List of journalists killed in the United States

Numerous journalists have been murdered or killed in the United States while reporting, covering a military conflict, or because of their status as a journalist. At least 39 of these have been directly targeted as a result of their journalistic investigations.^[1] The most recent journalists killed in the United States are Alison Parker and Adam Ward, who were killed on August 26, 2015, during a live news broadcast on WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia.

The most dangerous sector of the US media after 1980 has been the race and ethnic press.^[2][3] According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, ten journalists serving the Vietnamese, Haitian and Chinese immigrant communities were killed in political assassinations between 1980 and 1993.^[4][5][6] Chauncey Bailey, who was the editor at a large circulation African American newspaper, was murdered in 2007 for his investigative reporting.^[7]

Since the September 11 attacks, terrorism-related deaths involving journalists is another trend.^[8][9]

In some cases, journalists have been attacked but survived, such as Victor Riesel.^[10]

List

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Date	Name	Employer	Location	Notes	Refs
August 26, 2015	Alison Parker and Adam Ward	WDBJ 7	Roanoke, Virginia	Parker, a reporter, and Ward, a photojournalist, were shot on live television by one-time colleague Vester Flanagan while interviewing a subject about tourism.	[11]
August 2, 2007	Chauncey Bailey	The Oakland Post	Oakland, California	After investigating corruption in his community, Bailey was murdered on his way to work by the target of his reporting.	[1][7]
October 5, 2001	Robert Stevens	Sun	Boca Raton, Florida	Murdered as one of the media targets of the 2001 anthrax attacks less than a month after 9/11.	[12]
September 11, 2001	Bill Biggart	Freelance photographer	Manhattan, New York City, New York	Killed while photographing the rescue effort outside the World Trade Center before the tower collapsed.	[13]
October 18, 2000	James Edwin Richards	Citizen journalist, editor and publisher	Venice, California	Richards was murdered at his Oakwood neighborhood home in the neighborhood where he had established himself as a citizen crime reporter.	[14][15]
October 24, 1993	Dona St. Plite	WKAT-AM	Little Haiti, Miami, Florida	St. Plite was attending a benefit for former colleague Fritz Dor when he was also assassinated for supporting Jean-Bertrand Aristide.	[16][17]
March 11, 1992	Manuel de Dios Unanue	El Diario La Prensa	Queens, New York City, New York	Murdered by Colombian drug traffickers for writing about drug trade.	[18][19]
March 15, 1991	Fritz D'Or	WLQY-AM (1320)	Little Haiti, Miami, Florida	A colleague of Olivier's at WLQY, he was assassinated as he left a club.	[16][20]
February 18, 1991	Jean-Claude Olivier (a.k.a. Division Star)	WLQY-AM (1320)	Little Haiti, Miami, Florida	A colleague of Dor's, he was known for his controversial commentary and was assassinated on his way to his car.	[16][21]
September 22, 1990	Triet Le	Van Nghe Tien Phong	Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia	A columnist of controversial content for the same Vietnamese magazine that employed Nhan Trong Do. Assassinated.	[5][6][22][23][24][25]
November 22, 1989	Nhan Trong Do	Van Nghe Tien Phong	Fairfax County, Virginia	A layout designer who worked with Triet Le, he was the first employer of the Vietnamese-language magazine to be assassinated.	[5][6][22][23][24]
August 9, 1987	Tap Van Pham (a.k.a. Hoai Diep Tu)	Mai	Garden Grove, California	He was assassinated by arson while sleeping in his office by an anti-communist group that took responsibility.	[5][6][22][23]
October 15, 1984	Henry Liu (a.k.a. Chiang Nan)	Freelancer and author	Daly City, California	A critic of the Kuomintang who was assassinated by order from the Kuomintang.	[26]
June 19, 1984	Alan Berg	KOA (AM)	Denver, Colorado	A liberal radio show host who was murdered by a white nationalist group.	[27]
August 24, 1982	Nguyen Dam Phong	Tu Do (Freedom)	Houston, Texas	Was assassinated at his home by an anti-communist group.	[5][6][22][23][28]
July 21, 1981	Duong Trong Lam	Cai Dinh Lang (The Village Temple)	San Francisco, California	Killed by gunfire from a member of one of two anti-communist groups that claimed responsibility for his assassination.	[5][6][22][23][29][30]
June 28, 1978	John A. Kelly	WHDH-TV	Boston, Massachusetts	Killed during the Blackfriars Massacre.	[31]
March 9, 1977	Maurice Williams	WHUR-FM	Washington, D.C.	He was murdered during the 1977 Hanafi Siege.	[32]
June 2, 1976	Don Bolles	Arizona Republic	Phoenix, Arizona	Murdered as a result of a car bomb set by the mafia outside the Clarendon Hotel.	[33][34][35]
August 29, 1970	Rubén Salazar	Los Angeles Times	Los Angeles, California	Salazar was killed by deputies of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department while covering the Chicano Moratorium protest in East Los Angeles. The park where the protest took place was later renamed Salazar Park in his honor.	[36][37]
September 30, 1962	Paul Guihard	Agence-France Presse	Oxford, Mississippi	Guihard was a British-French citizen who was killed during the civil rights era at the University of Mississippi. He was assigned to photograph the events surrounding James Meredith's attendance when he turned his focus on riots and in the confusion was shot. His murder remains an unsolved case.	[38]
July 29, 1949	W.H. "Bill" Mason	KBKI radio	Alice, Texas	Known as a crusading radio journalist in a county ruled with an iron hand by local law enforcement, Mason was shot dead by Sheriff deputy Sam Smithwick, who Mason had publicly accused of running a strip club. The senate candidate who lost to Lyndon B. Johnson believed that Smithwick had information about how the election had been rigged but Smithwick was hanged before their meeting. Mason's tombstone reads: "He had the nerve to tell the truth for a lot of little people."	[1][39][40][41]
