He had nothing to say to me. He turned away.
All I had was his photo. The man in this photo was a complete mystery for months.
His photo haunted me.
Its stark nature was something I could not shake.
   I saw the old man, homeless and begging for work in the winter often, standing on Allen Road at the Super Wal-Mart store.
When I began working on a package of stories about the homeless in Peoria, he seemed a likely source.
But, that was not to be.
I suspect now the reason he did not talk to me has to do with another photo of him out there, much more disturbing than mine. 

I now know some of his story, which is why I am running this photo again. We’ll get to that shortly.  
I wrote a column in February about the old man in the photo.
In part I wrote: The wrinkles are what stood out. Wrinkles cut deep into his grizzled face, his throat and his large hands.
He looked at me as I approached. I imagine he feared I was coming to hassle him.
When I told him who I was, and that all I wanted to do was ask him some questions, he looked down at the ground.
“Will you talk to me?” I asked.
With a gravely voice, all he said was, “No.”
He said it gently without looking up. It seemed he struggled to get it out ...
Next to him on the ground held up by two stakes was a small hand-fashioned cardboard sign that read “Homeless. Will work if possible.”
The man looked to be in his 70s.
He looked like a man who’d led a hard life ... He might be a veteran. He might be someone’s grandfather. He might be a victim of circumstances beyond his control or a victim of his own bad choices.”
I wondered what was going on behind those eyes. I felt sorry for him.
I wrote at the time that had I thought he’d welcome it, I would have given him some money. I’m glad now I kept my money.  
On June 29, I saw a headline on the Web site for the Pekin Daily Times. It read: “‘Willing to work’ man causes stir.” I wondered if it could be him.
It was. What emerged from the Pekin Daily Times story painted quite a different story about this man. Pekin residents were calling the newspaper for various reasons about the man who appeared at the Wal-Mart there. Ed McMenamin, a reporter for the Pekin Times, went out to speak to the man.
“He provided his first name — Sam. The police provided his last — Noblin,” McMenamin wrote.
McMenamin wrote Noblin told him he is a Peoria resident. That claim, McMenamin wrote, was verified by the Pekin police.
“I’m not asking for nothing,” Noblin said to McMenamin. “I’m just out here looking for a job. “Some of them (offer a job) but then don’t get back to me.”
Noblin told McMenamin some people gave him a dollar or two. So, first off, he is not homeless, a minor matter. He has an address in the South End of Peoria. But, how I verified that is a big deal. Noblin told McMenamin he is a registered sex offender. I verified his address on the sex offender portion of the Illinois State Police Web site.
His resume on the sex offender Web site states: “Victim was 5 years of age, offender was 68 at the time of the offense.” His offense was listed as “sexual exploitation/expose organs.” The photo of Noblin, and what might be going on behind those eyes, still haunts me — but now in a totally different way.