US State & Local History
- Reference }}
| notableworks = {{Plainlist |
- Justice in the Back Room
- Mob Lawyer
- Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires
}}
| spouse = Helene Lurie
| children = 1
}}
Selwyn Raab (June 26, 1934 – March 4, 2025) was an American journalist, author and investigative reporter for The New York Times. He wrote extensively about the American Mafia and criminal justice issues.{{cite book|last1=Warden|first1=Rob|title=True Stories of False Confessions|date=June 11, 2009|publisher=Northwestern University Press|page=512|isbn=978-0-8101-2603-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UdgUTgyGx5YC&pg=PA512}}
Early life and education
Born in New York City on June 26, 1934,{{cite web |url=http://a2z.davesfunstuff.com/2202-28001.htm |title=News People Birthdays |access-date=September 25, 2015 |quote='Selwyn Raab -- b.6/26/1934'}} Raab grew up on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the son of Berdie (Glantz) and William Raab. His father was a bus driver from Austria and his mother was a homemaker from Poland; his family was Jewish.{{cite web | last=Haberman | first=Clyde | title=Selwyn Raab, Tenacious Reporter Who Covered the Mob, Dies at 90 | website=The New York Times | date=March 4, 2025 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/business/media/selwyn-raab-dead.html | access-date=March 5, 2025}}{{cite news |last=Haberman |first=Clyde |date=March 4, 2025 |title=Selwyn Raab, Tenacious Reporter Who Covered the Mob, Dies at 90|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/business/media/selwyn-raab-dead.html |work= The New York Times |access-date=May 31, 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250409032439/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/business/media/selwyn-raab-dead.html |archive-date=April 9, 2025}} He attended Seward Park High School{{cite web|title=Selwyn Raab Class of 1951|url=http://www.classmates.com/people/Selwyn-Raab/42126621|website=Classmates|accessdate=September 26, 2015}} and later graduated from the City College of New York, where he received a B.A. degree in English literature 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 and The Star-Ledger newspaper in Newark, New Jersey.{{cite news|last1=Krawetz|first1=Michael|title=Newsman Helps Whitmore Go Free|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=m4FGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IDANAAAAIBAJ&pg=2549%2C3915573|accessdate=September 26, 2015|issue=64|publisher=The Evening News|date=April 21, 1973|volume=13}}
= ''New York World-Telegram and Sun'' (1960–1966) =
From 1960 to 1966, he joined the 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 of the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital in Brooklyn 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.{{cite book|last1=Skloot|first1=Rebecca|title=The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks|date=2010|publisher=Crown/Archetype|location=New York|isbn=978-0-307-58938-5|pages=127–135}}
Later, as an 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.{{cite news|last1=Raab|first1=Selwyn|title=30-Year-Old Echoes From Slaying of 2|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/29/nyregion/30-year-old-echoes-from-slaying-of-2.html|accessdate=September 26, 2015|website=The New York Times|date=August 29, 1993}} He also uncovered evidence that led to the dismissal of a third murder accusation against Whitmore.{{cite news|last1=Raab|first1=Selwyn|title=Parole Action Could Close Landmark Murder Case|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/02/nyregion/parole-action-could-close-landmark-murder-case.html|accessdate=September 26, 2015|website=The New York Times|date=October 2, 1988}}{{cite journal|last1=Mulford|first1=R.D.|title=Experimentation on Human Beings.|journal=Stanford Law Review|date=1967|volume=20|issue=1|pages=99–117|doi=10.2307/1227417|jstor=1227417}}
= NBC News (1966–1971) =
While producer and news editor for WNBC television news, (1966–1971),{{cite journal|title=Books Noted|journal=Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 279|date=1967|volume=9|url=http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2955&context=wmlr|accessdate=September 26, 2015}} Raab also wrote a book about the Whitmore case, Justice in the Back Room, published in 1967. The book was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America for Best Fact Crime Book in 1968.{{cite web|title=The Edgars Database|url=http://theedgars.com/awards/|website=Mystery Writers of America|accessdate=September 27, 2015}} Universal Studios bought the television rights, transforming Raab into a fictional detective named Theo Kojak, portrayed by Telly Savalas in the series Kojak.{{cite news|title=The Press: The Original Kojak|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,943085,00.html|accessdate=September 26, 2015|publisher=Time Inc.|date=November 25, 1974}} The series ran for five years. The series was spun off from the CBS television movie, The Marcus-Nelson Murders, which won two Emmy Awards in 1973.{{cite web|title=The Marcus-Nelson Murders The CBS Thursday Night Movie|url=http://www.emmys.com/shows/marcus-nelson-murders-cbs-thursday-night-movie|website=Academy of Television Arts & Sciences|accessdate=September 26, 2015}}
