The Opperman Report'

The definitive account of the rise and fall of the ultimate narco, "El Chapo," from the New York Times reporter whose coverage of his trial went viral

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is the most legendary of Mexican narcos. As leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, he was one of the most dangerous men in the world. His fearless climb to power, his brutality, his charm, his taste for luxury, his penchant for disguise, his multiple dramatic prison escapes, his unlikely encounter with Sean Penn—all of these burnished the image of the world's most famous outlaw.

He was finally captured by U.S. and Mexican law enforcement in a daring operation years in the making. Here is that entire epic story—from El Chapo's humble origins to his conviction in a Brooklyn courthouse. Longtime New York Times criminal justice reporter Alan Feuer's coverage of his trial was some of the most riveting journalism of recent years.

Feuer’s mastery of the complex facts of the case, his unparalleled access to confidential sources in law enforcement, and his powerful understanding of disturbing larger themes—what this one man's life says about drugs, walls, class, money, Mexico, and the United States—will ensure that El Jefe is the one book to read about “El Chapo.”

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There was a time when New York City was dying a fast death. The slums were warzones, the government bankrupt and sputtering. Mobsters disassembled one another nightly and dropped hefty bags off the Canarsie pier. Drug use was rampant, supplied by the most efficient black market since prohibition. Gangs rumbled in the city’s playgrounds, each battle busted up by the sound of gunfire or a police siren. Co-eds from out of town were raped and sent home shattered. Large sections of real estate, former ghettos, were now ghost towns, abandoned, burnt, and left to the squatters. It was a city of vacant lots turned dumpsite, a city in which four murders a night was the norm, where pedestrians routinely dodged angel-dust timebombs and young savage baby boomers washed down black beauties with Rheingold out of a can, where each glance into the shadows was an assault upon civilized sensibilities, a derelict Big Apple, rotten at the core, with no signs of hope.And for a year, there was the scariest shadow of them all, Son of Sam, a terrifying spectre of sadism, and ritualistic blood sacrifice. From a new point of view, this book will take an unblinking look at the deadly events as they unfolded against a backdrop of a moribund metropolis. For the first time, using dozens of first-time interviews with terrorized victims, mostly women, The Wicked King Wicker will examine the psychology of fear mastered by the purported serial killer.

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With this Dickensian tale from America’s heartland, New York Times writer and columnist Dan Barry tells the harrowing yet uplifting story of the exploitation and abuse of a resilient group of men with intellectual disability, and the heroic efforts of those who helped them to find justice and reclaim their lives.

In the tiny Iowa farm town of Atalissa, dozens of men, all with intellectual disability and all from Texas, lived in an old schoolhouse. Before dawn each morning, they were bussed to a nearby processing plant, where they eviscerated turkeys in return for food, lodging, and $65 a month. They lived in near servitude for more than thirty years, enduring increasing neglect, exploitation, and physical and emotional abuse—until state social workers, local journalists, and one tenacious labor lawyer helped these men achieve freedom.

Drawing on exhaustive interviews, Dan Barry dives deeply into the lives of the men, recording their memories of suffering, loneliness and fleeting joy, as well as the undying hope they maintained despite their traumatic circumstances. Barry explores how a small Iowa town remained oblivious to the plight of these men, analyzes the many causes for such profound and chronic negligence, and lays out the impact of the men’s dramatic court case, which has spurred advocates—including President Obama—to push for just pay and improved working conditions for people living with disabilities.

A luminous work of social justice, told with compassion and compelling detail, The Boys in the Bunkhouse is more than just inspired storytelling. It is a clarion call for a vigilance that ensures inclusion and dignity for all.

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Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

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Blue Mafia tells the backstory behind two federal investigations of police brutality in Steubenville and Warren, Ohio, from the perspective of the victims, cops, attorneys, and officials who participated. The story is essentially the biography of a small-town civil rights lawyer, but it is also a hard-boiled detective novel set in an era of rank corruption, smear campaigns, false imprisonments, death threats, and assassination attempts, no longer carried out by the mob, but instead by and for the police.


The book explores the controversial police brutality lawsuits leading up to the historic police reform agreements and their outcomes, using the career of a local civil rights lawyer who fought a 20-year battle against two brutal, corrupt police departments and acted as an informant to federal investigators. It is like an instruction manual for aspiring activists and civil rights defenders who want to oust a despotic police chief or prosecutor, as well as an idiot’s guide for law enforcement and public officials on the pitfalls of power.


In Steubenville, when attorney Richard Olivito defends a drug dealer claiming police misconduct, he begins to feel hunted. Later, he acts as an informant and collaborator to Justice Department officials investigating the Steubenville police, which results in a consent decree, or court-enforced reform agreement, the 2nd in U.S. history. A few years later, Olivito incites another federal Investigation in neighboring Warren, where residents have complained of police brutality for decades. This time is different because there is a video.


Blue Mafia shows that some small towns have at least equally severe problems with police brutality and misconduct as many big cities, and it chronicles federal reform efforts on local police agencies during five U.S. presidential administrations, providing the most detailed account to date of police reform by consent decree and revealing the messy, sometimes tragic yet always human aspects of policing.

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The True Story of the Prison Escape That Inspired the Documentary “How It Really Happened”

In June 2015, two convicted murderers broke out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, in New York’s North Country—launching the most extensive manhunt in state history and dominating the news cycle with the sex scandal linking both inmates to the prison employee who aided them.

Double murderer Richard Matt and cop-killer David Sweat slipped out of their cells, followed a network of tunnels and pipes under the thirty-foot prison wall, and climbed out of a manhole to freedom. For three weeks, residents of local communities were prisoners in their own homes as law enforcement swept the wilderness near the Canadian border.

Dannemora is a gripping account of the bold breakout and the search that ended with one man dead, one man back in custody—and lingering questions about those who set the deadly drama in motion.

“A dramatic story. . . . A true community insider’s perspective on a legendary manhunt.”
—Booklist

“A gripping account of the daring prison break. . . . True crime fans will be more than satisfied.”
—Publishers Weekly

“More than just a page-turner—a true story about people who are dedicated to seeking justice.”
—Robert K. Tanenbaum

“An exciting read, full of shocking revelations. . . . Don’t miss this stunning true story.”
—Gregg Olsen

“Eye-opening, provocative . . . a true story, full of shocking twists and turns.”
—M. William Phelps

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Why is What’s My Line? TV star and Pulitzer-Prize-nominated investigative reporter Dorothy Kilgallen one of the most feared journalists in history? Why has her threatened exposure of the truth about the JFK assassination triggered a cover-up by at least four government agencies and resulted in abuse of power at the highest levels?

Denial of Justice—written in the spirit of bestselling author Mark Shaw’s gripping true crime murder mystery, The Reporter Who Knew Too Much—tells the inside story of why Kilgallen was such a threat leading up to her unsolved murder in 1965. Shaw includes facts that have never before been published, including eyewitness accounts of the underbelly of Kilgallen’s private life, revealing statements by family members convinced she was murdered, and shocking new information about Jack Ruby’s part in the JFK assassination that only Kilgallen knew about, causing her to be marked for danger.

Peppered with additional evidence signaling the potential motives of Kilgallen’s arch enemies J. Edgar Hoover, mobster Carlos Marcello, Frank Sinatra, her husband Richard, and her last lover, Denial of Justice adds the final chapter to the story behind why the famous journalist was killed, with no investigation to follow despite a staged death scene. More information can be found at www.thedorothykilgallenstory.com.

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