REPORTER’S NOTE BOOK
A San Francisco Chronicle
Journalist’s Diary of the
Shocking Seventies
In Reporter’s Note Book, Duffy Jennings weaves the political, criminal, public, and personal events of the 1970s into a masterful reflection on the heart of a turbulent Bay Area.
In this powerful narrative, Duffy paints a dramatic portrait of a time and place that is by turns exceptionally dramatic and poignant, all bolstered by his uncanny memory and tender wit.
Among Duffy’s assignments: political assassinations, serial murders, major fires, gangland crime, labor union strife, city government news and more.
Duffy’s front page coverage included the 1978 city hall killings, the shocking trial of Dan White, the Zebra murders, the Patty Hearst kidnap, taunting letters from the Zodiac killer, and life as an embedded reporter with fire fighters and homicide detectives.
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REPORTER’S NOTE BOOK
From a sixty-two-dollar-a-week copyboy to reporting on the most shocking stories of the time, Duffy Jennings takes us into the maelstrom of the Bay Area in upheaval in the 1970s.
The Chronicle
Meeting Abe Mellinkoff was as much a sensory experience for me as seeing that perfect, green Yankee Stadium grass for the first time.
The Feinstein Announcement
“Word is Moscone and a supervisor, maybe Harvey Milk, are both dead,” I blurt to Hemp in short breaths, heart thumping in my chest.
Shirt-Sleevers
In those days, drinking at lunch was customary throughout the business world, and the so-called “three-martini lunch” was a common practice.
I Am Not Avery
Two months after the Marin shootout, on October 28, 1970, Zodiac threatened Chronicle reporter Paul Avery directly in a Halloween card.
PRAISE FOR
REPORTER’S NOTE BOOK
〝 Duffy Jennings’ riveting coverage of the Moscone-Milk murders and the Dan White trial was an arduous reporting job and daily journalism at its finest. His account of a reporter’s life makes for vivid reading.
David Perlman, San Francisco Chronicle City Editor, 1977-1978〝Duffy Jennings’ memoir of the turbulent ’60s and ’70s in the Bay Area is incisive and compelling. There is a “Forrest Gump” feel to how he was at the center of so many major events. Anyone who has experienced the horrors of addiction will find his experiences with the effect of alcohol to be enlightening. Jennings’ recollections of his mother’s gay bar in San Francisco are priceless.
Leigh Steinberg, Sports Agent〝 Duffy Jennings wrote more than 500 stories for the San Francisco Chronicle, but he may have saved the best one — his own — for last. Written with admirable skill and moral clarity, his memoir reveals what it was like to cover a city gripped by the Zodiac and Zebra killings, Jonestown, the Moscone-Milk assassinations, and the Dan White trial. But this isn’t only a sharp, vivid snapshot of a city in crisis. It’s also a family saga that defies stereotypes at every turn.
Peter Richardson, SFSU lecturer〝 Duffy Jennings brings the reader inside the San Francisco Chronicle newsroom directly to his reporter’s typewriter to present valuable insights into events during the most turbulent, chaotic decade in San Francisco’s modern history. He adds a very gutsy human dimension with intense and painful personal revelations even as he was writing the stories that mesmerized us during his prolific career.
Art Agnos, former Mayor of San Francisco
MORE PRAISE
MEDIA REVIEWS
DUFFY’S TV APPEARANCES
On Marin TV: Retired reporter and author Duffy Jennings discusses his new book Reporter’s Note Book and recalls his times writing for the San Francisco Chronicle with Peter B. Collins.
“The Game” with Mark Simon and Kevin Mullin
“Talk of the Town” featuring Duffy Jennings
DUFFY’S PUBLIC APPEARANCES
COMMONWEALTH CLUB
A prize-winning writer for the San Francisco Chronicle in the tumultuous 1970s, Duffy Jennings covered the Patty Hearst kidnapping, the Zodiac and Zebra serial murders, and the City Hall assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Jennings also covered major fires, gangland crime, labor union strife, city government news and more. In Reporter’s Note Book, Jennings weaves the political, criminal, public and personal events of the 1970s into a masterful reflection on the heart of a turbulent Bay Area, all bolstered by his uncanny memory and tender wit.
AUTHOR