= ''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.{{cite news|last=Krawetz|first=Michael|title=Newsman Helps Whitmore Go Free|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1982&dat=19730421&id=m4FGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IDANAAAAIBAJ&pg=2549,3915573|accessdate=September 2, 2012|newspaper=The Evening News|date=April 21, 1973}} Whitmore was released from prison after serving nine years for a "wrong man" conviction for attempted rape.{{cite book|last1=Day|first1=James|title=The Vanishing Vision: The Inside Story of Public Television|date=1995|publisher=University of California Press|page=208|isbn=978-0-520-08659-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKYZynRiU6YC&pg=PA205|accessdate=September 26, 2015}} Raab received a New York Press Club 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).{{cite web|title=1973-1974 New York Area Awards|url=http://www.nyemmys.org/media/files/files/3284b0a0/nyemmyawards18.pdf|website=New York Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts|accessdate=September 26, 2015}} He became Executive Producer of The 51st State until he left for The New York Times in 1974.{{cite web|title=The 51st State|url=http://www.thirteen.org/the51ststate/program.php?atln=ARC-FFS-119|website=Thirteen/WNET New York|accessdate=September 26, 2015}}
= ''The New York Times'' (1974–2000) =
In 1974, Raab became a metropolitan staff reporter for The New York Times where he covered criminal justice and government corruption stories, particularly those that involved the American Mafia. During this period, he exposed perjured testimony and police and prosecutorial misconduct surrounding the triple murder convictions of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter 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.{{cite news|last1=Raab|first1=Selwyn|title=Rubin (Hurricane) Carter, Boxer Found Wrongly Convicted, Dies at 76|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/21/sports/rubin-hurricane-carter-fearsome-boxer-dies-at-76.html|accessdate=September 26, 2015|website=The New York Times|date=April 20, 2014}}
= ''Five Families'' (2000–2025) =
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.{{cite news|last1=Burrough|first1=Bryan|title='Five Families': Made Men in America|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/books/review/five-families-made-men-in-america.html|accessdate=September 26, 2015|website=The New York Times|date=September 11, 2005}} He was a consultant on organized crime for TV documentaries, primarily on the History and Biography channels. He was involved as a consultant for the six-part series Inside the American Mob, being interviewed with prominent Cosa Nostra 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. In August 2024, Selwyn appeared on the History Channel limited series American Godfather: The Five Families.{{cite web | url=https://www.silive.com/entertainment/2024/08/history-channel-series-to-chronicle-new-york-citys-5-mafia-families.html | title=History Channel series to chronicle New York City's 5 mafia families | date=August 5, 2024 }}
Death
Raab died of intestinal complications in Manhattan, New York, on March 4, 2025, at the age of 90.{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/business/media/selwyn-raab-dead.html | title=Selwyn Raab, Tenacious Reporter Who Covered the Mob, Dies at 90 | work=The New York Times | last1=Haberman | first1=Clyde }}
Awards and honors
- Sigma Delta Chi Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism from the Society of Professional Journalists (1971, 1972){{cite news|title=7 Awards Given in Journalism Here|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 8, 1971}}
- The New York Press Club Award for Outstanding Television Journalism (1973)
- New York State Associated Press Broadcaster Association Award (1973){{cite news|title=Uncapped Crusader|agency=Newsweek|publisher=Newsweek|date=April 23, 1973}}
- The New York Press Club Best Feature Story Award (1984)
- The Heywood Broun Memorial Award from the American Newspaper Guild (1974){{cite news|title=Broun Award Won by Times Reporter|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990DE7DE133AE03BBC4051DFB766838E669EDE#|accessdate=September 27, 2015|website=The New York Times|date=January 28, 1975}}
- 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 City College of New York (2009){{cite news|last=Raab|first=Selwyn|title=McCarthyism and Student Journalism at City College|url=http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/mccarthyism-and-student-journalism-at-city-college/|accessdate=September 2, 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 6, 2009}}
Bibliography
- Justice in the Back Room (1967)
- Mob Lawyer with Frank Ragano (1994)
- Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires (2005)
References
{{reflist|refs=
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External links
- {{IMDb name| 0704633}}
- {{YouTube|id=h-JSVvgGGC8|title=City Talk: Selwyn Raab, author, Five Families}} – CUNY TV
- [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4854147 Fresh Air interview with Selwyn Raab]
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Category:20th-century American Jews
Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers
Category:American investigative journalists
Category:American male non-fiction writers
Category:American television journalists
Category:City College of New York alumni
Category:Jewish American journalists
Category:Journalists from New York City
Category:Mass media people from Manhattan
Category:Non-fiction writers about organized crime in the United States
Category:Organized crime in New York City
Category:People from the Lower East Side
Category:Seward Park High School alumni