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Frank X. Mullen contains multitudes. Known primarily as an investigative reporter, he also is an author, historian, actor and university journalism instructor.
Born in Queens and raised in New Jersey, Mullen came west to earn a journalism degree from Metropolitan State University of Denver. In 1979, he helped co-found The Metropolitan, the school’s student newspaper that’s still publishing today. He later earned a master’s degree in environmental journalism/new media from the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Mullen cut his teeth as an editor and reporter for the Columbia Daily Tribune, the Rocky Mountain Business Journal and the Denver Post before coming to Nevada in 1988 to work for the Reno Gazette Journal. He spent most of his 25 years at the paper pursuing deeply-reported investigative projects.
His interest in Nevada history drew him to the Donner Party, which led to a newspaper series about the ill-fated pioneers that later became a book. The Donner Party Chronicles: A Day-by-Day Account of a Doomed Wagon Train, 1846-1847, went through four printings and is still used in history classes in Nevada and California.
He broke stories about dangerous Nevada doctors, malfeasance in state agencies, the abuse of research animals, and toxic clouds generated by burning military munitions in California. His ongoing stories about the Fallon cancer cluster, in which 16 children contracted leukemia over a six-year period, was nominated for a Pulitzer by the Gazette Journal, as was his coverage of animal abuse and neglect.
Mullen taught journalism at the Reynolds School for more than a dozen years beginning in 2000, and continues to lecture on storytelling and Western history at Truckee Meadows Community College.
Mullen’s talent for narration and acting made him a natural for the Humanities Chautauqua living-history presentations where, since 1998, he has performed in several states as characters as diverse as Babe Ruth, Benedict Arnold and Edward R. Murrow.
He has appeared on the History Channel, Discovery, PBS, BBC and other cable networks. He was Nevada Press Association’s Outstanding Journalist in 2002 and 2005, and recently was named the Robert Laxalt Distinguished Writer for 2021.
Last year, Mullen came out of retirement to revive the website of the Reno News & Review, an alternative weekly that was shuttered when the pandemic began.
