AFFLICTING THE COMFORTABLE: JOURNALISM AND POLITICS IN WEST VIRGINIA

Introduction: Three Words

Introduction THREE WORDS 'Wooden-headedness ... is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government." Barbara W lltchman IT STARTED OUT like a bad detective novel. I walked out of the bar and down the hall, passing a man who slipped me a large, brown envelope. We spoke cordially but briefly, about nothing of importance; then I went out the door and down the steps to the street on a cool October evening in 1962. The setting for this little drama was the Charleston Press Club, gone now but at the time one of the most popular and exclusive watering holes in all of West Virginia. The messenger who had handed me the envelope was a high state official, a trusted friend, and a man respected everywhere for his competence and integrity. It had been one of those days when nothing seemed to go right. All the people I had called in an effort to develop news stories were out of their ofRces or out of town. When I Rnally found something I thought I could use for the next day's Gazette, it was so mundane that I had difficulty putting the facts on paper with any kind of continuity. Frustrated, and still without a story for the next morning's edition, I had called my wife to tell her I'd be late for dinner. Although this was far from a rare occurrence, she was understandably annoyed with me since she'd planned one of my favorite meals. And then this, my fleeting venture into the world of cloak and dagger, which appeared at the time to be an exercise in futility. It seemed a Rtting end to a worthless day. 2 AFFLICTING THE COMFORTABLE After taking the envelope back to my office, I opened it to find only a copy of the same report on state purchasing practices that I had received a few days before. I was angry, puzzled- and intrigued. Wondering if perhaps the seeds ofa larger story had been somehow buried in the report, I opened it to the title page and found scribbled there three words: "Invest Right Corp." That was all. As it turned out many months later, I had before me the barest essentials of the most complex and challenging story I would ever write, the progenitor of an escalating series ofevents that ultimately would send a governor and other state officials to prison and bring down a decades-old political machine. The printed report I had in my hands had been a year in preparation. It had grown out of a resolution passed by the 1961 legislature, the purpose of which was to bring an end to then-rampant rumors hinting at improprieties in state government purchasing practices, and to prove that all was well in the state Division of Purchases. Millions of dollars worth of contracts, for everything from paint brushes to snowplows, from stationery printing to interstate highway construction, are handled by that one office every year, and the opportunities for thievery and misconduct are limitless. I had been given this second copy of the report with its cryptic notation only after making several phone calls to various members of the committee responsible for issuing it. No one wanted to talk to me about it, but eventually I hit pay dirt. One individual finally promised to give me something that he said could lead me to actual corrupt practices and to the names of those at the highest levels of government who were responsible. His promise, however, had not come easily. I had to plead, badger, and cajole before he eventually agreed to meet with me and turn over the allegedly incriminating information. He absolutely refused to see me at his office. He was emphatic about the method of delivery, and he bound me to a promise never to reveal his name or to even hint to anyone about his identity during his lifetime. He had good reason for his insistence on this protection. His name was Julius Singleton, and at the time he was the Speaker of the House of Delegates. INTRODUCTION 3 After all that, I still had only the words "Invest Right Corp.," which was little more than I had started with. The actual committee report hinted at the possible existence of a conspiracy to subvert and circumvent establishing purchasing practices, but there was no supporting evidence to buttress this allegation. In...