Howie Carr | |
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![]() Carr in 2020 | |
Born | Howard Louis Carr Jr. [1] January 17, 1952 Portland, Maine, U.S. |
Alma mater | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Spouse | Kathy Stimpson |
Children | 5 |
Career | |
Style | Current events |
Country | United States |
Website | howiecarrshow |
Howard Louis Carr Jr. (born January 17, 1952) is an American conservative radio talk-show host, political author, news reporter and award-winning writer.
He hosts The Howie Carr Show originating from his studios in Wellesley, MA and broadcast on weekdays on WRKO in Boston as well as to an audience based in New England, in addition to writing three columns a week for the Boston Herald . [2] [3]
Carr was born in Portland, Maine, to Frances Stokes Sutton and Howard Louis Carr Sr. (1905–2008). His early childhood was split between Palm Beach, Florida, where his father worked at The Breakers Palm Beach and Greensboro, North Carolina, where his mother worked as a secretary to a local CEO. [4]
After Carr's mother took a job as the assistant to the headmaster at Deerfield Academy, a boarding school in Deerfield, Massachusetts, Carr received a scholarship to the school. [4] After four years at the school, Carr was accepted into Brown University, but could not attend due to a lack of funds, so he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). [4] At UNC, Carr was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and wrote at student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel and graduated in 1973. [4] [5] [6]
Carr began his career as a reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal , before returning to New England in 1979 as assistant city editor for the Boston Herald American (now the Boston Herald ). [7] [8] From 1980 to 1981, he was the Boston City Hall bureau chief of the Herald American, and he later worked as the paper's State House bureau chief. [7] As a political reporter for WNEV (now WHDH) in 1982, his coverage of then-mayor Kevin White was so relentless that after the mayor announced he was not running again, he told The Boston Globe that one of the things he enjoyed most about his impending retirement was not having Carr chase him around the city.
For years Carr has criticized former Boston Globe and Herald guest columnist Mike Barnicle. In 1998, Barnicle resigned from the Boston Globe over allegations of plagiarism and fabrication of stories. [9] A Boston Globe column by Steve Bailey stated that Carr gave out Barnicle's home phone number, an allegation Carr denies. Barnicle called Carr "a pathetic figure", and asked "Can you imagine being as consumed with envy and jealousy toward me for as long as it has consumed him?" [10]
In 1998, Don Imus claimed Carr's wife was having an affair with boxer Riddick Bowe. [11] Mrs. Carr retained Alan Dershowitz as her lawyer. The parties reached an undisclosed settlement. In a 2007 column, Carr alleged that Imus' statements were incited by Barnicle. According to Carr, Barnicle told Imus that Carr had said Imus "would die before his kid got out of high school". [12]
In 2002, the Boston Herald and Carr were the subjects of a lawsuit by Superior Court Judge Ernest Murphy. The newspaper reported that Murphy had said of a fourteen-year-old rape victim: "She can't go through life as a victim. She's 14. She got raped. Tell her to get over it." He was also alleged to have said of a 79-year-old robbery victim: "I don't care if she's 109." Carr, in a front-page column on February 20, 2002, criticized Murphy for setting low cash bails in rape cases and included references to his daughters, wondering what Murphy would do if it was one of his offspring that had been the victim. Murphy denied all of the allegations and claimed the newspaper libeled him, ruining his physical and emotional health and damaging his career and reputation as a good man. Ultimately, Murphy won the suit and was awarded a $2.09 million payment. During the trial, when asked what his reaction was to the Carr column, Murphy had said he "wanted to kill him". [13]
Carr has hosted local Boston weekday radio talk-shows since the 1980s on WRKO (AM 680). The Howie Carr Show has since become syndicated on more than twenty-five radio stations throughout northern and central New England, and can be heard elsewhere via live streaming on HowieCarrShow.com. In November 2014, Carr left syndicator Entercom Communications and formed his own Howie Carr Radio Network.
