Gerald Posner

Gerald Leo Posner (born May 20, 1954) is an American investigative journalist and author of thirteen books, including Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK (1993), which explores the John F. Kennedy assassination, and Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1998), about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. A plagiarism scandal involving articles Posner wrote for The Daily Beast and his book Miami Babylon arose in 2010.[2][3][4][5] In 2015, the Chicago Tribune called Posner "a merciless pitbull of an investigator."[6]

Gerald Posner
Posner in 2013 in Miami
Born
Gerald Leo Posner[1]

(1954-05-20) May 20, 1954
San Francisco, California, U.S.
OccupationWriter
Spouse(s)Trisha Posner

Early life and education

Posner was born in San Francisco, the only child of Jerry and Gloria Posner. His father was Jewish and his mother Catholic,[7] and both were native San Franciscans. His father was a labor union official.

Posner was raised Catholic.[8][9] He was educated at St. Ignatius College Preparatory and graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, Berkeley in 1975. In 1978, he earned his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where he served as the associate executive editor for the university's Law Review.[10]

At age 23, he joined law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore as one of the youngest attorneys ever hired by the firm.[11] In 1980, he went into private practice with a partner. In 1981, he represented Deborah Ann Fountain, Miss New York State, against the Miss America pageant after Fountain was disqualified for padding her bra.[12] He left the law in 1986, when his first book, about Nazi Josef Mengele's life on the run, was published by McGraw Hill.

Journalism career

Mengele: The Complete Story

Posner's first book, co-written with British journalist John Ware, was the 1986 biography Mengele: The Complete Story. The book was the result of a five-year pro bono lawsuit that Posner brought on behalf of survivors of Mengele's medical experiments at Auschwitz.[13] Posner and Ware obtained exclusive access to 5,000 pages of Mengele's diaries and personal papers for their book.[14][15] The book was critically recognized as the "definitive" biography of Mengele.[16]

Posner testified before the United States Senate in 1986 about how Mengele used an International Red Cross passport to travel safely from Europe to Argentina in 1949.[17] He also testified about the discovery made by himself and Ware that Mengele had twice been captured by U.S. Army troops in 1945, but released both times before authorities realized he was on several wanted lists.[17]

In June 1986, Posner appeared with Mengele's only son, Rolf Mengele, on the Phil Donahue Show. Syndicated columnist Lewis Grizzard called the hour-long live program "an incredibly compelling piece of television journalism."[18]

Some of the content in Mengele: The Complete Story was utilized by the United States Department of Justice's Office of Special Investigations (OSI), which in February 1985 began an in-depth investigation into Mengele's post-war activities and whereabouts. The investigation, done in conjunction with the United States Marshals Service, was launched after allegations that Mengele was at any time in the custody of or had any relationship with U.S. government institutions or personnel after World War II. In its official report to the Attorney General of the United States in 1992, In the Matter of Josef Mengele, OSI noted it was indebted to Posner for obtaining a witness statement concerning Mengele's whereabouts from October 1945 to August 1, 1948.[19]

Warlords of Crime

In 1988, Posner published Warlords of Crime: Chinese Secret Societies: The New Mafia, an exposé of Triads and international heroin syndicates. Posner, and his wife, Trisha, traveled to Hong Kong, the Golden Triangle, the Netherlands, San Francisco, London and New York to conduct in-person research with drug traffickers.[13] Clarence Petersen, reviewing the book for the Chicago Tribune, commented, "Posner ... is persuasive for the facts he gathered, all the more so because his narrative is largely the story of how he got the story, what he was told by the criminals and by law enforcement agents here and abroad and, most persuasive of all, what he saw with his own eyes. He does not dramatize; he doesn't have to. The chilling story he unearthed speaks for itself."[20] Former New York detective and best-selling novelist, Dorothy Uhnak, wrote in The New York Times that "Warlords of Crime is powerful, frightening and, unfortunately, nonfiction."[21]

Touchstone Pictures purchased the film rights to Warlords of Crime.[22]

