Paul Avery

Paul Avery (born Paul Stuart Depew II; April 2, 1934 – December 10, 2000) was an American journalist, best known for his reporting on the serial killer known as the Zodiac, and later for his work on the Patty Hearst kidnapping and trial. He worked for decades at the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee.

Early life Avery was born Paul Stuart Depew in Honolulu, Hawaii Territory, the son of Frances Quette Cannon (1911–1971) and Paul Stuart Depew Sr. (1905–1960). His parents divorced and his mother married Howard Malcom Avery, a decorated U.S. Navy officer and pilot. He would later take his adopted father's surname. Avery was raised and educated in Honolulu, Oakland, California, and Washington, D.C. At 21, Avery started his career in journalism in 1955 at the Vicksburg Post-Herald (Vicksburg, Mississippi).

He later worked at the Victoria Advocate (Victoria, Texas), the Anchorage Daily Times (Anchorage, Alaska), the Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, Hawaii), where he was appointed the paper's Big Island bureau chief at 23; and the San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune (San Luis Obispo, California).

San Francisco Chronicle career In 1959 Avery joined the San Francisco Chronicle. In the second half of the 1960s, Avery took a leave of absence from the Chronicle and moved with his family to Vietnam, where the United States was increasing its involvement in armed conflict. In Saigon, Avery co-founded Empire News, a freelance photojournalism organization. He expanded Empire News, opening a branch in Hong Kong, before returning to San Francisco in 1969, after three years in Asia.

In the mid-1980s, after working for The Sacramento Bee and writing a book about the Patty Hearst kidnapping, he signed up with the then- Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner. He worked there until his retirement in August 1994.

Zodiac Killer Avery received notice for his reporting on the Zodiac Killer case, a series of killings that began in December 1968 and ostensibly ended with the death of a San Francisco cab driver in October 1969. At the time, Avery was a police reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. Just as quickly as the threat was made public, a fellow journalist made up hundreds of campaign-style buttons, worn by nearly everyone on Chronicle staff, including Avery, that said, "I Am Not Paul Avery." At this time Avery began carrying a .38 caliber revolver.

Patty Hearst When Patricia Hearst was kidnapped in February 1974, Avery joined forces with Chronicle reporter Tim Findley to produce a series of stories detailing the kidnapping and reporting about the members of the little-known band of revolutionaries who called themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).

Later work Avery was diagnosed with emphysema, a progressive disease, but he continued working in crime and journalism until the end of his life. After joining The Sacramento Bee in 1976, he discovered that authorities had wrongly charged an innocent man with murder. He was instrumental in convincing detectives to drop the charges. Avery's family scattered his ashes in the San Francisco Bay the following June.