The Opperman Report'

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Betty Medsger : The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBIThe never-before-told full story of the history-changing break-in at the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, by a group of unlikely activists—quiet, ordinary, hardworking Americans—that made clear the shocking truth and confirmed what some had long suspected, that J. Edgar Hoover had created and was operating, in violation of the U.S. Constitution, his own shadow Bureau of Investigation.It begins in 1971 in an America being split apart by the Vietnam War . . . A small group of activists—eight men and women—the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI, inspired by Daniel Berrigan’s rebellious Catholic peace movement, set out to use a more active, but nonviolent, method of civil disobedience to provide hard evidence once and for all that the government was operating outside the laws of the land.The would-be burglars—nonpro’s—were ordinary people leading lives of purpose: a professor of religion and former freedom rider; a day-care director; a physicist; a cab driver; an antiwar activist, a lock picker; a graduate student haunted by members of her family lost to the Holocaust and the passivity of German civilians under Nazi rule.Betty Medsger's extraordinary book re-creates in resonant detail how this group of unknowing thieves, in their meticulous planning of the burglary, scouted out the low-security FBI building in a small town just west of Philadelphia, taking into consideration every possible factor, and how they planned the break-in for the night of the long-anticipated boxing match between Joe Frazier (war supporter and friend to President Nixon) and Muhammad Ali (convicted for refusing to serve in the military), knowing that all would be fixated on their televisions and radios.Medsger writes that the burglars removed all of the FBI files and, with the utmost deliberation, released them to various journalists and members of Congress, soon upending the public’s perception of the inviolate head of the Bureau and paving the way for the first overhaul of the FBI since Hoover became its director in 1924. And we see how the release of the FBI files to the press set the stage for the sensational release three months later, by Daniel Ellsberg, of the top-secret, seven-thousand-page Pentagon study on U.S. decision-making regarding the Vietnam War, which became known as the Pentagon Papers.At the heart of the heist—and the book—the contents of the FBI files revealing J. Edgar Hoover’s “secret counterintelligence program” COINTELPRO, set up in 1956 to investigate and disrupt dissident political groups in the United States in order “to enhance the paranoia endemic in these circles,” to make clear to all Americans that an FBI agent was “behind every mailbox,” a plan that would discredit, destabilize, and demoralize groups, many of them legal civil rights organizations and antiwar groups that Hoover found offensive—as well as black power groups, student activists, antidraft protestors, conscientious objectors.The author, the first reporter to receive the FBI files, began to cover this story during the three years she worked for The Washington Post and continued her investigation long after she'd left the paper, figuring out who the burglars were, and convincing them, after decades of silence, to come forward and tell their extraordinary story. The Burglary is an important and riveting book, a portrait of the potential power of non­violent resistance and the destructive power of excessive government secrecy and spying.https://amzn.to/48haHbjBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

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Juanita Broaddrick : You'd Better Put Some Ice On That: How I Survived Being Raped by Bill Clintonn 1999, Juanita Broaddrick burst into the public consciousness when she accused President Bill Clinton on national television of raping her in 1978 as he ran for governor in Arkansas. It was a TV appearance she dreaded and never wanted, but felt compelled to squash the rumors: it was rape. Now, with award-winning former investigative journalist Nick Lulli, she tells her story of survival; from the assault at the hands of the future president, to the veiled threats by a seemingly complicit presidential wannabe Hillary Rodham Clinton; Broaddrick believes now is the time to set the record straight and ensure victims everywhere are believed.https://amzn.to/4pYdWdXBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

George Jared : Witches in West Memphis: The West Memphis ThreeThis might be the most unjust prosecution in U.S. legal history. If you think what happened to Steven Avery in the true crime film, Making a Murderer, was shocking you will be completely appalled by what happened to three little boys and three teens in Arkansas in 1993. Three 8-year-old boys vanished from their West Memphis neighborhood one sunny afternoon. A day later their mangled, nude bodies are found in a drainage ditch. Police and prosecutors believe the killings are related to the occult. Three teens are arrested one month later. Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr. are convicted. There’s only one problem. Overwhelming scientific evidence proves they’re innocent and witness after witness has come forward to admit lies were told in court during the original trials. Award-winning journalist George Jared takes readers inside one of the most famous criminal cases in U.S. legal history. Witches in West Memphis gives a comprehensive insiders’ view into the West Memphis Three case. No journalist has written more stories about the case than Jared. The author recounts his firsthand court coverage, interviews with witnesses, research, and other information he gathered in the case. Those interviews include a Death Row interview with Damien Echols, interviews with Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr., and interviews with other suspects, including Terry Hobbs. He’s been credited in numerous documentaries including the Academy Award nominated film Paradise Lost III: Purgatory and the New York Times best seller Life After Death. Witches graphically recounts how three Boy Scouts – Stephen “Stevie” Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers – rode their bikes after school on a bright afternoon. Their bodies are found in a wooded area near their homes the next day. The manner of death and the way they were bound, ankle to wrist, made authorities think Satanists might have sacrificed the children. Echols, a troubled teen with a seedy past, was immediately identified as a possible suspect. His best-friend, Jason Baldwin, and another teen known to them, Jessie Misskelley Jr., are arrested June 3, 1993, and charged with murder. No real evidence tied the teens to the crime, but an error-riddled confession by Misskelley was the proof used to seal the verdicts in the case. Read how they, referred to as the West Memphis Three, toiled in prison for years as their case stagnated in the Arkansas judicial system. As time passed, overwhelming scientific evidence surfaced. Witnesses changed their statements. New suspects rose to the surface. No author, documentary filmmaker, or journalist has had more access in this case. Witches is written in an easy to read, narrative-style form. Grab a copy today.https://amzn.to/4qggfcPBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

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