William C. Gaines (November 1, 1933 – July 20, 2016)[1] was an American journalist and professor of journalism. Gaines was aPulitzer Prize-winninginvestigative reporter for theChicago Tribune. He retired from the paper in 2001 and taught in the Department of Journalism at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign until his retirement and designation as an emeritus faculty member in 2007. He died on July 20, 2016, at the age of 82.[2]
Gaines earned a bachelor's degree in broadcasting atButler University in 1956. He served two years in theUnited States Army working forArmed Forces Radio in Germany. In 1963, he became a reporter for theChicago Tribune, and then became an investigative reporter in 1974. From 1975 to 1999, Gaines taught an investigative reporting course each semester atColumbia College in Chicago. He was named to the Knight Chair in Journalism at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001, a post he held until he retired in 2007.
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.
Gaines was nominated in 1979 for a series about the problems of the elderly. Gaines andDavid Jackson were nominated in 1996 for stories that probed questionable business dealings of theNation of Islam.
Gaines led a study with several of his students in 2003 to determine the identity ofWatergate informantDeep 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 thatFred F. Fielding, a former senior partner atWiley Rein LLP (then Wiley Rein & Fielding), a Washington, D.C. law firm, was Deep Throat. At the time of the Watergate scandal, Fielding was AssociateCounsel for PresidentRichard Nixon from 1970 to 1972, where he was the deputy toJohn Dean during theWatergate scandal.
On May 31, 2005, the actual Deep Throat,W. Mark Felt, acknowledged his identity in an article inVanity 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.
Previously the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, No Edition Time from 1953–1963 and the Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting from 1964–1984
