FBI Case File Review

Retired agent Joe Navarro reviews the case of Rod Ramsay, an Army veteran living in Tampa, Florida, suspected of committing espionage while stationed in Germany. While interviewing Ramsay forty-two times, Joe recorded the evidence to prove that the spy handed the Soviets vital military secrets that could destroy the US.  In this episode, Joe Navarro also reveals some myths about reading body langu...

Retired agent Eileen Roemer reviews her methods for training her FBI cadaver dogs, Riley and Bailey, both Golden Retrievers. She discusses the search and recovery work she and her dogs were assigned, locating human remains at crime sites, including at the Pentagon, where she responded with her dogs for twelve days immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  After her retirement, Eileen has...

Retired agent Keith Tolhurst reviews an extortion case where the subjects threatened to kidnap and cut off the arm or leg of the 12-year-old son of an Arizona millionaire businessman unless he paid them $250,000. Through a series of phone calls and notes, the scheme provided directions to the victim on where to drop the money. Frank Alber was arrested, convicted of conspiracy and mailing threateni...

Host Jerri Williams shares updates about her nonfiction book, FBI Myths and Misconceptions: A Manual for Armchair Detectives , how and why to start a podcast, download stats for FBI Retired Case File Review , and reveal changes to the podcast release schedule. She's interviewed by her friend and fellow podcaster, Javier Leiva, host of Pretend Radio , a show featuring stories about people pretendin...

Recorded live show at the RESPECT: Women's Podcast Festival on Saturday, August 24, with special guest Special Agent Cerena Coughlin, the Applicant Coordinator and recruiter for the FBI's Philadelphia Division. She and podcast host Jerri Williams answer questions from the audience regarding the FBI recruitment process. The event was sponsored by the Black Tribbles and held at at Amalgam Comics & C...

Retired agent Phil Coghlan reviews his investigation of a sophisticated and complex two-year crime spree involving bank robberies, bombs/IEDs, and murder, and the highly controversial book, Hit Man: A Technical Manual For Independent Contractors that his bank robbery subjects read and used to commit their crimes. Phil also provides historical insight into the famously heated debate between Hustler...

Retired agent Michael E. Anderson reviews his investigation of German national Georg Dudov, for a money-laundering scheme that netted $2.3 million from people who thought they were investing in oil wells. In furtherance of the scam, Dudov participated in passport fraud when he attempted to bribe an immigration official to issue him a fraudulent American passport and tried to hire a hitman to have...

Retired agent Scott Duffey reviews his years-long investigation of what started out as a rumor that Thomas Gibison had whispered to high school classmates while attending his senior prom. He and a friend claimed that their new spider web tattoos were symbols of their allegiance to white-supremacist Skinhead dogma and were "earned" by them shooting a black man. This nearly 2-decade-old racially mot...

Retired agent Russell Atkinson reviews the first trade secret theft investigation and prosecution in California under the federal Economic Espionage Act of 1996. The case centered on the theft of radiological device technology and encrypted materials by David Kern, the former employee of a Silicon Valley tech firm. David Kern pleaded guilty to one count of trade secret theft. He was sentenced to a...

Retired agent Michael Harrigan reviews the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP), the largest repository of serial violent crime cases in the country, and the Highway Serial Killings Initiative. He was the unit's chief and oversaw the development of the web database, which allows client law enforcement agencies direct access to conduct independent analysis. He also provides case studies of...

Retired agent Michael Harrigan reviews the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP), the largest repository of serial violent crime cases in the country, and the Highway Serial Killings Initiative. He was the unit's chief and oversaw the development of the web database, which allows client law enforcement agencies direct access to conduct independent analysis. He also provides case studies of...

Retired agent Norman Wight reviews the Stanley Mark Rifkin bank theft case. Rifkin embezzled $10 million from a bank in LA, via a wire transfer to Switzerland, where he converted the money to diamonds before smuggling them into the United States. Based on a tip, Wight and Los Angeles Division agent Robin Brown arrested Rifkin and recovered the diamonds. The case, followed closely by the media, tes...

Retired agent Jane Mason reviews a case she worked with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where the subject was hired for asbestos abatement at 26 Federal Plaza in New York. Workers used illegal removal methods and then dumped grates and bags of asbestos at scattered locations throughout New York City, exposing anyone who unknowingly came in contact with the hazardous materials. Check out...

