51 pages • 1-hour read
Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts
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Key Figures
Bill O’Reilly
Bill O’Reilly is an American journalist, political commentator, and author. He achieved fame as the longtime host of the cable news show The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News. Calling his studio “the no-spin zone,” he pioneered an abrasive, no-nonsense take on current events made his show the most watched program on cable news, and made a massive influence on the entire political news industry. Raised in Long Island, he attended the prominent Chaminade Catholic boys’ high school and Marist College, majoring in history. Having been a student reporter, he then pursued a masters in broadcast journalism at Boston University. He worked at several local news outlets before joining CBS news as a correspondent, followed by ABC news. From 1989 to 1995, he was the anchor of the newsmagazine program Inside Edition on CBS. In 1996, he became the host of The O’Reilly Factor on the then-new Fox News Network, an hour-long show of commentary and interviews on current events. The show was a rating juggernaut for many years, spawning a host of imitators and even a sustained parody in the form of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report with actor and comedian Stephen Colbert, which ran from 2005 to 2014.
In 2017, O’Reilly came under immense pressure for a series of sexual harassment allegations, which the network settled for millions of dollars. The resulting loss of ad revenue and ratings led to O’Reilly’s firing and the cancellation of the show soon afterward. Still, O’Reilly has found continued success as a radio host and as the co-author of the immensely popular Killing books, one volume of which he and Martin Dugard have published each year since 2011. He continues to reside in his native Long Island.
Martin Dugard
Martin Dugard is an American author, mostly of popular histories, who is best known as Billy O’Reilly’s coauthor in the long-running and popular Killing series. He began his writing career as a sports reporter, focusing in particular on endurance sports such as ultramarathons. He also participated in events such as New Zealand’s Raid Gauloises (an intense competitive adventure race that began in 1989). His writing appeared in magazines including Esquire, Outside, Runner’s World, Sports Illustrated, and GQ, among others. A dedicated runner (and author of a book entitled To Be a Runner) he is on the Board of Directors for USA Track & Field Foundation. Beyond the Killing series, he has written many history books on his own, including the Taking series, all of which so far have revolved around the battle for a major city in World War II (except the most recent, Taking Midway, about the naval battle that occurred near the titular island). He has also written about explorers such as Christopher Columbus, James Cook, and Dr. Livingstone, and co-authored a book alleging The Murder of King Tut with literary juggernaut James Patterson. He also accompanied television producer Mark Burnett during the first season of the television megahit Survivor in order to help Burnett chronicle the experience in a subsequent book. Dugard is known for his strenuous efforts to capture the reality of the subjects he is writing on, whether by traveling all over the world or subjecting himself to considerable physical danger. He lives in Orange County, California. He is married with three sons.
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