Since 1938, his Whirl
has put an unflinching spin
on the crime-scandle beat
By Anthony DeBartolo
ST. LOUIS (Hyde Park Media) - Benjamin Thomas says that in the 51 years he has been publisher, editor and reporter for his weekly newspaper, the St. Louis Whirl-Examiner, he hasn`t missed one issue.It`s likely some wish he had.
"The average man, be he a preacher, a schoolteacher, a doctor, a lawyer - whatever, they like to get out and get around sometimes," Thomas says. "And when they get caught, that`s when I cash in on them."Such is the content of Thomas` paper. This line from its creed spells out its scope: ``Our aim will always be to help, but never to harm, and let the chips fall where they may, regardless of class or culture or stature in life.``
Consequently, what you`ll find in this 8- to 16-page broadsheet, next to news of the latest bus fare increase and food pantry drive, are some of the most unabashedly frank crime, sex and scandal stories published anywhere.
``Yes, and they`re all true,`` says Thomas, 78. What`s not particularly faithful is his reporting style.
Stories are sometimes written from the point of view of a homicide victim, as in a story headlined ``Holy Moses bring the roses.`` Sometimes from that of the accused: ``Tis no secret, I`m a raping fool, I even did it when I was in school.``
The public ``must like it,`` he says. ``They buy a lot of papers.``
Thomas claims a weekly circulation of 40,000, primarily within the greater-St. Louis black community, including some 5,000 mail subscriptions, many from across the country, even a few from ``across the pond.``
He offers no illusions in explaining reader loyalty. Sex has always sold; so has crime. ``And the two go quite well together,`` he says.
Sometimes, when sex and crime collide, Thomas mines a vein, as with his extended coverage of a man who became overly involved with his pet in a public park, a man Thomas dubbed, ``Dogman Edwards.``
One of the followup stories was an interview in which, the dog, Nancy, told her side.
``When Ben did that story,`` says Bill McClellan, a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, ``every week there was a new development. It was like the Washington Post and Watergate. He just kept after it.``
``His paper is so entertaining,`` McClellan says. ``He`s out to inform and entertain. . . . Mainstream newspapers tend to take themselves very seriously. Ben doesn`t.``
HE LIKES TO ENTERTAIN
While a journalism student in the early `30s at Ohio State University, Thomas wrote a straight news column for the black-owned Pittsburgh Courier. Upon graduation, he joined the staff of the St. Louis Argus, a 76-year-old black-owned weekly still in circulation. But after 4 1/2 years, doing everything from ``selling ads to writing civic news,`` he decided to start his own paper, one more in keeping with his own interest in sports and entertainment.
``I like entertainment,`` he says. ``I like to promote. I staged affairs like bathing beauty contests (while he was at the Argus). The biggest social event we ever had here, I staged it. I called it the Glamour Girl Classic ... I presented the outstanding (black) performers in the city. I selected the best female singer, best male singer, best tap dancer, well, just the best of everything. Even the best chorus girl. Oh, man, it went over big. It knocked me off my feet.
``No more than a couple years after that, I started the Whirl (in 1938). I named it the Night Whirl because my main field was entertainment and I could get ads from taverns, nightclubs and the social clubs. Those were my main sources of advertising, and they held up quite well for me. Made it possible for me to keep my little paper coming out every week.``
Around 1940, as Thomas recalls, a friend put him onto a story that would forever change his little paper. A story that involved two local teachers who were also Thomas` friends.
``He said, `Man, do you know that in the summertime, when these two guys, these school teachers, when they take their kids out supposedly for the pleasure of a summertime outing, they`re having sex with those boys?`
``I didn`t believe it. He said, `Ben, it is true. The kids started talking about it to their parents, and they`re the ones who let it out to the public and it got around.`
``He said, `Ben, don`t take my word for it, go see the circuit attorney and you`ll get the story.` I said no. He said `Go do it. News like that should be in a newspaper. They`re not going to put it in the Argus . . . They`ll cover it up.`
``So I went to see him, and (the circuit attorney) spread open the file on these two people in front of me, and I started to read it. And the more I read, the more disgusted I became.
``So I thought to myself, I`m going to run this story. . . Now mind you, I never carried anything but entertainment and sports news before. But I wrote the story.
