Pulitzer Prize Winning Reporters go to the Streets 

April 2012

Pulitzer Prize winning journalists Frank Main’s and Mark Konkol’s advice to aspiring reporters is simple, “get out of the office.”  That credo is exactly what led the two Chicago Sun Times reporters to write  a series of stories on gun violence and the impact of the “no snitch code “on the streets of Chicago and ultimately to a Pulitzer Prize for the series called “59 Hours.”

Main and Konkal shared their journey with students and faculty in the School of Communication on Tuesday, April 24 in Regents Hall.

For Main, the idea to follow homicide detectives had been a shelved story. 

“It started as a dream of mine born from the book by David Simone called Homicide.  He spent a year with the Baltimore police departments—anything he saw he could write about,” Main explained.  “I wanted to take another look at what homicide detectives do now.”

With photographer John Kim, Main spent time in the Northwest side of Chicago, known as Area Five. 

“I wanted to be there as long as it took to solve a murder,” Main said at the panel.  The chance came with the fatal shooting of Miguel Loredo.  Four months into the investigation, however, yielded no answers. 

“Not even Loredo’s friends wanted to rat on the bad guy,” Main said.  “We put the story on the shelf, and I went back to work.”    

Konkol, who had been one of the reporters to cover a violent weekend in April 2008, convinced Main to pick up the idea again. Forty people had been shot that weekend, seven fatally.  In 2010, Main joined Konkol to investigate why none of the shooters identified from the weekend had been convicted. 

“I didn’t want to sit in my office,” Konkol explained at the panel.  After receiving data from a FOIA request, Konkol discovered that 18 percent of gun related crimes in Chicago in 2009 had been cleared.  But deeper investigation showed that half of thoseclearances were “exceptional,” meaning the shooter had either died or the victim did not want to testify against him. 

Main and Konkol set about interviewing victims from the 2008 weekend shootings, who inevitably verified this trend of “exceptional clearance.” 

“We tracked down one of the victims, Willie Brown.  He had been a Vice Lord, in and out of jail,” Konkol said.  “We met him at a McDonald’s in Uptown, bought him chicken McNuggets.  He was stoned while we were talking to him.”

During the interview, Brown’s shooter, Darnell Robinson, came into the McDonald’s.    Main and Konkol approached Robinson, who asked if they were cops.  When they explained they were reporters, Robinson said he would talk to them if they gave him 40 dollars. 

“I would have given the 40 dollars, if I was the National Enquirer,” Konkol said.  Instead, they continued to follow Brown.  They learned that Robinson, though arrested, was never charged with the crime. 

“Brown’s mother said, ‘let that boy go. That was you,’” Konkol explained. Brown complied with his mother’s wishes and did not testify against Robinson. 

“That’s one reason we have a problem in Chicago,” Konkol said. 

Another victim from that weekend was Jose Bravo.  Like Brown, Bravo could identify his shooter, but did not want to testify to prevent gangs from targetinghis family. 

He brought out an envelope.  In it was a little bag with the bullet slug that had been in his shoulder, x-rays, and a fragment of bone from his shoulder,” Konkol said. 

Another victim, Dontae Gamble, testified against his shooter.  But the judge deemed Gamble as not credible because of his own criminal background.  

After gathering these interviews, Main and Konkol came to a realization.   

“This is why they won’t stop shooting in Chicago,” Konkol said.  “We had it, and we scribbled down those words.”  In April 2011, Main and Konkol received the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting.

When asked by the student panel if they were ever scared, Main replied, “I think I have a halo.  Wherever I go, I feel safe.  If I’m forcefully asked to leave, I will.”

“I’m scared,” said Konkol.  “You have to give respect, even to the street gangs.  Listen to your fear.” 

Main explained that most of these shooting occur for petty reasons, like upsetting someone’s girlfriend.  The “no-snitch code” and witnesses who are also felons make it difficult for a solution to be found.  For Main and Konkol, this story inspired “real reporting.” 

Despite his fears, Konkol advises, “Don’t be afraid to ask someone.  If you don’t ask, you don’t get it.” 

Main and Konkol were awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for their outstanding reporting. It was the first won at the Sun Times since 1989 when Jack Higgines won for his editorial cartoons.