It was tenacity for getting the picture the editor wanted that won Edward B. Griffin his reputation as a newspaperman. Known to almost everyone as Eddie, he started his career in 1922 as a photographer at the old Syracuse Journal. The pictures Eddie took often outdid those of other photographers in a period when competition was intense among four Syracuse newspapers. Once, Eddie stayed on the job - day and night - for nearly two weeks to get photos of a grave robbery he had learned about.

He could - and did - take all kinds of photos for the Journal, and later the Herald-Journal and Herald American after the newspapers merged. But his specialty was capturing the images of local crime and violence. His work made him well known and respected among police officers throughout Central New York during the "Roaring Twenties" and early '30s - the Prohibition Era. That was a time when murders, robberies, liquor and beer hijacking by rival gangs, police raids, and severe beatings were top news almost every day.

When he developed problems with his eyes, Eddie was forced to give up photography after 25 years on the job. He quickly adapted his talent to become a police reporter in 1947, and won the confidence of police officers of every rank from rookies to chiefs. His presence at so many crime scenes put him on a first-name basis with much of the Syracuse police force. With skills he honed as a photographer, he noticed details that made his stories stand out and occasionally helped police solve crimes. He covered the police beat for 15 years until heart disease claimed his life in 1962 when he was 61.

His work with police on one case - a bank holdup in Lacona - won Eddie a cash prize and a plaque from a nationally broadcast program called "The Big Story," on which stories of crimes reporters helped solve were reenacted. Two youths were arrested for the Lacona bank robbery; the story was broadcast first on radio, then on television.