FBI Case File Review

Retired agent Debra LaPrevotte explains the difference between oligarchs and kleptocrats, breaks down the indictment of former FBI SAC Charles McGonigal, and reviews the Nigeria OPL 245 oilfield license bribery case. The investigation involves two major oil companies charged with paying government officials to license natural oil resources originally gifted by former Nigerian military ruler Sani A...

Retired agent Kyle Vowinkel reviews the 2013 Alabama bunker child abduction case, known as the Boy in the Bunker, one of the FBI's greatest hostage recovery operations. January 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the crisis event, which took place from January 29, through February 4, 2013 in Midland City, Alabama, when a man boarded a school bus, killed the driver, and took a five-year-old boy host...

Retired agent Rob Chadwick reviews Director Mueller's Strategic Execution Team (SET) training initiative. SET spearheaded the transformation of the FBI from a law enforcement agency into an intelligence driven and threat focused national security service and was the largest training program in the history of the FBI. The generation of agents and analysts working in the Bureau, on or shortly after...

Retired agent Neil Herman and retired NYPD Detective/Lt. Kevin Hallinan review the three-year crime spree in the New York metropolitan area that culminated on October 20, 1981, when 11 members of the Weather Underground, a radical domestic terrorist group, carried out a Brink's armored car robbery at the Nanuet Mall in Nyack, New York. Using high-powered weapons, the terrorist group stole 1.6 mill...

Retired agent Michael Byrnes reviews the tragic 2017 quadruple murder of four young men in Solebury, PA, specifically the human remains search and recovery operation conducted by Philadelphia FBI ERT to assist local law enforcement officers. Mike oversaw team members from FBI, state, county, and local agencies as they identified and processed 6 separate excavation sites, ultimately recovering all...

Retired agent Jonathan "Jonny" Grusing reviews his investigation of former FBI informant Scott Kimball, who has confessed to being a serial murderer. Grusing worked with the BAU, the FBI's profiling unit, as a field coordinator and with numerous law enforcement agencies to bring homicide charges against Kimball and recover three of his victims from remote, mountainous areas. The details of Kimball...

Retired agent Richard Stout and investigative journalist Bob Norman review the case against Scott Rothstein, who convinced hundreds of wealthy investors to pay millions of dollars for fake legal settlements in the fourth largest Ponzi scheme in US history. In addition to economic fraud, the case also covered other illegal activities, including bank fraud, public corruption, organized crime, illega...

Retired agent Diane Harsha reviews an exploitation of children case where a man posed as a potty-training expert to take nude photos of a toddler for sexual gratification. Diane also talks about working in a small resident agency (RA) satellite office and the importance of relying on local law enforcement partners. She dedicates this case review to former colleagues from the Moniteau County Sherif...

Retired agent David Kamel reviews his investigation of two investment fraud cases while under the added pressure of indicting the white-collar crime subjects before his impending mandatory retirement date. The first case discussed was a multi-million-dollar advance fee scam involving multiple international victims living in Germany, Australia, and Nigeria who were defrauded by a retired Army colon...

Retired FBI profiler Mark Safarik reviews a family annihilation case that he conducted a behavioral analysis for during the investigation and provided expert testimony during the subsequent trial. The subject murdered his wife, their three young children, and his mother-in-law. Mark served in the FBI for 23 years, 12 as a senior member of the FBI's elite Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) and an exper...

Retired agent Anthony "Tony" Velazquez reviews a police corruption case involving three anti-drug police officers and a US Customs inspector who used their law enforcement positions to steal drugs and cash from drug traffickers operating along Miami area smuggling routes. During Tony's 1996 undercover operation, officers from the Hallandale Police Department in Florida accepted bribes to protect u...

Retired agent Oliver "Buck" Revell reviews the FBI Dallas Division's investigation into allegations of dirty tricks made during the 1992 presidential campaign primary involving the campaigns of President George H. W. Bush and candidate Ross Perot. He also discusses the important but precarious role of the FBI when investigating criminal matters with serious political implications. Buck Revell serv...

Retired agent Mike Gibeley reviews his undercover role as a firearms dealer working with Edward McLarnon, who was plotting to illegally purchase weapons to carry out a plot to murder government officials in New Hampshire and his ex-wife's husband. Mike served in the FBI for nearly 24 years and was an FBI certified undercover agent for over 20 years, working undercover operations across the United...

Retired agents Jalaine Ward and Joan Cronier review their investigation of cult leader Dwight D. York, of the United Nation of Nuwaubian Moors. York used his charisma to recruit thousands of followers. Several hundred cult members lived with their children on his 475-acre compound in Putnam County, Georgia where, for years, he sexually molested boys and girls, 3-18 years old. In 2004, York was con...

Retired agent John Kuchta reviews the November 22, 1994, ambush at the DC Metro Police Headquarters where a gunman killed Special Agents Martha Dixon and Michael Miller, and MPD Sgt. Henry "Hank" Daly. John survived multiple gunshot wounds to his heart, liver, kidney, lung, arm, and leg. For his actions, he was awarded the FBI Medal of Valor and U.S. Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Herois...

On November 22, 1994, Special Agents Martha Dixon Martinez and Michael John Miller, and Police Sgt. Henry "Hank" Daley, were shot and killed inside the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Headquarters building. In this episode, one of Martha Dixon's sisters, Monica Dentino, one of her brothers, Kevin Dixon, and six of Martha's former co-workers, retired agents Icey Jenkins Craig, Bill Cole, Dan Rei...

This special episode to commemorate the 50th anniversary of women FBI agents, features a lively and honest conversation with previous guests of FBI Retired Case File Review, Lauren Anderson, Judy Tyler, Gina Davis, Katherine Schweit, Jane Mason, Masayo Halpin, Julia Cowley, and Kathy Stearman.  These retired agents talk about normally taboo "women's issues" like biases and babies, and provide insp...

July 2022 marks the 50 th anniversary of women FBI agents. In this episode, active and retired agents share historical and personal stories about FBI Director Hoover's initial rejection and the Bureau's eventual acceptance of women as agents. Check out episode show notes, photos, and related articles. https://jerriwilliams.com/264-history-of-women-fbi-agents/     Buy me a coffee - https://www.buym...

Retired agent Craig Arnold reviews two shooting incidents he was involved in, one which resulted in saving the life of an FBI informant and another where, during a fatal shootout, he saved the life of a cooperating witness by taking the life of a subject. As a certified peer support counselor, Craig traveled all over the country to speak with and offer support to other FBI agents and police office...

Retired agent Jerome Lorrain and former Safe Street Taskforce (SSTF) officer Joseph W. Nicholson review one of their kidnapping and murder investigations. In 2001, David Cannon abducted and bludgeoned to death Thomas Earl Beasley, III. Cannon and Beasley met at the Miss-A-Bama Saloon. Cannon became enraged after Beasley allegedly made a sexual pass at him. Beasley's body was later found floating i...

In part two of this two-part episode, retired agent John Anticev continues his case review of his operation of FBI informant Emad Salem, who infiltrated an operational cell of Egyptian Islamic radicals but fired by John's FBI superiors while John was out on sick leave recovering from a brain tumor. Members of the cell were later found to be responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Cente...

In part one of this two-part episode of FBI Retired Case File Review, retired agent John Anticev reviews his investigation into the 1990 murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane and his operation of an FBI confidential source who infiltrated an operational cell of Egyptian Islamic radicals. The cell's spiritual leader was Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as the Blind Sheik. Members of this group, including...

Retired agent Dave Nadolski reviews the 1997 multi-agency investigation of the disappearance of 10-Year-old Jeffrey Curley from in front of his grandmother's home in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the failed polygraph exam that lead to a confession from one of the two predators responsible for the kidnapping and murder of the little boy. Dave Nadolski served in the FBI for 21 years. Check out episod...

Special Agent Cerena Coughlin, an FBI Applicant Coordinator and recruiter for the Philadelphia Division and first office agent Special Agent Cassandra Winkel, provide answers to over 40 questions sent in by FBI Retired Case File Review  listeners.  This is part 2 of this two-part recruitment episode. Also check out Part 1 - 257: FBI Special Agent Hiring and Training Update, where Special Agents Co...

Special Agent Cerena Coughlin, an FBI Applicant Coordinator and recruiter for the Philadelphia Division and first office agent Special Agent Cassandra Winkel, update us on all phases of the FBI special agent hiring process and the training program at the FBI Academy. This is part 1 of this recruitment episode. Also check out Part 2 – Episode 258: Listener Q & A – FBI Special Agent and Intelligence...