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She also thinks like one. Says she: "The question in this town is, 'Where does the money come from?' When somebody starts throwing money around, you start wondering who's paying for it all."
That sort of curiosity led Cheshire to start bird-dogging Korean "Businessman" Tongsun Park in 1970, shortly after he earned a reputation as a lavish partygiver. Cheshire scored her first scoop on the Korean scandal early in 1975 after talking to a woman relative of Park's. She told Maxine she had fled his house in terror after learning that Park worked for the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. Since then, Cheshire has also been first to report that Suzi Thomson, a South Korean divorcee on the payroll of former House Speaker Carl Albert, was helping the KCIA in its dealings with Congressmen.
In all, Cheshire has written some two dozen Korea money stories, and has temporarily suspended her column to do more. "It's really her energy and persistence that kept the story going," says Scott Armstrong, one of five Post reporters now working on Koreagate. "Max doesn't give up when she gets into something." Cheshire would be the first to agree. Says she: "Some women are interested in needlepoint. I'm interested in organized crime."