NY Times Reporter's Rapport With Astor Trial Figures

NY Times courts beat reporter John Eligon details how he, "a 26-year-old dreadlocked black guy who has been in the city for only four years and, truth be told, did not know who Brooke Astor was until she died in 2007," became obsessed with the Astor trial, even dreaming about it (there was "a nightmare about missing the verdict"). Eligon got to know the figures: Defendant Anthony Marshall told him how wonderful Trinidad, where Eligon grew up, was (Marshall had been ambassador there); Marshall's wife Charlene loved his dreadlocks, once even running her hands through them; and co-defendant Francis Morrissey told him he looked like a kouros as well as Toussaint L’Ouverture.