“When I was in high school in Columbus, Ohio, there was this civic teacher named Patty Gableman. For some reason, she took a special interest in me. She once shared with me her dream of attending law school, a dream she had to forgo due to marriage and children. She encouraged me to pursue law, saying I’d do great. I’d probably mentioned my inclination towards it, and her belief in my potential left a lasting impact. Her words still resonate with me.”
Erin Moriarty was born in Cincinnati in 1952, the youngest of four girls with a twin. She grew up in Columbus, Ohio, graduating from Upper Arlington High School. She then got her undergrad and JD law degree from the Ohio State University.
Upon getting a job as an attorney at a local law firm, she quickly realized there was a pretty obvious glass ceiling. She was the only woman in the firm, so becoming a litigator – her dream – was gonna be a challenge.
Erin felt like she needed to prove her worth and promote herself. She applied for and got a television position hosting a show called PM Magazine – a syndicated news program in various cities, including Columbus. She only applied for a television position to improve her visibility in Columbus and bring in more business.
“Although I didn’t have any background (in Journalism), I felt connected to the city and thought, I know this place as well as anyone,” she said. “Surprisingly, they hired me.”
She ended up loving the job. She continued to work as a lawyer but then was given an ultimatum – choose between law and staying in tv. She chose tv. “Choosing a new path was a bold move, but reflecting on it now, it was the best decision I ever made.”
Then she took a job doing news in Baltimore. She had to learn how to tell stories in a way that would grab people. “It was much harder than I ever guessed it would be.” When she was about to get fired, she offered to do legal and consumer stories, using her legal background. She critiqued her own tapes and was able to save her career.
“Sometimes failure is success in disguise,” said Moriarty addressing the 2004 Ohio State Univ commencement audience in Ohio Stadium. “When I worked as a reporter in Baltimore, Oprah Winfrey was an anchorwoman at the same station. That was before she was just Oprah, of course, but she wasn’t a good anchorwoman. She’d cry at some of the sad stories, and local news is 99% sad stories. After she did a few too many newscasts like that, the news director took her off the news. She was devastated. As a consolation prize, he gave her a morning talk show, and we all know how that turned out.”
After stops in Cleveland and Chicago, Erin was hired by CBS News in 1986 as a consumer legal correspondent in the morning. Four years later, she transitioned over to the CBS News program 48 Hours, which had all male correspondents.
At 48 Hours, she found herself drawn to the case of the unjustly accused. In 2005, 21-year-old Ryan Ferguson was convicted of killing a local Missouri sports editor in the parking lot of his paper late at night. As it turned out, he was wrongfully convicted. 48 Hours did five stories on the case. Ten years later Erin was there when he was exonerated.
She then began doing a lot of wrongful conviction cases and has witnessed twelve incarcerated individuals regain their freedom. “I’ve been inside more prisons than a career criminal,” she says.
In her career, Erin has covered: the death of JonBenet Ramsey; the story of millionaire Robert Durst; the death of Princess Diana; the mass shootings in Aurora, Colo and Newton, Connecticut; the Oklahoma City bombing; the heist of artwork from the Isabella Gardner Art Museum in Boston and the Iraq War.
Moriarty also covered the brutal murder of Columbus native Catherine Woods, the 21-year-old daughter of Ohio State University band leader Jon Woods. Catherine had moved to New York right after graduating from Worthington Kilbourne High School in 2002 to chase her dream of becoming a dancer on Broadway.
Catherine was enrolled in the prestigious Broadway Dance Center on W 57th Ave and according to one of her dance instructors “it was just a matter of time” before she got a gig. Catherine, however, had secretly financed her life and schooling by working at a topless dance club where she gave private lap dances.
Catherine also had a complicated private life, living with her ex-boyfriend while dating someone else. Both men knew of each other, but young singer/songwriter Paul Cortez found himself on the outs with her as well. On November 27, 2005, he came over to her apartment unannounced, saw her ex leave the building and somehow got in, stabbed her to death and got out within twenty minutes and with no witnesses. 48 Hours picked up and ran the story prior to the trial in May 2006.
At one point during the trial, Moriarty remembers thinking there was something seriously wrong with Paul. In defending lyrics to a song he had written for his band, “he seemed extraordinarily animated as he grew more and more vulgar,” she said.
Cortez was convicted in early 2007 of second degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life. He would lose two separate appeals (2014 and 2017).
Just days before her murder, one of Catherine’s dance school instructors, Diana Laurenson, ran up to her after class and told her she “had a terrific sense of performance. She had a sparkle about her. She brought life to her dance. She had just something special that set her above the rest of the crowd.”
Erin Moriarty is a nine-time national Emmy Award winner. In 2020, she started her own true crime podcast – My Life in Crime. She is married, in her 70s and still working.
Ironically, Jon Woods accepted an invitation to direct the Great American Marching Band in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in 2006 (two months before the sentencing) in New York city.
On June 1 2007, a dance scholarship was started in his daughter Catherine’s memory at the Ohio State University.
Sources: Erin F Moriarty, CBS Entertainment, www.paramountpressexpress.com; CBS News, r/TrueCrime, www.reddit.com; Elevate with Robert Glazer, Erin Moriarty on a life of true crime reporting, Jan 7, 2021, www.robertglazer.com; Erin Moriarty on the five things you need to create a highly successful career as a news anchor by Yitzi Weiner, Sep 18, 2023, www.medium.com; The Ohio State University Commencement Address by Erin Moriarty, Spring 2004, www.kb.osu.edu; Ryan Ferguson: Wrongfully Convicted by Erin Moriarty, Jan 30, 2016, www.cbsnews.com; Death of a Dream by Paul LaRosa & Erin Moriarty, 2008; Katie does Crime podcast, True Crime documentary – dancer Catherine Woods, 2003, www.youtube.com; 2006 Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade, Feb 1, 2023, www.youtube.com; Featured picture of Erin Moriarity is courtesy of CBS News.