Press: Loaded Ad

In 1984 John Wayne Hearn put a classified ad in Soldier of Fortune seeking "high risk assignments" and other work for ex-Marines and weapons specialists. Robert Black Jr. saw it and ended up hiring Hearn to murder his wife Sandra for $10,000. Both were convicted of the crime. But Sandra Black's mother and 18-year-old son also blamed Soldier of Fortune and filed a $22.5 million negligence suit against the combative, Rambo-lining magazine. Last week a federal jury in Houston ordered the magazine to pay $9.4 million in damages. "We're sending out a message to other publishers that ads placed in a...

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