Official Website of Matt Birkbeck

Odds and Ends: Dateline Finds a Witness, Pirro to Pen a Book, and Did DeGuerin Really Deny That?

6/27/2015

Dateline Finds Witness in Eureka
I worked with NBC's Dateline program, which did a good job advancing the Durst story that aired on June 19. One thing I was particularly happy about was the interview with Randy Gomes. He was the eyewitness who years ago gave police in Eureka that startling composite of the man last seen with Karen Mitchell that looked remarkably like Robert Durst. Gomes had fled to Idaho after giving police that composite but recently returned to the Eureka area. I passed along Gomes name to NBC, who tracked him down and, on camera, he ID'd Durst. Great stuff.

DeGuerin Denies Durst Concerns About Karen Mitchell
The other eye opening segment on Dateline was Durst attorney Dick DeGuerin's denial of the story I relayed during the program about how Durst had expressed deep concern that he would be charged in the Karen Mitchell case.
Just before Durst's 2003 trial, I had reported that police were looking at Durst in the Mitchell case along with the disappearance of Kristen Modaferri from San Francisco. At that time I had been hired by CBS to consult on a Durst program. I took them to Eureka, but they weren't interested (years later after The Jinx aired, Inside Edition, ABC's 20/20 and of course Dateline all ran with the story, with special kudos to Dateline for tracking down Gomes).
The CBS producer that hired me pulled me aside back then and said she was told that Durst wasn't concerned about Modaferri, but was so concerned about Karen Mitchell he asked DeGuerin what they would do. DeGuerin's response was to deal with one case at a time. I believed the story because the producer had been close to Durst's defense team. I thought she was just a good reporter, so  you don't have to imagine my reaction when I read a NY Post report in 2004 that said she was and had been romantically involved with Chip Lewis, Durst's other attorney. They eventually married. I was floored.
I don't know if Durst is involved in Mitchell's disappearance or not. But if DeGuerin has a problem with that Mitchell story, he should have a talk with his c0-counsel.

Jeanine Pirro to Pen a Book About Durst
You knew there would be other books rising from the Durst story. Former Galveston judge Susan Criss is working on one (which I'd read when published). I heard six weeks ago that Pirro was looking for a publisher, and as of last week she found one with a book due this fall.
She doesn't come off well in A Deadly Secret (probably one of the worst public officials I've ever come across). She later subpoenaed my publisher, sought to have NY State Police Detective Joe Becerra fired (he started the Durst case) in a snit over who was getting more credit, and was despised by every other police jurisdiction with her incessant craving for publicity (one cop, Galveston's Cody Cazalas is the lone exception, but that's a whole other story).

I'm assuming her publisher will assign several fact checkers on this project.

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Married to the EIC

3/2/2015

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Meet Julie Baumgold, Daily News' 'Special Correspondent'

by Cynthia Cotts
published: September 30, 2003

On September 22, the day of opening arguments at the Robert Durst murder trial in Galveston, Texas, a squabble broke out between two members of the press corps. Author Matt Birkbeck was chatting with other reporters outside the courtroom when a petite blonde charged up to him and said, "If I were a man and as big as you, I'd tell you to step outside, put up your dukes, and I'd take you." Birkbeck, who is 6’3” and broad-shouldered, calmly replied, "Do you want me to get down on my knees?" After the blonde disappeared, Birkbeck recalls, a colleague informed him that she was Julie Baumgold, the same woman who had elbowed him in the courtroom earlier that day. Baumgold is a relic of a past era. After making her name as a feature writer for New York in the 1970s, she married Ed Kosner, who published her work in New York and Esquire for years when he edited those magazines. In his latest incarnation, Kosner, 66, is the lame-duck editor of the Daily News, where his wife is a "special correspondent." Her stories make much of the fact that she was a childhood friend of Durst, the New York real estate heir who is on trial for killing his Texas neighbor.Wait a second! Isn't it a conflict of interest when someone covering a murder trial is the editor's wife and a friend of the defendant? Birkbeck calls this "journalism in its lowest form," and he's not the only one who thinks so. In his 2002 book, A Deadly Secret: The Strange Disappearance of Kathie Durst, Birkbeck recalls how Kosner enraged many News staffers by publishing Baumgold's 2001 front-page "exclusive," "My Friend Bobby Durst," a piece which Birkbeck calls "part love letter, part defense."

