SIGNPOSTS ON A LONELY JOURNEY

Reporting this story were Times staff writers Maria L. La Ganga, John Balzar, Kim Murphy, Peter H. King and Richard C. Paddock in Montana; Amy Wallace in Berkeley; Judy Pasternak and Stephen Braun in Chicago; Robert L. Jackson and Ronald J. Ostrow in Washington, D.C.; Mark Arax, Maura Dolan, Mark Gladstone, Paul Jacobs and Dan Morain in Northern California; Paul Feldman in Salt Lake City; Elizabeth Mehren in Boston; John J. Goldman and Sheryl Stolberg in New York; Donald W. Nauss and Robin Wright in Michigan; K.C. Cole, Greg Krikorian and Paul Lieberman in Los Angeles; Lianne Hart in Texas; John-Thor Dahlburg in India and Mark Fineman in Mexico. Also contributing were researchers John Beckham in Chicago and Paul Singleton and Nona Yates in Los Angeles. It was written by Richard E. Meyer and Tim Rutten.