The Star has a tremendous “true crime” series going on its front pages this week, and if you haven’t been reading it, I suggest you start now.
The series began Sunday and will continue through Friday in the print edition. If you’re like me, though, and can’t stop reading it, you can read all six installments on The Star’s website.
Robert J. Gross, in a 2017 booking mug shot
It’s about a 67-year-old Kansas City man named Robert J. Gross, who has been linked to four sexually motivated killings between 1979 and 2016. He has not been charged in any of the killings, although it appears Platte County authorities are considering charging him in the 2016 murder of 52-year-old Ying Li, who worked in the massage business.
Gross is also suspected of killing an aunt, from whom he inherited money.
The lead reporter and writer on the series is Ian Cummings, a young reporter who has been with The Star only a few years. The second and third bylines on all six parts are longtime KC Star police reporters Glenn Rice and Tony Rizzo.
I have nothing but unequivocal praise for the series, hauntingly titled “Stalk. Murder. Repeat.”
What concerns me, though, is whether KC area residents are paying much attention. I haven’t heard one person talking about the series. At my house, neither my wife Patty nor daughter Brooks has said a word about it, and I know they’re not reading it.
At lunch today with two people with deep backgrounds in writing and reporting — one a former KC Star colleague, the other a freelance writer who has worked for newspapers in the past — I got blank looks when I asked if they had been reading the series. “I’ve heard about it,” the former colleague said after a pause.
Their reaction surprised me, partly because both have digital subscriptions to The Star.
And that — the digital dimension — is where I’ve been focusing my reflecting on how much impact the series is having.
Janet Manuel, pictured when she was a nursing student in the 1970s. Gross assaulted her but didn’t kill her.
This is the kind of series that, 20 to 25 years ago, before U.S. newspaper circulation began nosediving, would have been a blockbuster in any major city. People would have been waiting for their papers in their yards and in their pajamas to get the next installment. The newspaper might have had to print thousands of extra copies each day to keep up with demand. And it certainly would have consolidated the stories in a separate press run — to be sold separately — in the days or weeks following publication.
But now we’re in the give-me-the-news-quick era and the troubling times when a lot of people can’t stay focused on a friend’s or relative’s two-minute story.
Many people still read books, of course, but not many people sit down with their daily papers — or what remains of them — and give them a good read.
In addition, most people reading online are doing so on the phone, which is not accommodating to long stories.
…I hope I’m wrong and people are reading the shit out of this series and, like me, are in awe of the exhaustive reporting and investment of time and energy it took to assemble it.
(To give you an idea of how hard the reporters had to dig, the Kansas City Police Department, which investigated all four of the sex- or revenge-related murders, refused to cooperate with the reporters, as did the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which has prosecuted Gross for crimes other than murder. The reporters got loads of information, however, from retired detectives and other sources, such as relatives and friends of murder victims and victims who survived assaults by Gross.)
**
If, as I suspect, this series is not being widely read, it would be a damn shame. I would love to know — but probably never will — how many computer “hits” the series ends up getting. In the end, that will tell the readership story. If the number of hits the series gets is deemed disappointing by KC Star and McClatchy Co. management (and if it doesn’t win any significant journalistic prizes), editors will be less likely to commission such stories in the future.
And if that turns out to be the case, we the public will be the ones losing out, because it will mean the trend toward shallower, less resounding stories keeps gaining steam.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
I read the whole thing online and thought it was very well done (and made me wonder why I’ve never heard about this guy before). But….when there are so few reporters left on staff and so much daily news that falls through the cracks, I don’t think the Star can afford to deploy a significant chunk of its staff to chase awards, as this series is clearly meant to do. That was a luxury of the well-staffed newsrooms of the past.
Interesting point, Mike, but they are going to continue chasing awards, and I think it’s a good thing overall. The big throws make papers stretch their capabilities and keep them from getting into the rut of only covering the front-and-center news. Granted, with the thinning of newsroom staffs, the front-and-center news doesn’t always get covered adequately, but the enterprise stories, like the Gross series, demonstrate that a newspaper still has muscle to flex.
I think the problem is that people are focused elsewhere right now and so the series is ill-timed and for many, the things they are concerned about The Star is not doing as well. It’s a shame because, as you point out, these are the stories that make people want to read a newspaper, and right now so many of its readers are so alienated that they just don’t care what the hell it prints.
I’m afraid you’re right about the alienation, John.
The series caught my eye at the newsstand, as did the cost of the Sunday paper. Four dollars at the rack is bad enough but it’s $16.00 if you want it delivered according to the rates listed on 2A! I wouldn’t pay $16 for a daily subscription let alone a standalone Sunday-only subscription.
Very interesting, Kenny…I looked at Page 2 of Sunday’s paper and saw what you’re talking about. They are advertising 7-day-a-week subscriptions at $25 a week; Wednesday-Sunday at $22 a week; Wednesday and Sunday only at $18 a week; and Sunday only at $16 a week. (All of those subscriptions include full digital access.)
I had never heard of a Sunday only subscription, so I called customer service. The first person I spoke with (in a foreign country, of course) rattled off the subscription service I have (print and digital) and hung up before I could ask her a question about Sunday-only subscriptions.
I called back and got a much more helpful rep, who said the Sunday-only subscription was not generally available to the public. When I pressed her on who could get it, she put me on hold, came back in a couple of minutes and simply said Sunday-only subscriptions were “super rare.”
If such subscriptions are not generally available, The Star should stop advertising them. That smacks of bait and switch. It’s disappointing that they would advertise a product that can’t be bought. That would be like Costco advertising a special deal on TV’s but not carrying the TV’s in the stores.
just go incognito mode and read the whole thing for free!
They’re getting better at blocking even incognito access, but if you’re patient you can still get through. I’ve read a couple of them and you’re right Fitz, this is an excellent series.
Frankly, I was offended that an old story (granted: it was well-written and valuable — but not timely) was featured with such lurid graphics Sunday when the big story was the new horror in Pittsburgh. Newspapers — over other media — are expected to provide perspective. The cover Sunday got it terribly wrong. The story could have waited a day or two, or two weeks, after the election.
Excellent point, Vern. I wonder if there was debate among the editors on that count.
In today’s culture, online and on cable, horrific murder stories run 24/7. After a while, the overkill, fiction and nonfiction proliferation turns murder tales into “been there, done that.”
That’s another great point. Saturation could well be a factor in what appears to be a ho-hum reaction to the series.
I also questioned someone at The Star about the absurdity of a $16 per issue Sunday subscription price and was told that was not a typo. Who would pay that is beyond me, and I can’t believe The Star has the chutzpah to charge that.