Baumgold did not reply to a request for comment. In an e-mail, Kosner defended his wife, saying she has "never proclaimed Durst's innocence." However, she did try to pick a fight with Birkbeck, he said, because Birkbeck's book "disparaged her integrity . . . something no one has ever done in her long career."

Kosner denied giving his wife special treatment, saying, "Any editor would love to have a top writer who has known a murder defendant since childhood contributing to coverage of a headlined trial." He said Baumgold's features and sidebars are intended to supplement the daily coverage (which is being written by veteran trial reporter Richard T. Pienciak). Baumgold is paid a standard freelance rate, according to Kosner, who called her stories "good writing, good reading, good journalism."

If Baumgold is not getting special treatment, why did she get a press pass from U.S. News & World Report? According to Kosner, at the beginning of the trial there was talk that only one reporter from each company would be allowed in the courtroom, and the rest sent to an overflow room. Because two News reporters wanted to be in the courtroom, U.S. News editor Brian Duffy gave Baumgold her credentials. Ultimately, everyone got in, Kosner explained, but Baumgold "would have contributed to U.S. News had the occasion arisen." (Both U.S. News and the News are owned by Mort Zuckerman.)

On September 3, the News trumpeted Baumgold's name on the front page "skyline,” and News staffers joked that it was as if the paper had hired Dominick Dunne to cover the trial. Since then, the editor's wife has published two more pieces and attracted attention for all the wrong reasons. Courtroom sources find it odd that she flies back and forth frequently, doesn't take notes, shows a poor grasp of legal procedure,. and insists on dining at the best restaurants instead of the dives where most reporters have lunch. (Her September 3 piece mentions "the terrific restaurant Rudy and Paco's.")

Baumgold's connection to Durst may be more liability than asset. For example, there was Baumgold's first encounter with Eleanor Schwank, a friend of Durst's wife Kathie, who disappeared in 1982. Upon arriving in the courthouse, Schwank was surrounded by reporters, and the New York Post's Andrea Peyser began interviewing her. Baumgold butted in, asking Schwank, "Who are you?"

"I was a friend of Kathie's," Schwank said.

"I was a friend of Kathie's, too," Baumgold replied.

According to two witnesses, Schwank stared at her and said, "I know you are friends with Bob and the Dursts, and I feel your pain at losing your friend, but you have to understand that he killed Kathie and he must be brought to justice." Though Schwank gave interviews to other reporters, including Pienciak, there is no evidence that she gave an interview to Baumgold. Kosner says his wife "has not interviewed Durst but spoke to him by phone before the trial began."

Baumgold made another scene on the day the district attorney announced that he would be giving the court tapes of Durst's phone calls from jail. As soon as he said that, according to one witness, Baumgold gasped and everyone turned to look at her. She began asking which jail the calls had come from, the Pennsylvania jail where Durst was before or the Galveston jail where he is now. She asked local reporters to find out if calls to the Galveston jail are taped, and when the answer came back no, she let out a loud sigh.

Says Kosner, “Any jailhouse conversations Baumgold may have had with Durst are part of her reporting. Why shouldn’t she be concerned if they were going to be made public?”

While Baumgold was fretting, Peyser was busy obtaining leaked transcripts of the aforementioned tapes, which come from the Pennsylvania jail and are protected by a gag order. On Friday, the Post published excerpts from the tapes, and Peyser followed with another scoop on Sunday.

Baumgold's theatrics might be less objectionable if her connections were producing substantial insight or scoops. Instead, her copy is a thin hash of trivial observations, inconclusive memories, and claims that are contradicted by other sources. Case in point: Baumgold's explanation of how Durst's mother died. In the September 3 story, Baumgold stated that her own mother was the last person to speak to Durst's mother, "before she fell out the long window to her death." But Birkbeck's book reveals that Durst's mother stood for a long time on the roof of their house, while seven-year-old Durst watched with his father and grandfather, and a police officer tried to persuade her to go in. Eventually, Durst saw his mother plunge to her death on the pavement below.

