FBI Case File Review

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,...

Retired agent John Morrison reviews an ecoterrorism case involving a member of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) who firebombed the mink research offices and destroyed laboratory facilities at Michigan State University in 1992. The subject of the investigation, Rodney Coronado, was also responsible for the arson and destruction of mink research facilities at Washington State and Oregon State Unive...

Retired agent T.C. Fuller reviews a Crimes Against Children investigation where his subject was added to the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted list. The fugitive was the second preferential sex offender the Bureau ever placed on the list. A tip from the America's Most Wanted TV show led to his arrest. T.C. also talks about his memoir, Painting Over Rust: Stories From a 20 Year Odyssey. He served 20 years...

Retired agent Scott Payne reviews his undercover role in the investigation that resulted in averting a mass shooting at a synagogue by a copy-cat white supremacist who said he wanted to do something similar to the June 17, 2015 massacre of church attendees in Charleston, SC, only bigger. Fortunately, the person he asked to get him a gun was UCA Scott Payne. Scott served in the FBI for nearly 23 ye...

Retired agent John Tamm reviews his tenure on the Boston Division's Justice Task Force and the investigation and conviction of former agent John Connolly for racketeering, obstruction of justice, and bribery related to his handling of informant Whitey Bulger and Stephen Flemmi. Connolly was sentenced to ten years in federal prison. A Florida jury convicted Connolly of second-degree murder for the...

Former agent Chris Tarbell reviews his investigation and takedown of the billion-dollar, cryptocurrency-based drug underground marketplace "Silk Road" and the arrest of its founder. The investigation, code-named Operation Onion Peeler, resulted in the largest seizure of bitcoins to date. Chris was also the lead investigator on several of the Bureau's most complex and cutting-edge cybercrime cases,...

Retired agent Cory McGookin reviews the investigation he led targeting the Latin Kings operating in the city of Aurora, IL and "Operation First Degree Burn," a cold case multi-agency task force which resulted in the nation's largest ever cold case murder takedown. Thirty-one Latin Kings gang members were convicted of 22 murders going back two decades. Cory McGookin served in the FBI for 20 years....

Retired agent Tom Simon reviews his investigation of Las Vegas couple Perry and Rochelle Griggs for orchestrating a prison Ponzi scheme. While serving 8 years in federal prison for securities fraud, Perry Griggs started another scam, where fellow prisoners and their families were the victims. When Griggs was paroled, he and his wife disappeared. A national fugitive manhunt ensued. CNBC featured th...

Retired agents Jim Lewis and Renae McDermott review their 1999 kidnapping case where a mother and her two children were kidnapped for ransom and held for four days before they were located and rescued by the Miami Division SWAT team. In addition to the safe return of the family, the spectacular work of the investigative team and detectives from the Sunny Isles Beach Police Department, with assista...

March is National Women's history month and this year's theme is, "Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories." So I'm republishing Episode 264: History of Women in the FBI, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the modern-day female agent.   In this encore episode, active and retired agents share personal stories from their FBI careers, historical details about Director Hoover's initial rejection,...

In part two of this two-part episode, retired agents Phil Torsney and Tommy MacDonald review how, during the unresolved fugitive investigation of James "Whitey" Bulger, they altered their investigative strategy by focusing a public media campaign, including a national 30-second Public Service Announcement, on photos they had acquired of Bulger's female companion, Catherine Greig. Bulger had served...

Retired agents Phil Torsney and Tommy MacDonald review how they were selected for a special assignment in Boston to work the unresolved fugitive investigation for James "Whitey" Bulger, a long-time FBI Top Ten Fugitive and Boston organized crime boss who had been in hiding for sixteen years with his girlfriend Catherine Greig. Bulger had served as an informant for the FBI for several years. His FB...