Steven Vincent
Steven Charles Vincent (December 31, 1955 – August 2, 2005) was an American author and journalist. In 2005 he was working as a freelance journalist in Basra, Iraq, reporting for The Christian Science Monitor, National Review, Mother Jones, Reason, Front Page and American Enterprise, among other publications, when he was abducted and murdered in southern Iraq after investigating corruption by Shia militias. Early life Vincent was born in Washington, DC, but his family would soon move to northern California. The family spent four years in Palo Alto before moving to Sunnyvale, now the heart of Silicon Valley, in 1960. He graduated from Homestead High School in 1974, went to the University of California, Santa Barbara, then to University of California, Berkeley, from which he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in English and Philosophy. After a summer spent traveling around Europe, he hitchhiked to New York in 1980 to pursue a writing career, supporting himself by taking a series of jobs in the restaurant industry, driving a cab and doing temp work. Writing career His first professional experience came when he was offered the editorship of a local newspaper, The East Villager. From 1984 to 1991 he wrote, edited,