Baumgold herself has written that Durst believes his mother committed suicide. But on September 22, two days after The New York Times' Charles Bagli called the death a suicide, Baumgold wrote, "Bernice walked out her window onto her roof and fell to her death. . . . [Bob] was awakened by the shouts after she had fallen." Asked about the latter assertion, Kosner said Durst was the source. He says Durst was also the source for Baumgold's claim that Durst's friend Susan Berman left Baumgold "pearls and gold earrings" in her will—but an informed source says that Berman left Baumgold nothing in her will.

Perhaps Baumgold is saving all the juicy stuff for a book. An assistant to agent Mort Janklow said that Janklow represents Baumgold and could fax a message to her, then retracted that statement at press time. Kosner says, "Baumgold is not writing a book about the trial."

On September 29, Baumgold was not in the courtroom, but Galveston’s Tremont House, where all the reporters stay, expects her to return soon. Then again, she may not. Kosner has said he will stay on at the News until he retires in March. But the couple’s power may fade after News editorial director Martin Dunn shows up on October 14.

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12/27/2014

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FINALLY

10/3/2014

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It's been ten years since the publication of A Beautiful Child and the one enduring question that had yet to be answered is "who was Sharon Marshall?"

There are thousands of readers around the world who've asked me that question, while many at organizations such as the Doe Network have tried to conduct their own searches. Readers sent names of missing children wto me, and I forwarded them to either the National Center for Missing Children in D.C. or Joe Fitzpatrick, the retired FBI agent who lead the investigation into the Michael Hughes kidnapping. While we had Sharon's DNA sample, nothing matched.

On Wednesday, Oct. 1, I received a call from Joe informing me that Sharon had finally been positively identified. The details were sketchy, but he gave me the name. I then spoke to her family today (Friday). The news was true. I can't share all the details, but here's what I can say....

Her name is Suzanne Marie Sevakis and she was from North Carolina.

For those who read the book, you'll recall Floyd fled Florida in 1973 after violating his parole. He ended up in North Carolina a year later using another alias and met a recently divorced woman with four children - three young daughters and infant son. Floyd and the woman later married, and in 1975 the woman was sentenced to 30 days in jail for a minor crime. When she was released Floyd was gone and so where her children. She found two daughters at a local social services agency, where Floyd had taken them. The mother went to the local police and FBI and tried to file kidnapping charges but they declined to investigate saying that since Floyd was their stepfather he apparently had a right to take the children.
Three months later, Floyd and Suzanne, then six years old, were in Oklahoma City. Her little brother was never found. The mother and her family, including her parents, brother and sister-in-law, never gave up the search. Alas, there wasn't much to go on.

Earlier this year the FBI interviewed Floyd in prison in Florida and somehow gleaned the info about the woman. They visited with her in June, showed her the photos of Floyd and Suzanne (her sitting on his lap). The woman immediately identified him as her husband and Sharon as her daughter. The agents took a DNA sample and four weeks later (in July) visited with the mother again to inform her the test was a positive match.

The young woman we knew as Sharon Marshall was indeed Suzanne.

The FBI then shared with her some details of Suzanne's sad fate, but recommended she read A Beautiful Child. The woman and her surviving children and family all read the book. Needless to say they are devastated. The agents also told the family not to discuss the case given they were also looking into the disappearance of Suzanne's son Michael.
Floyd apparently was also willing to give some information about Michael but sadly, he admitted to killing Michael and, I'm told, the FBI was resigned to believe him.

The agents called the family this week with the news that Michael was likely dead. They have an idea of the location of his remains and plan to search the area.

Since the authorities in North Carolina didn't take a missing person report, Suzanne was never listed in any missing persons database, which is why it has been impossible to this point to find her. Suzanne's story was heartbreaking and, judging by reader responses, has touched them deeply, which is why many who have read the book and followed this case have kept it alive these years with their sleuthing, web postings and discussions. And that's why law enforcement remained involved for so long, with the incredible work of the FBI that brought it to a close. Others who had always been involved in the search include Gerry Nance of the NCMEC (since retired), Ed Kumiega, Asst. U.S. Attorney in Oklahoma City, Bob Schock and Mark DeSearo of the St. Petersburg, Fla Police Dept and of course, Joe Fitzpatrick.

