Biography

William P. McGivern was born on December 6, 1918 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a writer, known for The Big Heat (1953), Slattery's People (1964) and The Wrecking Crew (1968). He was married to Maureen Daly. He died on November 18, 1982 in Palm Desert, California, USA.

Crime novelist who focused on characterization and the psychological effects of corruption in the big city. As a soldier, then a police reporter, he contributed realism to mystery writing. In 1980 he was elected President of the Mystery Writers of America.

He died of cancer in 1982. One year later, his daughter Megan McGivern Shaw also died of the disease on December 31, 1983. His widow Maureen Daly McGivern died a hospice in Palm Desert, California of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma on September 25, 2006. His son Patrick Joseph McGivern III passed away on July 10, 2012 in Indio, California.