FBI Case File Review

Retired agent and FBI-certified polygraph examiner George Olivo reviews his polygraph examination of Korina Flores Sanchez, who was suspected of murdering her live-in boyfriend. It was one of the first high-stakes examinations George conducted as a brand-new polygrapher. George is also interviewed about the truths and untruths surrounding polygraphs, what true crime media often gets wrong about po...

Retired agent Jerry Spurgers reviews his investigation of the mysterious disappearance of federal witness Susan Cooper from Malvern, Arkansas. The case involved drug conspiracy, witness intimidation, and murder. Jerry investigated the case with a team of local officers, sheriff's deputies, and an intelligence analyst by using traditional police skills and new technologies. As a former member of th...

Retired agent Phil Andrew shares how his experience surviving one of the nation's first school shootings when he was a twenty-year-old college student impacted his FBI career as a hostage negotiator. Phil reviews a kidnapping case where he negotiated with a member of the terrorist organization behind the Mumbai attacks and a case where he attempted to broker the release of New York Times reporter...

Retired agent Barry Black reviews two bombing cases he worked as a special agent bomb tech (SABT) assigned to the Oklahoma City Division. The first case covers the detonation of a bomb at a University of Oklahoma football game in 2005, where the subject used a type of homemade explosive that had only been used by international terrorists. The second is an undercover investigation code-named Operat...

FBI Case File Review celebrates the 10th anniversary of the podcast with a solo show featuring the host and producer, retired agent Jerri Williams. That's me! I released my first episode on January 22nd, 2016. Today marks my ten years as an FBI-focused storyteller. In this episode, I talk about why I started the podcast and how I create each episode. I also answer 25 "Ask Me Anything" questions se...

Retired agents Bob Anderson and Carl Larsen review the major role Lou Peters, the owner of a Cadillac dealership in Lodi, California, played in the takedown of mobster Joseph Bonanno, Sr. In 1977, Bonanno had a mob associate approach Lou Peters with an offer to buy his Cadillac dealership to launder illegal funds. Peters instead met with Bob Anderson, who was assigned the case. Carl Larsen was the...

Retired agent Harry Samit reviews his investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui. Harry was assigned the case after the FBI 's  Minneapolis Division had been contacted by a flight school that reported its suspicions about Moussaoui,  who had paid $8,000 in cash for a flight simulator course to fly a commercial Boeing 747 aircraft even though he had no background in aviation.  Harry's investigation  of Mo...

Retired FBI agent Michael Clarke and retired DEA agent Jack McFarland review their 2004 joint FBI and DEA investigation of "The Commission," a violent criminal gang operating in the U.S. Virgin Islands which includes St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix, whose members were convicted in federal court for racketeering, murder, and drug trafficking. The case was conducted under the Organized Crime Dru...

Retired agent William Peterson reviews two cases , his kidnapping investigation where two American businessmen in Kenya where held for ransom and his assistance in the capture and identification of terrorist Sajid Mir, a senior member of the Pakistan-based Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT). Mir is on the FBI Most Wanted list for his leading role in the planning, preparat...

In part two of this two-part episode, retired agent Jim Gaylord reviews the resolution of his investigation and the prosecution of Chi Mak and family members as spies for the People's Republic of China (PRC). Chi was an engineer who had immigrated from Kwang-Tung, China, and was employed with a U.S. company designing sensitive U.S. military and commercial technologies. Jim was assigned to investig...

In part one of this two-part episode, retired agent Jim Gaylord reviews his espionage investigation and the prosecution of Chi Mak and his family members as spies for the People's Republic of China. Chi was an engineer who had immigrated from Kwang-Tung, China, and was employed with a U.S. company designing sensitive U.S. military and commercial technologies. Jim was assigned to investigate whethe...

Retired agent John Schachnovsky recounts his role in the investigation of the suspicious death of the actor David Carradine, the identification of frozen body parts discovered in a freezer in Bangkok, and a fraudulent financial transaction which originated in Memphis, Tennessee, but was resolved in a local Thai bank.  John wrote about these investigations and many more in his memoi r ,  Beyond the...

Retired agent Séamus McElearney reviews his investigation of the DeCavalcante crime family—infamously known as "the real Sopranos"—and how he convinced Anthony Capo, a violent soldier in the DeCavalcante family to become the first made member in the family's century-long history to cooperate with law enforcement. Séamus is the author of Flipping Capo: How the FBI Dismantled the Real Sopranos. He s...

