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Editorial: "The Accident Swindlers": "Cleaning Up the Accident Swindlers" - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-04-05

Editorial: "The Accident Swindlers": "Licensing Hospitals to Steal" - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-03-02

Editorial: "The Accident Swindlers": "The Crash and Cash 'Game' and the Chief Perpetrators" - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-14

"Pearls Before Breakfast" - Gene Weingarten - Washington Post

"It was a snazzy, sequined idea -- part inspiration and part gimmick -- and it was typical of Bell, who has unapologetically embraced showmanship even as his concert career has become more and more august. . . "

The Washington Post 2007-04-08

Reaction: "The Accident Swindlers" “Hospital Under Fire in Probe Shuts Down" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-06-03

Reaction: "The Accident Swindlers" “Chiropractor to Aid Prosecutors" - Kay Rutherford - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-05-31

Reaction: "The Accident Swindlers" “Two Linked to Ripoffs Convicted" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-05-30

Reaction: "The Accident Swindlers" “Year in Jail for Accident Swindler”

Chicago Sun Times 1980-07-01

Reaction: "The Accident Swindlers" “State to Suspend License of Hospital in Evanston” - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-06-06

Follow-up: "The Accident Swindlers": “Hospital Aide Ties to 2 Clinics Told” - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

"A top official of Community Hospital of Evanston had lucrative financial relationships with two medical clinics that supplied hundreds of the hospital's phony accident patients . . . "

Chicago Sun Times 1980-05-12

Reaction: "The Accident Swindlers:" - "State Panel Asks Voiding of Chiropractor's License" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-04-11

Reaction: "The Accident Swindlers": "Panel Blasts Hospital Board'" - Gene Mustain and Pamela Zekman - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-04-10

Reaction: "The Accident Swindlers": "Hospital in Evanston Loses Accreditation'" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-04-08

Follow-up: "The Accident Swindlers": "Smashup Cheats- How They Get YOU'" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-04-06

Story and Editorial: "The Accident Swindlers": "Thompson Bills Hit Accident Fraud" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-04-05

Reaction: "The Accident Swindlers": "Series Spawns a Wave of Hospital Shakeups'" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-04-03

Reaction: "The Accident Swindlers": "State Board Orders Evanston Hospital to Hearing'" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-03-17

Reaction: "The Accident Swindlers": "Hospital Executive's Sideline Pads 'Take'" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-03-11

Reaction: "The Accident Swindlers": "Federal Panel Probes Fake Car-Injury Claims" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-29

Reaction: "The Accident Swindlers:" - "Agency Ignored Reports of Phony Patients" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain- Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-28

Reaction: "The Accident Swindlers": “Department Probes Moonlighting Cop Who Aids Fraudulent Claims”

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-22

Reaction: “The Accident Swindlers": "State Agency Probes Practices Uncovered in Swindler Series” - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-21

Reaction: “The Accident Swindlers": "Hospital Boss Vows to Probe Methods” - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-20

Reaction: "The Accident Swindlers": “Probe Abuses at Hospital—State Legislator” - Unsigned - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-19

XV-"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

"Many doctors are outraged at the sight of phony patients being hospitalized solely for the purpose of inflating insurance claims. Some do something about it.. . . ."

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-26

XVI-"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

"Victims of minor auto accidents in Illinois are overcompensated while victims of major accidents are undercompensated. "Experts agree that is the unfair result of the current system for settling auto-acciddent claims in the state. . . . "

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-27

XIV-"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

"Northlake Community Hospital has an image problem. "Two of its directors are under federal indictment on charges of defrauding the Medicare program and the hospital of more than $350,000. One of its busiest doctors is banned from the state Medicaid program and another was banned and reinstated. "Its operators say they have turned a formerly bankrupt hospital into an $11 million asset - specializing in podiatry services. "But the Sun-Times and WLS-TV (Channel 7) found that Northlake has another sideline -- phony auto-accident cases . . . ". . . An undercover reporter, posing as an accident 'victim' was admitted to Northlake by [Dr. Noberto T.] Agustin. The doctor invented serious injuries and fixed hospital records to show that he saw the patient every day. In fact, Agustin saw the patient once -- on the night before the reporter was discharged and handed a $697.30 bill for a four-day stay. . . ."

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-25

XIII-"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

"Checking into a hospital can be as easy as checking into a hotel. "That's what completely healthy Sun-Times and WLS-TV (Channel 7) reporters posing as auto-accident victims discovered during their investigation of The Accident Swindlers. "If other accident victims were hospitalized as easily as the reporters were, 'we wouldn't have enough hotel and motel rooms in the country to take care of their needs,' said one prominent orthopedic specialist . . . "

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-24

XII-"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

"There's a doctor in Skokie who uses an ordinary household instrument to examine patients. "Dr. Nicholas P. Mastores uses the telephone. "After a telephone conversation with a reporter, Mastores submitted a $100 bill for a 'complete physical examination' and 'x-ray interpretation.' There was no exam. There were no x-rays. . ."

