The Press: Manhattan Merry-Go-Round

It was 4:18 p.m., and in the littered city rooms of Manhattan's four afternoon papers, the day was all but done. Most staffers had knocked off; the desks had released the legmen who had kept watch up at the Russian consulate. Soon the men on the Babe Ruth watch, at Memorial Hospital a mile away, could go home, leaving the watch to the morning papers. Next door to the Soviet consulate, half a dozen photographers idled. Across the street three reporters lolled in the lobby of the Hotel Pierre.

A minute later, at 4:19, Mrs. Oksana Kosenkina jumped out a window...