Thunder in his pen: Pulitzer-prize winning Denver journalist Lou Kilzer dies at 73

The journalism world lost a legend on Wednesday.

Louis "Lou" Kilzer passed away at the age of 73. He died in his Colorado Springs home under hospice care surrounded by family.

The two-time Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist carved a staggering resume throughout his over-41-year career, writing five books, winning multiple awards and bringing various public safety issues to the spotlight through his investigative reporting. 

Kilzer died due to various ongoing illnesses, according to his wife, Elizabeth Kovacs.

He was born in Cody, Wyoming in 1951. Following graduation from Yale University, he joined the Rocky Mountain News in Denver in 1977, covering public safety throughout the city. 

His illustrious career continued metro Denver wide. He became an investigative reporter at the Denver Post, where he eventually won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986, along with two other reporters, for Public Service. 

The writer moved on to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in the late 80s and eventually won another Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 1990 with Chris Ison. 

The reporter duo exposed the Saint Paul Fire Department for profiting off of fires. 

Kilzer returned to the Denver Post as an investigative reporter and eventually moved back to the Rocky Mountain News. After a few years, Kizler became the editor-in-chief for the JoongAng Daily in Seoul, South Korea, then went back to investigative work at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

He went on to win the William Brewster Styles Award, given by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, for his reporting on money laundering for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in 2012.

He authored two World War II books and two mystery novels before retiring in Costa Rica, then later Colorado Springs.

A thunderous pen

His picture hangs on the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame wall.

"Lou was a denizen of the club, and his is honored with a caricatures that hangs in our back room, along with dozens of others who have made significant contributions to the Denver Press Club," said Marianne Goodland, club president and legislative reporter for Colorado Politics.

Caricature aside, Kilzer was a "full-blown newsroom character" in real life, according to his former coworker at the Rocky Mountain News, Kevin Vaughan — now an investigative reporter for 9News.

"He'd say, ‘well hello, Kevin,’ with a conspiratorial tone in his voice, always in is trademark khakis, rumpled Oxford shirt and tweed sport jacket," Vaughan said of his time working with Kilzer. "I was sorry to hear last week that he wasn’t well — and I’m sad that he’s left us.”

"Lou was the consummate professional and friend to almost everyone he met, one of the first you thought about among the truly all-time great journalists and authors in Colorado," Mark Stutz, spokesperson for the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, said. "He had a natural curiosity, and a dogged but friendly approach to finding out about whatever story he was pursuing that day or book he was writing, and the ability to put it all into terms his readers could understand."

Stutz shared stories of his time working with Kilzer. Stutz had been a public relations specialist with Xcel Energy during Kilzer's Denver reporting days.

His favorite story involved working with Kilzer during the Y2K problem — or lack thereof — in 2000.

"As it turned out, it was much to do about nothing, but I promised that I would call [Kilzer] immediately after midnight to let him know about power issues for his story," Stutz said of the less-than-historic event. "He only told me only to be ready with lots of information if it was bad, but to otherwise come up with some pithy and interesting quote if nothing happened."

Tough competitor

The pouring in of stories following the news of his death didn't stop there.

Denver City Councilman Kevin Flynn spent decades as a reporter before he ran for elected office.

Kilzer was one of his writing partners at the Rocky Mountain News.

He was a great partner and fierce competitor, Flynn said.

Flynn recalled working with Kilzer on stories following the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. They developed a phone call database from all the phone records in the case, the phones used by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. They created a database with times, locations, the place that was called, where the call originated from. They used that whenever they got a tip — such as conspiracy theories about where McVeigh was in the leadup to the bombing.

“We were able to disprove as well as prove tips and leads,” Flynn said.

Flynn and Kilzer wound up as competitors when Kilzer went to the Denver Post. They were on opposite teams when KOA’s Alan Berg was murdered by members of the white supremacist group The Order.

“It was just fun going back and forth. He would break a story. Then Gary Gerhardt and I would break a story. We hated picking up the other paper in the driveway each morning, if we got beaten.”

When Kilzer returned to the Rocky Mountain News — like coming back to the womb, Flynn quipped — he and Flynn teamed up again on a story with major impact in Denver.