``Man, talk about calls coming in . . . I had to go back to the presses three times and then sold out.``
RAP JOURNALISM
Choosing not to argue with his success, Thomas ``kept on doing it. Kept on printing crime. That`s when I changed it to the Evening Whirl, because Night didn`t fit in for crime news like that. But instead of going to see the circuit attorney, I went to police headquarters where they had the crime sheets made out.``
A widower with two grown children, he has an office and P.O. Box 5088 for newspaper business, but he does most of the work from home.
As for his style, ``it`s the way I`m thinking when I`m writing. Sometimes it`s just pure poetry, headlines and all. As the thoughts come to me I let the pen flow, or the typewriter bang it out.``
In a recent January edition, there`s a clear example of Thomas` rap journalistic form. On the occasion of Missouri`s first legal execution in more than 25 years, he wrote an ``Ode to a Rapist and Killer`` for the condemned, George ``Tiny`` Mercer. Its last and fifth stanza reads:
``Goodbye, Tiny, you`re reaping your reward. Your endeavors for a woman put you off guard. And now you are gone to meet your Lord. There was more to life than you could afford.``
Regular columns are correspondingly loyal to the Whirl`s aim. As with this recent entry in ``The Gun Club``:
``Willie (Shorty) Lowery, 47, of 1815 Lafayette, was surprised when Dets. Brian `I Gotcha` Gilmore and Al `Shake `Em Up` Upchurch (Thomas makes up the nicknames) visited him to raid his dope joint and found among his possessions thousands of dollars protected by a .32 revolver and a bolt action 12-gauge shotgun. This qualified the dope dealing money man for membership into the ever popular elite GUN CLUB.``
`DOPE EATERS` LIST
The ``Dope Eaters & Peddlers Social Club Unincorporated`` column lists, in bold type, the names, ages, addresses and drug of choice for arrested narcotics offenders. ``It lets the public know the people in our city that are in that racket,`` Thomas explains. ``If I were to write individual stories, it would take up too much space`` - space reserved for his play-by-play domestic disputes column: ``Wife Beaters and Sweetheart Mistreaters (Oh Daddy Don`t. Be Good and I Won`t).``
One typical item: ``Jimmie Webster, 30, of 1442 Semple, also known as Jimmie Gillispie argued over personal matters with his cherished rib, Madam Muriel Gillispie, 34, same address. Jimmie was choked with anger. He grabbed a pressing iron and blasted Muriel over the head. She resented it and defended herself with a steak knife plunged in Jimmie`s broad chest. The duel was rough, and pretty soon both of them had enough. They had each other arrested by Officers Frederick Brown and his partner Mark. They kissed and made up later it was learned by friends and police. Bravo! That`s love!``
Should anyone point out to Thomas that he often treats those arrested for a crime as though they already have been tried and convicted, he quickly explains, ``I don`t wait that long to write it.``
``Sometimes,`` says Post Dispatch columnist McClellan, ``there was more truth in his fictionalized accounts than in my straight reporting covering the same event . . . He can read a police report and get more out of it than anyone I`ve ever seen.
``Even if he is a little fast and loose with facts, with his imaginative reporting, his stuff gives the flavor of what happened more so than a mainstream newspaper. Our language is formal and very strict. He`s more like a blues song. In a sense, you`re closer to the truth.
``He`s not making a whole lot of mistakes either, or the police wouldn`t cooperate with him like they do,`` McClellan adds. ``He takes his responsibility as a newspaperman very seriously. I admire him, like him and think his paper is out-of-sight. I read my copy every week.
MIXED REVIEWS
Some in the black community, though, find it hard to digest.
``The feelings are definitely mixed,`` McClellan says. ``Some feel he holds them up for ridicule`` because the majority of his crime stories involve only blacks.
``Since I am the black owner of a newspaper,`` Thomas contends, ``the people expect more black news. I know my readers want to know mainly what the black people are doing.``
Other charges, however, haven`t been so easily dismissed. ``I`ve been sued,`` Thomas admits. ``Not a whole bunch of times, but I`ve been sued.``
``When you write the truth,`` he says, ``there ain`t much that`s going to happen to you.``
This article first appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Sponsored Links
March 20, 1989. Photo By Associated Press.
© 1989 Hyde Park Media
Editor's Note: Benjamin Thomas passed away on June 22, 2005 in Los Angeles. He was 94 years young.
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