William Chester Gaines was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on November 1, 1933. He received a bachelor of science degree in broadcasting from Butler University in 1956. He served with the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service in Germany before working as a reporter for various radio stations.
He joined The Chicago Tribune in 1963. While working as an investigative reporter, he shared two Pulitzer Prizes for exposing corruption in Chicago. He received the first Pulitzer in 1976 for exposing mortgage abuse in federal housing programs and horrific conditions at two private hospitals. He received the second Pulitzer in 1988 for a series of articles that uncovered waste and self-dealing in the Chicago City Council. He was a finalist for a third Pulitzer in 1996. He retired from The Tribune in 2001.
After retiring, he was named to the Knight chair in journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He wrote Jelly's Blues: The Life, Music and Redemption of Jelly Roll Morton with Howard Reich in 2003. His textbook, Investigative Journalism: Proven Strategies for Reporting the Story, was published in 2007. He died from complications of Parkinson's disease on July 20, 2016 at the age of 82.
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