Patrick Radden Keefe
Patrick Radden Keefe, a staff writer, has been contributing investigative reporting to The New Yorker since 2006. His coverage of crime and corruption has ranged from the mystery of a teen’s drowning in the Thames to Purdue Pharma’s role in the opioid epidemic. Keefe is the author of “Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels, and Crooks,” a selection of his New Yorker pieces; “Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty,” which received the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction; and “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland,” which received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Orwell Prize for political writing, and the Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations, and was named one of the twenty best books of the century by the New York Times. His previous books are “The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream,” which was a finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Prize, and “Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping.”
Keefe’s story “A Loaded Gun,” about the troubled history of the mass shooter Amy Bishop, received the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing in 2014, and he was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Reporting in 2015 and 2016, and for profile writing in 2024. Keefe holds a law degree from Yale. He is the creator and host of the 2020 podcast “Wind of Change,” about the strange convergence of Cold War espionage and nineteen-eighties heavy metal, and in 2024 he was an executive producer of FX’s limited series “Say Nothing,” based on his book of the same name. Originally from Boston, he lives with his family in New York.
A Teen’s Fatal Plunge Into the London Underworld
After Zac Brettler mysteriously plummeted into the Thames, his grieving parents were shocked to learn that he’d been posing as an oligarch’s son. Would the police help them solve the puzzle of his death?
How a Script Doctor Found His Own Voice
For decades, Scott Frank earned up to three hundred thousand dollars a week rewriting other people’s screenplays—from “Saving Private Ryan” to “The Ring.” Finally, he decided to stop playing ventriloquist.
How Larry Gagosian Reshaped the Art World
The dealer has been so successful selling art to masters of the universe that he has become one of them.
A Juror Explains Why a C.I.A. Hacker Was Convicted
In a retrial, prosecutors made a persuasive case that Joshua Schulte had leaked hacking tools as an act of petty revenge against agency colleagues.
The Surreal Case of a C.I.A. Hacker’s Revenge
A hot-headed coder is accused of exposing the agency’s hacking arsenal. Did he betray his country because he was pissed off at his colleagues?
José Andrés Feeds Ron Howard, Then Feeds Him Some More
The two friends discuss their new documentary, “We Feed People,” and how the chef’s World Central Kitchen has served twenty million hot meals to displaced Ukrainians since February.
How Putin’s Oligarchs Bought London
From banking to boarding schools, the British establishment has long been at their service, discretion guaranteed.
Jordan Thomas’s Army of Whistle-Blowers
The lawyer and his clients have made millions by exposing one Wall Street crime after another. But are they changing the industry?
An Astounding List of Artists Helped Persuade the Met to Remove the Sackler Name
Richard Serra, Kara Walker, and Ai Weiwei were among a group of more than seventy that quietly pressured the museum to end its association with the family that made a fortune on the opioid crisis.
Philip Montgomery’s Up-Close Portrait of an America in Crisis
For nearly a decade, the photographer has been chronicling the country’s historic struggles, with an intimacy that can be achieved only by getting uncomfortably close.
An Insider from the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Speaks Out
A new memoir by a victims’ advocate describes a process that seemed fixed from the start.
The Sackler Family’s Plan to Keep Its Billions
The Trump Administration is poised to make a settlement with Purdue Pharma that it can claim as a victory for opioid victims. But the proposed outcome would leave the company’s owners enormously wealthy—and off the hook for good.
Why Private Eyes Are Everywhere Now
Private investigators have been touted as an antidote to corruption and a force for transparency. But they’ve also become another weapon in the hands of corporate interests.
Separating the Myth from the Man in the El Chapo Verdict
The Mexican drug lord’s trial and conviction dismantled the notion of impunity—the idea that systems fail, anyone can be bought, crime pays, and the villain gets away with it in the end.
How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success
With “The Apprentice,” the TV producer mythologized Trump—then a floundering D-lister—as the ultimate titan, paving his way to the Presidency.
