Who was Evan Wright?
A well-known American journalist, Evan Alan Wright was noted for his reportage on various subcultures for publications such as Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. The book that brought him the most fame was Generation Kill, which was about the Iraq War.
In addition to that, he penned an exposé titled “How to Get Away With Murder in America,” which was about a high-ranking CIA officer who was supposedly used as a Mafia hitman.
During the early phases of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Wright became a member of the United States Marine Corps’ 1st Reconnaissance Battalion.
Evan Wright died at the age of 59
Evan Wright, a journalist who won multiple awards and was the author of the popular book Generation Kill, has passed away. He was 59 years old.
On Friday, July 12, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office reported that Wright had committed himself; he had died on that day. Rolling Stone was also informed by his widow, Kelli, that he had passed away previously.
Wright became well-known for his participation in the United States Marine Corps’ 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during the initial stages of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He utilized his expertise to write a series of pieces for Rolling Stone titled “The Killer Elite,” which resulted in him being awarded the National Magazine Award for Excellence in Reporting in the year 2004 when he was published.
His reportage served as the foundation for his book, Generation Kill, which was published in 2004 and later converted into a miniseries consisting of seven episodes in 2008. In an interview, executive producer David Simon discussed his collaboration with Wright on X, which was once known as Twitter.
David Stone twitted on Twitter: “We’ve lost a fine journalist and storyteller. Evan’s contributions to the scripting and filming of “Generation Kill” were elemental. He was charming, funny and not a little bit feral, as many reporters are. So many moments writing in Baltimore and on set in Africa to remember”.
Lt. Nathan Fick, one of the subjects featured in “The Killer Elite,” paid tribute in a statement on LinkedIn. “I knew Evan as a good and gentle guy in a place that was neither good nor gentle. He wasn’t a Marine, but many of us who spent March and April, 2003 alongside him have thought of Evan for the past two decades as one of us. Rest in peace, brother,” he wrote.
Additionally, Wright is the author of the novels Hella Nation (2009) and How to Get Away With Murder in America (2012).
In his most recent endeavor, he served as a co-executive producer on the animated series Teen Torture Inc. According to a press release, the documentary series directed by Max, which is currently accessible to stream, “follows on-going efforts to expose America’s “troubled teen” industry (TTI).”
It was also reported by The Hollywood Reporter that he was questioned for the series regarding his time spent at The Seed, which is a “South Florida-based so-called scared straight program for at-risk adolescents.”
Through his account on X, Wright had been doing a lot of promotion for the project already. “I was a 13 year old kid tryna escape a really abusive, alcoholic home –and instead — as is really common in America — I was branded a mentally-troubled criminal, threatened with incarceration and sent to a place of total horror and abuse that was funded by the government. This happened to me & about 9,000 other kids. Story I tell in this documentary on HBO MAX and subject of my next book.”
His wife and their three children are the only ones who will remember Wright.