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-22

XI-"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

" Dr. Gerald J. Rabin is a real operator. He urges unnecessary surgery. "'You've got a separation of your shoulder, and we'll probably have to operate,' Rabin told a reporter posing as an auto-accident victim. . . "

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-21

X-"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

"Dr. J. Dale Bargyh committed one significant oversight when he submitted a $670 bill to a reporter posing s an auto-accident victim. "Bargyh never examined the patient . . . "

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-20

IX-"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

"The medicine practiced at some clnics in Chicago is purely accidental. "Victims of minor bump-and-bruise accidents are given the treatment -- fraudulent bills, faked diagnoses, unnecessary hospitalizations and haphazard 'therapy.' . . . "

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-19

"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

"The patient was a Sun-Times reporter posing as an auto-accident victim. The Associated Physicians' Clinic had just invented injuries for him. Now it was sending him to Community Hospital of Evanston, where nearly all the patients are equally phony. . . "

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-18

VII-"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

"It is The Accident Swindlers' favorite hospital. "Hundreds of auto-accident patients have walked through its doors -- unquestioned, unexamined, unhurt. "They receive little or no treatment, yet they are charged luxury-hotel rates. The usually stay five days and collect a $1000 to $2000 bill used by their lawyers to inflate insurance settlements. . . "

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-17

VI-"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

"Anyone can be an ambulance chaser, in Chicago, thousands of people are. "Most are amateurs -- hospital employees, ambulance attendants, tow-truck drivers, cab-drivers or body-and-fender men. For $50 or $100, they refer accident victims to lawyers. "Professional chasers, however, are a breed apart . . . " "

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-15

V-"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

"You don't have to be a lawyer to practice personal injury law. "Archie Burton, Fred Harvey and Wes McKinney know. They are former ambulance chasers who left the streets and independently created a new, lucrative occupation -- the accident 'broker.' "Years of seeing lawyers make big money from automobile accidents taught them something they could make it, too. And they are so expert at their new trade, they now teach attorneys the accident business . . . "

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-14

IV-"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-14

III-"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times

"Some lawyers are always looking for the 'perfect' accident. When they find it, they're willing ot make under-the-table payments for a piece of the action. "The law firms of Sheldon Oliver Zisook and Basil C. Elias spread liberal amounts of upfront money around for the chance to represent Sun-Times and WLS-TV (Channel 7) reporters posing as accident victims . . . "

Chicago Sun TimesWLS-TV (Chicago, Channel 7) 1980-02-12

II-"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times and WLS-TV

"They are counselors at law who counsel fraud. "They each coach their clients to fake or exaggerate injuries to win inflated insurance settlements. They get one-third of the bogus pay-out. . . ."

Chicago Sun Times 1980-02-11

I-"The Accident Swindlers" - Pamela Zekman and Gene Mustain - Chicago Sun-Times and WLS-TV

"Cashing in on crashes. "Thousands collect each year. They fake injuries and turn minor bump-and-bruise automobile accidents into an estimated $3 billion annual bonanza. "That is the accident swindle. It is masterminded by unscrupulous lawyers and ambulance chasers. They tell their clients how to fake pain. They are aided by crooked clinics and doctors eager to play along for profit. "During an eight-month investigation, reporters from the Sun-Times and WLS-TV (Channel 7) infiltrated the swindle and learned how it works. "With the cooperation of the Chicago Police Department and Allstate Insurance, reporters posed as victims of minor automobile accidents that never occurred. . . ."

Chicago Sun TimesWLS-TV (Chicago, Channel 7) 1980-02-10

VI-"The Black Dispatch" - Neil Henry - Washington Post

"A month after I left the fields of North Carolina, I returned to tie up loose ends. I wanted to find Billy Bongo and ask him why he failed to provide the work he promised me and eight other D.C. men, and why he sold us to a crew leader for $150 before disappearing without a trace."I wanted to ask migrant crew leader Elijah Hudson why he paid Billy Bongo to drive us all the way from Washington and why, after allowing us to sleep in a bunkhouse teeming with worms and insects, he refused to give us food or jobs. I wanted to ask crew leader Clarence Dozier Jr. why he sold his men wine and cigarettes at exorbitant prices and why, with few exceptions, he paid me and others far less than the federally mandated minimum wage . . ."

