Joseph D. O'Dowd, 77, retired Daily News police reporter
He covered many major crimes and disasters.
JOE O'DOWD, a crack Daily News police reporter, was relaxing at his rental house in Brigantine, N.J., in the summer of 1987 when there came a heavy knock on the door.
It was a Brigantine cop with a message from Joe's office telling him to get back to Philly to cover a development in the notorious Gary Heidnik murder case.
Apparently, the office didn't have a number for Joe's summer place, so it had to track him through the local cops. Of course, Joe hightailed it back to Philly to check out the case of the man who kidnapped, tortured and raped six women he held prisoner in his North Philadelphia "House of Horrors," killing two.
Joseph Donald O'Dowd, considered one of the best of a legendary contingent of reporters who covered the cops for the Daily News, the Inquirer and the Bulletin in the days before cellphones and the Internet, died Wednesday of cancer. He would have been 78 on Jan. 20. He lived in Havertown, Delaware County.
Joe was the youngest of the six children of Marie and George O'Dowd. He graduated from West Catholic High School in 1954.
The Heidnik case was one of the more horrendous in Philadelphia criminal history, and Joe O'Dowd was there, as he was for nearly every major crime, fire and miscellaneous disaster story since he went from head copyboy at the Daily News in 1962 to the police reporters' lair in Room 619 in what was then police headquarters in City Hall. He retired in 1999.
It was his fellow West Catholic High pal Joe Clark who got him to the Daily News. Clark was a Daily News copyboy who wanted to be a police reporter.
The irascible, cigar-chomping editor J. Ray Hunt told Clark that he could be a reporter if he got someone to take his place as a copyboy. Clark thought of O'Dowd, who was fixing washing machines for a living, and O'Dowd jumped at the chance.
O'Dowd was at the scene when mob boss Angelo Bruno was found murdered in his car at 10th Street and Snyder Avenue in South Philadelphia, on March 21, 1980. He covered the MOVE disaster in May 1985, when 11 people, including five children, were killed and an entire city block was destroyed.
"I loved Joe," said former Deputy Police Commissioner Richard Zappile, who dealt with the press under Police Commissioner Richard Neal in the '90s. "He was a great guy, very sharp. He had a terrific sense of humor. He always had a smile on his face."
Joe served with the U.S. Army in Germany from 1955 to 1957.
He married the former Alice Carroll in 1963.
In retirement, Joe and Alice became members of Sure Thing Stables, a group that owned racehorses. Their 10 percent investment allowed them to be in the winner's circle a number of times at Belmont, Aqueduct, Saratoga and Gulfstream.
"He loved it," Alice said. "He was a hardworking guy, but a lot of fun. He was a great guy, the heart of the family."
Joe also found he had a flair for art and music. He learned to play the guitar, harmonica and piano, and he took art courses at Fleisher Art Memorial and Moore College of Art & Design. His creations had to be in black and white because he was colorblind.
He and Alice enjoyed their summer home in Sea Isle City, and loved to take cruises. He liked crabbing and could cook up a mean batch of crabs for dinner.
Joe had some serious health problems in recent years. Severe ulcers led to his having 60 percent of his stomach removed.
Besides his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Marie F. "Missy" Donahue, and four grandchildren.
Services: Funeral Mass 10:30 a.m. today at St. Kevin Church, 200 W. Sproul Road, Springfield, Delaware County. Friends may call at 9:30 a.m. at the church. Burial will be at Ss. Peter and Paul Cemetery, Marple. Donations may be made to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, 555 North Lane, Conshohocken, Pa. 19428.