The Bio-Assassins

Posner's only novel is a biological warfare thriller set in the Cold War. According to Publishers Weekly, "Posner's first novel, a thriller whose development depends heavily on the author's convincing descriptions of the technology in intelligence work. The narrative works within the current conventions of its genre: principle is a mask for expedience; cynicism displaces conviction; proficiency implies virtue. But Posner, author of nonfiction works on Josef Mengele and Chinese secret societies, handles his material well. His descriptions move smartly; his characters, while somewhat two-dimensional, are convincing in their context; and his plot is constructed to satisfy demanding readers."[23]

Hitler's Children

Posner's 1991 book, Hitler's Children: Sons and Daughters of Leaders of the Third Reich Talk About Themselves and Their Fathers, included in-depth interviews with a dozen children of top Nazi officials. The book was also well received. Karen Stabiner wrote in her review for the Los Angeles Times, "This is a mesmerizing, blood-chilling book, a set of oral histories of the sons and daughters of 11 of Hitler's top men. It is barely possible to read more than a few pages at a time; the contrast between innocent childhood experience, and the awful understanding of that experience that came with time, is enough to make you weep."[24]

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt in The New York Times questioned whether Posner's book length treatment was necessary to study the children of Nazi perpetrators. "Perhaps it would have been more enlightening had Mr. Posner studied fewer cases more intensely, or even a single case from the most intimate point of view."[25]

Case Closed

In his 1993 book Case Closed, Posner contended that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of John F. Kennedy and Oswald's murderer, Jack Ruby, acted independently as well. Case Closed was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for History. It was also the subject of a double issue of U.S. News and World Report, and featured on programs such as ABC's 20/20, CBS Special Reports, and PBS's Frontline. The book was optioned for a television miniseries by David L. Wolper, the producer of the acclaimed miniseries Roots.[26] In his 2003 autobiography, Producer: A Memoir, Wolper cited his failure to get movies made of Case Closed and the Cuban Missile Crisis book, One Hell of a Gamble: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, as his two major career disappointments.[27]

In 1993, Posner testified before the Legislation and National Security Subcommittee of the United States House Committee on Government Operations about the findings in Case Closed.[28] In 1998, the Assassination Records Review Board briefly referenced this testimony in discussing two unsuccessful attempts to acquire the interview notes of two physicians, James Humes and J. Thornton Boswell, that Posner said he possessed.[29]

Case Closed generally drew critical acclaim from the media; the Chicago Tribune, the Toronto Sun, The Sydney Morning Herald and Newsday all cited Posner's "meticulous" research in their respective reviews.[30]

In his review for the Chicago Tribune, Jeffrey Toobin wrote, "Unlike many of the 2,000 other books that have been written about the Kennedy assassination, Posner's Case Closed is a resolutely sane piece of work. More importantly, Case Closed is utterly convincing in its thesis, which seems, in light of all that has transpired over the past 30 years, almost revolutionary. His thesis is this: Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy by himself. ... I started Case Closed as a skeptic—and slightly put off by the presumptuous title. To my mind historical truth is always a slippery thing. The chances of knowing for sure what happened in any event—much less one as murky as the Kennedy assassination—seem remote. But this fascinating and important book won me over. Case closed, indeed."[31]

Case Closed also drew widespread criticism from academics involved in assassination research as well as from non-academic assassination researchers who contended that it contained factual inaccuracies.[32][33][34][35][36] For example, historian David Wrone wrote that "massive numbers of factual errors suffuse the book".[33] Vincent Bugliosi, whose own book Reclaiming History largely agrees with Posner's conclusions, accused Posner of "omissions and distortions" but also described Case Closed as "an impressive work".[37] "He is perhaps public enemy No. 1 to members of what might be called the JFK conspiracy industry," wrote journalist Paul Galloway.[38]

