Kevin Cullen

Kevin Cullen (born May 1, 1959) is an American journalist and author. Cullen currently works for the Boston Globe. He was a member of the 2003 investigative team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal.^[1] Cullen is co-author of the New York Times best-seller Whitey Bulger: America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice.^[2]

Early life and education

Cullen was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up in Malden, Massachusetts where he attended Malden High School.^[3] In 1981, Cullen graduated summa cum laude from UMass Amherst with a dual degree in Journalism and Political Science and attended Trinity College in Ireland during his junior year.^[4] During his senior year, Cullen worked as a stringer for wire services such as the Associated Press.^[4]

Journalism career

After graduating UMass, Culen got a job at the Holyoke Transcript-Telegram. From there, he took a job at the Boston Herald, and then moved from there to the Boston Globe where he has remained.

Whitey Bulger

Cullen began reporting on Bulger soon after joining the Boston Globe in 1985. In 1988, he was part of the Globe's investigative "Spotlight" team that exposed Bulger as an FBI informant. Recently, he co-authored a book along with fellow journalist Shelley Murphy titled Whitey Bulger: America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice.^[4]

Northern Ireland Troubles

In 1997, he was appointed as the Globe's Dublin bureau chief, covering the Northern Ireland peace process, the only American journalist who did so. After a year in Dublin, Ireland, he moved to London to serve as the paper's chief European correspondent, covering the Yugoslav Wars. He reported from more than 20 countries across Europe.^[5]

Catholic sex abuse scandal

In 2001, he returned to Boston and was a part of the Globe's investigative team which won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003 for exposing the coverup of sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic priests. The team also won many other awards for those exposes on the Catholic sex abuse scandal, including the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, the George Polk Award for National Reporting, and the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting.^[5]

Books

Cullen is co-author of "Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church," and was a contributor to the books, "Britain and Ireland: Lives Entwined II," and "Our Boston," an anthology by Boston writers published in support of the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings of 2013. He and Shelley Murphy are the authors of the New York Times bestseller, “Whitey Bulger: America’s Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice,” published in 2013.^[5]

References