Second Sacking

Robert Patterson has always been a reporter of some mystery. In his first stint on the San Francisco Examiner, he wrote a successful column under the pseudonym of Freddie Francisco. Trouble was, his record of past convictions (theft, attempted forgery) came to light, and the elder William Randolph Hearst fired him in 1949. Patterson drifted into ghostwriting and two more prison terms (bad checks, forgery) before the Examiner took him back in 1965. Now 65, he is unemployed again because of a trip to China that possibly never took place.

Patterson covered China in the 1930s. Last spring, from Hong Kong, he ostensibly entered the People's Republic and produced a five-part series that the paper front-paged. But did Patterson actually visit China this year? Paul Avery, a reporter at the rival Chronicle, heard a rumor to the contrary. He read the Patterson articles closely and concluded that they contained no details that had not been reported earlier by others. Checking with several sources, Avery could find no record of Patterson's entry into China. Word of Avery's digging got back to Examiner Editor Ed Dooley, who confronted Patterson. When he could not prove that he had been to China, the paper ran a Page One box that disavowed his articles and announced his dismissal.

Last week Patterson said that he will make no effort to clear his name. But for the record, the old mystery man has amended his story: he did not get into China legally, as he originally reported, but rather smuggled himself in, spy-style, via Macao.

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