Leon Daniel, 74; Covered Wars, Civil Rights Movement for UPI

Reporters learned later that many Iraqi victims were buried in trenches that had been bulldozed over.

Mr. Daniel was born in Etowah, Tenn. He enlisted in the Marines at 19 and served in the Korean War, where he received a severe ankle wound. He attended the University of Tennessee before going to work for the Knoxville Journal.

He joined UPI in 1956 and, in the early 1960s, roamed the South reporting on the civil rights movement, which he considered the most important work he ever did.

In 1961, while covering a Cuban exile brigade intent on overthrowing Fidel Castro, he jumped out of an airplane in Florida, reinjuring his ankle. He limped for the rest of his life.

In 1977, while on vacation in Tennessee, Mr. Daniel received a tip that James Earl Ray, the assassin of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., had escaped from prison. His coverage of the short-lived escape made front pages across the country.

Late in his career, he described life at the wire service: "UPI was always outmanned, but never outgunned. We were the scrabblers, the anglers, the hunchers, the hagglers."

He retired in 1997 and settled in Charlottesville before moving last year to Illinois.

After years of imbibing what he called "loudmouth soup," Mr. Daniel spent the last 20 years of his life in Alcoholics Anonymous.

His marriage to Carobel Calhoun Daniel ended in divorce.

Survivors include his companion of 10 years, Judith Paterson of Glen Ellyn; a daughter, Dr. Lillian Daniel of Glen Ellyn; and two grandchildren.