Crime & Law Enforcement

For six years, Joseph Pistone worked undercover for the FBI to investigate the Mafia. His testimony helped convict over one hundred people, including those involved with the Pizza Connection heroin operation. His new memoir is titled Donnie Brasco -- the name he used when working with crime families.

Organized crime groups in China, called triads, have become some of the biggest forces in the international heroin trade. Writer Gerald Posner links their rise to the power vacuum left by the Sicilian mafia, as well as the policing policies of Chinatowns throughout the U.S. Posner's book about the subject is called Warlords of Crime.

John Hubner, co-author with Lindsey Gruson of the book Monkey on a Stick, talks to Fresh Air about Krishna Consciousness in the 1960s. Led by Indian guru Swami Prabhupada and disciples like Kirtananda Swami Bhaktipada -- nee Keith Ham -- the movement's growth was accompanied by scandal, crime, and murder.

Journalist Elaine Shannon's new book, Desperados, looks at the international impact of the illegal drug trade. She says that major banks and state governments have been complicit in drug trafficking by accepting bribes and laundering money. The U.S. government has faced difficulty curtailing these crimes, in part because of its desire to maintain diplomatic relations with the countries involved.

Vachss is based in New York and specializes in child abuse cases. His work extends into his crime fiction, which follows an unlicensed detective named Burke. Vachss also helped manage a juvenile prison.

Errol Morris thinks of himself as much a detective as a documentary filmmaker. Known for his off-beat subjects, he's adopted a more serious tone with his new movie, The Thin Blue Line, about a murder investigation in Dallas. Errol believes the man sentenced to death for the crime, Randall Dale Adams, is innocent.

Investigative reporter Ralph Blumenthal's new book takes a look at what the FBI called "the pizza connection": a heroin smuggling operation spearheaded by the Italian mafia in the United States. Pizza restaurants were used as drug fronts.

George Cadwalader. A former Marine captain who was wounded in Vietnam, Cadwalader founded and ran the Penikese Island School for hard-core delinquent boys on a remote island off the coast of Massachusetts. It was run in a strict manner and used the techniques of survival schools like Outward-Bound, hoping to re-build character. But Cadwalader found that almost all of the boys ended up back in prison when they left the school.

Mike McAlary, a reporter for the New York paper Newsday. His book Buddy Boys reveals the drama behind one of the biggest New York City police corruption scandals since Serpico. Buddy Boys is the story of how two corrupt cops, Harry Winter and Tony Magno, consented to inform on fellow officers who were routinely robbing drug dealers and then selling the drugs.

The jazz musician served time for crimes related to his heroin addiction. He left prison with his chops intact--he was often able to practice sax and perform for his fellow inmates.