Selwyn Raab | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1934-06-26)June 26, 1934 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | March 4, 2025(2025-03-04) (aged 90) New York City, U.S.[1] |
| Occupation | Journalist, writer, investigative reporter |
| Language | English |
| Alma mater | City College of New York |
| Genres |
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| Subjects |
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| Years active | 1955–2025 |
| Notable works | |
| Spouse | Helene Lurie |
| Children | 1 |
Selwyn Raab (June 26, 1934 – March 4, 2025) was an American journalist, author and investigative reporter forThe New York Times.[5] He wrote extensively about theAmerican Mafia andcriminal justice issues.[6]
Born in New York City on June 26, 1934,[7] Raab grew up onManhattan'sLower 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.[8][9][1] He attendedSeward Park High School[10] and later graduated from theCity College of New York, where he received a B.A. degree inEnglish literature in 1956.[8] At City College he was campus correspondent forThe Times and an editor ofObservation Post, a student newspaper.[8]
Raab got his first jobs as a reporter with theBridgeport Sunday Herald newspaper inBridgeport, Connecticut andThe Star-Ledger newspaper inNewark, New Jersey.[11]
From 1960 to 1966, he joined theNew York World-Telegram and Sun. He was originally assigned as an education reporter.[12] 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.[4] In 1964, he discovered that Dr.Chester M. Southam of the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital inBrooklyn 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.[13]
Later, as an investigative reporter[8] at theNew York World-Telegram, he was instrumental in finding evidence that exoneratedGeorge Whitmore Jr. of false charges for having slain Janice Wylie and Emily Hoffert in the notoriousCareer Girl murders in 1963.[14] He also uncovered evidence that led to the dismissal of a third murder accusation against Whitmore.[15][16]
While producer and news editor forWNBC television news, (1966–1971),[17] Raab also wrote a book about the Whitmore case,Justice in the Back Room, published in 1967.[2] The book was nominated for anEdgar Award by theMystery Writers of America for Best Fact Crime Book in 1968.[18]Universal Studios bought the television rights, transforming Raab into a fictional detective named Theo Kojak, portrayed byTelly Savalas in the seriesKojak.[19] The series ran for five years. The series was spun off from theCBS television movie,The Marcus-Nelson Murders, which won twoEmmy Awards in 1973.[20]
In 1971, he became a reporter-producer at the public broadcasting television stationWNET-13 on the news programThe 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.[21] Whitmore was released from prison after serving nine years for a "wrong man" conviction for attempted rape.[22] Raab received aNew York Press Club Award for Outstanding Television Journalism for his work on the case.[8] His work was also nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in News Feature Reporting Within a Regularly Scheduled News Program for the featureShooting Gallery aired on December 18, 1973 (WNET).[23] He became Executive Producer ofThe 51st State until he left forThe New York Times in 1974.[24]
In 1974, Raab became a metropolitan staff reporter forThe New York Times where he covered criminal justice and government corruption stories, particularly those that involved theAmerican Mafia. During this period, he exposed perjured testimony and police and prosecutorial misconduct surrounding the triple murder convictions of boxerRubin "Hurricane" Carter and his co-defendant, John Artis, which led to the ultimate dismissal of all accusations against them.[5] Both men were cleared after serving lengthy prison sentences.[25]
Raab left theTimes in 2000. His book, theNew York Times Bestseller,Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires[4] was published in 2005.[26] He was a consultant on organized crime for TV documentaries, primarily on theHistory andBiography channels. He was involved as a consultant for the six-part seriesInside the American Mob, being interviewed with prominentCosa 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,[12] based partly onFive Families, which premiered on June 15, 2015, onAMC. In August 2024, Selwyn appeared on the History Channel limited seriesAmerican Godfather: The Five Families.[27]
Raab died of intestinal complications in Manhattan, New York, on March 4, 2025, at the age of 90.[28]
'Selwyn Raab -- b.6/26/1934'