FBI Retired Case File Review

Retired agent Garland Schweickhardt reviews a case where he went undercover during a five-year sting targeting organized crime influence over labor unions in the film industry. Garland posed as a producer who wanted to make a non-union film. The case was made into an actual Hollywood feature film, The Last Shot, starring Alec Baldwin as Garland Schweickhardt and Matthew Broderick as the screenwriter/director unaware that the producer was really an undercover FBI agent.

Retired agent Scott Duffey reviews a bank robbery case involving a Russian national that morphed into a strange murder investigation. In the process of gathering evidence on the bank robbery, Scott discovered that just days before the bank was robbed the bank robber's mother had gone missing. She had arrived in the U.S. from Russia to visit her son. Approximately five months later, her lower body and partial skull were discovered.

Retired agent Lauren Anderson reviews the assistance provided by the FBI to the Moroccan government directly after the 2003 Casablanca bombings when she was LEGAT Paris. The attack resulted in 41 fatalities at five different sites throughout the city. Later in her career, Lauren was charge of the International Terrorism Branch of the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Retired agent Peter Welsh reviews his 1974 investigation of the kidnapping of 12-year-old Jan Broberg who was abducted by Bob Berchtold, a trusted and close family friend. Pete Welsh spent three years trying to unravel the bizarre twist and turns of the case. Pete was interviewed on camera for the Netflix documentary, Abducted In Plain Sight, about the Jan Broberg kidnapping.

Former agent Ali Soufan reviews his investigation into the attack on the USS Cole where suicide terrorists exploded a small boat alongside the Navy Destroyer, killing 17 American sailors and injuring many more, the events surrounding 9/11, his bestselling book The Black Banners, and the 10-part television series The Looming Tower in which he and his work are portrayed.

Special Agent Cerena Coughlin, an FBI recruiter for the Philadelphia Division, provides answers to questions about the FBI sent in by FBI Retired Case File Review listeners interested in applying to become analysts and specials agents with the FBI.  All potential FBI Special Agent candidates must start the application process online at FBIJobs.gov.

Retired agent Bob Clifford reviews an extra-territorial jurisdiction case from early in his career when he was assigned as a technical adviser embedded with a Bolivian police counter-terrorism team to capture the terrorist responsible for the murder of two Mormon missionaries and the attempted assignation of U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz.

Retired agent Debra LaPrevotte reviews the initiation of the FBI’s Kleptocracy program, seizing more than $1 billion from corrupt foreign officials, including the recovering $630 million of Nigerian government funds stolen by a former President of Nigeria, serving as a forensic scientist on an FBI Evidence Response Team (ERT), and training at the “body farm.”

Retired Agent Bill Plunkett reviews the 1929 Bureau of Investigation case featuring the mysterious death of an attractive young nurse found semi-nude in her apartment with a pajama cord around her neck. The case was initially investigated by the Metropolitan Police, but after a public outcry when the death was ruled a suicide, the Bureau was asked to step in and re-do the investigation.

Retired agent Bob Herndon reviews an anti-trust corporate fraud investigation involving a price-fixing scheme to steal millions of dollars from the customers of global food processing company. Herndon also discusses Mark Whitacre, his rogue cooperating witness who had a hidden agenda that nearly destroyed the careers of Herndon and his co-case agent. The case was the subject of the true crime thriller The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald and a feature film by the same name, starring Matt Damon.

Retired agent Bob Herndon reviews a corporate fraud investigation involving ADM, a global food processing corporation operating a price-fixing scheme to steal millions of dollars from its customers. Herndon also discusses Mark Whitacre, his rogue cooperating witness who had a hidden agenda that nearly destroyed the careers of Herndon and his co-case agent. The case was the subject of the true crime thriller The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald and a feature film by the same name starring Matt Damon.

Eric Hunley, the host of Unstructured, interviewed me on his show in November 2018 and was kind enough to allow me to post the episode on my FBI Retired Case File Review podcast feed. Eric and I talk about a variety of topics. We had a great time. I hope you enjoy learning a little more about my FBI career and interests.

Retired agent Judy Tyler reviews her hunt for fugitive Jack Saltarelli, fleeing a 20-year sentence for distribution of methamphetamine in Mississippi, and his subsequent cooperation in the take-down of a farmhouse meth lab in the Pocono mountains, resulting in the arrest of nine individuals.

Retired agent Eugene Casey reviews Operation Utah Powder, an advance fee case that morphed into a Colombian drug money laundering investigation resulting in numerous international convictions and for which he received a distinguished service medal from the Salt Lake City Police Department.

Retired agent Bill Vanderpool reviews his experience as a principle firearms instructor and years of research regarding the evolution of the bureau’s firearms, equipment, training facilities, and tactics. His book, Guns of the FBI: A History of the Bureau’s Firearms and Training, is a comprehensive study for history buffs and gun collectors.