line over Romy's story read FAMILY'S STORY OF SPECK'S LIFE; there was am- ple detail on Speck's marital problems and his earlier troubles with the police. It was the kind of story that may af- fect the trial. No Bylines. Romy, of course, admits to no impersonations. But admiring col- Hot on the Line leagues know him as "the Heifetz of Mindful of Dallas and Lee Harvey the telephone," and with good reason. Oswald, Cleveland and Dr. Sam Shep- He has scarcely been out of the office pard, Miami and Candy Mossler—and in 30 years; yet, using a chameleon of recent Supreme Court decisions voice and a host of guises, he has scored on the handling of suspects—Chicago beat after beat. He never gets a byline, newspapers have treated the mass slay- never actually writes a story himself; ing of eight student nurses with reason- he simply talks on the telephone, then able restraint. Headlines and stories repeats what he has learned from the have been as cool as the event- permits. conversation to a rewriteman or an- Still, in collecting the lurid details, one other reporter. paper has had a clear advantage. Chi- When Texas City, Texas, caught fire cago's American was able to unleash in 1947, Romanoff got on the phone. Harry ("Romy") Romanoff, 74, the last "Should the area be declared a dis- of the city's great Front Page, get-the- aster area?" he asked. "What's needed story-at-all-costs reporters. down there?" The mayor, the Red Stories about his exploits are legend, Cross and top police officials, thinking and they grow in the telling. Romy on that they were giving the White House the telephone seems a constant source a firsthand report of the damage and of confusion. Somehow, a homicide de- injuries, wound up giving Romanoff tective on duty at the dead nurses' more information than any other re- apartment got the impression that he porter came close to collecting. was talking to Cook County Coroner No Yankees. There is no end to anec- Andrew Toman, and he started spill- dotes about Romy. When a fire swept ing all the gory details of the crime through a Catholic hospital in Centra- —until he saw Toman walk into the lia, Ill., killing a number of patients, room. Whereupon he slammed down he is said to have called up the nun in the receiver in embarrassment. Some- charge, passed himself off as a repre- how, Suspect Richard Speck's mother sentative of the cardinal's office, kept in Dallas got the idea that she was pumping her for details which he need- talking to a lawyer hired to defend her ed, he said, to plan supplies for the sur- son. She gushed information meant to vivors. On hearing that Millionaire help build his case. The banner head- Fight Promoter Tex Rickard was seri- ously ill, Romanoff promptly rang up TIME, JULY 29, 1966 Mrs. Rickard. "This is Governor Len Small of Illinois," he intoned. "I am distressed to hear of the illness of my old friend Tex. Tell me, Mrs. Rickard, how is he?" "He's dying, Governor," the tearful spouse replied, and Roma- noff had another scoop. Romy Romanoff hasn't always been that devious. Once he called up a sheriff in Kentucky to get the details of a mur- der, identified himself properly. "I ain't talking to any damyankee newspaper- man," shouted the sheriff as he banged down the receiver. "Why be truthful?" shrugged Romy as he contemplated the horrible prospect of no story.

TIME, JULY 29, 1966