Federici was notorious for chasing stories

Bill Federici and his family went into lockdown with police protection after mobsters picketed the New York Daily News and threatened his family over a sidebar Federici wrote for the newspaper.

Federici called a high-ranking contact in the mob. The contact called those who were threatening “ignorant,” then called back a few minutes later to inform him he had cleared up the misunderstanding.
He also added that another mobster said the sidebar was “a hell of a good story.”

Federici, a longtime New York Daily News crime reporter and Brooklyn editor, died April 22, at his home on Longboat Key. He was 82.

During his 32 years as a newspaper reporter, Federici earned the trust of mobsters, thieves, murderers and corrupt officials.

“He was a people person, and he could understand without judging the predicaments people put themselves into and it made him a very good interviewer,” said brother Ted Federici.

Born June 22, 1931, in Brooklyn, N.Y., the newspaper business hooked him when he became a copy boy at 16 with the New York Daily News. He continued there during his summer breaks from Hofstra College and also served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean conflict.

Federici’s parents wanted their son to become a dentist, so he told them he had enrolled in dental school in California but continued to work nearby at the New York Daily News.

His parents discovered the charade after his father flipped open the newspaper to a feature story about the history of the New York police officer’s Billy club with the byline “William V. Federici” while Federici was visiting.

“How’s dental school?” his father asked his son, who hadn’t known his editor had published the story because his editor planned to surprise him with his first byline.

“I thought my brother was going to faint right there,” Ted Federici said.

But his parents accepted his career choice, and Federici went on to become a nationally recognized crime reporter.

Notorious mob boss Joe Colombo allowed Federici to shadow him.

Federici reported on the assassinations of both Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. and the Charles Manson trials.

Federici became the news when he recovered the 100.32-carat DeLong Star Ruby after Jack “Murph the Surf” stole it with two others in October 1964 from the American Museum of Natural History.

According to the New York Daily News, an unidentified person holding the gem contacted Federici seeking $25,000 in ransom. After philanthropist John D. MacArthur agreed to pay, Federici was told to go to a phone booth in Palm Beach Gardens and wait for a call.

The caller told him to face the door, reach up and he would feel the ruby.

The Sept. 3, 1965 cover of the New York Daily News featured a photo of Federici reaching up into the phone booth with the headline “HERE’S RUBY!”

Federici’s coverage of child abuse in New York State helped change state laws. His reporting also led to the arrest of Richard Speck, a serial killer who murdered five nurses in Chicago.

In the mid-1970s, Federici served for two years as press secretary to the Nadjari Commission that was formed to prosecute corruption in the criminal justice system before returning to the New York Daily News as its Brooklyn editor.

Federici received three Pulitzer Prize nominations and 34 journalistic awards, including the George Polk Award for excellence in local reporting.

He left newspapers in 1981 to become public relations director for the Brooklyn Union Gas Co., where he served until retiring in 1996.

In retirement, Federici’s neighbors often saw the qualities that made him a top-notch reporter.

Loren Lysen, his next-door neighbor at Harbour Links for 10 years, said Federici pursued a good story whether he was on the golf course or the dinner table.

“He used to say, ‘Here’s something coming from left field’ and ask that question that would be able to satisfy everybody,” Lysen said. “I could see it was his inquisitive nature.”

Federici was preceded in death by his first wife, Arlene. He is survived by his wife of 18 years, Linda, sons, the Rev. William and Robert Federici; stepson, Anthony Vulpi; brother, Ted; and three grandsons.