Copy boy graduated to news

Already a veteran broadcast journalist, Ed Backus joined The Flint Journal staff in 1968, just in time to chronicle the reorganization of county government.

Ed Backus Age: 76 Home: Flint Background: Former broadcast journalist and Flint Journal reporter and editorial writer from 1968 to 1991. Also worked at the Chicago Daily News. Spent 17 years in broadcasting, including a stint at Channel 12 (WJRT). World War II veteran. Education: Attended Northwestern University. Personal: Married to Dorothy. Two sons. Memorable stories: A court reporter during the 1970s, Backus covered the highly publicized trial of Madeline Fletcher, a Flint police officer who exchanged gunfire with her partner. Backus also remembers covering former Prosecutor Robert F. Leonard, a nationally prominent prosecutor who was indicted for misusing office funds.

�There were something like 60 or 61 people who used to assemble to run county government,� Backus said. �It was chaos.�

Backus, now 76, began his career as a copy boy at the Chicago Daily News and spent a few years in the city news bureau.

He said he was �all over the place,� including stops in Ann Arbor, St. Joseph, Lansing and Madison, Wis., before coming to Flint. He was working as a reporter-editor at Channel 12 (WEYI) when the Journal hired him.

Backus first covered county government and courts but spent most of the 1970s covering local and federal courts.

He covered former Genesee County Prosecutor Robert F. Leonard, a nationally prominent figure who was removed from office in 1979 after his conviction in federal court for misusing an office fund.

Backus also covered some high-profile criminal cases, including the trial of Madeline Fletcher, a Flint police officer charged with shooting at another officer during a dispute over who would drive the patrol car.

Another was the love-triangle killing of Homer Bush, a local real estate man.

Backus worked as an editorial writer for about a decade before leaving the Journal in 1991.

Backus lives in Flint. He and his wife, Dorothy, have two sons.

� Ken Palmer