Gene Blake; Prize-Winning Times Legal Affairs Reporter

Gene Blake, a widely respected legal affairs reporter whose byline graced The Times for more than 40 years, died Thursday of liver cancer. He was 75.

Blake died at his Port Hueneme retirement home only a week after his terminal illness was diagnosed, said his wife of 54 years, Dorothy.

The veteran reporter, who retired in 1985, shared a staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Watts riots in 1965. He also garnered awards from the State Bar of California, the Los Angeles County Bar Assn. and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Blake was known by readers, sources and colleagues for his ability to grasp and describe complicated issues in criminal and civil law. Among the murder trials he covered were those of Barbara Graham, L. Ewing Scott, Elizabeth (Ma) Duncan, Dr. R. Bernard Finch and Carole Tregoff. He also covered the murder trial of Jack Ruby and saw Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald shortly after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Blake’s other trial reportage included cases involving the Friars Club, Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers and antitrust actions over the Raiders’ move from Oakland to Los Angeles.

Recognized nationally for his investigative journalism, Blake in 1961 wrote the first comprehensive series of articles on the John Birch Society. He also worked on a major series of articles about the Teamsters Pension Fund.

Born in Boise, Ida., Blake graduated from Los Angeles City College, earned a journalism degree at UC Berkeley and served in the Coast Guard during World War II. He first joined The Times as a copy boy and quickly graduated to reporting.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Barbara Emley and Alice Tokars, both of San Francisco; two sons, James and Timothy, both of Los Angeles, and five grandchildren.

The family has asked that memorial donations be made to the Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurses Assn., 1996 Eastman Ave. Suite 101, Ventura, Calif. 93003.