Hank Messick (1922-1999) was born in Happy Valley, NC, and educated at the University of North Carolina and the University of Iowa. He began his investigative journalism career in western North Carolina and in 1956 began working at the Louisville Courier-Journal, Kentucky's largest newspaper. For the next several years Hank investigated and reported on the Newport, Kentucky, vice industry. He later worked for the Miami Herald and the Boston Traveler, also investigating organized crime and corruption in those communities. After 1967 he wrote full time, authoring 19 books, mostly about organized crime and its influences in American life.
