Category: Excerpts
from Reporter's Note Book by Duffy Jennings.
When November arrived in San Francisco in 1978, balmy fall weather lingered at first, teasing an extended Indian summer even as snow blanketed the High Sierra. It reached...
Reporter's Note Book
A Chronicle 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.
Upcoming Events
Reporter's Note Book
A Chronicle of the Shocking Seventies
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. Here are previews of Reporter’s Note Book:
Category: Excerpts
from Reporter's Note Book by Duffy Jennings.
Return address: a circle with a cross inside.
On Saturday night, October 11, a man hailed a Yellow Cab at Geary and Mason Streets and told the driver,...
Category: Excerpts
from Reporter's Note Book by Duffy Jennings.
In Shirt Sleeves ... Working
In those days, drinking at lunch was customary throughout the business world, and the so-called “three-martini lunch” was a common practice. Even President...
Category: Excerpts
from Reporter's Note Book by Duffy Jennings.
Dianne Feinstein's Announcement
I duck back into the Chronicle bureau office just across the hall from the supervisors' offices. I call the city desk to check in.
"Word is Moscone and...
Category: Excerpts
Chronicle Front Page: 11/29/78
from Reporter's Note Book by Duffy Jennings.
November 27, 1978 ⏤ It’s 11 a.m. I’ve been sitting at my desk for more than an hour, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, reading the late...
Category: Excerpts
My courthouse pat-down
from Reporter's Note Book by Duffy Jennings.
One February morning in 1979 city editor Dave Perlman called me up to his desk. “Bill German (the managing editor) and I want you to cover...
Category: Excerpts
Duffy with Engine Co. 21
from Reporter's Note Book by Duffy Jennings.
I took a three-day crash course at the San Francisco Fire Department’s Fire College to learn enough of the basics to keep from getting...
Category: Excerpts
Zodiac: Threats & Grim Humor
from Reporter's Note Book by Duffy Jennings.
Two months after the Marin shootout, on October 28, 1970, Zodiac threatened Chronicle reporter Paul Avery directly in a Halloween card, the first time...
Category: Excerpts
from Reporter's Note Book by Duffy Jennings.
Walking into the Chronicle city room to meet Abe Mellinkoff was as much a sensory experience for me as seeing that perfect, green Yankee Stadium grass for the...