Like any conscientious husband and father, Thomas Novak, 29, wanted to do what he could to protect his family's security. His Detroit medical practice was growing steadily, and he applied for a $50,000 life-insurance policy.
It was a perfectly usual thing for a doctor to do, but lean, intense Novak was no usual doctor. A 1953 graduate of Detroit's Chadsey High School, Novak had attended an impressive list of universitiesMichigan, Johns Hopkins, and Wayne State University College of Medicine. Yet he had never bothered to enroll or take examinations at any of them; he had simply bought medical books...