WRKO had announced it would not carry the show but on March 9, 2015, it became an affiliate as of March 16, 2015. [14]
In September 2016, the pay television channel Newsmax TV began simulcasting The Howie Carr Show. [15]
Carr has filled in for several nationally syndicated talk show hosts, including Mark Levin and Dennis Miller.
He has also worked as a reporter and commentator for Boston television stations WGBH-TV and WLVI.
Carr has written non-fiction books about Boston gangsters, and the Kennedy family; and also two novels.
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In early 2006, Carr became a book author with the publication of the New York Times -rated best-seller The Brothers Bulger, about brothers Billy and Whitey Bulger. Whitey was the third boss of the Winter Hill Gang. Carr's second book, Hitman , was released in April 2011, two months before Whitey Bulger (then under the name Charlie Gasko) was arrested after sixteen years on the run. A book about Johnny Martorano, Hitman was also rated a best-seller by The New York Times. In 2013, Rifleman: The Untold Story of Stevie Flemmi was published. It was followed a year later by Ratman: The Trial and Conviction of Whitey Bulger.
Billy Bulger's power as President of the Massachusetts Senate intrigued Carr. He began to research both the politician and his gangster brother. Indeed, Carr's arrival on Madison Street in Somerville, Massachusetts, in the late 1970s meant he was perfectly placed to do just that, [16] for Somerville's Marshall Motors garage (at 12 Marshall Street; now a church) was an early base of the Winter Hill Gang. In 1978, the second leader of the Winter Hill Gang, Howie Winter, who lived one street away from Carr, on Montrose Street, [16] was jailed on federal "horse race fixing" charges. Bulger succeeded him, and remained the boss until 1995, the year after he fled Boston due to a pending federal indictment. Whitey was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list from 1999 until his arrest in Santa Monica, California, on June 22, 2011. He had a $2 million bounty on his head. Kevin Weeks replaced Bulger but was arrested and imprisoned in 2000. He was released in 2005 after having served as a cooperating witness for the FBI. [17] [18]
While Carr believes Whitey Bulger wanted him dead ("his greatest regret is not killing me"), due to his finger-pointing at Billy Bulger, he disputes Kevin Weeks' claim that they were close to killing him by either blowing him up with explosives placed inside a basketball, [19] or by shooting him from a cemetery across the street from Carr's former home at 91 Concord Road in Acton, Massachusetts. [20] Whitey and Weeks had knowledge of Carr's residence because Carr was a neighbor of one of Weeks' brothers. [20]
My problems started when I wrote a magazine story quoting the then-mayor of Boston, Kevin White. During cutaways after a TV interview, a reporter asked White about the source of Billy Bulger's almost absolute power at the State House. "If my brother threatened to kill you", the four-term mayor replied in footage that never aired, "you'd be nothing but nice to me". When I printed the exchange, the Bulgers were enraged. But I had it on videotape. It was undeniable. [20]
Whitey knew what Carr looked like, from Carr's job on television. "Plus, I was in his neighborhood every day. But I never ventured into Whitey's package store." The store in question was South Boston Liquor Mart (also known as Stippo's; now Rotary Liquors), at 295 Old Colony Avenue, which Whitey had extorted from its legitimate owner. [20]
The anchor at my TV station was the son of a former mayor of Boston. He lived in Southie, and patronized the Liquor Mart. One night the clerk struck up a conversation with him. "How come Howie never comes in here?" he asked. My friend shrugged. "You tell him," the clerk said, "that if he comes in, we got a fresh dumpster waitin' for him out back." [20]
Carr began taking whatever precautions he could to keep Whitey and Weeks off his tail. "The key to staying alive, I quickly figured out, was to avoid becoming a creature of habit. Wiseguys (or anyone else) who don't mix up their routines are the ones who inevitably get caught 'flat-footed,' to use the old expression. I drove home a different way every evening. If possible, when I parked, I backed into the space so that, if I had to, I could flee more quickly. I stopped meeting face-to-face with anyone I didn't know. I stayed out of bars, especially in Southie. Occasionally I'd sleep somewhere other than my house. The local cops kept an eye on my house in the pre-dawn hours. Slowly the noose began to tighten around Whitey's neck and I relaxed somewhat. Whitey vanished in late 1994, but Weeks was still lurking about. At a tanning salon, he bragged to a Herald photographer that he knew that I had lived next to a graveyard. He mentioned nothing about any C-4 or high-powered rifles, but when he was arrested in 1999 his indirect threats against me were included in a DEA detention warrant." [20] "I was always looking over my shoulder," Carr explained four years after Whitey's arrest. "The day he went missing, I was driving down the street, and on the radio, they said he had disappeared. For the first time in ten years, I didn't have to look over my shoulder."
