Busted: A Tale of Corruption and Betrayal in the City of Brotherly Love Author: Wendy Ruderman | Language: English | ISBN:
B00DB2YN02 | Format: PDF
Busted: A Tale of Corruption and Betrayal in the City of Brotherly Love Description
In the vein of Erin Brockovich, The Departed, and T. J. English's Savage City comes Busted, the shocking true story of the biggest police corruption scandal in Philadelphia history, a tale of drugs, power, and abuse involving a rogue narcotics squad, a confidential informant, and two veteran journalists whose reporting drove a full-scale FBI probe, rocked the City of Brotherly Love, and earned a Pulitzer Prize .
In 2003, Benny Martinez became a Confidential Informant for a member of the Philadelphia Police Department's narcotics squad, helping arrest nearly 200 drug and gun dealers over seven years. But that success masked a dark and dangerous reality: the cops were as corrupt as the criminals they targeted.
In addition to fabricating busts, the squad systematically looted mom-and-pop stores, terrorizing hardworking immigrant owners. One squad member also sexually assaulted three women during raids. Frightened for his life, Martinez turned to Philadelphia Daily News reporters Wendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker.
Busted chronicles how these two journalists—both middle-class working mothers—formed an unlikely bond with a convicted street dealer to uncover the secrets of ruthless kingpins and dirty cops. Professionals in an industry shrinking from severe financial cutbacks, Ruderman and Laker had few resources—besides their own grit and tenacity—to break a dangerous, complex story that would expose the rotten underbelly of a modern American city and earn them a Pulitzer Prize. A page-turning thriller based on superb reportage, illustrated with eight pages of photos, Busted is modern true crime at its finest.
- File Size: 1497 KB
- Print Length: 264 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0062085441
- Publisher: Harper (March 11, 2014)
- Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00DB2YN02
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,932 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #3
in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > True Accounts > Organized Crime - #4
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Sociology > Urban - #4
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Americas > United States > State & Local > Mid-Atlantic
- #3
in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > True Accounts > Organized Crime - #4
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Sociology > Urban - #4
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Americas > United States > State & Local > Mid-Atlantic
If you have ever wondered why newspaper reporters continue to work for low pay, under terrible conditions, and in an industry that is reportedly on hospice, then this excellent book will tell you. Especially one line on page 72. "Barbara (Laker) began to feel the endorphins of a reporter's high, a blend of panic attack, sugar rush, too much caffeine, and great sex."
Ms. Laker and her "slime sista" colleague, Wendy Ruderman, demonstrate while we need newspapers willing to commit to investigative reporting. This fast paced, easy to read book shows that some times the only thing protecting the public from corrupt officials is reporters willing to take risks, absorb physical and mental abuse, and make sacrifices that can damage their personal lives.
Ms. Laker and Ms. Ruderman are reporters for the Philadelphia Daily News, a feisty tabloid proud to be known as The People Paper. The Daily News, and its sister broadsheet,The Philadelphia Inquirer, are struggling financially like all other big city papers. As the two work on their "Tainted Justice" series of stories, rumors abound that the papers will be sold or the Daily News shuttered or some other disaster awaits just after the next edition. They must put aside this daily dose of despair and focus on what they know how to do; follow a story wherever it takes them. And this is quite a story indeed.
It is filled with real life characters right out of Damon Runyon.
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