The Washington Post 1983-10-14

V-"The Black Dispatch" - Neil Henry - Washington Post

"Five days after Billy Bongo drove us to North Carolina to work as migrants, seven out of an original gang of nine from Washington, myself included, remained."The other six were divided evenly into two camps of opinion: Those who hated the mosquito-infested living quarters and the $1-an-hour work, but felt minimum-wage jobs might come their way if they stayed, and those who believed they had been conned and that their best bet was to head home to the city where they once again could hustle for better work and money . . . "

The Washington Post 1983-10-13

IV-"The Black Dispatch" - Neil Henry - Washington Post

"Three days away from Washington, my values changed. The most important items I owned were now a red plastic bucket to collect tomatoes, a Syrofoam cup to drink camp wter that tasted of rust and a plastic fork to consume an evening allotment of okra, grits, pig ears, tails or knuckles."My skin was raw from sunburn and I began to reek of sweat. I had no change of clothes and the only shirt I owned had been stolen, leaving me with one pair of tennis shoes, a pair of socks, blue jeans and a V-neck T-shirt, all of which were turning the reddish-brown color of North Carolina soil . . ."

The Washington Post 1983-10-12

III-"The Black Dispatch" - Neil Henry - Washington Post

"Clarence Dozier Jr.'s migrant labor camp was equipped with five ramshackle outhouses, four wooden bungalows, three moldy shower stalls, two large outdoor sinks, a soda machine and a jukebox. It was littered with cigarette butts, catfish skeletons, chicken bones, pig knuckles, dead cockroaches and waterbugs, and empty 'Three Peaches' wine bottles . . . "

The Washington Post 1983-10-11

II-"The Black Dispatch'" - Neil Henry - Washington Post

"Snug behind the steering wheel, a toothpick sticking out of the corner of his mouth, Billy Bongo was in a great mood. He had done very well for himself in the streets of Washington, picking up nine men willing to work as migrants in the fields of North Carolina."I and the eight others were perched on rusty metal benches anchored to the walls of Billy Bongo's van and, as it belched and rattled its way out of the city on I-95 heading south, an almost palpable feeling of tension and mystery filled the bus . . ."

The Washington Post 1983-10-10

I-"The Black Dispatch" - Neil Henry - Washington Post

"For five hot and dusty weeks this summer I'd waited at SOME House to hear those words."I arrived there at dawn each morning, eager to explore a mysterious phenomenon known in the slums of Washington as 'the Bus,' a motley assortment of vans that show up at public parks, unemployment offices, sherlters and soup kitchens a dozen times or more from July to November to load up with men desperate for work. "Some have given the Bus a more ominous name -- the Black Dispatch . . ."

The Washington Post 1983-10-09

Follow-up: Pontiac-"One Visitor's Return" - William Recktenwald - Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune 1979-07-02

Follow-up: Pontiac-"Asked $500,000 for Prosecuting Prison Rioters" - William Recktenwald - Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune 1978-11-26

Follow-up: Pontiac- "Special Committee Assembly Leaders Act to Probe Prisons" - Bob Wiedrich - Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune 1978-11-05

VI-Pontiac-"Prisoners Get Exercise; Pontiac Deadlock Ending" - Bob Wiedrich - Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune 1978-11-02

VC-Pontiac-"Charles Rowe's Sudden Discovery" - Bob Wiedrich - Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune 1978-11-01

VB-Pontiac "Judge to Rule Friday on Suit to End Lockup" - Unsigned - Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune 1978-11-01

VA-Pontiac-"How He Read Prison Story" - Unsigned - Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune 1978-11-01

V-Pontiac-"New Pontiac Warden Moves to End Deadlock" - William Recktenwald - Chicago Tribune

"Don Harvey, Pontiac Prison warden, has ordered the first major steps to end the 24-hour-a-day lockup of inmates that has existed since the Jul 22 riot in which three guards were killed. . ."

The Chicago Tribune 1978-11-01

IVA-Reaction: Pontiac - "Pontiac Disclosures No Shock-Thompson" - Mitchell Locin - Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune 1978-10-31

IV-Pontiac-"Just Keep 'Em Locked Up, That's All" - William Recktenwald - Chicago Tribune

". . .In my week as a guard at the Pontiac prison, I had become used to scenes like this one on the cell-house tiers. The inmates had been locked in their 9-by-5 foot cells for almost three months, ever since the Jull 22 tiot in which three guards were killed. Frustrated by the 'deadlock,' the inmates had retaliated by hurling food and excrement from their cells. fouling their own environment. . ."

