Lou Kilzer

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Lou Kilzer
Denver Post in 1986 with Diana Griego.
Pulitzer Prize
Investigative Reporting, 1990.
SpouseLiz Kovacs
ChildrenAlex, Xanthe

Lou Kilzer (February 10, 1951 – March 27, 2024) was an American investigative journalist and author and a two time Pulitzer Prize Winner.[1]

Career

Journalism

Kilzer began work as a journalist in 1973 after graduating

Minneapolis Star-Tribune
.

In 1986, Kilzer and two other Denver Post reporters won for that newspaper a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a series that debunked the notion that millions of small American children were being kidnapped each year by strangers.[3]

Kilzer and another Minneapolis Star-Tribune reporter won a Pulitzer for investigative reporting in 1990 for articles exposing how top officials at the

George Polk Award for National Reporting,[5] and the IRE award for investigative journalism.[6]

In 1994, Kilzer returned to the Denver Post as investigations editor,

International New York Times.[8] Kilzer returned to the United States in 2010, taking a job on the investigative unit of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.[9] He retired and moved with his wife, Liz, to Costa Rica where he pursued a book writing career.[10]

In 2012 he won the William Brewster Styles Award given by the

Society of American Business Editors and Writers for reporting on international money laundering. Kilzer won the award, together with fellow reporter Andrew Conte and Investigations Editor Jim Wilhelm for work published in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.[11][12]

Books

Kilzer's 1994 book, Churchill's Deception, sought to prove that Great Britain tricked Germany into attacking the Soviet Union in 1941. It was published by Simon & Schuster. Kirkus Reviews called the book "an audacious rereading of the diplomatic history" of World War II," in which Kilzer argues "that Winston Churchill deliberately nurtured Hitler's illusion that powerful British factions sought an end to the war on terms favorable to Nazi Germany, and thus outwitted Hitler into starting a war against the Soviets that Germany could not win." The book maintains that Rudolf Hess's 1941 flight to Britain was a British intelligence operation, and that the man who died in Spandau Prison in 1987 was not Hess. Kirkus called the book "an absorbing and cogently argued original contribution to WW II literature."[13] Booklist said historians would give the book "short shrift" because it was primarily derived from existing published works, and Library Journal described the Hess theory as "generally discredited."[14]

His 2000 book Hitler's Traitor: Martin Bormann and the Defeat of the Reich contends that Germany's defeat was largely the result of the Red Orchestra spy ring that had penetrated the German High Command.[15] The book contends that Martin Bormann, a top aide to Adolf Hitler, and Heinrich Müller, head of the Gestapo, were both Soviet agents. Publishers Weekly said that Kilzer "revisits this arena with an entertaining synthesis of evidence about the activities of these spies, extensive accounts of relevant military history, and informed speculations about causes and effects, motives and behaviors."[16]

Kilzer's first book of fiction, co-authored with Mark Boyden, a British business consulting executive, is called "Fatal Redemption," published by Enigmas Publishing. "Fatal Redemption" won several national awards including the IRDA in 2015, the crime fiction award category for the Beverly Hills International Book Awards and the general fiction category of the 2015 Great Northwest Book Festival. Kilzer and Boyden wrote a series centering around a journalist named Sally Will.[17] This includes the title, "Fatal Seductions."

Personal life and death

Kilzer was born in Cody, Wyoming, the son of Robert and Marjorie Kilzer. He and his wife, Liz Kovacs, had two grown children. He died from various ongoing illnesses at his home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on March 27, 2024. He was 73.[1]

Published works

  • Kilzer, Lou, and Mark Boyden. Fatal Redemption: A Mystery Thriller. Enigmas Publishing, 2014.
    ISBN 9780992806804
  • Kilzer, Lou, and Mark Boyden. Fatal Seductions: Second in the Sally Will series. Enigmas Publishing, 2015.
    ISBN 9780992806859
  • Kilzer, Lou, and Sarah Huntley. Battered Justice. Denver, CO: Rocky Mountain News, 2005.
    OCLC 84154064
  • Kilzer, Louis C. Hitler's Traitor:
    ISBN 0891417109
  • Kilzer, Louis C. Churchill's Deception: The Dark Secret That Destroyed Nazi Germany. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
    ISBN 0671767224

References

  1. ^ a b [email protected], Sage Kelley (March 29, 2024). "Thunder in his pen: Pulitzer-prize winning Denver journalist Lou Kilzer dies at 73". Denver Gazette.
  2. ^ "Profiles of Pulitzer Prize Winners". Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  3. ^ "WINNERS OF PULITZER PRIZES IN JOURNALISM, LETTERS AND THE ARTS". The New York Times. 18 April 1986. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  4. ^ "Winners of the 1990 Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism and the Arts". The New York Times. 13 April 1990. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  5. ^ "Polk Awards".
  6. ^ "IRE awards".
  7. ^ "Showdown in Rockies". Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  8. ^ "Seoul Rotary Club". Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  9. ^ "National Press Club award presented to Trib reporter". Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  10. ^ "Renown U.S. newsman joins A.M. Costa Rica as consultant". Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  11. ^ "William Brewster Styles Award for Business and Economics Journalism". April 2013.
  12. ^ "2012 Scripps Howards Winners". Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  13. ^ "CHURCHILL'S DECEPTION by Louis C. Kilzer". Kirkus Reviews. 1 June 1994. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
  14. ISBN 0671767224
    .
  15. ^ Howard Lachtman (Jan 8, 2011). "'Hitler's Traitor' spy story stranger than fiction". recordnet. Retrieved April 30, 2016.
  16. ISBN 0891417109
    .
  17. ^ Boyden, Mark; Kilzer, Lou. Fatal Redemption.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lou_Kilzer&oldid=1216845593"