Joe retired from the FBI in the late 1990s but since our initial meeting fishing amidst the snakes in OKC in 2003, he and I have remained in steady contact. He funneled suggestions from readers to FBI officials, helped facilitate with Gerry Nance a number of DNA tests, and remained an integral part of the search for Sharon. There were some DNA tests where we had our hopes up, only to be eventually dashed. You'll recall Joe had resolved every one of his cases...except for one.

Now there are none.

In addition, our deep thanks and appreciation go to the FBI in Oklahoma City. There are other details I can't share yet but take my word they did amazing work.

Suzanne's family is still digesting all of this and will need some time. In addition, there may be a meeting with Suzanne's surviving daughter (whom you'll recall she gave birth to in New Orleans in 1989).
I'm in contact with the daughter, a beautiful college grad, who's expressed an interest in meeting her biological family. That may now happen sooner than later.

And finally, we can now put Suzanne's real name on her tombstone at the Park Grove Cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Suzanne Marie Sevakis.

Peace.

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"Murders and Motives" on Investigation Discovery Channel

9/9/2014

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From my book A Beautiful Child, the Investigation Discovery Channel is airing a program on Franklyn Floyd's murder of Cheryl Commeso with tie in to mystery of Sharon Marshall.
I interviewed a couple of months ago and looking forward to seeing the result. Program airs Sept. 29 at 8 pm ET.

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PAID NOT TO SPEAK, PART II

9/8/2014

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For U.S. Rep. Tom Marino, Silence is Golden

It took several months to get to the bottom of this, but it appears that national politics doomed my appearance at the Scranton Cultural Center to discuss The Quiet Don.
That's a big and surprising statement, but let's travel down the rabbit hole.
You'll recall back in May that the Lackawanna County Library System suddenly cancelled my June 23 appearance, and that was after they had already paid me (see post below). No reason was given, at least not one that made any sense. A number of disappointed readers emailed me over the following weeks, and one group asked if I'd be willing to come speak at a synagogue, Temple Hesed. I said yes, and an August date was selected. But after some reconsideration, Temple Hesed said no.
The folks trying to organize that event were left scratching their heads. So was I.
Given that some of the characters in The Quiet Don have close ties to the Diocese of Scranton, I wasn't surprised when two appearances at local churches last winter were cancelled. After all, that same Diocese was feted over the summer at a fundraiser at Mount Airy Casino. I'm told some 700 people paid big money to sit with Diocese officials and casino owner Louis DeNaples and be entertained by event host Father Joseph Sica (who referenced in his remarks his inclusion in The Quiet Don to loud laughter). I'm not sure why they were all yucking it up. I mean, is the arrest of a Catholic priest for lying about his mob ties really that funny? (Yes, the charges were later dropped, but I can't seem to forget some of the little details, like the police finding $1,000 in cash and a gun in Fr. Sica's apartment, or that he once filed for bankruptcy listing among his debts a $150,000 loan to Mr. DeNaples bank).
And is it just me, or does the idea of a Catholic diocese raising over $1 million at a casino fundraiser cross a moral line or two?
Getting back to the synagogue, it seems they didn't want to get involved in any of this, so they told the organizers thanks, but no thanks.
That was early August.
It was only over the last couple of weeks that the reasons behind the cancellations were made known to me. And they center on the race for Congress in the 10th District, and the reelection of Rep. Tom Marino.
Marino, you recall, was once the U.S. Attorney in Scranton and Harrisburg who was forced to resign in disgrace in 2007 when it was learned that he had provided a reference for Mr. DeNaples on his application for a gaming license. Sitting U.S. Attorney's aren't supposed to be providing references for gaming applications or for people with longstanding (alleged) mob ties, but that didn't stop Marino, who was rewarded by DeNaples for his efforts with a $250,000 a year job as an "in-house" counsel (yes, this is all in the book). He then ran for Congress in 2010 and, despite his tawdry tale, won handily.
I reference the Marino mess during my speaking engagements given the similarity to the relationship between Russell Bufalino and then-U.S. Rep. Dan Flood some 40 years ago. I discussed it at length during my presentations last spring at Penn State, Marywood University and in Wilkes Barre. The 10th District includes portions of Lackawanna and Luzerne counties.
I cover Wall Street now, not politics, and didn't realize Marino was up for reelection in November. So I learned only recently that his very sensitive supporters not only took exception to the book, but to my mention of Marino during my appearances. So calls were made, and the event was cancelled. It was somewhat surprising given that Marino's foibles were discussed during the 2010 election. Resurrecting them apparently wasn't in the game plan.

