Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/David Shankbone
Breslin, of Jamaica, was a novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist.
By Michael V. Cusenza
Jimmy Breslin, the borough-bred, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, author, and giant of City journalism, died on Sunday in Manhattan after a battle with pneumonia. He was 88.
“The sidewalks of New York lost a great one this morning: Jimmy Breslin,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer. “Long before 9/11 showed America how great the average New Yorker was, Breslin was doing it on the pages of New York’s newspapers every day, and he was an amazing combination: brilliant journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner, but throughout his entire career, an everyday Joe. Jimmy, we’ll miss you.”
Breslin was born on Oct. 17, 1928, in Jamaica. Raised in Ozone Park by a single mother, Breslin graduated from John Adams High School and briefly attended Long Island University.
“RIP Jimmy Breslin. Truly, a fearless man of impeccable moral character. My condolences to his family,” City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) posted on Twitter on Sunday.
Breslin got his first taste of newsprint ink at the Long Island Press as a copy boy, later earning his writer stripes at the New York Herald Tribune. However, Breslin is perhaps best known for his gritty Gotham columns featured in the New York Post, Newsday, and the New York Daily News.
“Nobody ever brought more honor to this pass,” Daily Beast columnist Michael Daly said of Breslin at his funeral on Wednesday, according to a Daily News report, as Daly held up his own City Police Department press credential. “In this time of fake news and alternate [facts], continue to be like JB in the pursuit of the ultimate truth.”
Breslin’s dogged pursuit of the ultimate truth eventually earned him a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1986, for what the Pulitzer board described as “columns which consistently champion ordinary citizens.”
“As a columnist, he found human angles that went straight to the heart of the story,” the board posted to The Pulitzer Prizes website. “The day after JFK was shot, Breslin interviewed Malcolm Perry, the Parkland Hospital doctor who had tried to save him. Then he followed the story to Washington, taking readers step by step through the experience of the man who dug the president’s grave at Arlington.”
The Pulitzer Prizes also noted that Breslin’s “columns on the Son of Sam murders in 1977 drew a response from the killer: ‘J.B., I’m just dropping you a line to let you know that I appreciate your interest in those recent and horrendous .44 killings. I also want to tell you that I read your column daily and find it quite informative.’”
“The guy can write better than me,” Breslin deadpanned. The Daily News printed the entire letter.
Renowned Federal Bureau of Investigation serial-killer profiler Robert Ressler ripped Breslin for what Ressler considered his baiting of David Berkowitz, and blamed Breslin and other members of the media for “irresponsibly” contributing “to the continuation of [Berkowitz’s] murders.”
Jimmy Breslin is survived by his wife, former City Councilwoman Ronnie Eldridge, four sons, a stepson, two stepdaughters, a sister, and 12 grandchildren.