Linda Deutsch, a special correspondent for The Associated Press who for nearly 50 years wrote glittering first drafts of history from many of the nation’s most significant criminal and civil trials such as Charles Manson, O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, among others — died Sunday. She was 80.
Linda was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2022 and underwent successful treatment, but the cancer returned this summer. She died at her Los Angeles home, surrounded by family and friends, said nurse Narek Petrosian of Olympia Hospice Care.
She was America’s best known trial reporter and her career started in 1969 with the trial of Sirhan Sirhan, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin.
Defense attorney Thomas Mesereau, who represented Jackson, called Deutsch “the epitome of ethics and professionalism in journalism.”
“I can’t think of anybody who rises to her level,” he said of Deutsch when she retired.
Michael Jackson fans might know her for reporting on Michael’s trial and reporting fairly. She claimed he was being framed.
Michael called her after the trial to thank her for being fair.
All our thoughts and condolences to her family and friends.
