Thomas Peele

Thomas Peele is the author of Killing the Messenger, A Story of Radical Faith, Racism’s Backlash and the Assassination of a Journalist, a critically acclaimed work of non-fiction that examines race through the 2007 murder of California journalist Chauncey Bailey and the history and belief system of the Black Muslim cult whose members killed him.

Reviewers have compared it to Capote's In Cold Blood, Jon Krakauer's Under The Banner of Heaven, and to David Simon’s television series “The Wire.” One called it "a masterpiece of contemporary historical narrative." Peele "bravely takes on the complexities of racism and its backlash,” wrote another.

Peele is also an award winning investigative reporter for the Bay Area News Group newspapers and web sites, (San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, ect.) and a UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism lecturer. He also teaches at the University of San Francisco graduate writing program, and serves on the board of directors of the Butler Institute for Media Diversity, which surveys the racial diversity of the nation’s top news companies.

Beginning in 2007, Peele was the lead reporter on the Chauncey Bailey Project, a journalistic cooperative that probed the street-corner murder of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey. Peele’s reporting on gaps and unexplored evidence in the police investigation of the killing that showed the involvement of uncharged persons in Bailey’s slaying and led to the eventual indictments, and ultimately, the convictions of the cult leader who ordered the assassination and another man who served as the triggerman’s get-away driver. Among the many honors Peele and others received for their tireless work on Bailey’s killing include the McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage, IRE’s Tom Renner Award for reporting on organized crime and Columbia University’s Paul Tobekin Memorial Award for reporting on racial or religious hatred, intolerance or discrimination in the United States.

Peele is a 29-year veteran of newspapers. His career began at small weekly newspaper that operated on such a scant budget, its owner printed copies on a press powered by a Ford Pinto engine mounted on blocks. In addition to cub reporter duties, Peele’s assigned tasks included buying gasoline for the weekly press runs and checking the engine’s oil and spark plugs.

He went on to work at Newsday as a sportswriter while finishing college and then at papers in New Jersey, New York and Delaware before joining the Atlantic City Press in 1993, where he covered government corruption, organized crime and casino development. It was there, working in a dingy, windowless office in city hall, where Peele once picked up the phone to hear casino owner Donald Trump say the immortal words, “You’re a fucking twerp” in response to a story. Atlantic City is also where Peele achieved one the highest points of his career, writing a first-person story in the voice of a lonely Douglas fir waiting desperately at a Christmas tree stand in a parking lot to either be purchased at the last minute on Christmas Eve or be fed into a wood chipper.

Peele moved to California in 2000, joining what is now known as the Bay Area News Group, publishers of several large dailies surrounding San Francisco. In his newspaper work, Peele specializes in public records and government watchdog reporting and data analysis, routinely producing enterprise stories about bureaucratic malfeasance and corruption. He also writes a monthly column, The Watchdog, on government transparency and freedom of the press, issues on which he is widely considered and expert and on which he frequently speaks and lectures.

Peele was born in Manhattan and is a passionate and often heartbroken fan of the New York Mets. He lives in Northern California with his wife and daughters, and his overflowing collections of books and Bruce Springsteen bootlegs.