Reporter Notebooks, 1958-1981

A set of 135 numbered notebooks comprise this series. Hanst used these standard, spiral notebooks to take notes on events about which he would later write. The notes are handwritten, and many items are scratched out. These notes may be directly tied to articles that eventually appeared in the Evening Sun. Though written cryptically, Hanst's notes provide insight into the thoroughness of his reporting. Notes in journal number 131, for example, indicate that a man stole a "stereo, TV, hair dryer, cold bottle of Canadian ale, two watches, hard-boiled egg." These notes eventually became the headline, "Hard-boiled egg leads to arrest, five-year term," (Evening Sun, October 20, 1980). Some of the notebooks were devoted to entire trials and are marked on the cover, such as the three notebooks relating to the "Watkins Trial" in 1978, in which a Baltimore police lieutenant colonel was under indictment for bribery and extortion.

Arrangement is numerical by notebook number.