MOMENT OF IMPACT

Tom Kelly had covered many grisly events as a photojournalist in Pennsylvania. He thought he had seen it all.

On a spring day in 1978, Kelly responded to a call on his scanner that a man had taken his family hostage. Within minutes, he was on the scene, arriving to find that the police had surrounded a house where Richard Greist was holding hostage his pregnant wife and daughter, Beth Ann. Kelly instinctively began to document the events unfolding before him. He crept as close to the house as police would allow. The tension mounted.

The front door to the house opened and out came the young girl, begging the police to not hurt her father. She was bloodied, with multiple knife wounds. Chief Detective Douglas Weaver rushed in and grabbed the young girl, quickly escorting her to safety. Kelly, although a professional, had been unable to bring himself to photograph the young girl until her face was hidden from his direct view.

Concerned about the safety of others inside, the police were left with no choice but to storm the house. They captured Greist, but were too late to save the wife and unborn child. The terror was not over. Somehow, Greist freed himself and was just feet from Kelly, whose camera hung from his neck. Kelly does not remember taking the photographs of the charging murderer before Greist was again subdued. The chilling events ran across the Pottstown newspaper the next day. Kelly won a Pulitzer Prize for his work in covering the tragic events.

Thomas Kelly's interest in his field was influenced by the work of great journalists and the coverage of historic moments in world history. Starting as a volunteer fire department public relations liaison, Kelly's photography gained the attention of local Pennsylvania news agencies. Soon, he was filing for a variety of news outlets, and a career was born. Kelly was named National Press Photographer Regional Photographer of the Year for his work in both 1974 and 1975. In 1979, he was named Newspaper Photographer of the Year by the same organization.

Today, Kelly is a freelance news journalist working for electronic and print outlets in the surrounding areas of Philadelphia. He makes his home in Pottstown, PA.

Kelly remains haunted by the Pulitzer Prize-winning images that he captured. "It is good to win the top photo prize in the world, but I wish it were for something else."