Alan Prendergast

Journalist

United States

Alan Prendergast has written for ROLLING STONE, OUTSIDE, LOS ANGELES TIMES MAGAZINE, MEN'S JOURNAL, USA TODAY, WESTWORD, and other regional and national publications. His book about the Richard Jahnke child abuse and parricide case, THE POISON TREE, was a Literary Guild selection, nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America, and was recently reissued by Open Road Media.

Prendergast served as consultant and principal reporter for a CBS News one-hour documentary about the Columbine shootings, hosted by Ed Bradley, which aired on "60 Minutes." His stories about the justice system, high-security prisons, historic crimes and “death by misadventure” have been showcased on Longform and appeared in several anthologies, including THE BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING, THE BEST AMERICAN CRIME REPORTING, SEVEN SINS, and BEST ALTERNATIVE LONGFORM JOURNALISM.

Prendergast graduated summa cum laude from Colorado College and began his career as an office assistant at The New Yorker. He has a master’s degree in journalism from Ohio State University, where he studied as a Kiplinger Fellow. He teaches journalism at Colorado College and lives in Denver, Colorado.

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Portfolio

Crime and Punishment

Westword
03/19/2019
Columbine Survivors Talk About the Wounds That Won't Heal

Twenty years ago, the attack on Columbine was the deadliest high school shooting in American history. Subsequent mass shootings have produced higher body counts. But Columbine, with its infamy-seeking teen killers, elaborate planning and impotent police response, remains the singular tragedy that every new eruption...

Westword
02/18/2020
The Rise and Fall of a Bitcoin Mining Scheme That Was "Too Big to Fail"

The first time you see Joby Weeks work his magic, you might wonder what the hell is going on. Here he is, serving up financial advice on stage in Acapulco or Aspen or some other place where millionaires roost, and he's dressed like a frat boy, in cargo shorts, a T-shirt and sandals.

Westword
05/13/2019
Thomas Silverstein, America's Most Isolated Prisoner, Dead at 67

Thomas Silverstein, a federal prisoner whose ability to wreak havoc in even the most restrictive high-security conditions played a significant role in the creation of the modern supermax prison, died last weekend after more than three decades spent in solitary confinement.

Unsung Histories

Westword
09/20/2012
Joe Arridy Was the Happiest Man on Death Row

Joe Arridy was 23 years old and had an IQ of 46. At the time, he was classified as an "imbecile," yet he was deemed capable and malicious enough to commit a sexually-motivated slaying of two young girls. After his execution, it took 72 years for his pardon.

Westword
Ludlow Massacre: A look back at Colorado's deadly coal war

This week, Westword looks back at one of the darkest episodes in Colorado history: the Ludlow Massacre, a shooting war between striking coal miners and state troops that had a profound impact on the state's politics and the American labor movement and still resonates a century later.

Westword
08/20/2019
Searching for Bridey Murphy, Pueblo's Paranormal Queen

Ginni Tighe and the man who hypnotized her both passed away in the 1990s. The real story behind their astral journey can be found in a metal file cabinet at the Pueblo County Historical Society, the repository of Bernstein's papers dealing with the Bridey Murphy experiments. But one witness is still alive, and he...

Mysteries

Outside Online
12/27/2007
A Thrown Rock, a Dead Climber

When Pete Absolon, the Rocky Mountain director of NOLS, set out for a climb in Wyoming's Wind River Range, life couldn't have been better. A deadly mistake by another man ended it all in an instant-and started a nightmare that's never going to stop.