As I say during my presentations, having a U.S. Congressman in your pocket is a nice pet to have.

Russell Bufalino had Dan Flood.

It's not hard to figure out who's holding the leash on Marino.

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Playboy Magazine piece on Denny McLain

8/22/2014

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I have a lengthy piece in the September issue of Playboy Magazine. It tells the true story of a U.S. Secret Service investigation centered on former Major League pitcher Denny McLain and his business ties to the Gambino crime family in New York. It hit the newsstands on Aug. 19.

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PBS History Detectives Sheds Light on Hoffa Disappearance

7/15/2014

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The story of Jimmy Hoffa is a tangled tale with tentacles that stretch from Cuba to Northeast Pennsylvania, Detroit to Las Vegas.
His disappearance is one of the most famous missing-persons cases in history.
New light is shed on the old mystery in an episode of “History Detectives Special Investigations,” “Who Killed Jimmy Hoffa?” scheduled to air Tuesday, July 22, at 9 p.m. on PBS affiliates, including Northeast Pennsylvania’s WVIA.
Mr. Hoffa, the former head of the Teamsters union, vanished on July 30, 1975. No trace of him has ever come to light.
The History Detectives’ investigation focuses on who killed Mr. Hoffa and why.
The who is most likely hitman Frank Sheeran, who did so at the direction of Kingston-based mafia boss Russell Bufalino, according to some experts.
But why?
Mr. Hoffa knew too much. And he was starting to talk about it, the experts say.
Matt Birkbeck, author of the Bufalino story “The Quiet Don,” is a former reporter for the Morning Call in Allentown and author of four other books. He is an award-winning investigative journalist who currently covers Wall Street for Harrison Scott Publications and lives outside of Stroudsburg.
Mr. Birkbeck said he was contacted by History Detectives Special Investigations last May when they first found out about “The Quiet Don.”
“Apparently they had been working on this. They saw the book, and one of the producers reached out to me,” he said.
Mr. Birkbeck said he met with the investigators and was “on board with what they were doing,” particularly on the research side.
“They were very, very big on backing everything up,” he said. That is something he, as a journalist, looks for.
Last summer, History Detectives investigator Kaiama Glover interviewed Mr. Birkbeck at the Villa Foglia restaurant in Exeter for the Hoffa episode of the show.
Mr. Birkbeck said Mr. Bufalino used to hang out at the restaurant and knew the owner, Bernie Foglia, who allowed its use for taping the show.
Mt. Birkbeck said he just previewed the show himself.
“They were great. I thought they did a wonderful job,” he said.
The investigators cover a lot of ground, from the restaurant in Detroit where Mr. Hoffa was last seen to Las Vegas, where the Teamsters’ pension fund was a “virtual piggy bank” for the mafia.
History Detectives investigator Tukufu Zuberi went to Philadelphia to interview Charles Brandt, author of “I Heard You Paint Houses,” which tells the story of Mr. Sheeran, a close associate of Mr. Bufalino and a friend of Mr. Hoffa.
Mr. Brandt’s book reveals that Mr. Bufalino ordered the hit on Mr. Hoffa, and Mr. Sheeran carried it out.
The investigation of Mr. Hoffa’s disappearance had, at one time, more than 200 FBI agents involved, Mr. Birkbeck said. They had an idea of who was involved in it, but couldn’t get enough evidence to bring anyone to trial, he said.
For the show, Ms. Glover dug up recently declassified government files on Mr. Hoffa, including a memo indicating the FBI suspected the mafia was responsible for his disappearance but couldn’t prove it.
Mr. Birkbeck said it takes the Hoffa story to a whole other level by introducing the Bufalino element, and how he gave in to the mob’s wanting Mr. Hoffa — a friend of Mr. Bufalino’s — dead.
In the History Detectives episode, investigator Wes Cowan shares recordings made by President Richard Nixon — who had his own office bugged and recorded everyone who came in — talking about Mr. Hoffa.
Mr. Birkbeck said he was familiar with most of the material in the program, except for the Nixon tapes, which he would have put in his book if he had known about them.
“I thought that was awesome,” he said. “It was a really good ‘get’ on their part.”

