Ned Whelan (1943-2013): Definitive Chronicler of 1970s and 1980s Cleveland

  Whelan with fiance Hedda Dempsey.

More than any other writer, Edward P. “Ned” Whelan, Cleveland Magazine staffer from 1973 to 1987, crafted the definitive profiles of Cleveland’s most controversial political figures and most infamous criminals. Whelan, whose career ranged from The Plain Dealer to public relations, died last night at age 70 in Arizona, where he was visiting his daughter.

When Cleveland Magazine was new, the brash upstart in a two-newspaper town, Whelan’s work -- aggressive, deeply reported, with an eye for character and human frailty and hubris – played a key role in establishing us as a force among the city’s media.

Whelan’s work on the Cleveland Mafia has no equal. For more than a decade, he chronicled its power struggles, rages and lethal decline. His Mob articles are the original source of every retelling of the tale, from history books to documentaries – and they even became a reference for the mobsters themselves. When hit man Ray Ferritto hunted down Irish gangster Danny Greene in 1977, he used a picture of Greene from a Whelan story to identify him.

“When it comes to coverage of the Mob, he became one of the foremost authorities anywhere in the country,” says Rich Osborne, who worked with Whelan at Cleveland Magazine from 1979 to 1984. “He knew them very well. They told him things they wouldn’t tell anybody else.”

Cleveland’s most powerful political figures, from Ralph Perk to George Forbes, felt the sting of Whelan’s caustic wit and the glare of his merciless eye. “He’s looking better than ever,” Whelan wrote of Mayor Perk during his 1974 U.S. Senate run, “his white boots gleaming, his once singed hair now coiffured and his ego swelling with the helium of senatorial dreams.”

Michael D. Roberts, Cleveland Magazine’s former editor, penned a tribute to Whelan after he left the staff in 1987. “He was always near the major stories in town, delving and probing, testing this politician or that issue,” Roberts wrote. “Whelan embraced every article … as if it were the most important story in the world. This passion was the key to his success.”

Sitting in the office next to Whelan’s provided an advanced education in the craft of reporting. “His attention to detail was like no one I’d ever worked with before,” says Osborne, who often overheard him on the phone with sources. “[It was] not only the very specific questions he asked, but his ability to weasel information out of people was phenomenal. He charmed it out of them.”

The payoff came in the stories. Osborne recalls Whelan’s 11,000-word profile of Cleveland businessman Hans Fischer, which builds to a tragic climax. Whelan’s ending describes “what time the sun rose that morning, where [Fischer] walked through the house, from the bedroom to kitchen -- every single detail, so you were in the story with him,” Osborne recalls. “His ability as a writer to tell a story in a compelling way was like no writer I’d ever worked with before.”

We plan to publish a more lengthy tribute to Ned Whelan in the May issue of Cleveland Magazine.

To read some of Whelan’s vast body of work, please follow the links to our online archive below.

“Ralph Perk’s Flight to Washington,” May 1974
http://j.mp/Whelan-Perk

“The Bombing Business,” April 1977
http://j.mp/Whelan-BombingBusiness

“The Life and Hard Times Of Cleveland’s Mafia: How Danny Greene's Murder Exploded The Godfather Myth,” August 1978
http://j.mp/Whelan-Greene

“The United States of America vs. Hans Fischer,” October 1979
http://j.mp/Whelan-HansFischer

“George Forbes: An Obsession With Power,” November 1986
http://j.mp/Whelan-Forbes

“Top Gun” (Dick Jacobs profile), March 1987
http://j.mp/Whelan-Jacobs

Danny Greene's ex-wife, daughter give thumbs-up to documentary, feature film

I chatted with Danny Greene’s ex-wife and daughter Friday night after the screening of Danny Greene: The Rise and Fall of the Irishman, the documentary about the late gangster's life, at the Cleveland International Film Festival. They gave it two thumbs-up.

“The documentary was very good,” said Nancy Greene, who married Greene twice, in the late '50s and early '60s; they divorced for good in the mid-'70s.

“They portrayed what they needed to," she said. "They got their point across about who Danny was. Yes, he was a son of a gun.”

Nancy Greene and her daughter, Sharon Greene Wehagen, both appear in the documentary. On screen, Nancy describes her ex-husband as a Jekyll and Hyde character. “He could be very nice; he could be very violent.”

Nancy also hinted at domestic conflicts when I asked her and Sharon what the documentary captured about Greene. Sharon said it portrayed her father’s charisma, “the way he walked into a room.”

“I could say what a son of a gun he is,” Nancy added, “and he would walk in, and project himself, and make ‘em say I was the liar and he was the good guy.

“He really won you over -- before he boiled your blood.”

The Greenes also liked Kill the Irishman, the feature-film biopic now playing at area theaters. Nancy said she identified with the scene where Greene’s fictional film wife leaves him, fearing Greene’s enemies would hurt their children. In real life, Nancy divorced him for the same reason.

Otherwise, “She’s totally opposite of me,” Nancy said. “I’m a hotheaded Slovenian. She was a quiet Irish girl.”

Nancy and Danny met, not at a bar like in the movie, but in the pool hall Nancy’s uncle owned. He was 22 and she was 18. “He wanted to make me Irish potatoes and pork chops.”

Sharon says she knew little about her father’s life of crime. “I knew he had a job, that he went to work.” He told his daughters he was a consultant. (Labor consultant was the profession listed on his death certificate, displayed in the documentary.)

“He treated us like special girls,” Sharon said. “He didn’t seem like any different dad than anybody else.”

Except for the one incident Sharon retells in the documentary, when Greene came home singed from head to toe, presumably by a bomb. He didn’t explain, and she, in fifth grade at the time, didn’t ask.

“We didn’t really talk to him about what he was doing,” Sharon recalled. “You just didn’t do that. You just took care of him. You don’t ask those questions.”

The film fest is showing Danny Greene: The Rise and Fall of the Irishman again tonight at 7:05. The showing is on standby, so head to Tower City early if you want a shot at getting in.