January 22, 1945	Arthur Kasherman	Public Press (alternative)	Minneapolis, Minnesota	His death figured into Hubert Humphrey's mayoral victory.	[42]
December 9, 1935	Walter Liggett	Midwest American	Minneapolis, Minnesota	He wrote about political corruption and organized crime.	[43][44]
September 6, 1934	Howard Guilford	The Saturday Press	Minneapolis, Minnesota	Editor of a newspaper that exposed corruption and organized crime. He and partner Jay Near won the US Supreme Court decision in Near v. Minnesota.	[45][46]
July 23, 1930	Jerry Buckley	WMBC-AM	Detroit, Michigan	Gunned down on election night.	[47]
July 16, 1927	Donald Ring Mellett	Canton Daily News	Canton, Ohio		[1]
December 25, 1915	Huang Yuanyong	Shao Nian Zhong Guo Weekly	San Francisco, California	The Chinese national was murdered while visiting the United States. The case remained unsolved but Kuomintang (KMT) supporters were suspected of carrying out the assassination at the Shanghai Low restaurant.	[48]
November 9, 1908	Edward W. Carmack	Nashville American	Nashville, Tennessee	Former congressman and senator. He was killed by a former army officer who disapproved of his name appearing in an article and threatened the editor.	[49]
January 15, 1903	Narciso Gener Gonzales	The State	Columbia, South Carolina	He was killed by Jim Tillman, the Lt. Governor of South Carolina, who was acquitted of murder by a jury.	[50]
April 1, 1898	William Cowper Brann (a.k.a. Brann the Iconoclast)	Iconoclast	Waco, Texas	Wrote critical articles about Baptists. Shot in the back during a duel.	[51]
February 1, 1891	Ignacio Martínez	El Mundo	Laredo, Texas	Owned a newspaper that wrote critical articles on the regime of Mexican President Porfirio Díaz. His murderers fled to Mexico and were never arrested.	[52]
March 27, 1884	Charles L. Kusz	The Gringo and Greaser	Manzano, New Mexico	Shot through his window by unknown gunman on horses. His newspaper was reform oriented and created enemies as it sought changes.	[53]
November 17, 1881	A.B. Thornton	Boonville News	Boonville, Missouri	The town marshal killed Thornton because of criticism from the newspaper and won acquittal based on the perception that the criticism was too intense.	[54]
June 12, 1881	Jerome James Collins	New York Herald	Bennett Island, Bering Strait	An Irish American, Collins founded the Clan na Gael, an Irish republican organization in the United States, and left on a polar expedition as a reporter and meteorologist with the Jeannette expedition to avoid police. However, all but two survived the sinking of the vessel.	[55][56]
April 23, 1880	Charles de Young	The Daily Dramatic Chronicle	San Francisco, California	With his brother M. H. de Young, he founded the newspaper that would become the San Francisco Chronicle. The mayor's son killed him in revenge for a feud de Young had with his father.	[57]
March 27, 1877	J. Clarke Swayze	Topeka Daily Blade	Topeka, Kansas	Swayze was killed after publishing a critical article about his murderer.	[58]
June 25, 1876	Mark Kellogg (reporter)	Associated Press	Little Bighorn Battlefield, Montana	The first Associated Press journalist to die while reporting.	[59]
November 5, 1871	Frederick Wadsworth Loring	Appleton's Journal	Wickenburg, Arizona	Was killed while on assignment out west in what is known as the Wickenburg Massacre, an attack on a stagecoach by Native Americans.	[60]
September 14, 1866	Ridgeway Glover	Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper	Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming	While covering the American Indian Wars, Glover was killed and mutilated during the construction of Fort Kearny in 1866.	[61]
1864	Albert Street	The Mobile Register	Unknown	One of the few southern journalists killed during the US Civil War.
May 6, 1864	Samuel Fiske (aka Dunn Browne)	The Springfield Republican	Fredericksburg, Virginia	Capt. Fiske wrote under the name Dunn Browne and served in the army and was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness.	[62]
October 6, 1863	James O'Neal	Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper	Baxter Springs, Kansas	O'Neal was an artist-correspondent murdered by Quantrill's guerrillas at the Baxter Springs Massacre.	[63]
June 23, 1863	Lynde Walter Buckingham	New York Herald	Aldie, Virginia	Killed as a result of an ambush during the U.S. Civil War. He was buried at the Mount Zion Old School Baptist Church-VDHR 53-339 in Aldie.	[64]
April 6, 1862	Irving Carson	New York Tribune	Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee	First journalist to be killed during the U.S. Civil War. Killed by a cannonball fire while covering the Battle of Shiloh and General Ulysses S. Grant.	[65]
May 20, 1856	James King of William	Daily Evening Bulletin	San Francisco, California		[66][67]
June 22, 1854	Joseph Mansfield	San Joaquin Republican	Stockton, California	Mansfield was killed in a fight with a rival editor, both of whom were Democrats.	[68]
September 15, 1848	John Jenkins	Vicksburg Sentinel	Vicksburg, Mississippi	Killed in a fight with an attorney after the two had a previous altercation.	[69]
February 29, 1844	James A. Ryan	Vicksburg Sentinel	Vicksburg, Mississippi	The Vicksburg Sentinel was a Democrat paper and Ryan was killed by his rival Whig counterpart in a duel on their second fight.	[70]
June 6, 1843	James Hagan	Vicksburg Sentinel	Vicksburg, Mississippi	Hagan was killed by the son of a man he had criticized in his newspaper.	[69][70][71][72]
November 7, 1837	Elijah Parish Lovejoy	Alton Observer	Alton, Illinois	This abolition editor was killed by a mob supporting slavery in the Union.	[73][74]