Carr's book Kennedy Babylon: A Century of Scandal and Depravity, Volume I, was released in 2015 [21] and Volume II was released in 2018. [22]
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In 2012, Carr moved into fictional writing with his third book, Hard Knocks, [23] which was followed three years later by Killers, his sixth and most recent release. [24]
During the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign, Carr hosted rallies and he had lunch with the candidate on his private jet. Carr had candidate Trump on his radio show more than a dozen times, including election night. In 2017, Carr and his wife Kathy joined as member of the Mar-a-Lago Club, a resort and hotel for dues-paying members. [4]
On June 29, 2016, Carr, as an opening speaker at a Bangor, Maine, rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, made a Native American "war whoop" when referring to Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. [25]
Previously living in Somerville and Acton, [26] [8] Carr has lived in Wellesley, Massachusetts, since 1993 with his second wife, Kathy Stimpson (whom he refers to as his "mailroom manager"), a Wellesley realtor, [27] and their three daughters. [6] Carr also has two daughters from a previous marriage.[ citation needed ]
In March 2007, Carr had a melanoma removed from his forehead. [28]
In 2009, Carr crashed his car into a telephone pole on Wellesley Avenue in Wellesley. He was not injured but was cited for a marked-lanes violation. [29]
In November 2014, Carr was injured in another car crash, this time on the Massachusetts Turnpike. He was taken to hospital after the accident, which occurred around 1:00 pm, but was released that evening. [30]
Carr owns houses in Wellesley, MA., Cape Cod, and Palm Beach, FL.[ citation needed ]
William Michael Bulger is an American former Democratic politician, lawyer, and educator from South Boston, Massachusetts. His eighteen-year tenure as President of the Massachusetts Senate is the longest in history. After leaving office, he became president of the University of Massachusetts.
James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger Jr. was an American organized crime boss who led the Winter Hill Gang, an Irish Mob group in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, a city directly northwest of Boston. On December 23, 1994, Bulger fled the Boston area and went into hiding after his former FBI handler, John Connolly, tipped him off about a pending RICO indictment against him. Bulger remained at large for sixteen years. After his 2011 arrest, federal prosecutors tried Bulger for nineteen murders based on grand jury testimony from Kevin Weeks and other former criminal associates.
WEEI is a commercial sports gambling AM radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of New England. Owned by Audacy, Inc., WEEI is the Boston affiliate for the Audacy-owned BetQL Network and Infinity Sports Network, serving as a gambling-focused brand extension of its main sports radio station in the market, WEEI-FM. The WEEI studios are located in Boston's Brighton neighborhood, while the station transmitter resides in the Boston suburb of Needham. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WEEI is available online via Audacy.
James P. Flynn was an American teamster and film actor. He was a reputed member of the famous Winter Hill Gang. He appeared in films including Good Will Hunting, The Cider House Rules and What's the Worst That Could Happen?.
