FBI Case File Review

Retired Agent Scott Duffey reviews his years-long investigation of a nearly 2-decade-old rumor about an unsolved racially motivated homicide. The case, tenaciously pursued by Scott, his partner ATF special agent Terrance Mortimer, and the Philadelphia Police Department, resulted in the conviction of Thomas Gibison, a self-proclaimed skinhead for conspiracy to commit murder, ethnic intimidation, an...

Retired agent and former BAU profiler Julia Cowley reviews the murder investigation of 13-year-old Taylor Paschal-Placker and her 11-year-old friend Skyla Whitaker on the rural dirt road near one of their homes in Weleetka, Oklahoma and the detailed BAU analysis Julia conducted to provide insights for investigators about the unknown subject who shot and killed the girls. Julia served nearly 22 yea...

Retired agent Jerome Lorrain reviews the investigation of the murder of Sarah Willard, a 29-year-old escort/sex worker from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Sarah disappeared in November 2019 and the Pascagoula, Mississippi Safe Streets Task Force (SSTF) worked with Detective Lieutenant Shane Bozeman of the Jackson County Sheriff's Office to investigate her disappearance. They learned that a 54-year-old m...

Retired agent John Ouellet reviews his investigation of Stephen Blumberg, the most prolific book thief in the history of the United States. His investigation led John to Blumberg's three-story, 17-room mansion in Ottumwa, Iowa, packed with antiques and 23,000 rare books and manuscripts stolen from libraries and universities in 45 states and Canada. During the trial, the stolen volumes were estimat...

Retired agent Jerry Hester reviews his Paesan Blues investigation, an FBI undercover operation that targeted Italian mafioso Roberto Settineri's global crime network with the collaboration of the Italian National Police (INP) and, surprisingly, the cooperation of Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein. After the case review, we discuss Jerry's new book, Mafia Miami: FBI Politics and How an Investigation wa...

  Retired agent Dennis Cosgrove reviews the Golden ADA investigation, which he opened after an informant provided information about three Russian immigrants who had opened a state-of-the-art diamond merchant center in San Francisco with diamonds suspected of having been looted from the Russian government and smuggled into the United States. The scheme resulted in Russia losing hundreds of millions...

Retired agent Richard Denholm reviews the missing persons investigation of Jessie Davis, the 9 months-pregnant girlfriend of Canton, Ohio police officer Bobby Cutts Jr. Rich led the case as the supervisor of the Cleveland Division's Canton Resident Agency. The disappearance became a national news story. The Starks County Sheriff's Office invited the FBI to provide assistance with interviews of wit...

Retired agent Barry Black was assigned to the Oklahoma City Division where he investigated complex financial crimes for the first half of his Bureau career and was a sniper on the SWAT team, before being certified as a Special Agent Bomb Technician (SABT). In this episode, he reviews two cases, the first a medical supply investment fraud case, which was featured on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries...

In part two of this two-part episode, retired agent Steve Busch and retired FBI attorney Steve Kramer review how, after the success of the Golden State Killer case, they became the co-founders and architects of the FBI's National Investigative Genetic Genealogy (or IGG) team, assisting law enforcement agencies in the identification of suspects, training thousands of investigators, and lecturing al...

In part one of this two-part episode, retired Bureau attorney Steve Kramer and retired agent Steve Busch review how Kramer teamed up with Paul Holes, an investigator for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office, to use Investigative Genetic Genealogy to generate leads to identify the person known as the Golden State Killer. Different law enforcement agencies spent 43 years trying to find the seria...

Retired agent Steve Bennett reviews a case involving a 15-year-old missing girl who disappeared but returned home after a few weeks. When a relative recovered a piece of paper in Jenny's purse with the name and address of a man living in Minneapolis, MN, police suspected the stranger had something to do with her initial disappearance. After local detectives determined the inter-state aspects of th...

Retired Agent Barbara Verica reviews her espionage assignment working as a first-time, untrained, undercover agent (UCA) in Manhattan, gathering intelligence and the evidence to prove that Norwegian diplomat Arne Treholt was selling secrets to the former Soviet Union. The investigation was initiated on behalf of the Norwegian security service who had received information that Treholt, assigned as...