Why Were a Filmmaker and a Journalist Arrested in Northern Ireland?
Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey estimate that, in total, as many as a hundred officers took part in the operation—a show of force that seems hard to account for, unless the objective was intimidation.
How a Notorious Gangster Was Exposed by His Own Sister
Astrid Holleeder secretly recorded her brother’s murderous confessions. Will he exact revenge?
The Last Testament of a Former I.R.A. Terrorist
A documentary film sheds new light on a notorious murder in Northern Ireland.
McMaster and Commander
Can a national-security adviser retain his integrity if the President has none?
A Teen’s Fatal Plunge Into the London Underworld
After Zac Brettler mysteriously plummeted into the Thames, his grieving parents were shocked to learn that he’d been posing as an oligarch’s son. Would the police help them solve the puzzle of his death?
How a Script Doctor Found His Own Voice
For decades, Scott Frank earned up to three hundred thousand dollars a week rewriting other people’s screenplays—from “Saving Private Ryan” to “The Ring.” Finally, he decided to stop playing ventriloquist.
How Larry Gagosian Reshaped the Art World
The dealer has been so successful selling art to masters of the universe that he has become one of them.
A Juror Explains Why a C.I.A. Hacker Was Convicted
In a retrial, prosecutors made a persuasive case that Joshua Schulte had leaked hacking tools as an act of petty revenge against agency colleagues.
The Surreal Case of a C.I.A. Hacker’s Revenge
A hot-headed coder is accused of exposing the agency’s hacking arsenal. Did he betray his country because he was pissed off at his colleagues?
José Andrés Feeds Ron Howard, Then Feeds Him Some More
The two friends discuss their new documentary, “We Feed People,” and how the chef’s World Central Kitchen has served twenty million hot meals to displaced Ukrainians since February.
How Putin’s Oligarchs Bought London
From banking to boarding schools, the British establishment has long been at their service, discretion guaranteed.
Jordan Thomas’s Army of Whistle-Blowers
The lawyer and his clients have made millions by exposing one Wall Street crime after another. But are they changing the industry?
An Astounding List of Artists Helped Persuade the Met to Remove the Sackler Name
Richard Serra, Kara Walker, and Ai Weiwei were among a group of more than seventy that quietly pressured the museum to end its association with the family that made a fortune on the opioid crisis.
Philip Montgomery’s Up-Close Portrait of an America in Crisis
For nearly a decade, the photographer has been chronicling the country’s historic struggles, with an intimacy that can be achieved only by getting uncomfortably close.
An Insider from the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Speaks Out
A new memoir by a victims’ advocate describes a process that seemed fixed from the start.
The Sackler Family’s Plan to Keep Its Billions
The Trump Administration is poised to make a settlement with Purdue Pharma that it can claim as a victory for opioid victims. But the proposed outcome would leave the company’s owners enormously wealthy—and off the hook for good.
Why Private Eyes Are Everywhere Now
Private investigators have been touted as an antidote to corruption and a force for transparency. But they’ve also become another weapon in the hands of corporate interests.
Separating the Myth from the Man in the El Chapo Verdict
The Mexican drug lord’s trial and conviction dismantled the notion of impunity—the idea that systems fail, anyone can be bought, crime pays, and the villain gets away with it in the end.
How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success
With “The Apprentice,” the TV producer mythologized Trump—then a floundering D-lister—as the ultimate titan, paving his way to the Presidency.
Why Were a Filmmaker and a Journalist Arrested in Northern Ireland?
Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey estimate that, in total, as many as a hundred officers took part in the operation—a show of force that seems hard to account for, unless the objective was intimidation.
How a Notorious Gangster Was Exposed by His Own Sister
Astrid Holleeder secretly recorded her brother’s murderous confessions. Will he exact revenge?
The Last Testament of a Former I.R.A. Terrorist
A documentary film sheds new light on a notorious murder in Northern Ireland.
McMaster and Commander
Can a national-security adviser retain his integrity if the President has none?