Trautwein was born in Paramus, New Jersey on March 29, 1920, attended Hackensack High School and earned a baseball scholarship at Columbia University.
In 1976, reporter M. A. Farber of The New York Times wrote a series of articles that exposed the cases, with the public attention and outcry leading the Bergen County Prosecutor to reopen the cases, exhume and test the bodies for curare, and file charges against Dr. Jascalevich after the muscle relaxant was found by chemical analysis.
[2] After Brown subpoenaed the reporter, Farber testified in the case but cited the First Amendment of the United States Constitution when he refused to turn over thousands of pages of the reporter's notes that the defense had requested, citing a compelling right to protect the identity of the sources used in the articles from individuals who had spoken to him with the expectation that their confidence would be maintained.
Jane E. Kirtley of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press cited how "Farber's case roused journalists out of their complacency", noting that "Going to jail for more than a month is significant in anyone's eyes.
The New Jersey State Parole Board was willing to release him once arrangements were made for making restitution to the survivors and in 1980 assigned Trautwein responsibility for setting the amounts.