Thomas J. Kelly III

Who is Thomas J. Kelly III?

Thomas J. Kelly III is an American photojournalist based in greater Philadelphia, where he works free-lance for electronic and print outlets since 1995. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979.

Born in New Jersey in 1947, Kelly joined the staff of The Mercury in Pottstown in 1974. He won the annual Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for his "Tragedy on Sanatoga Road" series. It showed for the first time the effects of a man who took his family hostage while hallucinating on drugs. Kelly's photos caught the bloodied man as he emerged from his home after stabbing his wife and unborn child to death. The incident showed local and state police chasing and capturing the man years before SWAT teams were created. Kelly was the first and only staff photographer at a small town newspaper to win the prize for news photography. The photos were featured in a TNT documentary, "Moment of Impact: Stories of the Pulitzer Prize Photographs", and can be found at the Newseum in Washington, DC.

Kelly was asked by the owners of the Mercury in 1989 to start a new photo department for the St. Louis Sun and then was transferred to The Trentonian in New Jersey in 1990.