Stephen Francis Patrick Aloysius Dunleavy was an Australian journalist based in the United States, best known as a columnist for the New York Post from 1976 to 2008. He was a lead reporter on the tabloid television program A Current Affair in the 1980s and 1990s.
Dunleavy worked in the New York bureau of Rupert Murdoch's Australian newspapers. He joined the New York Post as a news reporter in 1977, not long after Murdoch purchased the newspaper. Journalist William Shawcross, in his biography of Murdoch, wrote that Dunleavy was "a good-looking, hard-drinking, womanising, roustabout swashbuckler with an astounding gift for turning dross into lively cliché, drear facts into purpled prose". According to Steve Cuozzo, Dunleavy claimed in the preparation of one story that AIDS could be transmitted by kissing. When challenged, he responded: "Let’s not be too technical, mate – it’s a good yarn." Dunleavy was persuaded to transfer to the new Fox network in 1986, and was involved in creating the United States tabloid television format in the 1980s. He became a regular reporter for A Current Affair. The programme lasted from 1986 to 1995, after which Dunleavy returned to the New York Post.
Stories
DuMond controversy
Dunleavy wrote a series of articles in defence of Wayne DuMond, a Vietnam veteran who was convicted of rape in Arkansas in 1984, questioning the justice of DuMond's sentence and conviction. DuMond's sentence was eventually reduced to the point where he was paroled; within a year of his release, he went on to rape and murder two women in Missouri. This Willie Horton-like incident resurfaced as a political issue during the 2008 presidential election, since it was Republican candidate Mike Huckabee who secured DuMond's parole while governor of Arkansas; critics alleged that Huckabee became interested in the issue after reading Dunleavy's articles.
In his column of 17 October 2002 regarding the Beltway sniper attacks, Dunleavy wrote, "If when the shooter is caught, if he is not a foreigner, I will bare my derriere in Macy’s window." One of the shooters, John Lee Malvo, was born in Jamaica and entered the United States illegally with his mother.
Books
In 1977, in association with three of Elvis Presley's former bodyguards, Dunleavy published the paperback which investigated Presley's life behind the scenes. It was published on 1 August, just two weeks before Presley's death on 16 August. This was the first book that focused on Presley's addiction to prescription drugs. Following Presley's death in August 1977, the book sold more than 1 million copies.
Dunleavy's personality was the model for actor Robert Downey Jr.'s performance as Wayne Gale in Oliver Stone's film Natural Born Killers.
Personal life
His first wife was Yvonne Dunleavy, a fellow Australian and the ghostwriter of The Happy Hooker. Dunleavy died at his home in Long Island, New York on June 24, 2019 at the age of 81. He was survived by his second wife, Gloria, and their sons, Peter and Sean. Dunleavy was described in his London Times obituary as "Rupert Murdoch’s No 1 éminence grise". He "was one of the greatest reporters of all time", Murdoch himself commented in tribute. "His passing is the end of a great era."
