Jennifer Toth
Jennifer Ninel Toth (August 15, 1967 – April 12,
2025)[1] was an American journalist and writer. She Jennifer Toth
was known for her published studies of homeless Born Jennifer Ninel Toth
people and orphans. August 15, 1967
London, England
Died April 12, 2025 (aged 57)
Early life and education Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.
Nationality American
Toth was born in London to American parents Robert
Education Washington University in St. Louis
and Paula Toth.[2] Her father was a national security
correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and later a Columbia University
senior associate at the Pew Research Center, while Occupations Journalist · author
her mother was a lawyer and special advocate for the Notable work The Mole People
state of Maryland.[3][2] Toth grew up in Moscow
Spouse Craig Whitlock (m. 1996)
(where her father was a reporter for three years) and
Chevy Chase, Maryland.[4]
She received her undergraduate degree in history from Washington University in St. Louis in 1989,
before graduating from Columbia University with an M.A. in journalism in 1990.[2][4]
Career
From 1990 to 1992, Toth worked as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times in Washington, D.C. and New
York, and afterwards for the Raleigh News & Observer from 1992 to 1995, after which she quit to focus
on her book projects.[5][4]
The Mole People
In 1993, she published The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City through Chicago
Review Press.[6] The book featured interviews with some dwellers of the "Freedom Tunnel." Her life was
threatened by one of the mole people whom she befriended, who thought she witnessed him killing a
crack addict. She consequently fled New York City to live with her parents in Chevy Chase, Maryland.[4]
Some critics cast doubt on the accuracy of Toth's accounts. Cecil Adams' The Straight Dope, a widely
read question and answer column, devoted two columns to the Mole People dispute. The first,[7]
published on January 9, 2004, after contact with Toth, noted the large amount of unverifiability in Toth's
stories while declaring that the book's accounts seemed to be truthful. The second,[8] published on March
9, 2004, after contact with Joseph Brennan,[9] was more skeptical.
Writing on foster care
In 1997, Toth published Orphans of the Living: Stories of America's Children in Foster Care, a book
narrating the life stories of five young adults from North Carolina, California, and Illinois who overcame
heavy odds to survive their childhood in foster care.[10] Publishers Weekly called it an "eloquent and
harrowing study," and "an excellent expose of a system that hurts those it is charged to help".[11]
In 2002, Toth released another narrative about a External videos
young man, What Happened to Johnnie Jordan?: The
Booknotes interview with Toth on What
Story of a Child Turning Violent, that once again
Happened to Johnnie Jordan?, 12 May 2002
addressed foster care and juvenile services, this time
([Link]
in Toledo, Ohio.[12] In its review, The New Yorker
ened-johnnie-jordan), C-SPAN
wrote: "In accounts of dysfunctional families,
children are often the victims of violence; here,
though, a child is both victim and perpetrator. The child in question is Johnnie Jordan, a fifteen-year-old
Ohioan who brutally murdered his foster mother in 1996, hacking her to death with a hatchet and then
setting her on fire. Through a series of interviews with Jordan, his foster father, and others within the
child-welfare system, Toth constructs an agonizing portrait of a boy who was repeatedly abused from a
very young age and repeatedly failed by the system responsible for protecting him."[13]
Personal life and death
Toth married Craig Whitlock, a journalist and national-security correspondent for The Washington Post,
in 1996.[3][4][14] From 2004 to 2010, the couple lived in Berlin, where Whitlock was stationed for
work.[4] She had one child.[4]
Toth died April 12, 2025, at the age of 57, in Silver Spring, Maryland from respiratory
complications.[15][4]
Bibliography
The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City (1993) (ISBN 1-55652-190-1)
Orphans of the Living: Stories of America's Children in Foster Care (1997) (ISBN 0-684-
80097-7)
What Happened to Johnnie Jordan?: The Story of a Child Turning Violent (2002) (ISBN 0-
684-85558-5)
Bajo El Asfalto (Spanish translation of The Mole People) (2001) (ISBN 84-8109-297-5)
See also
Voices in the Tunnels
References
1. Rooney, Terrie M.; Gariepy, Jennifer, eds. (1997). Contemporary Authors. Vol. 152. Detroit:
Gale. p. 436. ISBN 0-7876-0127-6.
2. Toth, Jennifer (1998). Orphans of the Living: Stories of America's Children in Foster Care.
New York: Touchstone. p. 315. ISBN 0-684-80097-7.
3. "WEDDINGS;Jennifer Toth, Craig Whitlock" ([Link]
[Link]). The New York Times. June 30, 1996. Retrieved
May 23, 2022.
4. Murphy, Brian (April 19, 2025). "Jennifer Toth, author who chronicled NYC's 'mole people,'
dies at 57" ([Link]
obituaries/2025/04/18/jennifer-toth-author-mole-people-dies/). The Washington Post.
Archived from the original ([Link]
oth-author-mole-people-dies/) on April 19, 2025. Retrieved April 19, 2025.
5. Biography from the sleeve notes of the 1994 German edition of Mole People, ISBN 3-
86153-079-1
6. "The Mole People" ([Link]
52241X). [Link]. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
7. Adams, Cecil (January 9, 2004). "Are there really "Mole People" living under the streets of
New York City?" ([Link] The Straight Dope.
Chicago Reader, Inc.
8. Adams, Cecil (March 5, 2004). "The Mole People revisited" ([Link]
umns/[Link]). The Straight Dope. Chicago Reader, Inc.
9. "Fantasy in The Mole People" ([Link]
html). [Link]. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
10. Dugger, Celia (June 8, 1997). "It's Never Enough" ([Link]
[Link]/books/97/06/08/reviews/[Link]?scp=9&sq=Postal%20Worker&st=Se
arch). [Link]. Retrieved April 19, 2025.
11. Toth, Jennifer; Harris, Karolina (July 2, 1998). Orphans of the Living: Stories of America's
Children in Foster Care. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780684844800.
12. Bernstein, Nell (February 10, 2002). "System Failure" ([Link]
hive/entertainment/books/2002/02/10/system-failure/bb1d6f24-cc99-49f2-b0aa-9228e104bc
52/). The Washington Post.
13. "What Happened to Johnnie Jordan?" ([Link]
5crbn_brieflynoted3). [Link]. March 25, 2002. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
14. Partlow, Joshua; Whitlock&, Craig (May 31, 2011). "Craig Whitlock" ([Link]
[Link]/craig-whitlock/2011/02/28/AB5dpFP_page.html). The Washington Post.
15. "Jennifer Toth" ([Link]
[Link]. Retrieved April 19, 2025.
External links
Views of Freedom Tunnel ([Link]
[Link]/article/8210), which is featured in her book
"Are there really 'Mole People' living under the streets of New York City?" ([Link]
[Link]/columns/[Link]), The Straight Dope, January 9, 2004
"The Mole People revisited" ([Link] The
Straight Dope, March 5, 2004
Appearances ([Link] on C-SPAN
Retrieved from "[Link]
