Bill Conroy is an independent investigative reporter who has focused on the drug war; law-enforcement corruption; and national-security issues for the past two decades, most of that time for an online nonprofit publication called the Narco News Bulletin. His work for Narco News over the years was pursued on his own time on a freelance basis.
To date, Conroy has penned two nonfiction books focused on the drug war and law-enforcement corruption. They include a book published online only, called "Borderline Security: A chronicle of reprisal, cronyism and corruption in the U.S. Customs Service," which is available at narconews.com.
His most recent nonfiction book is "Dispatches from the House of Death: A Juarez Cartel informant, a DEA whistleblower, mass murder and a coverup on the edge of the empire," which is being published by Moonshine Cove Publishing and was released August 1, 2023. For more on the book and related content, go to HouseOfDeath.org.
Conroy also has authored three books of fiction, including two adult-focused novels: Flip-flop: a mystical mystery thriller; and Las Almas: A tale of the drug war along the border. He also is the author of The Sonet Walker, which is a cyber-science-fiction novel for younger readers.
Journalist Bill Conroy has covered the “war on drugs” since the 1980s in America's cities, along the U.S.-Mexico border and beyond. His journalism career has focused heavily on investigative reporting — as an editor-in-chief, managing editor and reporter. Conroy’s work has been published online and in print for a range of publications, including daily newspapers; alternative and business weeklies; magazines; and national and international online publications — such as The Narco News Bulletin, the Daily Beast, Agencia Publica in Brazil and HousingWire. His coverage of the war on drugs also has been cited in some three dozen nonfiction books since 2001.
Conroy has been featured in investigative documentaries aired by major TV networks, including the BBC, the History Channel and Al Jazeera, that are available through streaming services, such as Prime Video and Apple TV. He also has appeared on-air for the following local TV and radio stations: KLRN and WOAI [a public TV station and the NBC affiliate, respectively, in San Antonio, Texas]; Radio — WBAI [New York City], WNUR [Chicago], CKUT [Montreal], WZBC [Boston], among others, including numerous podcast shows.
Conroy has extensive experience as both a staff reporter and editor working across multiple media platforms in journalism, including print, digital, video, radio and daily and weekly news formats. He has worked as a journalist in five U.S. states over the past four decades and served for 20 years as the editor-in-chief of the San Antonio Business Journal (SABJ), which is part of a national chain of some 40 business weeklies. While with the SABJ, Conroy managed and coached a staff of as many as 11 journalists and a pool of some 25 freelance writers.
Most recently, Conroy worked as an investigative reporter focused for HousingWire, a national publication covering the U.S. housing market. For HousingWire for some three years, he pursued in-depth reporting on a range of subjects that generally involved following the money — a skill also cultivated and utilized in the many years he has spent covering the "war on drugs."
In the summer of 2024, Conroy retired from a 40-year career in the news business, but he continues to pursue journalism independently and also is focused on writing books.
Conroy earned a master of arts degree in mass communications with a journalism emphasis from Marquette University in Milwaukee, which he attended on a research scholarship.