Other journalists and media workers killed on 9/11

The only professional, working journalist to die while covering the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City was photojournalist Bill Biggart, who was killed by falling debris as he was taking photographs.^[75][76] However, the International Federation of Journalists, which also counts media workers, said that six other media workers and a journalist who were not working at the time died in the attacks. Among those media workers listed as killed were six broadcast TV engineers, who worked inside a tower, and another professional photojournalist, who was a passenger on the first plane that was flown into the WTC.^[77]

• Rod Coppola, TV engineer for WNET-TV, WTC (North Tower)^[78]
• Donald DiFranco, TV engineer for WABC-TV, WTC (North Tower)^[78]
• Steve Jacobson, TV engineer for WPIX-TV, WTC (North Tower)^[78]
• Bob Pattison, TV engineer for WCBS-TV, WTC (North Tower)^[77][78]
• Thomas Pecorelli, professional freelance photojournalist, American Airlines Flight 11 passenger^[77]
• Isias Rivera, TV engineer for WCBS-TV, WTC (North Tower)^[77][78]
• William Steckman, TV engineer for WNBC-TV, WTC (North Tower)^[78]

Maps

Phoenix

Washington

Houston

Denver

Fairfax

Miami

New York

Moneta

1976–Present. Places outside of California where American journalists have been killed in the United States.

Minneapolis

1926–1975. Places in the United States where American journalists have been killed.

Battle of Little Bighorn

1876–1925. Places in the United States where American journalists have been killed.

Alton

Vicksburg

Stockton

1826–1875. Places in the United States where American journalists have been killed.

Gallery

Journalists killed in the United States
Elijah Parish Lovejoy  James King of William  Frederick Wadsworth Loring  Mark Kellogg  William Cowper Brann  Edward Ward Carmack  Walter W Liggett  Rubén Salazar

See also

• Censorship in the United States

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