Joseph John ``J.J.'' Maloney, murderer/journalist, 59

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Joseph John ``J.J.'' Maloney, a convicted
murderer-turned-journalist who worked on a prison series for The Kansas City
Star and other assignments, died Friday. He was 59.

The cause of death was being investigated by the Medical Examiner's office.

In 1959, after several run-ins with law enforcement, Maloney was charged
with armed robbery and the murder of a 74-year-old man who was beaten with a
pistol during a botched break-in. He was convicted in 1960, and at 19,
sentenced to four life terms in prison.

In September 1961, when he was in solitary confinement, Maloney started to
write poetry and sent some of his work to Thorpe Menn, then the book editor
of The Star. The two began to correspond.

Maloney began writing book reviews and poetry for The Star in 1967. Largely
through the intercession of Menn, The Star hired Maloney as a consultant on
a prison series when he was paroled in 1972.

The series won an American Bar Association Silver Gavel and Kansas Bar/Media
Award.

Maloney left The Star in 1978. In 1980, he joined The Orange County
Register, where he wrote about the Freeway Killer case.

Most recently, Maloney he was the editor of crimemagazine.com, a
locally-based Web site that features crime story essays by Maloney and other
writers.

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