The Verdict

One night last week, doctors and friends broke the news to the New York Daily Mirror's Labor Columnist Victor Riesel: he was blind. "He took it beautifully," said a friend. Next day, exactly a month after a young thug flung sulphuric acid into Riesel's face on a Manhattan sidewalk (TIME, April 16), the doctors' bulletin announced: "The cumulative degenerative processes, stemming from the deep and severe acid burns in Mr. Riesel's eyes, proved impossible to overcome."

In the month of suspense while 41-year-old Victor Riesel's sight flickered and died, 48 New York detectives, the FBI and, in rotation, most of the 60-man staff of U.S. Attorney Paul Williams worked steadily to track down his attacker. The reward for his assailant mounted to $45,000, but there were still no results to set against the grim medical bulletin. The bylined Riesel column, which has kept on running in 192 papers, will continue to be written by Riesel's right-hand man, Alton Levy, and his secretary, Miriam Goldfine. But Riesel himself will go on directing their work.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.