Life at 9200 rpms: Looking tanned and fit

     I recall the following as if it were yesterday.  My LVAD makes these occasional musings possible.

     Fred Hubbard was a Chicago Alderman from the 2nd Ward.  His day job put him in charge of funds from the federally funded Chicago Plan, which was aimed at job training for minorities.

     Sometime in early 1972, Ald. Hubbard disappeared from Chicago.  He took with him about $100,000 in federal funds that was taken from the U.S. Department of Labor program grant.  It turned out that Hubbard gambled with the money in Las Vegas.  He lived the good life for some six months.

      Eventually Hubbard was indicted on fraud charges, and was tracked by the U.S. Marshals Service to Las Vegas.  As a fugitive from justice, Hubbard was returned in custody sans stolen funds in the custody of U.S. Marshals and appeared in U.S. District Court in Chicago with his attorney wife, Arnette Hubbard.  

     Bob Davis, the Chicago Tribune reporter in the federal building, grabbed me by the arm and said to follow him.  Davis got advance notice of Hubbard’s appearance and I was the new guy for the Sun-Times in the building.  We developed a strong professional relationship and were good friends.  I learned much from Davis and prized his friendship.

     At any rate the appearance was short.  The courtroom was crowded.  It was good that Davis took me under his wing because I would not have known Hubbard on sight and likely would have missed the story.  His case was called by the deputy clerk of court and up stepped a black couple, Fred and Arnette Hubbard.  The brief appearance disclosed none of the background information.  Davis had it all.  The whole hearing start to finish lasted less than five minutes.

     Back in the pressroom on the 21st floor of the Dirksen federal building, Davis and I called our city desks to report the story.  Davis was given a rewrite man to take dictation. The rewrite man was apparently asleep or did not know that Hubbard was black.

      Trying to be funny, Davis dictated his lead paragraph with a straight face and tone:  Ald. Fred Hubbard (2nd), looking tanned and fit, pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he embezzled $100,000 from a federally funded jobs program and spent the money on a Las Vegas gambling spree.

      Clearly, the “looking tanned and fit” was not intended to get into the newspaper. But it did.  The phrase ran in the first edition.  It got past the city desk review, the copy editor who wrote the headline, the news editor who was in charge of getting the story set in type, and other layers of review.

      I did not have either temerity or the courage to be flip about the story.  I played it straight.  In this case, straight was good.

      Davis was called about the phrase by the night shift assistant city editor.  It was intended as a flip remark, Bob said, not for publication.  The phrase was axed from the story.  Davis kept his job. If anyone complained, it was explained away.