Navy Veterans Jack Coughlin, 32, and his brother Pete, 30, wanted to run a newspaper. And West Memphis, Ark. (pop. 8,000) seemed just the town. It was thriving, after its fashion. The county, run by a tight Democratic political machine, boasted curb-service marriage and a bustling divorce mill. West Memphis had no school, but plenty of gambling houses and brothels, some run by exiles from Boss E. H. Crump's domain across the Mississippi. Its weekly, the News, was down to its last 15 paid subscribers (plus 385 in arrears).
The curly-haired Coughlin brothers, who...
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