New York -- Former Daily News editor-in-chief Michael O'Neill, who oversaw coverage of the city's financial crisis in the 1970s, has died at age 89.
He started at the Daily News in its Washington bureau in 1956 and rose through the ranks to become the top editor in 1975. His tenure included the famous Daily News headline about President Gerald Ford's speech denying the city money during the financial crisis, "Ford to City: Drop Dead."
O'Neill died Tuesday at his home in Scarsdale, north of the city, from complications of pulmonary fibrosis, his daughter Kathryn O'Neill said.
