Bestselling author and former Rhino Times writer Jerry Bledsoe passed away on New Year’s Eve at the age of 84.

Bledsoe, who was best known for his true crime books such as Bitter Blood, also shed light on misconduct in the Greensboro Police Department in his lengthy series for the Rhino Times, Cops in Black and White.

Bledsoe’s career was defined by a willingness to take on powerful institutions and tell stories that others either wouldn’t or couldn’t tell. His reporting combined exhaustive research with a highly readable narrative style that brought very complex investigations to a broad audience.

He earned national recognition as an author and had a devoted local readership during his years writing for the Rhino Times and the News and Record.

Bitter Blood, his most widely known book, established Bledsoe as a major figure in the true crime world. The book’s success stemmed from meticulous reporting and a clear-eyed examination of how violence, deception, and institutional failures intersect.

Bledsoe was born July 14, 1941, in Danville, Virginia, and grew up in Thomasville.

After high school, he served three years in the US Army, where he began developing the writing skills that would later define his career. Following his military service, Bledsoe entered journalism at a time when newspapers still allowed – and often encouraged – long-form reporting and deep narrative work.

Bledsoe worked for newspapers across North Carolina, including the News and Record and papers in Kannapolis and Charlotte.

He later became a contributing editor for Esquire and his work appeared in national publications. Over the course of his career, Bledsoe wrote more than 20 books – many rooted in true crime and investigative reporting, several of which became national bestsellers.

He and his wife, Linda, lived in Randolph County.

In Greensboro, Bledsoe’s most enduring journalistic legacy came through Cops in Black and White, a lengthy and controversial Rhino Times series that scrutinized the Greensboro Police Department. The reporting examined patterns of misconduct, racial disparities and internal practices of the department that had largely escaped public attention until then.

The series drew sharp reactions from city officials and law enforcement, but it also forced conversations that many Greensboro residents believed were long overdue.

For readers of the Rhino Times, the series became a defining example of what aggressive local journalism could still accomplish in the new century where local media has been dying off for years.

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