"On May 29, 1980, civil rights leader and National Urban League chairman Vernon Jordan, Jr., was walking with a white woman when he was wounded by sniper fire in a Fort Wayne parking lot. A few months later, avowed racist and serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin was arrested in Kentucky for armed robbery. A lead suggested that Franklin might be linked to the Jordan shooting. Indianapolis agents studied Franklin’s handwriting and found similar styles in alias signatures from motel registration cards. The FBI Laboratory corroborated the handwriting match; however, Franklin denied involvement and was acquitted of the charges. Nevertheless, 14 years later, Franklin admitted shooting Jordan." formerly posted on Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana with a photograph. Also mentioned in A Brief History 1980s and 1990s The FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation Indianapolis Division web page.
On June 1, 1980, CNN aired its first live news broadcast anchored by the husband and wife team of David Walker and Lois Hart at 6 p.m., live in about a million and a half U.S. households covering the shooting of Civil Rights leader Vernon Jordan in Fort Wayne. President Jimmy Carter visited him in his room at Parkview Hospital. See Jim Walton: CNN at 30 archived on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine .
