The Background Report

Chelsia Rose Marcius talks about her excellent book, Wild Escape: The Prison Break from Dannemora and the Manhunt that Captured America. On June 6, 2015, inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility, New York State's largest maximum security prison. Chelsia was on the ground covering the escape for the New York Daily News. She spent numerous hours interviewing Sweat after he was recaptured. Wild Escape (Amazon link) Intro/outro music by Kevin MacLeod (www.incompetech.com)   

Brian Bates is a private investigator who worked on the defense team of former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw. In 2014 Daniel was charged with 36 counts of sexual assault. He was convicted of 18 charges without any direct forensic evidence or independent witnesses. He was found not guilty on the other 18 charges.    http://www.holtzclawtrial.com/  https://www.batesinvestigates.com/ Intro/outro music by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com/) 

David Keene is the managing director of Viguerie Political Lists, an artist, woodworker and owner of The Fredericksburg Workshop. He talks about criminal justice, the decade he spent in federal prison and his life since then.  Intro/outro music by Kevin MacLeod (www.incompetech.com) 

Ken Kratz talks about prosecuting Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey for the murder of Theresa Halbach in 2007 and the fallout from the Netflix series "Making a Murderer." Kratz is the former District Attorney of Calumet County, Wisconsin (1992 - 2010) and author of Avery: The Case Against Steven Avery and What "Making a Murderer" Gets Wrong. Intro/Outro music by Kevin MacLeod www.incompetech.com  

Investigative journalist and author David Dayen (Vice; The New Republic; The Intercept) talks about his book, "Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street's Great Foreclosure Fraud." Michael Redman, Lisa Epstein and Lynn Szymoniak were served with foreclosure papers during the height of the recession. Instead of silently surrendering to the banks and vacating their homes, they started a movement that exposed the biggest consumer crime case in American history.  Intro/outro music by Kevin Macleod (Incompetech.com) 

Joe Belfiore talks about becoming a cop at 33 years old and the 13 years he spent with the Washington, DC Metro Police.    Intro/outro music by Kevin Macleod (Incompetech.com) 

Retired LAPD Detective Greg Kading talks about the federal task force he headed to investigate the cold case murders of Christopher Wallace AKA Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur. In 2011 Greg wrote Murder Rap: The Untold Story of the Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur Murder Investigations. Murder Rap, the documentary based on the book is on Amazon Prime Video. In February 2018 Greg's book was dramatized in a 10-part series on the USA channel.  Intro/outro music by Kevin Macleod (Incompetech.com) 

H.P. "Hank" Albarelli Jr. talks about his riveting book, A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments. On November 28, 1953, Dr. Olson, a U.S. Army scientist was woken up by two strangers and dropped from the window of his 13th floor hotel room in New York City. Hank solved the puzzle of this cold case with a decade of meticulous research and numerous interviews with intelligence figures. 

 Investigative journalist and author Dan Moldea talks about his 40-plus years covering the Teamsters and Jimmy Hoffa's murder.