Michael James McAlary (December 15, 1957 – December 25, 1998) was an American journalist and columnist who worked at the New York Daily News for 12 years, beginning with the police beat. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for his columns exposing police brutality against Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. He was sued for libel by a woman he had accused of lying in her claim that she had been raped. He also wrote five books inspired by cases he had covered. McAlary died of colon cancer in 1998 at the age of 41. Life and career Born in 1957, McAlary started his journalism career as a sportswriter in Boston. He moved to New York to fill a similar position with the New York Post. In 1985 he became a reporter for New York Newsday, the major newspaper on Long Island. He left that position to become a columnist for the New York Daily News. He also wrote columns for the Post, jumping frequently between it and the "Daily News". In 1988, McAlary wrote a non-fiction book, Buddy Boys, about corrupt police in New York's 77th Precinct, in the Brooklyn North patrol borough. He also had a hand in writing the script for the movie Cop Land, starring Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro. In 1990, McAlary wrote a piece referring to a gang leader named Lefty, who had a friend killed in city gang warfare. Four years later, McAlary interviewed Lefty anew. By then the former gang leader was a decorated soldier, family man, and college student. He attributed his about-face to McAlary's 1990 article. McAlary ended his 1994 piece by writing, "I am humbled by his talent. Sure, as a columnist, you can get people indicted and even free the wrongly accused. That is what you do. But from now on, I know, at least once, I wrote a story that mattered." For the Daily News McAlary exposed the torture of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, by New York City Police at a Brooklyn station in August 1997. Next year he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, based on his coverage of the story from August to October. He was also a finalist in the category Breaking News Reporting, re-classed as Commentary by the Board. McAlary's most controversial story, for the Daily News in 1994, was about a woman who said she had been raped while walking home