5/5/2023 0 Comments Scott schwartz st. louis“That was a great time and a great city to cut your teeth in as a journalist.” “You’re young and just coming out of school, and you’re 22 years old,” she says. Her media credentials opened doors for her during the Reagan years. Schwartz’ first job was writing for a newsletter on Hispanic affairs, as she is also fluent in Spanish. She wanted to be in “the center of the newsmakers’ world.” She was looking for any job where she could write. Career DaysĪfter graduating in 1982, Schwartz headed east to Washington, D.C. “As shocking as it was, I have always seen crime stories as an opportunity to really tell a story.” Crime stories, Schwartz emphasizes, have a beginning-middle-end narrative structure, and the actions by police, criminals and people represent the best and worst in people. “I remember covering the trial, the whole thing,” Schwartz says. The case led to two front-page stories for Schwartz. Schwartz worked with the police department, Boy Scouts officials and the scouts’ families to report on the ongoing investigation. A scoutmaster had branded several of his Boy Scouts with a hanger he heated up on the campfire. One assignment, though, gave her an eye-opening introduction to the bizarre. “They cemented for me – all the faculty who helped me when I was at MU – that I absolutely made the right choice and I was going to succeed,” Schwartz says.Īs part of her job as a Missourian reporter on the crime beat, Schwartz would head to the courthouse to cover trials, talk to lawyers and representatives and then write about the cases for the paper. Anne Schwartz, right, and her partner, Mark McClain, celebrate St. As an undergraduate student balancing classes and reporting, Schwartz took to the stress like a fish in the water and felt encouraged by her editors and professors. The professional newsroom at the Missourian is a place where students sink or swim. “You never forget your News 105 teacher,” Schwartz says. The lessons her professors imparted have stayed with her through the years. She credits three of her journalism professors in her book on Jeffrey Dahmer, “The Man Who Could Not Kill Enough: The Secret Murders of Milwaukee’s Jeffrey Dahmer.” Don Ranly, PhD ’76, former head of the magazine sequence Hal Cordry, PhD ’86, her introductory newswriting teacher and Hal Lister, MA ’72, who taught newswriting, are mentioned in the dedication. Schwartz says that the University of Missouri has always stayed with her, no matter how far away she has traveled from Columbia. Years later, Schwartz’s high school guidance counselor told her that the Missouri School of Journalism was the best. “Storytelling has always been something that I wanted to do.” “I would make up very elaborate stories about what my dolls were doing and so that was really my start,” Schwartz says. Books and writing were her escape, and she lived vicariously through the characters. The Path to Crime ReportingĪs a child, Schwartz loved to read. She currently works as the communications director for the Wisconsin Department of Justice in the Office of the Attorney General. Although she never expected wrongdoing to be a recurring theme in her work, Schwartz’s 30-year career has included stints as a crime reporter, author and corporate communicator. Schwartz’s first crime stories were as a reporter at the Columbia Missourian. He became known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal” for his killing of 17 males between 19. Within a few hours, she broke the international news story on serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Photo: Anne Schwartz.ĭespite thinking it was a joke, Schwartz headed out to the address. Scott Walker on the day she was sworn in as director of communications for the state’s attorney general. In July 1991, Anne Schwartz, BJ ’82, had been a part-time reporter at the Milwaukee Journal for three years when a police officer called her in the middle of the night with a tip: It looked like some guy had been murdering people and then saving their body parts. That is, except for the body parts inside. Whereabouts: United States, Milwaukee, WisconsinĪpartment 213 seemed like most other apartments in Milwaukee: white brick, plain wood, cheap blinds. Missouri Statehouse Reporting Program Expand.Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) Expand Murray Center for Documentary Journalism Expand Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk Expand.McDougall Center for Photojournalism Studies Expand.Frank Lee Martin Journalism Library Expand.Resources for High School Teachers Expand.
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