Retired agent Matt Fine reviews his investigation of a disgruntled Philadelphia Phillies fan who hacked computers and launched a cyber-attack against the team and the email accounts of reporters at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, leaving messages voicing his complaints about the Phillies management.  Matt served in the FBI for nearly 23 years. Check out episode show note...

Retired agent Steve Lazarus reviews his investigation of a flight attendant for disrupting the normal operations of two commercial flights. The flight attendant set a fire in the lavatory of a 50-passenger commuter aircraft, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing. He was also charged with phoning a gate at Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta just six days after the 9/11 terror atta...

In this episode, retired agent Zorka Martinovich reviews the extensive administrative support provided by the FBI's Critical Incident Crisis Negotiation Unit (CNU) when a Cuban-American businessman is kidnapped for ransom in Panama by the FARC, a Colombian terrorist organization. Beyond the case review, Zorka, a subject matter expert, explains the behind-the-scenes negotiations made by the FBI and...

In this epic 300th episode celebrating a milestone in my podcasting journey, we speak to FBI Director Christopher Wray, bestselling author and National Academy graduate, Isabella Maldonado, and retired agent and TV producer Anne Beagan. FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks with authority to those who listen to learn more about the FBI. Crime novelist Isabella Maldonado  48:03 addresses those liste...

In this re-edited archive episode, retired agent Eddie Fryer reviews the investigation to recover Polly Klaas, a twelve-year-old girl abducted from her bedroom in October 1993, by a stranger during a slumber party with two friends. Eddie Freyer was the case agent who, working in conjunction with his partners from the Petaluma Police Department, worked countless hours for more than sixty-days witho...

Retired agent James Stern reviews Operation Tropical Storm, where he was the undercover agent in a transnational drug enterprise investigation targeting the Yakuza Japanese mob trafficking methamphetamine in Hawaii. This was the first-ever arrest, indictment and conviction of a Japanese crime boss in U.S. law enforcement history. The case was featured on an episode of the TV Series, Deep Undercove...

Retired agent Jonathan "Jonny" Grusing reviews his and his National Park Service co-case agent Beth Schott's investigation of Harold Henthorn for murdering his first and second wives. Grusing gathered the evidence to prove the murders were premeditated and made to look like accidents. Henthorn's wife, Lynn, was crushed when he caused a car to fall on her and his wife Toni died after he pushed her...

In this episode, retired Assistant Director of the FBI Victim Services Division (VSD), Kathryn Turman reviews the VSD, the victim service specialist position, and the major cases and crisis events her staff has deployed to, providing assistance and support to victims around the world. Selected for the position by FBI Director Robert Mueller, she developed and led the FBI's response to 9/11 victims...

Retired agent Kyle Vowinkel reviews how he, as a member of the FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit (CNU), negotiated the peaceful surrender of one of the Boston Marathon bombers. It's a powerful, first-hand insider's perspective of the capture of a violent domestic terrorist responsible, along with his older brother, of killing 3 and injuring 281 others. The bombings took place on April 15, 2013. Kyle s...

Retired agent Shannon McGarry reviews her assignment as an Assistant Legal Attaché (ALAT) to the FBI's overseas office in Brussels, Belgium, which covers four US embassies in Northwestern Europe: Belgium, Luxembourg, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU). Her responsibilities included establishing relationships with national and international executives and appointe...

Retired agent Darin Werkmeister reviews his adoption fraud case where the subject solicited unsuspecting hope-to-be parents via the internet, leading them to believe she would facilitate adoptions with pregnant young women seeking to find homes for their babies. The subject was convicted of scamming 43 heartbroken couples. The investigation received national news attention, warning others of the c...

Retired agent Tim Gallagher reviews his investigation of a multi-state check counterfeiting ring that operated out of Northeast Ohio. They hit banks and businesses with fake payroll checks and bogus personal checks, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of check fraud losses. In addition to several convictions, the case also resulted in the recovery of the remains of a cooperating witness most...

Retired agent Frank Runles reviews a Labor Racketeering investigation where union management for Laborers Local 91 in Niagara Falls, New York, was charged with RICO and convicted of operating as a criminal enterprise. We also discuss interview techniques and deceptive language analysis, which he taught at the FBI Academy. Frank served in the FBI for 25 years. Check out episode show notes, photos,...