Howie Carr

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.

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.

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).

Howard Louis Carr Jr. (born January 17, 1952) is an American conservative radio talk-show host, political author, news reporter and award-winning writer.

He hosts The Howie Carr Show originating from his studios in Wellesley, MA and broadcast on weekdays on WRKO in Boston as well as to an audience based in New England, in addition to writing three columns a week for the Boston Herald.

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

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).

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.

Carr has hosted local Boston weekday radio talk-shows since the 1980s on WRKO (AM 680).

The Howie Carr Show has since become syndicated on more than twenty-five radio stations throughout northern and central New England, and can be heard elsewhere via live streaming on HowieCarrShow.com.

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.

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.

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?"

In 1998, Don Imus claimed Carr's wife was having an affair with boxer Riddick Bowe.

Mrs. Carr retained Alan Dershowitz as her lawyer.

The parties reached an undisclosed settlement.

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 setting low cash bails 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".

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.

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".

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.

A book 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.

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.

In September 2016, the pay television channel Newsmax TV began simulcasting The Howie Carr Show.

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.

Carr has written non-fiction books about Boston gangsters, and the Kennedy family; and also two novels.