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The Joan Little Trial:  The prosecution claimed Joan Little, a 20-year-old African-American, had killed her white jailer – Clarence Alligood – with an ice pick to escape from the Washington, NC jail where she was serving time for burglary.  Her claim, that she killed Alligood in self-defense because he was using the ice-pick to force her to perform oral sex, attracted international attention.  With court-room sketches by Frieda Ryder, David covered the five week trial in which Ms. Little was acquitted by a jury of six whites and six blacks.  Here is his report of the opening day of the trial.

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George Wallace Steps Down:  After two terms as Governor of Alabama, term limits forced George Wallace to step down.  In a previous interview the segregationist governor and two time candidate for president told David he “had to say things to get elected in Alabama that made (him) unelectable in the rest of the country.”   Now, looking to his legacy, he was engaging in revisionist history as David reported in this story.

Saving The New River: One of the countries biggest power companies had won preliminary approval to dam the New River – regarded by archeologists as the oldest river in the Western Hemisphere – despite the efforts of local river advocates and  environmental groups to stop it..  David’s story for ABC News was among the first to bring the issue to national attention which ultimately led to the project being abandoned. (Broadcast in color, this black and white kinescope is from the Vanderbilt University Archives.)    

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Willie B Loves TV:  A gorilla named Willie B had become a football fanatic after a patron of the Atlanta Zoo give him a television set for Christmas.  Then, thieves stole the set from its shelf outside his cage and Willie B “faced Super Bowl Sunday without a TV, a fate worse than death as I’m sure you’ll agree.”  It was a natural for one of David’s rhyming stories. 

The Story of Bees:  A Florida bound truck full of bees overturning on an Interstate highway would have been a non-story for Good Morning America until David gave it this unconventional treatment.  

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Boy Genius:  A nine-year-old boy with an off-the-charts IQ caught the imagination of the country when David filed this story on Joe Hall, Boy Genius. (Broadcast in color, this black and white kinescope is from the Vanderbilt University Archives.)    

Hammerin’ Henry Beats the Babe:  When Hank Aaron tied The Babe’s home run record, David was assigned to cover The Hammer’s quest for baseball immortality.  With NBC covering the next game “live,” the story would be anti-climatic by the time it appeared on ABC Evening News unless he found a unique way to cover it. Enter:  Dreyfus Smith.

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Wrist Wrestling Championship:  After news, David produced and anchored coverage of sporting events from Women’s Gymnastics to tennis to the little known sport of Wrist Wrestling.