Sharing Stories! #Heedit

Guest: Robert Riggs

The True Crime Reporter™ never settles for standing outside the yellow crime scene tape.

You knock on doors. You dig through records. And you cultivate sources.

Riggs taps into three decades of criminal cases from his career as an investigative reporter and committee investigator in the U.S. Congress.

In every episode, Riggs pulls out his reporter’s notebooks. His law enforcement sources open up their case files. And they take listeners on a journey into darkness.

During his television news career, Riggs received the George Foster Peabody Award for investigative reporting and three Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Journalism Awards for Investigative Reporting.

Riggs’ stories impacted millions of people during thousands of hours of reporting on television and in online media.  During some assignments, his reporting literally occurred under fire while he was embedded with the U.S. Army during the invasion of Iraq.

Among the three Alfred I. duPont Columbia Journalism Awards for Investigative Reporting, judges described his Gulf War report about the censorship of religious services for U.S. soldiers, “as the story every other news organization missed.”

Riggs journalistic ethos is to illuminate important public issues, right wrongs, speak truth to power, change flawed public policy, and in some cases save people from harm by violent criminals. Serial killers were caught and terrorist networks exposed. Corrupt public officials did time in federal prison behind his reporting.

Riggs is a member of the FBI’s North Texas Chapter of InfraGard which was formed in response to the 9/11 terror attacks. He is a longtime member of the Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE). It is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving investigative reporting around the world.

During his broadcast news career, Riggs covered the White House, Capitol Hill, The Pentagon, New York State Legislature, and the Texas Legislature.

He reported from the “eye of the storm” at the scene breaking news stories of historical proportions including the mass murder at a Luby’s Cafeteria in Texas, the 51-day Branch Davidian siege in Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing, the siege by Republic of Texas separatists, and three wars.

His reports appeared on WFAA-TV Channel 8 News, KTVT-TV CBS-11, CBS Evening News, CBS 60 Minutes, ABC Nightline, CNN, and ESPN.

Riggs’ peers in journalism recognized him as one of the nation’s premier investigative reporters. He received the coveted George Foster Peabody Award for Investigative Reporting and three Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Journalism Awards for Investigative Reporting.

The Dallas Crime Commission awarded its first-ever “Excellence in Crime Reporting Award” to Riggs in 1999. His series of reports uncovered how black tar heroin traffickers from Mexico preyed on teenagers in Plano, Texas. Dozens of teens suffered deadly overdoses unaware that the “Chiva” they were taking was heroin.

We ran out of room, but you get it... Robert is extraordinary! 

Find him at: truecrimereporter.com