In 2002, Vanessa Leggett broke the record for an American journalist spending the most time in jail for refusing to divulge sources or unpublished materials to authorities investigating a crime. The information she was protecting involved a murder investigation by a grand jury of a man named Robert Angleton. Angleton was a millionaire bookmaker for Houston high rollers in the 90’s, as well as an FBI informant for other bookies and criminals in the area. Then, in 1997, his wife, Doris Angleton, a well known Houston socialite, was found shot to death in their Houston home. After ruling out other possibilities, Robert Angleton and his brother Roger became prime suspects. How Vanessa Leggett became involved in, and became, ultimately, the most controversial figure in the complicated and ugly mess, is why I chose to feature her in this blog.
Leggett’s passion, according to an article by Skip Hollandsworth, who met her back in early 1997, was to write a true crime novel. This passion is what got her mixed up with the Angleton case. She believed it would make the perfect book. She began doing research about the people involved, and interviewed whomever she could. After Roger Angleton was arrested on suspicion of colluding with his brother to murder his brother’s wife, Leggett interviewed him in jail. In the rambling interview, he actually confessed to the murder, and said he was hired by his brother to do it. Shortly after this confession, Roger committed suicide in his jail cell.
A Texas court requested the tape of this interview, and Leggett cooperated willingly. But the tape was not used by prosecutors, determining that its contents unreliable and the court failed in indicting Robert. Leggett continued research for her book, interviewing other bookies and criminals, police officers, detectives, family members, government officials – all of whom were connected to the Angletons in some way. Then a federal investigation into the case began, and a grand jury issued a subpoena demanding Leggett to surrender all the notes and information she had collected about the case. Leggett refused, was found in contempt of court, and was arrested and sent to a federal prison for the remainder of the investigation.
If I was Vanessa Leggett in this situation, I would have done exactly as she did. She wasn’t unwilling to cooperate with authorities – the surrender of her interview with Roger proves this. She refused to comply with the subpoena by the federal grand jury because she didn’t believe the information it requested was crucial to the indictment of Robert by the federal court. In the Cohen chapter relevant to this issue, a writer criticizes journalists who refuse to give up information from or identities of their sources based solely on “principle.” I don’t think this is what Leggett was doing, and demonstrated this in her initial cooperation with authorities. Like hers, my willingness to comply with a similar subpoena would depend on the reason for the request and relevance of the information, not just principle.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/30/us/book-contract-for-writer-jailed-for-contempt.html
http://old.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel012202.shtml
http://www.texasmonthly.com/2001-12-01/reporter.php
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