Jeff German Las Vegas investigative reporter for the Review Journal stabbed to death outside his North Tenaya Way home following altercation: Suspect remains at large.
A veteran investigative reporter who spent three decades covering crime and corruption in Las Vegas was stabbed to death outside his own home on Saturday.
Journalist Jeff German, 69, was found dead with stab wounds around 10.30am outside his home near near North Tenaya Way.
German – who worked in Vegas for most of his career – died of ‘multiple sharp force injuries’ in a homicide, the Clark County Office of the Coroner Medical Examiner said Sunday.
Police said German was in an altercation with another person leading up to the stabbing. The journalist’s stabbing death was believed to be an isolated incident, cops said, AP reported.
No immediate motive for the journalist’s death was given. The identity of the suspect who remained at large was not given.
A gold standard of the news business
Capt. Dori Koren, a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department spokesman during a press conference, said: ‘We believe the altercation took place outside of the home.
‘We do have some leads. We are pursuing a suspect but the suspect is outstanding.’
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman said: ‘This was a senseless act of violence. Loss of life in this manner is always shocking and must stop. We will be closely following the police investigation.’
According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, German reported on an extensive range of macabre topics in Las Vegas, including courts, politics, labor, government and organized crime.
Glenn Cook, the Review-Journal’s executive editor, said German had not communicated any concerns about his personal safety or any threats made against him to anyone in the newspaper’s leadership.
He said in a statement: ‘The Review-Journal family is devastated to lose Jeff.
‘He was the gold standard of the news business. It’s hard to imagine what Las Vegas would be like today without his many years of shining a bright light on dark places.’
Who could’ve wanted him dead?
Cook added: ‘I’m relieved that police have identified a suspect, and I hope an arrest can answer the question we are all asking right now: Why would someone kill Jeff?’
German joined the Review-Journal in 2010 after more than two decades at the Las Vegas Sun, where he was a columnist and reporter who covered corruption and organized crime.
He was known for his stories about government malfeasance and political scandals and coverage of the 2017 mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival that killed 60 people and wounded more than 400 others.
German held a master’s degree from Marquette University and was the author of the 2001 true-crime book ‘Murder in Sin City: The Death of a Las Vegas Casino Boss,’ the story of the death of Ted Binion, heir to the Horseshoe Club fortune.
Cathy Scott, a former co-worker, noted how she and German broke the story of the killing of Las Vegas mafia associate Herbert ‘Fat Herbie’ Blitzstein in 1997 in Las Vegas.
German covered a lot of organized crime stories, including hosting a season of the Review-Journal’s true crime podcast, ‘Mobbed Up: The Fight for Vegas.’
The podcast was described as being about how ‘mafia crime families wielded hidden control over more than a third of the Strip’s casinos, and federal and state agents were waking up to the enormous task of pushing them out.’
German also broke stories about government corruption, political candidates having inappropriate campaign finances and told stories of the rise and fall of the mob in Las Vegas.