Retired Agent Greg Shaffer served in the FBI for twenty years. During his career, he spent six years on the FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Team (HRT). In this episode, he reviews the multi-agency response to apprehend the D.C. Snipers, later identified as John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, the men responsible for the random shootings of ten people in the Washington D.C. area during 23 days in Oct...

Retired agent Weysan Dun reviews a case targeting an extremist group espousing Posse Comitatus rhetoric and white supremacist views. Initially, under investigation for weapons and interstate theft violations, the leader, Michael Ryan, his fifteen-year-old son Dennis, and others were charged and convicted of the violent and horrific deaths of two group members. Check out episode show notes, photos,...

Former agent Scott Larson served in the FBI for 13 years and was one of the original 13 FBI Laboratory-certified Computer Analysis and Response Team (CART) field examiners. He reviews the Solar Sunrise case where, as the lead investigator, he tracked cyber intrusions into over 200 Department of Defense (DoD) computer systems. The highly sensitive international investigation revealed the identities...

(This episode was updated and re-released as Episode 270) Retired agent Oliver "Buck" Revell reviews the Dallas FBI investigation into allegations of dirty tricks made during the 1992 presidential primary involving the campaigns of President George H. W. Bush and candidate Ross Perot. Buck Revell also discusses the important but precarious role of the FBI in investigating criminal matters with ser...

Retired agent Scott Augenbaum reviews several cybercrime cases, and provides several cyber security tips that he learned during his FBI career that will, hopefully, protect you from cybercriminals stealing your stuff and help you avoid becoming the victim of a data breach. Check out episode show notes, photos, and related articles. https://jerriwilliams.com/episode-169-scott-augenbaum-secrets-of-c...

Retired agent John Kundts reviews the 1981 counterfeit SEPTA TransPasses case where two men using specialty paper, printed and sold fake monthly fare instruments. Before the investigation, the transit agency's losses from the scheme totaled $1 million a month. Check out episode show notes, photos, and related articles. https://jerriwilliams.com/episode-168-john-kundts-counterfeit-septa-transpasses...

Retired agent Thomas J. Baker reviews the FBI's investigation of the March 1981, attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley Jr, and discusses how lesson's learned from the assassination of President Kennedy were immediately utilized in the initial management and coordination of multiple agencies under intense media scrutiny. Check out episode show notes, photos, and relate...

Retired agent Cecil Moses reviews the Greensboro Massacre, where in November 1979, during a protest rally, a shootout with the Ku Klux Klan and American Nazis left five members of the Communist Workers Party (CWP) dead and seven members seriously injured. Two Klansmen were also injured. At the time of this incident, Cecil Moses was the assistant special agent in charge of the Charlotte Division in...

Retired agent Ken Lanning reviews the controversial topics of satanic ritual child abuse, recovered repressed memory, and the suggestibility of children. His work in this area and the ramifications of confirmation bias has divided and polarized many child advocates, the media, and the American public. His professional study of the criminal aspects of deviant sexual behavior included assignments to...

Retired agent Scott Curtis reviews a public corruption investigation that resulted in the conviction of Allentown, Pennsylvania Mayor Ed Pawlowski, as well as a dozen other public officials and business executives for campaign contribution bribery, extortion, and other corruption-related offenses. Check out episode show notes, photos, and related articles. https://jerriwilliams.com/episode-164-sco...

In this two-for-one episode, retired agents Jim Siano and Tom Baker, both first office agents at the time, review the kidnapping investigation of Barbara Jean Mackle and the arrests of her kidnappers Gary Steven Krist and Ruth Eisemann-Schier. Barbara Jean was buried alive in a wooden coffin-like box for 82 hours during the harrowing incident. Jim Siano also reviews an airplane hijacking case wher...

Special Agents Jean and Tom O'Connor review the work performed, and the devastating health-related complications experienced by FBI agents responding to terrorist attack sites at the World Trade Center in New York, The Pentagon in Washington D.C., Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and evidence collection sites on and immediately after 9/11. Special Agent Tom O'Connor is the President of the FBI Agents As...