The Omaha World-Herald's "Playing Victims, Playing the System" seven-chapter series concludes Sunday, completing a run of unprecedented length."We believe this is the longest serial the World-Herald has run (i.e., where the plot of the main story continues from day-to-day)," said its author, veteran investigative reporter Karyn Spencer.
"The newspaper has published weeklong series before I was here, and some of the "occasional" series (i.e., "Help Wanted: The unspoken demand for illegal immigrants") may have had more total parts spread over time," Spencer said.
The more than 9,100-word series chronicles the life of Jim O'Gara, an Omahan who swindled lawyers, inmates, ostrich farmers, bank officers, deep-sea divers, total strangers, the federal government and his own wife out of $4.4 million.
Spencer said she began investigating O'Gara shortly after his 2004 indictment and reviewed more than 60 court files and interviewed more than three dozen people in 10 states to write the seven-part series.
Spencer has previously been recognized for her investigative reporting, winning a Mary Ellen Award, a Casey Medal for meritorious journalism and a Prevention for a Safer Society (PASS) Award for her contributions to the World-Herald's series "Our Dead Children: Why Nebraska Fails as a Parent" in 2003.
1 comment:
I realize that the bad news pays the bills, but, as a reader, could we maybe get a little more good news? I read part of this series, but I felt, in a way, that I was glorifying what this man did. Great writing, but get a new topic.
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