Warfare in New Orleans

In New Orleans, the warfare is bitter between Publisher David ("Tommy") Stern's evening Item (circ. 103,153) and its well-entrenched competitors, the morning Times-Picayune and afternoon States (combined circ. 274,000). Two months ago in the heat of their running battle, the Times-Picayune scored a spectacular beat over the Item. The T-P broke a story that New Orleans detectives had collected $300,000 in a series of safe robberies. After the T-P story broke, the sheriff dragged the canals and bayous, found three stolen safes, including one taken from a local finance company.

The evidence resulted in 1) the indictment for burglary of a detective and an ex-detective, accused of planning a robbery with an ex-convict, and 2) the formation of a special citizens' committee to investigate police corruption. But in the T-P's hour of victory, Item Publisher Stern sprang his own police scandal.

Baby & Brothel. The Item got started on its story in February when a dark, mustached man named Jack Richter came to the city room on Union Street with a tip. Richter said that he knew of a saloon being used as a front for a brothel, where prostitutes were caring for a homeless baby who had been left on the bar. Next day the Item guided police on a raid and front-paged the story of the baby and arrest of four prostitutes and the brothel keeper. Richter then told the Item that he could supply other information. Richter and Item reporters went to work, took a tape recording of an interview with a prostitute who said she had worked for people paying protection money to the police. The Item took its evidence to the state department of revenue. Explained Item Editor George Chaplin: "Police cannot investigate police."

The state revenue department agreed to pay Richter $1,000 so that he could continue his investigations for a month. Working with Item staffers, Richter tracked down several other leads, then went after bigger game. He got in touch with a patrolman named Louis Brackman, told him he wanted to buy police protection for a brothel he planned to open. In a series of tape-recorded meetings, Richter offered Patrolman Brackman $1,000 for himself and $2,000 for the bigwig in the police department who could make the fix. But after several meetings, Brackman finally reported the attempted bribe, and police swooped down on Richter's apartment and arrested him. Screamed the States: ARREST SPECIAL

PROBER HIRED BY STATE REVENUE DEPARTMENT. EMPLOYED AS INVESTIGATOR FOR N. O. ITEM.

Roses & Robbery. Next day, when the Item was getting ready to print its exclusive tape recordings, the T-P argued that state funds had been used to help the Item get a story. The paper trumpeted the complaint of the police superintendent, who said Richter acted "in collaboration with the Item for the express purpose of 'framing' policemen." The T-P also checked into Richter's past, found out he had been arrested eight times, convicted on a narcotics charge. State Revenue Lawyer Guy L. Deano answered that he and the Item knew all about Richter's past, but the evidence he found had enabled the revenuers to run five successful raids, and they were planning 30 more.

New Orleans' Mayor Morrison, whose police department was under fire, sided with the TP, whacked the Item for its "scheme ... for the obvious purpose of attempting to produce a scandal." But the Item had the last word. The police department fired Patrolman Brackman for failing to make a prompt report of the bribe offer. And last week the bar-brothel where the baby had been found lost its liquor license. Crowed Tommy Stern's Item: "The Picayune complained . . . that the revenue department investigation 'benefited the Item to the exclusion of other media of public expression.' Cleared of gobbledygook, this means if the Picayune and States had been let in on the investigation, it would have smelled like a rose."

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