Contact the writer:

eskrapits@citizensvoice.com

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Scranton Times-Tribune Editorial

6/24/2014

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Nice work if you can get it
By the Editorial Board
Published June 24, 2014

As it turns out, “The Quiet Don” has a
quieted author — at least in terms of the Lackawanna County Library System
lecture series.

Matt Birkbeck, a former reporter for The
Morning Call of Allentown and the author of “The Quiet Don,” had been booked by
the library system and paid $1,500 to appear Monday night. But after sending the
check to Mr. Birkbeck, the library suddenly canceled his appearance. So Mr.
Birkbeck was, in effect, paid not to appear — nice work if you can get it. (The
series is funded by private and public funds.)

The book contends that the late Russell Bufaliino of Kingston quietly built an organized crime empire in Northeast Pennsylvania from the 1930s into the 1960s while much of the national media and
law enforcement were focused on mob activity in major cities. And, as in an
earlier book by Charles Brandt, “I Heard You Paint Houses,” Mr. Birkbeck
contends that Mr. Bufalino was involved in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa in a
war over control of the Teamsters union. And the book mirrors some of Mr.
Birkbeck’s earlier reporting, dealing with the state’s creation of the
Pennsylvania casino industry and the award of a license to Dunmore businessman
Louis DeNaples.

The NEPA subject matter naturally has created a great deal of local interest in the book. Yet Mary Garm, administrator of the Lackawannaq County Library System, said Monday that she canceled Mr.
Birkbeck’s appearance for fear that he would draw a small crowd. Mr. Birkbeck
had made some other local appearances, including at Marywood University, she
said. Canceling the appearance, she said, saved the expense of renting the venue
and advertising.

According to Ms. Garm, she made the decision and the library board approved it, and there was no pressure for
cancellation from the board or other parties. Lack of public interest isn’t reflected
in the library’s own experience. According to Ms. Garm and Jack Finnerty,
director of the Scranton Public Library, the book has been among the most
heavily circulated in the system for some time. The library must have recognized
the level of interest when it booked Mr. Birkbeck. And multiple appearances by
an author rarely have been taken to indicate a lack of public interest.

In recent years the lecture series has been an invaluable asset to the area, bringing such luminaries as David
McCullough and presidential historian Michael Beschloss, among many others, to
the Scranton Cultural Center.

Here’s hoping that in the future, the library trusts its own circulation numbers when gauging public interest in an invited speaker, and pays authors to appear.

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Leave the gun, take the book....

5/30/2014

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The Quiet Don has been the number one mob book in the U.S. since its release...also the number one non-fiction book in various library systems across the country, including this one:

From Times-Tribune (May 2014)

Here are the most requested adult nonfiction books in
the Lackawanna County Library System.

1. “The Quiet Don,” by Matt Birkbeck: A look at the life of Russell Bufalino.

2. “Killing Jesus,” by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard: Author of “Killing Kennedy”
takes a look at the execution of Jesus.

3. “Proof of Heaven,” by Eben Alexander: Dr. Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon, tells of
his near-death experience after being in a coma for seven days.

4. “Zealot,” by Reza Aslan: A historical look at Jesus and first century Palestine.

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Odds and Ends: Dateline Finds a Witness, Pirro to Pen a Book, and Did DeGuerin Really Deny That?

Married to the EIC

FINALLY

"Murders and Motives" on Investigation Discovery Channel

PAID NOT TO SPEAK, PART II

For U.S. Rep. Tom Marino, Silence is Golden

Playboy Magazine piece on Denny McLain

PBS History Detectives Sheds Light on Hoffa Disappearance

Scranton Times-Tribune Editorial

Leave the gun, take the book....

Matt Birkbeck's Blogspot

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