Dan Collins, 80, Author Who Rejected View of Giuliani as a 9/11 Hero, Dies

Dan Collins, a journalist who co-wrote a scathing revisionist account of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s actions before and after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 80.

His death, in a hospital, was caused by complications of pneumonia and Covid, said his wife, Gail Collins, the opinion columnist for The New York Times.

Mr. Collins, who had worked for United Press International and CBS News, wrote several books, the most prominent of which was “Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11” (2006), a collaboration with Wayne Barrett, a veteran investigative reporter for The Village Voice.

In damning detail, the authors documented how the Giuliani administration had failed to heed the warnings from an earlier attack on the World Trade Center, the bombing in 1993. That lapse, they wrote, had left the city unprepared for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Further, they wrote, while basking in accolades about his leadership during the crisis, Mr. Giuliani, after his second term ended that December, cashed in as a “hero for hire” by forming a consulting firm that specialized in security and crisis management.