There are some things a major newspaper can do better than any TV or radio media outlet available today, and that is doing long-form stories that really go in-depth on a topic.

That certainly was the case on a major front-page story by Donald Bradley in the Sunday (12/23) Kansas City Star.

The Star’s veteran reporter who has been with the paper since 1985, examined how a young woman took advantage of so many people in the small town of Bolivar, MO by claiming she had cancer. Bradley has been doing these stories for years (link)

Bradley tells the story of how so many wonderful people in Bolivar rallied around the woman for three years until it was discovered it was all an act. She had done basically the same thing earlier in Indiana.

Readers likely asked themselves, “How would I react if I gave my heart to this woman and found out it was all a ruse?”

It was obvious Bradley had spent considerable time (he told Bottom Line it took about two weeks to piece the story together) and effort speaking to those who were impacted by the fake illness. He talked about the sacrifices many of them made to assist the “dying” woman. He analyzed the extremes this woman went to in order to keep the charade going.

Bradley concluded with a touching story that summarized his article superbly:

Shortly after the unraveling, her (one of the women who had devoted considerable time to the “dying” woman) father asked what her new boyfriend did for a living.

“Oh, I don’t know, Dad,” she told him. “He says he’s an engineer for John Deere, but maybe he’s just a janitor.

“Or maybe he’s just got the shirt. I guess I really don’t know what he does.”

Funny hyperbole. But she wasn’t smiling.