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Tom Curtis, former Chronicle reporter, dies
Harvey Rice
5–6 minutes
Journalist gained national recognition for 'Origins of AIDS' story in Rolling Stone
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Thomas A. Curtis, 72, died at his home in Galvestion. Curtis had a long career in journalism, writing for Houston Chronicle and other publications.
Thomas A. Curtis, 72, died at his home in Galvestion. Curtis had a long career in journalism, writing for Houston Chronicle and other publications.

GALVESTON – Thomas A. "Tom" Curtis, a former Houston Chronicle reporter and Texas Monthly writer whose stories contributed to reforms in the Houston Police Department, died from complications of Parkinson's disease at his home in Galveston. He was 71.

Curtis gained a reputation as a fearless, tenacious reporter over a career that began as a copy boy at the Galveston Daily News and eventually led to some of the most respected Texas and national news organizations.

Story provoked debate

Curtis' stories about shooting deaths by Houston police officers in the 1970s in Texas Monthly Magazine led the department to crack down on "throw-down" weapons, guns planted by police to justify the shooting of an unarmed suspect.

He gained national attention for a 1992 story in "Rolling Stone" titled, "The Origins of AIDS," that roiled the scientific community by exploring a hypothesis that the AIDS virus was transferred from monkeys to humans via an experimental polio vaccination program in Central Africa in the 1950s.

The article was widely criticized, although it helped provoke a debate about the transfer of disease from animals to humans. A respected scientist behind the vaccination program sued Rolling Stone, eventually settling for $1.

"He spent 11 months of his life helping Rolling Stone defend the suit," recalled his former wife, Sandy Sheehy, 71, of Albuquerque, N.M. Curtis was vindicated eight years later by a book, "The River" by Edward Hooper, that expanded on Curtis' Rolling Stone article.

Long-time friend Mark Muhich, 66, of Jackson, Mich., said Curtis stood by the Rolling Stone story. "He always said, 'All I did was report the facts,' " Muhich said.

The first evidence of Curtis' journalistic talent became evident at Galveston's Ball High School, where he distributed mimeographed copies of his writings and wrote for the school newspaper.

He attended from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he edited the school newspaper and interned at the Wall Street Journal as part of the college's unique five-year program of work-study.

Documented police abuses

After graduation in 1968, he worked as an assistant city editor for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram before becoming a reporter for the Houston Chronicle for nearly three years. From there, he worked briefly at the Fort Worth Press before returning to Houston to be news director at the Pacifica Network's radio station KPFT while freelancing for the New York Times.

Curtis left KPFT to open a Houston bureau for the Washington Post.

He sold versions of "The New Gang in Town" about shooting deaths by Houston police to Texas Monthly and the Washington Post in 1977, prompting a number of stories by national news outlets about Houston police abuses.

A year later, he helped launch the now defunct Houston City Magazine. After less than two years the magazine was sold and Curtis began freelancing, in 1979 selling Texas Monthly "The Throwdown" about police planting a pistol after shooting an unarmed teenager. The article became the 1981 TV movie "The Killing of Randy Webster," starring Hal Holbrook and Sean Penn.

The Dallas Times-Herald hired Curtis as bureau chief in 1982 where he worked for five years before joining Texas Monthly as a senior editor. He left Texas Monthly in 1990 and began freelancing, selling "The Origins of AIDS" to Rolling Stone in 1992 and a series of articles on the same subject to the Houston Post.

In 1994, Curtis and Sheehy, who is also an author, returned to Galveston where he continued to freelance until becoming the editor of the UTMB Quarterly at the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1997. He worked at UTMB until he was overcome by the ravages of Parkinson's.

Sheehy and Curtis parted ways after 23 years of marriage and he spent the last five years of his life with companion Victoria Narkin, 74, in Galveston.. Narkin said Parkinson's disease took away his ability to write. "He desperately wanted to write another book," Narkin said.

Sunday gathering planned

Curtis is survived by Narkin, Sheehy, and his brother, Michael Curtis.

At his request there will be no memorial service, but a gathering to honor his achievements is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Galveston, 502 Church. Memorical contributions should go to Antioch College, Office of Advancement, One Morgan Place, Yellow Springs, OH 445387, or to the ACLU of Texas, P.O. Box 8306, Houston, TX 77288-8306, or aclutx.org.