The Chicago Tribune 1978-10-31

III-Pontiac - "Working the Cells Where Three Died" - William Recktenwald - Chicago Tribune

"I was walking the same floors that three other guards had walked before they were stabbed and beaten to death less than three months earlier. . ."

The Chicago Tribune 1978-10-30

II-Pontiac - "How Tribune Investigator Was Hired" - William Recktenwald - Chicago Tribune

"'Looks like we've got a live one,' a large, bearded man said with delight as I filled out an application to become a prison guard at Pontiac. 'If you're interested in working, we want to hire,' he promised. I returned to the state employment office in Champaign an hour later and was ushered into an office for an interview. . ."

The Chicago Tribune 1978-10-29

I-Pontiac - "I Was a Guard in Pontiac Prison" - William Recktenwald - Chicago Tribune

"The cellblock was filled with trash, excrement, and spoiled food, all of it soaked with water that collected in puddles. The air reeked of tear gas, mace, and smoke. A pile of bedding was on fire, and all thw windows were closed. Men in the cells began screaming and clanging the bars. . ."

The Chicago Tribune 1978-10-29

VIB-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution

Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-06

VIA-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution

"He concludes that of the total number of violations of the minimum wage law, 'whether we get half of them or one-third of them is difficult to say, We just don't know.' The figures are not realistic, the government men say, because many employees either don't know they are being illegally underpaid or are afraid that complaining will cost them their jobs."

Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-06

VI-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution

"Throughout the Atlanta Constitution's examination of the underpaid, reporters found people like Mrs. Raines whose words and work habits suggest that the old-fashioned American work ethic survives at the lowest-paid level of the work force."

Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-06

VA-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution

"The wage and hour case 'was a matter where the wage-hour office said a person couldn't come in a store and take off his coat and go to the bathroom without being on the payroll. It was not a question of taking advantage of anybody; nobody had ever argued about it; we weren't trapped or caught or anything.'"

Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-05

V-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution

"The Atlanta-based conglomerate, whose holdings lie throughout the Southeast and beyond, changed both its primary business and its corporate name over these decades. It first grew into one of the nation's largest manufacturers of ice; then, when that market soured, it innovatively entered the emerging field of convenience stores and became a national leader in that endeavor."

Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-05

IVB-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution

"After her first three days on the job, Agnes had worked a full 24 hours. Her total pay, as recorded on her check, came out to $69.50, or $2.90 an hour, the minimum wage. No money was taken out for income or state taxes; there was, however, a $4.27 deduction for Social Security."

Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-04

IVA-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution

"My husband bought this place, it will be three years ago in February," Mrs. Love said. "We had three flower shops in Michigan, then the next thing I knew we were here. It didn't bother me, though. Georgia's my home."

Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-04

IV-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Charles Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution

"No one expects a maid to earn much money. Traditionally, the domestic -- performing menial household chores which most women do for free on a daily basis in their own homes -- has been in the lowest category of wage earner."Today, thousands of women are paid below the federal minimum wage standard -- sometimes legally, sometimes illegally -- to clean rooms in motels and hotels across America. The motel maids comprise one of the nation's largest, and most visible groups of underpaid workers."

Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-04

III-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution

"A whole family working for the normal salary of one person is not uncommon in north Georgia chicken country. Scores of other families work the same way on the chicken farms dotting the rolling pastureland. They are provided with houses similar to the Babbs', close to similar chicken sheds, and are paid a single weekly salary, commonly between $100 and $125, to look after the layers and collect the eggs."

Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-03

IIA-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution

"The uses of the gum have changed. But to a remarkable degree, the naval stores or turpenting industry has not changed. Centuries after its founding in the colonies, the industry still is virtually without mechanization and almost totally dependent on hand labor. The laborers, almost all of them still black, work for pay often below current standards."

Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-02

II-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution

"The money paid in turpentining is not much when matched against contemporary pay standards, even the minimum wage. Turpentining is one of America's oldest industries—started soon after colonization, then flourishing in the woods of the Southeast under slavery—and, to a remarkable degree, the industry has resisted both mechanization and social change. . . . "

Atlanta Constitution 1979-12-02

ID-"The Underpaid and Under-Protected" - Chester Goolrick and Paul Lieberman - Atlanta Constitution

"The bosses treated you mean back then. If you didn't do it, you wouldn't get nothin', and if you did do it, you'd only get half of what you did. They used to beat 'em, used to kill 'em, they used to do everything to colored. I was on a job once in Blue Creek, Florida. Ain't no timber there now. Well, the 'skeeters was so bad, people jus' wouldn't work, and 'cause the people wouldn't take the 'skeeters, the man would go to the house and beat 'em up, jump on their wives, wouldn't allow them to come back."