William Kinsey Hutchinson

Who was William Kinsey Hutchinson?

William Kinsey "Bill" Hutchinson was an American reporter who became a friend of presidents, legislators, cabinet members, and other U.S. government diplomats and officials. Between 1913 and 1920 William worked as a reporter for a Reading, Pennsylvania newspaper. He moved to Washington, D.C. in 1920 and started work for William Randolph Hearst's International News Service. As an INS reporter, he covered the John T. Scopes trial, also known as the Scopes Trial, in Dayton, Tennessee and on July 24, 1925 he was the first reporter to file the dispatch stating the outcome. A conversation that occurred during the last days of the trial, Scopes said:

"There's something I must tell you. It's worried me. I didn't violate the law ...I never taught that evolution lesson. I skipped it. I was doing something else the day I should have taught it, and I missed the whole lesson about Darwin and never did teach it. Those kids they put on the stand couldn't remember what I taught them three months ago. They were coached by the lawyers." "Honest, I've been scared all through the trial that the kids might remember I missed the lesson.