WRKO is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. Owned by iHeartMedia, WRKO is a Class B AM station that provides secondary coverage to portions of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine during the day, but is highly directional at night to protect a number of clear-channel stations on adjacent frequencies. WRKO serves as the Boston affiliate for ABC News Radio, Coast to Coast AM and This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal; syndicated personalities Joe Pags, John Batchelor and Bill Cunningham; the flagship station of The Howie Carr Show, and the home of radio personality Jeff Kuhner. The WRKO studios are located in the Boston suburb of Medford, while the station transmitter resides in nearby Burlington. Besides its main analog transmission, WRKO simulcasts over the HD2 subchannel of sister station WZLX, and streams online via iHeartRadio.
Mike Siegel is an American radio talk show host. Siegel is a native of New York. He has worked hosted the nationally syndicated radio program Coast to Coast AM, and worked at stations from Seattle's KVI to Boston's WRKO and hosted a webcast. He has substituted for nationally syndicated conservative talk show hosts, including Michael Reagan.
The Winter Hill Gang was a loose confederation of organized crime figures in the Boston, Massachusetts, area. It was generally considered an Irish Mob organization, with most gang members and the leadership consisting predominantly of Irish-Americans, though some notable members, such as Johnny Martorano, are of Italian-American descent.
Stephen Joseph Flemmi is an American gangster and convicted murderer and was a close associate of Winter Hill Gang boss Whitey Bulger. Beginning in 1975, Flemmi was a top echelon informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
WBQT is a commercial FM radio station in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by the Beasley Broadcast Group and airing an urban-leaning rhythmic hot AC radio format. WBQT's studios and offices are located in Waltham, and it transmits from atop the Prudential Tower in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood.
WMEX is a commercial radio station licensed to Quincy, Massachusetts, and serving the Greater Boston media market. It is owned by L&J Media, headed by Tony LaGreca and Larry Justice. WMEX broadcasts an oldies format of hits from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, as well as full service features including local DJs, news, traffic and weather. Late nights and weekends, it carries MeTV FM, a syndicated music service. The station's studios and offices are on Enterprise Drive in Marshfield.
The Angiulo brothers, were the leading Italian-American crime group from Boston's North End, from the 1960s until the mid 1980s. Also, the street crew extended into East Boston, Roxbury, Waltham, Newton, Watertown, parts of Revere, and all other predominantly Italian American neighborhoods in Eastern Massachusetts. Their criminal organization was dubbed "In-Town", because one had to go in to town to visit the Angiulo Brothers.
John Joseph Connolly Jr. is an American former FBI agent who was convicted of racketeering, obstruction of justice, and murder charges stemming from his relationship with James "Whitey" Bulger, Steve Flemmi, and the Winter Hill Gang.
Scott Allen Miller has worked in radio since 1992, doing stints as a disc jockey, a producer, and a talk radio host in such places as Kansas City, Tulsa, Los Angeles, and Albany, New York. He was most recently the morning drive host and program director at WROW in Albany.
David M. Wedge is a New York Times-bestselling author, journalist, podcast host and award-winning former reporter for the Boston Herald.
The Howie Carr Show is an American radio talk-show presented by journalist and author Howie Carr. Its flagship station is WRKO 680 in Boston, Massachusetts, on which the show airs every weekday between 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. PM. It is syndicated live in five states, while Rhode Island's WHJJ broadcasts a best-of on Sunday evenings. The show can be accessed worldwide via live streaming, in both audio and video formats, on Carr's own website, HowieCarrShow.com. The video stream, known as the HowieCam, is an embedded Rumble broadcast.
Paul Harold "Sully" Sullivan was an accomplished radio talk-show host of "The Paul Sullivan Show" on WBZ radio. He was best known for his blue-collar politics and plebeian attitude.
John Vincent Martorano is an American former gangster and former hitman for the Winter Hill Gang in Boston, Massachusetts, who has admitted to 20 mob-related killings.
Richard J. Castucci Sr. was an American member of the Patriarca crime family who owned several strip clubs and was involved in illegal gambling. Castucci eventually became a government informant.
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According to published reports, authorities were led to the bodies by Kevin Weeks, a Bulger crony who pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges.