Howie Carr

Howard Louis Carr Jr. (born January 17, 1952) is an American conservative political author and radio talk-show host with an audience based in New England. He hosts The Howie Carr Show recorded at WRKO in Boston and broadcast on weekdays, in addition to writing three columns a week for the Boston Herald. He is also an award-winning news reporter.[2][3]

Howie Carr
Howie Carr in 2020
Born
Howard Louis Carr Jr.[1]

(1952-01-17) January 17, 1952
Portland, Maine, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Children5
Career
StyleCurrent events
CountryUnited States

Career

Broadcasting
Main article: The Howie Carr Show
Howie Carr and co-executive producer Grace Curley

Howie Carr has hosted a syndicated weekday radio talk-show on more than twenty-five New England radio stations including Boston's WRKO (AM 680). The show, titled The Howie Carr Show, is syndicated to 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.[4]

In August 2016, The Howie Carr Show began syndicating one hour of the show on the Newsmax cable television channel.

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.

Literature

As a journalist

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).[5][6] 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.[5] 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.

In 1985, Carr won the National Magazine Award for Essays and Criticism.[7] In television, he has been nominated for an Emmy Award.

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.[8] 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?"[9]

In 1998, Don Imus claimed Carr's wife was having an affair with boxer Riddick Bowe.[10] 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".[11]

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 handing down lenient sentences in bail decisions 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".[12]

As a book author

Carr's book Kennedy Babylon, was released on March 21, 2017. Carr has written non-fiction books about gangsters and also two fiction books, Hard Knocks and Killers.

Non-fiction
Winter Hill Gang series

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. 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,[13] 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,[13] 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.[14][15]

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,[16] or by shooting him from a cemetery across the street from Carr's former home at 91 Concord Road in Acton, Massachusetts.[17] Whitey and Weeks had knowledge of Carr's residence because Carr was a neighbor of one of Weeks' brothers.[17]

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.[17]

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.[17]

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."[17]

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."[17] "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."

Fiction

In 2012, Carr moved into fictional writing with his third book, Hard Knocks,[18] which was followed three years later by Killers, his sixth and most recent release.[19]

Relationship with Donald Trump

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.[20]

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.[21]

Personal life
Carr was born at Holt Hall in Portland, Maine when it was the Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary.

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.[20]

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.[20] 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).[20] At UNC, Carr was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and wrote at student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel and graduated in 1973.[20][22][23]

Previously living in Somerville and Acton,[24][6] 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,[25] and their three daughters.[23] Carr also has two daughters from a previous marriage.

In March 2007, Carr had a melanoma removed from his forehead.[26]

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.[27]

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.[28]

Carr owns houses in Wellesley, MA., Cape Cod, and Palm Beach, FL.

Awards and recognition
  • In 2017, Carr was ranked the 14th most important talk show host in America by Talkers Magazine.[29]
  • Carr was ranked 14th on the Heavy Hundred 2016 list and 15th on the Heavy Hundred 2015 list. The list ranks talk-show hosts from around the U.S. whom this trade journal considers the most popular, influential, or entertaining. Carr has been in this list since 2007,[30] falling to 56th in 2009.
  • Placed 57th on Talkers Magazine's list of the 2014 "Heavy Hundred".[31]
  • Was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2008.[32]

Bibliography

Non-fiction
  • The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century, New York: Warner Books, 2006 (ISBN 0-446-57651-4)
  • Hitman: The Untold Story of Johnny Martorano: Whitey Bulger's Enforcer and the Most Feared Gangster in the Underworld, New York: Forge Books, 2011 (ISBN 0-765-32639-6)
  • Rifleman: The Untold Story of Stevie Flemmi, Frandel, 2013 (ISBN 0986037206)
  • Ratman: The Trial And Conviction of Whitey Bulger, Frandel, 2014 ISBN 9781461956655
  • Kennedy Babylon: A Century of Scandal and Depravity, Volume 1, Frandel, 2017 ISBN 9780986193309
  • What Really Happened, How Donald J Trump Saved America From Hillary Clinton, Frandel, 2018 ISBN 0986193313

Fiction
  • Hard Knocks, New York: Forge Books, 2012 ISBN 076532640X
  • Killers, New York: Forge Books, 2015 ISBN 9780765333742

Filmography

References
  1. "Howard Louis "Del" Carr Sr." Archived 2013-05-15 at the Wayback Machine – News-Record.com
  2. "3 takeaways from Boston magazine's Howie Carr profile | Boston.com". www.boston.com. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  3. "What the Hell Happened to Howie Carr?". Boston Magazine. 2018-11-27. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  4. Shanahan, Mark; Goldstein, Meredith (November 12, 2014). "Howie Carr done at WRKO". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on November 13, 2014. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
  5. "Carr, Howie 1952–". Contemporary Authors. Gale Group. 2009. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  6. Kurtz, Howard (December 6, 1989). "The columnist who bit Boston". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  7. "Howie Carr". Archived from the original on 2018-12-05. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
  8. "Barnicle Resigns from Globe". The Boston Globe. August 19, 1998. Archived from the original on April 30, 1999.
  9. Bailey, Steve (May 7, 2004). "Badboys". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on May 9, 2004. Retrieved November 23, 2005.
  10. Hinckley, David (1998-08-17). "Exactly Why Is This Carr Blowing Its Horn?". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on 2018-12-05. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
  11. Carr, Howie (2007-04-11). "Imus' demise no surprise". Boston Herald. Archived from the original on 2007-04-16. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  12. Jurkowitz, Mark (February 1, 2005). "Judge denies Herald quotes". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on February 3, 2005. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  13. The Brothers Bulger
  14. Lipman, Lisa (2006-01-07). "Boston Bodies May Be Mob Victims". ABC News. Retrieved 2018-03-27. According to published reports, authorities were led to the bodies by Kevin Weeks, a Bulger crony who pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges.
  15. Miller, Wilbur R. (2012). The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encyclopedia (annotated ed.). SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-1483305936.
  16. Boeri, David (March 16, 2006). "Howie Carr blows up". The Boston Phoenix. Archived from the original on March 17, 2016.
  17. Carr, Howie (September 23, 2015). "Whitey Bulger Wanted Me Dead". The Daily Beast.
  18. Carr, Howie (2012-01-03). Hard Knocks. Macmillan. ISBN 9780765326409.
  19. Carr, Howie (2015-09-15). Killers: A Novel. Tom Doherty Associates. ISBN 9781466805194.
  20. Van Zuylen-Wood, Simon (2018-11-27). "Howie Carr Is Deplorable—and He Couldn't Be Happier". Boston. Archived from the original on 2018-11-27. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
  21. Diamond, Jeremy (June 29, 2016). "Trump opener mocks Warren with stereotypical Native American war cry". CNN.
  22. "Howie Carr". American Entertainment International Speakers Bureau. Archived from the original on August 20, 2012. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  23. Hansmire, Suzanne (Fall 2006). "An interview with Howie Carr". Wellesley Weston. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
  24. Carr, Howie (2006). The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century. New York: Warner Books. p. x. ISBN 0446576514.
  25. Shanahan, Mark (March 5, 2010). "Howie Carr's wife wants Wellesley kids to sober up". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on March 9, 2010. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
  26. Edgers, Geoff; Beggy, Carol (March 7, 2007). "For 'RKO hosts, on-air fight leads to off-air laughs". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on March 9, 2007.
  27. Shanahan, Mark (September 28, 2009). "Howie Carr okay after Wellesley accident". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on September 30, 2009.
  28. "Howie Carr on the mend after crash". Boston Herald. November 5, 2014. Archived from the original on November 6, 2014.
  29. "2017 TALKERS Heavy Hundred 1–25". Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  30. Simon, Clea (March 2, 2007). "Area talk hosts among biz's". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on March 5, 2007. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
  31. "2014 Heavy Hundred". Talkers Magazine. Retrieved 2014-05-06.
  32. "National Radio Hall of Fame Announces 2008 Inductees". The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
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