September/October 1977 Mother Jones COVER STORY

PINTO MADNESS
by Mark Dowie
The next time you find yourself driving behind a Ford Pinto, we suggest you change lanes immediately. To find out why, read this major investigative report, based on documents the Ford Motor Company has tried to conceal. They show that for seven years Ford manufactured cars in which it knew hundreds of people would burn to death—needlessly.



FEATURES

HOW TO MELT A DINOSAUR
by Eric Mankin
The time has come, the artist said, to talk of many things: of dancing corn and Clorox, of Standard Oil and jeans.

THE KILLING OF MR. GREENJEANS
by Bill Sievert
The last day in the life of Robert Hillsborough began when he drove to his job as a city gardener; it ended with him stabbed to death on a San Francisco sidewalk. Was he killed because he was gay? This story examines his life, his family, his neighborhood—and those of the four men accused of his murder.

HERE COME DE JUDGE!
by Ken Kelley
Can a nice Jewish boy from Omaha find happiness as the country’s only Marxist judge? And in Motown, no less. Ken Kelley interviews Justin Ravitz and a number of friends and enemies who have varied opinions about him, all of them strong.


SUGAR & SAND & CHEMICAL SPICE
by Herbert Gold
Those are the main ingredients of the new “International Coffees” masquerading as “Café Vienna,” “Café Français” and other exotic blends. But, if a feisty San Francisco lawyer has his way, they may have to be called “artificial sugar beverages” instead.