Joan Renner, a writer and social historian, authored The First with the Latest: Aggie Underwood, the Los Angeles Herald, and the Sordid Crimes of a City. The L.A. Weekly selected the book as one of the top ten true crimes books about the city. She contributed to the Los Angeles Times bestseller LAPD ‘53, written by James Ellroy and Glynn Martin. Her work has appeared in true crime anthologies, and she has written for Los Angeles Magazine. Joan is an expert on historic Los Angeles crime and has given presentations to private groups and professional organizations. She has spoken at three annual meetings of the Southern California Association of Fingerprint Officers. Since 2009, she has appeared on over 60 true crime TV shows and podcasts: City
I'm an author, journalist and teacher at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. I love telling stories never told before! (Author photo by Laura Duldner.)
Nicholas Evan Sarantakes is a historian specializing primarily in U.S. military, diplomatic, and political history during the World War II and Cold War eras. He is an associate professor in the Department of Strategy and Policy at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.
Jesse Kornbluth was an American magazine writer and author. His book Notes from the New Underground is an anthology of articles he compiled from counterculture newspapers. He also wrote Airborne, a biography of Michael Jordan, and Highly Confident: The Crime and Punishment of Michael Milkin. His articles appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, and many other magazines. He was a graduate of Harvard University.
Jordan R. Samuel, the breakout author of The Broad River Trilogy and The Wings Saga, provides captivating dramatic series through which readers are introduced to the beauty of North Carolina's Blue Ridge Appalachia Mountains. Compelling characters, heartbreaking dilemmas, and meaningful journeys make up each of these stories, as Jordan weaves elements of romance, suspense, and historical perspective in creating breathtaking literary experiences. Jordan lives near Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband, John, and is a fulltime professor at Queens University of Charlotte. While not teaching or writing, she enjoys traveling across the country to visit their three children, as well as exploring new locations abroad. For more information, p
Jack Webb's tight-lipped portrayal of Sgt. Joe Friday on the radio and television series "Dragnet" set the tone for a generation of police dramas.
Over the years Webb had achieved considerable success as the producer of such television shows as "Emergency" and "Adam 12," and as the star of such motion pictures as "Pete Kelly's Blues" and "The D.I."
But he remained best known to the public as the stone-faced Los Angeles Police detective of the 1950s and 1960s who greeted audiences each week with a terse: "My name is Friday... I'm a cop."
During the shows Friday and a succession of partners labored through investigative interviews frequently cut short by the request, "Just the facts, ma'am."
The immensely popular shows, which strove more for auth