Denver SWAT executed a no-knock warrant at the wrong address in 1999, based on a bad tip about a drug dealer given to a Denver police officer from a confidential informant.

They stormed upstairs, burst into the bedroom, where Ismael Mena was holding a gun. The officers shot and killed Mena.

Flynn and Kilzer got into the habit of going every Friday to the clerk’s office at the Denver city/county building and look through search warrant affidavits filed in the previous week. The two looked through two years of these search warrants, and wrote a series about the results of those no-knock warrants.

“We found out that the use of no-knock warrants, one of the riskiest law enforcement tactics, resulted almost universally in poorer outcomes.”

“Our series led the Denver Police Department to severely restrict the future use of no-knock warrants. That's probably the story I'm most proud of working with Lou.”

Sense of humor

Flynn also told a story about some of the pranks he and Kilzer played in the press room at City Hall in the early 1980s. There was one reporter from the Post who Flynn said would eavesdrop on conversations. They took the microphone out of his phone so no one could hear him when he was on the phone.

Another time, same reporter, there was an investigation around a police officer fixing parking tickets.

Knowing the Post reporter was eavesdropping through a closed door, Flynn pretended to get on the phone with the public information officer from the police department, and Lou would say “ask about the gun, ask about the gun,” loud enough for the Post reporter to hear.

“Okay,” Flynn said, pretending to have a conversation with the PIO about this officer who was fixing tickets.

“You just got back from Philly, right?” Flynn said. “Hey, did you bring me that cheese steak?”

“I guess you know why I’m calling. You can’t? Why not? Here’s what we know; you found the body up in O’Fallon Park (in Bear Creek Canyon). We know that. Hikers came across, we know that.”

Lou again, “ask about the gun, ask about the gun.”

Flynn: “Did you find the gun? You did?” And then came the kicker: “Does his wife know?”

After that, “okay, talk to you later,” then Flynn hung up, they counted to three and walked out of the room.

Flynn recalled they set the whole thing up to catch this Post reporter.

“It was worth the five minutes it took to set that up.”

Flynn also hung out with Kilzer at the Denver Press Club, where Kilzer was a lifetime member who kept up his membership even during his time in Minneapolis.

“He was very serious about the craft, very thorough and professional. But we had our devilish sides,” Flynn said.

Accountability journalism

And that devilish side, along with a hard-nosed knack for finding the truth, led to the accountability-driven journalism that won him so many accolades. 

"I worked with Lou at The Denver Post on investigative projects, and I remember him referring to his method of accountability journalism as "rolling thunder,'" Vince Bzdek, editor of the (Colorado Springs) Gazette and Denver Gazette, said. "He'd hit wrongdoers with a big story exposing their dirty deeds, then he'd follow up again and again with more stories until something was finally done to right the wrong. The man had thunder in his pen."

The legacy lives on through his amalgamation of investigative work, admiring colleagues and loving family. 

"We're feeling a great loss. It's difficult to watch someone passing away in their home" Kovacs said. "One thing he said was, 'I've succeeded in everything that I tried to do, but now I can't get out of bed,'" she laughed.

Just an example of the award-winning character that all of his peers have praised. 

His daughter remembers her dad's stories well. 

"When I was young, I can’t remember exactly, maybe 5th or 6th grade, I went with my dad for 'take your daughter to work day'," said Xanthe Kilzer. "He showed me the newsroom: a vast layout of desks, corded phones, coffee mugs and papers spilling out all over the place. I could feel the energy.

"Later he took me on the court beat. We ended up at a gang-related murder trial and I heard testimony of a gruesome fight. I will never forget it. This was a day in the life of my dad — always seeking the lead to an exciting story. He had no qualms about sharing his findings with his young family and I was riveted by his stories."

He is survived by his devoted wife, Kovacs; loving children, Alex and Xanthe Kilzer; brother-in-law, Joe Gogain; nephew Joe Gogain Jr.; niece, Amber Jandreau; grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

A memorial for Kilzer will be planned for a later date. The family requests any remembrances or pictures of Kilzer to be sent to loukilzermemorial@gmail.com.