Bruce Locklin, legendary Record investigative editor, dies at 84

In the post-Watergate era of the late-1970s and 1980s, as American journalism took on an increasingly watchdog role, political and business figures across New Jersey harbored an almost universal fear — that the phone would ring and The Record’s chief investigative editor, Bruce Locklin, would be on the line.

From political schemers to rule-bending law enforcement officials and all manner of mobsters, car dealers and stock traders in between, Locklin ran up a string of award-winning investigative reports that brought national acclaim to The Record and set exacting standards that still live at the newspaper.

Locklin died Monday at his home in Cranbury, New Jersey. He was 84. His family said the cause of death was Alzheimer’s disease.

Tall and lanky, with a beard that he often stroked as he listened intently to even the most mundane of stories, Locklin became one of the nation’s first full-time investigative news editors in 1973.

It was a heady and exciting time for a new generation of hard-charging journalists.

In Washington, the Watergate scandal was breaking — largely through the tenacious work of The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Elsewhere, news organizations in cities large and small quickly embraced the notion of journalists as active investigators. A journalism magazine featured investigative reporters as the new “heroes” of America.

The Boston Globe set up its “Spotlight” team.  Long Island’s Newsday organized another full-time investigative squad under the leadership of Robert Greene. Nationally, journalists formed the Investigative Reporters and Editors group, which examined the murder of Don Bolles, who grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, and had been working for the Arizona Republic when he was killed by a bomb planted under his car. 

By the mid-1970s, Locklin established himself as an investigative force in New Jersey. His early targets ranged from a Democratic Party boss to a sleazy stockbroker. In later years, he turned his attention to crooked car dealers, nursing homes that routinely skirted health rules and the so-called “empire of fear” created by Passaic County Sheriff Edwin Engelhardt, who ruled the county’s politics for nearly three decades. 

Locklin’s investigation of Engelhardt’s methods of exacting loyalty from political figures led to a criminal investigation and Engelhardt’s eventual resignation.

In The Record’s newsroom, Locklin was viewed as a careful editor and a wise mentor – a soft-spoken man who often huddled in his office for hours with young writers as they asked for advice on stories.

Daniel Sforza, now the executive editor of NorthJersey.com and The Record, started at the newspaper as a clerk and remembers how Locklin’s investigations inspired many colleagues.

“Bruce was larger than life in The Record newsroom,” Sforza said. “When a story of his was about to publish, there was a palpable excitement in the room. From the editors to the reporters to the photographers and even the clerks, we all knew something special was about to happen. His contributions to The Record’s legacy of investigative reporting can’t be overstated.”

Inside the newsroom, Locklin also established an investigative process that was copied by other newsrooms. He kept extensive files, filled with tips. Interview notes were typed up and duplicated so all team members could read them. And as an investigation was ending, Locklin was not satisfied with a brief “no comment” from his targets. He insisted on scheduling lengthy interviews with those he wrote about in which he would read an extensive summary of what he had uncovered and then ask for their side of the story.