Dominick Dunne dead at 83

Dominick Dunne, author and father of Dominique, died today in Manhattan.

Dunne was well known for writing about and reporting high society crime, but also for the shocking and tragic murder of his daughter and Poltergeist star, Dominique Dunne. He considered himself an advocate for crime victims and penned Justice: A Father’s Account of the Trial of his Daughter’s Killer after Dominique’s killer served just three years for strangling her to death.

Dunne covered high-profile cases such as that of Claus von Bulow, OJ Simpson and Phil Spector, and he was a correspondent for Vanity Fair. On Vanity Fair‘s website, editor Graydon Carter had this to say of Dunne’s passing:

“It is fair to say that the halls of Vanity Fair will be lonelier without him and that, indeed, we will not see his like anytime soon, if ever again.”

Even when sickened with the bladder cancer to which he would eventually succumb, Dunne was covering high-profile trials. In September of 2008, he defied the wishes of his doctor and his family to travel to Las Vegas for OJ Simpson’s trial for kidnap and robbery.

Dunne was wrapping up his final work, Too Much Money, when he died. He was 83.

[Source: WRAL, CNN]