Born in Soviet Georgia in 1937, he received his first prison sentence in 1957 for resisting arrest and, during his third in the 1960s, became a "thief in law", a Russian term comparable to a Mafia "godfather".

BBC: Russia's 'top gangster' Grandpa Khasan shot dead

But if the Dallas paper legally obtained documents stolen by a third party, precedent suggests it is the thief and not the newspaper who would be subject to prosecution, even if the newspaper should have known that the information was stolen.

ECONOMIST: Trials and the press