Book Description

In October 2003 Paul Rico, a 78-year old retired FBI agent, was arrested and charged with the 1981 murder of a Tulsa Oklahoma based millionaire. Rico died a few months later in January 2004, before a trial or even a preliminary hearing could be held. An investigation by two retired agents proves two things: 1) he was a great agent and 2) he was not guilty. This is the true story of FBI Agent H. Paul Rico. The writers, Joe Wolfinger and Christophir Kerr, are both retired FBI agents and attorneys. They never met Rico. They are, however, both veteran investigators who made their bones by working the streets building complicated cases and winning difficult convictions. They appreciate first rate agents, like Rico, who take the risk of mixing it up with criminals and persuading some of them to cooperate with law enforcement or, as they used to refer to it when they were active agents, persuading them to "join America's team." When they began they were surprised at what they found and, more particularly, at what was missing. Over the past several years, they reviewed hundreds of court documents and public records, and conducted several hundred interviews. Ultimately, they were shocked at the total miscarriage of justice that surrounded and eventually consumed the Rico case. With the assistance of veteran newsman Jerry Seper, who helped reorganize and refocus the Rico story, the truth about the veteran agent is considerably different from what the public has been told or read in some newspapers, seen on the Internet or heard from some blustery Congressman. Wolfinger and Kerr repeatedly developed information that contradicts the "evidence" used in the case against Rico and show that the myth of his involvement in the 1981 murder was the concoction of two desperate Boston mobsters. More than that, they detail how the false charges that led to Rico's lonely death can only be explained by a perfect storm of corruption, ambition, raw politics and incompetence.