The Press: Nose for News

To the young Associated Press reporter in Chicago, the whole business had an odd smell—or rather, lack of smell. It was during the blazing summer of 1933, and Ray Brennan, then 25 and covering one of his first big stories, was facing Swindler Jake ("The Barber") Factor, who claimed before reporters and the police that he had been kidnaped, held for twelve days in a basement and just released. Factor said he was still wearing the same clothes in which he had been kidnaped—but his shirt and suit were clean and only slightly wrinkled. And there was another strange thing. Recalls...

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