Jerry Seper’s journey to journalism was winding, and the targets of his reporting — from President Bill Clinton to D.C. Mayor Marion Barry — probably wished he had stayed a cop.
Before becoming The Washington Times’ lead investigative reporter and the scourge of Washington’s elite, he served in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam, worked the streets of Los Angeles County as a beat cop, wrote about grapes and wine for California’s vineyard industry, and covered organized crime as a reporter in Arizona.
Once in Washington, he took the cop’s interrogation tactics, the crime reporter’s nose for news and the Navy veteran’s toughness, harnessed them to a righteous passion, and unleashed it on a city ripe for a good scouring.