True crime scores big at the 2024 Pulitzer Awards
the true crime that's worth your time
"Awards are pretty much all bullshit," Kirsten Dunst famously said. She's not wrong, and yet we all want to know who else has one. For people in journalism, nothing better depicts this duality than the Pulitzer Prizes. The honors, which are up there with the James Beards and the Oscars in terms of status, also have their fair share of legitimate detractors (not to be confused with QAnon weirdos who reject all journalism). But, to paraphrase Billy Squier, everybody wants one.
This year's winners were announced on Monday, and as always, a lot of the work honored has a strong true crime connection. Here's a rundown of the crime-iest Pulitzer winners from 2024, as well as the best way to read or otherwise consume the work. You can find a list of all the winners (crime-related or not) online, or in this video.
Public Service: ProPublica, for the work of Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Alex Mierjeski and Kirsten Berg
"Groundbreaking and ambitious reporting that pierced the thick wall of secrecy surrounding the Supreme Court to reveal how a small group of politically influential billionaires wooed justices with lavish gifts and travel, pushing the Court to adopt its first code of conduct."
Start with "The Judiciary Has Policed Itself for Decades. It Doesn’t Work," then work your way through seven more stories, most of which focus on the potential corruption of justice Clarence Thomas. (Best of all, as ProPublica is a nonprofit, they're all free to read.)
A “Delicate Matter”: Clarence Thomas’ Private Complaints About Money Sparked Fears He Would Resign
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
Clarence Thomas Had a Child in Private School. Harlan Crow Paid the Tuition.
Billionaire Harlan Crow Bought Property From Clarence Thomas. The Justice Didn’t Disclose the Deal.
Investigative reporting: Hannah Dreier of The New York Times
"For a deeply reported series of stories revealing the stunning reach of migrant child labor across the United States—and the corporate and governmental failures that perpetuate it."
Get yourselves a Times subscription deal to work through Dreier's deep and thoughtful work on the kind of crimes against children that those QAnon weirdos I mocked above fail to give a crap about.
Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.
They’re Paid Billions to Root Out Child Labor in the U.S. Why Do They Fail?
Explanatory Reporting: Sarah Stillman of The New Yorker
"For a searing indictment of our legal system’s reliance on the felony murder charge and its disparate consequences, often devastating for communities of color."
We've talked about "What Makes a Murderer" here before, as both Sarah and I were struck by its excellence. It's great to see the report get its due.
Local Reporting: Sarah Conway of City Bureau and Trina Reynolds-Tyler of the Invisible Institute
"For their investigative series on missing Black girls and women in Chicago that revealed how systemic racism and police department neglect contributed to the crisis."
You can find the full seven-parter at one link, which is great.
National Reporting: Staff of The Washington Post
"For its sobering examination of the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, which forced readers to reckon with the horrors wrought by the weapon often used for mass shootings in America. (Moved by the Board from the Public Service category, where it also was entered and nominated.)"
This award was officially a tie, as Reuters also won it for its Elon Musk reporting. Which I wanted to count as true crime, but it didn't quite make the cut...yet. Anyway, the Post's long series of gun stories is just the thing for that family member who claims that guns don't kill people, people do. I'll also note that the Post is indeed paywalled, but they're having a sale right now — for the price of a latte, you can get all this reporting (and more!)
After Sandy Hook, they voted no. Now these senators want new gun laws.
Flannel, muddy girl camo and man cards. See the ads used to sell the AR-15.
High-capacity-magazine bans could save lives. Will they hold up in court?
As mass shootings multiplied, the horrific human cost was concealed
Why we are showing the impact of bullets from an AR-15 on the human body
Why we are publishing disturbing content from AR-15 mass shootings
Opinion: No one needs an AR-15 — or any gun tailor-made for mass shootings
Illustrated Reporting and Commentary: Medar de la Cruz, contributor, The New Yorker
"For his visually-driven story set inside Rikers Island jail using bold black-and-white images that humanize the prisoners and staff through their hunger for books."
The Diary of a Rikers Island Library Worker is such an ambitious and brutal work that it feels a little weird to say that it's also quite beautiful. I almost hate telling you to look at this on a screen when it should be viewed on paper. Am I becoming Tom Cruise, all "see every movie in the theatre or die, philistines!"?
Audio Reporting: Staffs of the Invisible Institute and USG Audio
"For a powerful series that revisits a Chicago hate crime from the 1990s, a fluid amalgam of memoir, community history and journalism."
The award for You Didn’t See Nothin has inspired me to return to true crime podcasts, a genre I angrily rejected after a particularly disappointing experience late last year. (I'm making it sound like a bigger deal than it was! I just listened to a shitty one that everyone said was goods and decided that these things might not be for me anymore.)
I shall report back with my thoughts, but if you have listened and have an opinion, you know where the comment section is.
Memoir or Autobiography: Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice, by Cristina Rivera Garza
"A genre-bending account of the author’s 20-year-old sister, murdered by a former boyfriend, that mixes memoir, feminist investigative journalism and poetic biography stitched together with a determination born of loss."
I'm still on the reserve list for this one, which is available for sale from its publisher; now that it's won this award I expect it will be even easier to find. If you've read, tell us about it below.