CHAPTER TWENTY-NINEThe thrill of writing a colorful murder trial story took nearly a month to wear off as Jesse became buried once again in the black-and-white slog of daily news.
The school beat was still about teachers threatening to strike but never actually going on strike. The police beat was cops and robbers as usual, no big fires or natural disasters. Planes weren’t crashing in farmers’ fields, vandals weren’t giving old ladies heart attacks, and all the massage parlors had been busted and closed.
The most exciting news of the month was the end of a story, not the beginning. On April 30, 1975, North Vietnam renamed Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City. The war in Vietnam was over. Jesse never thought he’d see the day.
The day before, an iconic photograph appeared in newspapers around the wor
