Glenn Cook, executive editor of the Review-Journal, said there was talk within the newspaper about Telles being "unhinged" but he never made any physical threats against German and the reporter never said he was worried.
The thought this was the story that would put German's safety at risk seemed implausible, he said, remembering how the reporter recounted once being punched by an organized crime associate.
"He cut his teeth covering the mob," Cook said. "Jeff spent over 40 years covering the worst of the worst of Las Vegas. This was a guy who ran down mobsters, wise guys and killers."
[snip]
"Jeff's death is a sobering reminder of the inherent risks of investigative journalism," said Diana Fuentes, executive director of the organization Investigative Reporters & Editors. "Journalists do their jobs every day, digging deep to find information the public needs to know and has a right to see."
[snip]
"He was not someone who was easily intimidated," said Geoff Schumacher, who worked with German at the Sun until the late 1990s. "Getting to the truth, that was more important to him than his own well-being or being popular."
[snip]
"He was fearless," Futrell said. "That's one thing he was, and you can't do some of the stories he did without being fearless and that's what he was in that sense. You can see it in his writing."
[snip]
"The last thing I would say about Jeff is that anything scared him or that he was afraid," Feldman said. "He was prepared to go after anyone who was doing something not in the public interest."
Jeff German, Las Vegas investigative reporter allegedly slain by local official, spent his career chasing "mobsters, wise guys and killers"
www.ktnv.com
