Harold Veo

His name was Harold Veo, but to many down-and-out people along Skid Row, the 76-year-old man was known as "The Angel of Main Street." He was the man behind the counter at a downtown Los Angeles employment agency, finding jobs for the jobless and trusting everyone who sought a break, even the man who later slipped into the agency's office and savagely beat him.

His name was Harold Veo, but to many down-and-out people along Skid Row, the 76-year-old man was known as "The Angel of Main Street." He was the man behind the counter at a downtown Los Angeles employment agency, finding jobs for the jobless and trusting everyone who sought a break, even the man who later slipped into the agency's office and savagely beat him.

Gary Hennig has a confession to make: On a drunken night on Skid Row, eight years ago, he walked out of a bar at closing time and killed a man. He describes it all vividly: Two men followed him toward his hotel. They tracked him into a tiny parking lot and tried to rob him. In the fight that broke out, one man ran. He beat the other man against the pavement until the body was limp and bloodied. He checked vainly for a pulse and threw the body in a trash dumpster.