Retired agent Brian Herrick and retired Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) Michael Levy review the computer hacking investigation and prosecution of former Philadelphia CBS affiliate news anchor Larry Mendte who hacked into the email accounts of his co-anchor Alycia Lane and leaked private information about her to the media. Mendte was charged with intentionally accessing a protected computer...

In this encore episode of FBI Case File Review, John reviews the November 22, 1994, ambush at the DC Metro Police Headquarters where a gunman killed SAs Martha Dixon and Michael Miller, and MPD Sgt. Henry "Hank" Daly and John survived multiple gunshot wounds to the heart, liver, kidney, lung, arm and leg. For his actions that day, he was awarded the FBI Medal of Valor and U.S. Attorney General's A...

Retired agent and former FBI art crime team leader Tim Carpenter reviews his case where 5,000 illegally collected cultural artifacts and two thousand human burial remains were seized from the Midwestern home of grave robber Don Miller. Many of the pieces in Miller's illicit collection of over 42,000 items were looted from sacred burial and cultural heritage sites around the world. Tim and his team...

Retired agent John McMurtrie reviews his police corruption investigation where drug dealers operating in Eufaula, Alabama, complained about being extorted by members of the Eufaula Police Department. The dealers cooperated and made consensual recordings that led to the arrest and conviction of a police captain, his lieutenant, and the local district attorney for the extortion scheme. John also rev...

Retired agent Steve Conley reviews his investigation of the 18-year period in which Katrina Leung, one of the Bureau's highest-paid assets, was operated by former FBI Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) James J. Smith, known as JJ. Katrina Leung's code name was Parlor Maid. Steve's investigation determined that during the time Smith was Leung's handler, not only was she actively spying for the People'...

Retired agent Carrie Landau reviews her sex trafficking investigation of the man who had held sixteen-year-old Desiree Robinson against her will and trafficked her for sex on the website Backpage. Desiree was murdered by a man who answered the online advertisement.  Carrie Landau served in the FBI for 21 years. During her Bureau career, she specialized in Crimes Against Children and Human Traffick...

Retired agent Martin Suarez reviews his nearly seven-year undercover role infiltrating from inside the cartels.  During Operation Colaboro,  using the alias "Manny," he smuggled millions of dollars' worth of cocaine for the Medellín Cartel, all of which was seized by the FBI after delivery. During Operation Golden Trash, Martin became a high-level money launderer for the North Coast Cartel. When t...

Retired agent Jeremy Rebmann reviews three SWAT operations he took part in as a sniper on the Oklahoma City FBI SWAT team. Providing details from his book, Send Me: Chronicles of an FBI Sniper, he talks about a mission at Glass Mountain that ended in a fatality, the capture of a bank bombing suspect, and the rescue of three little girls during a SWAT operation to arrest their fugitive father. He a...

In the first half of part two of this two-part episode of FBI Case File Review, legendary undercover agent Joe Pistone and retired agent Donnie Brasco talk about why Joe chose the name "Donnie Brasco" for his alias, and how Joe felt when Donnie followed in his footsteps. Joe also talks about how he felt when he learned Donnie had applied to join the FBI, presented him with his agent credentials at...

In part one of this two-part episode, retired agent Donnie Brasco reviews his career navigating as an FBI agent with his infamous name and following in the footsteps of his uncle, legendary undercover agent Joe Pistone. Until now, most people were unaware of Donnie and Joe's family ties. I call it the worst-kept secret in the FBI. Joe drops in at the end of the episode to share why he chose the na...

Retired agent Tom Larned reviews two fraud cases he investigated while assigned to the Fort Myers Resident Agency out of the Tampa Division, the Orion Bank failure and the VR Labs wire fraud investigations. At the time of Tom's investigation, Orion was the largest privately owned bank in the state of Florida. The failure of the bank cost the FDIC $884 million. Tom investigated VR Labs owners Kay a...

Former agent Brooke Plesnar reviews the Colleyville synagogue hostage crisis, where a British national took four people hostage, including Congregation Beth Israel's rabbi. The FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) was deployed. While negotiations for their safe release were underway, the hostages were able to escape unharmed. HRT engaged and killed the hostage-taker. Brooke investigated this case while...