Peter
M. Heimlich and Karen M. Shulman
In Spring 2002, Peter
and Karen became aware of abusive and unethical
conduct by Peter's father, celebrity doctor Henry
J. Heimlich MD of Cincinnati, known for "the
Heimlich maneuver" choking rescue treatment. Since
Spring 2003, their research into Dr. Heimlich's
bizarre career has been the basis for scores
of print and broadcast media reports. Other
scams they've uncovered, such as the
$9 million Save-A-Life Foundation fraud,
have resulted in dozens more media reports
In 2010 Peter started doing original reporting via
his blog The
Sidebar. "When I turn up information I
consider newsworthy, usually I first try to find a
mainstream media reporter to move forward a story.
If that doesn't work, I'll blog it and then later
try to move it upstream to other news outlets."
When they were married in 1988, Peter and Karen
started a wholesale textile design and import
company which they operated for years. "The rag
trade's a tough racket, but we learned a lot,"
says Peter. "It gave us the confidence to take on
the dirty birds we've helped to expose."
Before then, Karen had her own fine art jewelry
business. In the 80s, Peter played bass and wrote
songs with The Lloyds, one of San Francisco's fave
New Wave club bands. In May 2022, the Southern
California record label Projectile Platters
issued a fantastic, limited edition 13-track LP
of the group, "Let's Go, Lloyds!"
A year later, a leading reissue label, Liberation
Hall Music & Video, released
a CD with the 13 tracks on the LP plus a live
set recorded in 1980 at Bill Graham's Old
Waldorf club in San Francisco:
Here's a video of heavy metal hottie
Lita Ford lip-synching one of Peter's tunes on
the 80's TV show, Dance Fever:
Karen was an English
major and got her BS from UMass Amherst in 1984.
Peter got his BS from Syracuse University's
Newhouse School of Journalism in 1977 where he
spent many waking hours at the Daily Orange. During his college
years, Peter was a freelance writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer and other
papers, and in 1976 won a Hearst
National
Journalism
Award.
They live in suburban
Atlanta.