The Death of Innocence...

Jim Hoskins, publisher of "The Garret" and "The Naoj" (January 1968)


James Hoskins, in a picture taken from a TV transmission, killed himself in the Channel 9 studio after a hostage drama that stretched about 10 hours (October 1980)

The Cincinnati Enquirer has an unsettling article in Saturday's paper which brought back a lot of old memories. 25 years later, hostage drama still chilling; Channel 9 reporters suddenly were inside a crime story by John Kiesewetter retells the story of former hippie poet Jim Hoskins' hostage-taking episode inside the WCPO television studios, following the murder of his girlfriend in their apartment in Over-the-Rhine. I remember that day very well. My family and I were on our way to my grandfather's funeral in Kentucky and I recall the drive across Fourth Street downtown to get to the bridge and knowing that the SWAT team was stationed only one block away, waiting for Hoskins to make his next move.