NEW YORK (AP) — Author-columnist Jimmy Breslin, the legendary street-smart chronicler of wise guys and underdogs, has died. He was 88.
Breslin’s stepdaughter, Emily Eldridge, said he died Sunday of complications from pneumonia.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author and longtime New York Daily News columnist was one of the sharpest observers of New York City life.
A hardnosed newsman, Breslin also campaigned for office in the 1960s and exposed the city’s worst corruption scandal in decades in the 1980s. He once boasted that he was the best person ever to have a column in the news business.
Breslin’s well-known work, “The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight,” told the story of the Boston mob, and he wrote of his own life in his memoir “I Want to Thank My Brain for Remembering Me.”
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Too many good people dying this week.
One of my all-time favorites - a gifted writer and a superb teller of tales. Also known for precise skewering of the powerful.
My favorite is his description of Rudy Giuliani - “A short man in search of a balcony.” Priceless.
“The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight” is one of my favorite books. The movie wasn’t as funny.
Arrivederci Jimmy. Thanks.
From his love and passion The Daily News,RIP Mr Breslin remember you well from back in the day growing up with your reporting.
“Jimmy Breslin — the cigar-chomping, hard-nosed newspaperman who won the Pulitzer Prize for his Daily News’ columns championing ordinary New Yorkers — died Sunday morning. He was 88.”
Because I grew up in the Boston area in the 60’s I was familiar with this wise guy. His writing and a lot of the New England mob scandals are intertwined in my memory.