NLU Writers Week: investigative reporter John Conroy

Last Saturday, I spent half the day with Tim Kazurinsky learning about comedy (read more here) and the other half with John Conroy.  John’s an award-winning investigative reporter, winner of the Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism, author of Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture and playwright “My Kind of Town,” based on his coverage of the Chicago Police torture scandals.  (The play’s featured in the 2011-12 season of the TimeLine theater.)

Obviously, John’s a multi-talented writer and I went primarily to get insight into how he conducts investigations.  After all, my protagonist is a nosy–but uncredentialed-investigator, so I thought I’d get some tips that would be useful. He also has written extensively about the Chicago PD, so I thought that would be helpful, also, for my Det. Kathy Martinez series.  And I was partially correct – I got the insights I expected, and even more.

First, I had to put myself out there.  Workshop attendees were strongly encouraged to submit a page of two of nonfiction for critique purposes.  I don’t do a lot of nonfiction, unless you count the two articles I co-wrote for the Journal of the American Dental Association about member research.  Plus about 500,000 examples of various forms of copywriting in the form of direct mail, advertising, newsletters, etc.  So I resurrected a 2,200-word memoir I wrote in first person after the heartbreaking (to me) death of my cat.  I’d tried to “fictionalize” it by rewriting it in third person.  But for John Conroy’s workshop, I submitted it in first.

Not to keep you in suspense, he liked it.  Only positive comments.  I glowed.  (You can read it here:  A Cat-Shaped Hole.)  There were about 15 people in the workshop, so there were 14 other submissions – and John was fair, had helpful comments, and was encouraging about the good stuff.

We spent the other half of the session taking a look at a real-life incident from 2003, when an on-duty transit cop shot an unarmed man at the Red Line CTA station at 95th St.  It was like Coach Peeler’s enriched history class in high school, where we tried to figure out what happened during a particular time in history by reading contemporary news reports and other documents:  a kind of “Where’s Waldo” for facts.

John shared a series of media reports relating the facts as reported early on – scanty, unrevealing, and in general, pretty wrong.   We then broke into small groups to review police reports, witness reports, and other evidence.  Not until a full 14 months after the shooting, when the Chicago PD Office of Professional Standards completed its investigation, was it revealed that all the charges against both the involved officer and his partner were sustained, including charges that both officers had lied every step of the way.

The kicker? The killing was captured on film by CTA security cameras.  You can read about the case – and see the video – here.

Instructive for me:  The reports, the language used, the way the cops acted, how police investigating the shooting rushed to closure, higher-ups believing every word of the officer – despite the fact that the video showed him rushing into view, gun already drawn, snatching up one person in one hand and extending his gun to shoot an unarmed innocent in the neck.

I would have liked more information about how an investigative reporter goes about gathering information: getting the scoop about how stories come to his attention, who his sources are, the mechanics of finding uncovering the bits and pieces of the truth until it all comes out would have been very informative.

All in all, a fun and instructive Saturday.  There are two more sessions this Saturday (July 16), conveniently at National Louis University’s downtown campus at 122 South Michigan Ave.  In the morning, I’ll be missing Dawn Turner Trice‘s workshop on Writing Your Truth (she writes for the Chicago Tribune and I’ve read her columns many a time, but I’ll be communing with dentists that morning), but the afternoon will be notable for a Writing to Create Mystery with David Ellis, the attorney who prosecuted Blagojevich and author of many a fine legal thriller (he won an Edgar for his debut, Line of Vision).  My sweet spot!  You can join me there – registration is ongoing.  More info here.