SIEGE MENTALITY
Frederick Griffin was born in Castleblayney, Ireland, in 1889 and came to Canada when he was 23. Within a year he was working for the Toronto Star, where he would rise from library messenger boy and filing clerk to a coveted position as the newspaper’s marquee feature writer. Griffin—“Griff,” as he was known to colleagues—covered some of the biggest stories of the day and interviewed such luminaries as Emma Goldman and Winston Churchill. In the summer of 1932 the Star sent Griffin, whom it lauded as its “most