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the assassination in 2013, Gallup released a national poll showing that while a majority (61%) of Americans still believed a conspiracy was behind JFK's death, the number of those who thought it was a lone assassin (30%) was the highest in 46 years.[39] Although some mainstream media commentators such as The Independent said that "for Americans, JFK will never be case closed",[40] others like The Economist cited "Case Closed" and concluded, "50 years on, face it, Oswald did it."[41] Historian Robert Dallek called Case Closed "authoritative,"[42] and said, "the best book on this subject is by a man named Gerald Posner, called 'Case Closed', I think he has responded very effectively to all the conspiracy theories, and there are so many of them."[43] Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, Hector Tobar wrote in the Los Angeles Times that Case Closed was "the book that cured me of JFK conspiracies once and for all."[44]

Case Closed continued to generate widely divergent views. Film director Oliver Stone told a JFK assassination conference in Pittsburgh that Case Closed was discredited and "there's nothing in the movie (JFK) that I would go back on."[45] Posner, on the day of the 50th anniversary, told CNN's Anderson Cooper that "the only thing he [Stone] gets right in 'JFK' is the date on which Kennedy is killed.[46]

Killing the Dream

As controversial and talked-about as Case Closed was Posner's 1998 Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Random House). The book concluded that confessed assassin, James Earl Ray, killed Martin Luther King Jr. acting alone, likely for the hope of collecting a racist bounty for the murder.[47] Among other portions of his book, Posner tracked down for the first time the mysterious "Raoul", fingered by James Earl Ray as the mastermind of a conspiracy to kill King and to frame Ray. After setting out to settle Ray's Raoul story, Posner challenged as a hoax the widely printed conspiracy story that Green Beret snipers from the 20th Special Forces Group were in Memphis on the day of the assassination.[47][48][49]

Killing the Dream was the largest private reinvestigation of the King assassination in 30 years.[50] As was Case Closed, Killing the Dream was widely praised and embraced by the mainstream press, and among the national broadcasts that featured the book included CBS 48 Hours, Charlie Rose and TODAY. Richard Bernstein in The New York Times wrote that the book was "the most comprehensive and definitive study of the King assassination to date. ... He [Posner] has rendered a valuable service by putting the King murder under his magnifying glass. One finishes this book reassured that no dark secrets remain, that no unexplained details need bedevil the national composure."[47] Two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and columnist, Anthony Lewis, in The New York Times Book Review, said, "With Killing the Dream, he [Posner] has written a superb book: a model of investigation, meticulous in its discovery and presentation of evidence, unbiased in its exploration of every claim. And it is a wonderfully readable book, as gripping as a first-class detective story."[49][51][52][53][54][55]

On the other hand, conspiracy theorists bristled at Killing the Dream, criticizing Posner for in part basing it on "a psychological evaluation of James Earl Ray, which he [Posner] is not qualified to give, and he dismisses evidence of conspiracy in King's murder as cynical attempts to exploit the tragedy".[56] William Pepper, Ray's final defense attorney, repeatedly dismissed Posner's book as inaccurate and misleading. Dexter King, one of Martin Luther King's sons, also criticized it.[57] In 1999, the King family, represented by Pepper, brought a civil lawsuit in which a jury found evidence of a conspiracy involving Loyd Jowers, the owner of a restaurant near the assassination site. In response to that verdict, Posner told The New York Times, "It distresses me greatly that the legal system was used in such a callous and farcical manner in Memphis. If the King family wanted a rubber stamp of their own view of the facts, they got it."[58]

Motown

Posner seemingly took a respite from assassination controversy in his 2002 book, Motown: Music, Money, Sex and Power, a business history of one of the most successful U.S. recording labels. The New York Times's Janet Maslin said the book was "actually a much more reputable book than its title suggests" and concludes that "Happily, Mr. Posner, a former Wall Street lawyer, has a good ear for tales, tall or otherwise. And he also assiduously digs into the business practices that turned the Motown story sour."[59] Most of the mainstream press echoed the San Francisco Chronicle which concluded that "Posner offers the most objective and thoroughly accurate history of the label to date, plus a detailed and complex portrait of its founder, Berry Gordy".[60][61][62] In his New York Times review of the 2013 Broadway show, Motown: The Musical, Charles Isherwood noted, "For a full and coherent history of Mr. Gordy's game-changing music factory, you'd need to check out Gerald Posner's engrossing book 'Motown: Music, Money, Sex and Power.'"[63] The criticism by some of Motown was that Posner was "tone deaf about music" but invariably noted that since he had written a business history, not a review of the label's music, "to his credit, Posner claims to be nothing more than a historian anyway ..."[64]

Why America Slept

In 2003 Random House published Posner's Why America Slept, which discusses the conspiracy of the al-Qaeda terrorists who were responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks. In the book, Posner claims that Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud had ties to al-Qaeda and advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. This assertion was strongly denied by Prince Ahmed's family, who pointed out that he in fact loved the U.S., spent time at his home there, and invested heavily in the U.S. horse racing industry. Prince Ahmed, two other Saudi princes named by Posner, and the chief of the Pakistani Air Force all died within days of each other from a blood clot after a simple operation, a car wreck involving only one vehicle, dehydration in the desert and a sabotaged helicopter explosion.[65][66] Three of the men were in their forties, and one in his twenties. In Why America Slept, Posner became the first journalist to reveal the details of a U.S. interrogation against one of the highest-ranking al-Qaeda suspects caught to date.[66] Why America Slept reached No. 2 on The New York Times Best Seller list.[67]

Secrets of the Kingdom

In his 2005 book Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Secret Saudi-U.S. Connection, Posner provides an account of the "close" business and personal relationship between the House of Saud and the U.S. government, including discussions of "dirty bomb" technology and the financial and political maneuvering surrounding 9/11. Posner also asserts that the Saudis have built an elaborate doomsday scenario around their oil fields. The Saudis have denied this, and some skepticism has been expressed about the plausibility of Posner's account of such a scheme.[68] According to Posner, he and his wife Trisha have been banned from entering Saudi Arabia as a result of the book.

Miami Babylon

This 2009 book explores the history of Miami Beach, with a particular focus on corruption, extravagance, and the drug trade. In a New York Times review, Byron Burroughs said, "Where Posner thrives is telling the stories of the first developers and artists who foresaw what Miami Beach would become and worked against all odds to build it." [69] Some of the individuals interviewed by Posner for Miami Babylon have complained of severe misquoting and inaccuracies.[70] Miami Babylon has been optioned for a television series.[71][72] The original name for the book was listed as American Babylon, but it was changed prior to publication.[73]

God's Bankers

God's Bankers is a 2015 book based on a 200-year history of Vatican finances and the Vatican Bank.[74] It became Posner's third New York Times bestseller (after Case Closed and Why America Slept) on February 22, 2015.[75]

In the New York Times, Damon Linker said that "God's Bankers provides an exhaustive history of financial machinations at the center of the church in Rome, from the final decades of the 19th century down to Pope Francis' sincere but as yet inconclusive efforts to reform the church's labyrinthine bureaucracy. ... From there Posner weaves an extraordinarily intricate tale of intrigue, corruption and organized criminality. ... The cumulative effect of Posner's detective work is an acute sensation of disgust—along with a mix of admiration for and skepticism about Pope Francis' efforts to reform the Vatican Bank and its curial enablers."[76] Trine Tsouderos wrote in the Chicago Tribune: "Wall-Street-lawyer-turned-author Gerald Posner lays it all out in his deeply researched, passionately argued book, God's Bankers." [6] According to Publishers Weekly, "Posner uses his superlative investigative skills to craft a fascinating and comprehensive look at the dark side of the Catholic Church ... Accessible and well written, Posner's is the definitive history of the topic to date." [77] Kirkus Reviews said, "A dogged reporter exhaustively pursues the nefarious enrichment of the Vatican, from the Borgias to Pope Francis ... A meticulous work that cracks wide open the Vatican's legendary, enabling secrecy." [78]

Booklist said that "A decade of exhaustive research into the deep and mysterious history of the Vatican's finances is a monumental task, but controversial author Posner proves more than up to this daunting challenge. ... It's a fast-paced read that brings history alive on every page. The book will captivate those who prefer their historical nonfiction spiked with real-life tales of murder, power, and intrigue."[79]

Some reviewers have noted that God's Bankers contains inaccuracies, the most serious of which is Posner's allegation in Chapter 11 that Bernardino Nogara, the wartime director of the Vatican's Amministrazione Speciale per la Santa Sede, was a Nazi intelligence agent. This allegation is based on his finding of a man named Nogara named in the interrogation report of Abwehr recruiter Reinhard Reme, which he suggests could only be Bernardino Nogara, who was therefore working for the Nazis throughout World War II. Dr. Marilyn Mallory, a scholar familiar with the pontificates of Popes Pius XI and Pius XII, rebutted Posner in a 2015 article in Inside the Vatican, asserting that the interrogation report, found in the National Archives in London, identifies the man as Bruno Nogara, a Venice school teacher who was arrested by the Allies in April 1945.[80] Faced with this evidence, Posner amended the paperback version of God's Bankers, now stating on page 137 that there were in fact two Abwehr agents named Nogara: Bruno Nogara and Branch Nogara, listed in Appendix C of Reme's interrogation report. Posner argues that it is Bruno Nogara, who is listed as a member of Abwehr Unit 257 under Reichsstatthalter Hubert Pfannenstiel, while Branch Nogara is listed under Abwehr Unit 254, commanded by Reichsstatthalter Ernst Schmidt-Burck. Thus, there were two different Abwehr units under two different commanders, and therefore two different Nogaras.

But The Tablet, a London-based Catholic journal, points out that the source cited by Posner, a copy of which can be read online,[81] clearly identifies Branch Nogara not as a person, but as the small town of Nogara located just north of the River Po, where Abwehr Unit 254 maintained its supply depot. According to The Tablet, there is no second person named Nogara.[82]

Citing disclosures in God's Bankers, Posner wrote an opinion editorial in the Los Angeles Times on February 13, 2015 calling on Pope Francis "to approve the release of the Vatican's Holocaust-era files in its secret archives. They probably contain not only answers to how early the Vatican knew about the Nazis' mass murder of innocents, but also crucially important documents from the Vatican Bank, founded in June 1942."[83] Subsequently, Posner started collecting online signatures in petitions to Pope Francis to release the Vatican Bank's World War II archives and the Vatican's Holocaust documents. Posner said that his goal was to get more than 1,000 signatures to present to Pope Francis when the Pope visited the U.S. in September 2015.[84]

PHARMA

Posner's history of the American pharmaceutical industry was published by Simon & Schuster imprint Avid Reader Press for March 10, 2020.[85] Kirkus said that the book is "A shocking, rousing condemnation of an industry clearly in need of better policing."[86] Literary Hub selected PHARMA as one of the "most anticipated books of 2020," and in a review, author John Freeman stated, "The cat’s out of the bag on this one, we all know pharma has been a disaster for many Americans, but Gerald Posner specializes in telling you what you don’t know: in his New York Times bestsellers like Case Closed and books like Hitler’s Children or God’s Bankers, what he has perfected is achieving the kind of disgust only a massive research dive can bring.... Posner has created a medical leviathan for our times."[87] Beth Macy, author of Dopesick, says that "I could not put down Gerald Posner’s Pharma, the definitive story of how one family, the Sacklers, set out to get exquisitely rich on the back of unsuspecting Americans—then blamed the so-called 'abusers' instead of their own highly addictive drug."[88]

Natasha Singer in The New York Times Book Review said the book was “A withering and encyclopedic indictment of a drug industry that often seems to prioritize profits over patients…[PHARMA] reads like a pharmaceutical version of cops and robbers." [89] The New York Times book review also selected Pharma as one of "11 Editor's Weekly Choices," calling the book, "This major work" [90]

PHARMA included extensive coverage of the opioid epidemic and the Sackler family. In STAT News Posner listed some of his new findings about the Sackler family, "I thought I understood the Sacklers’ opioid empire. Startling documents I found showed I was wrong." In WIRED, in "The Mom Who Took on Purdue Pharma for its OxyContin Marketing," Posner wrote about Marianne Skolek, who became an activist against Purdue Pharma and its narcotic painkiller, OxyContin after her daughter died of an overdose.

PHARMA was published the day before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. A week before publication, Posner wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times, "Big Pharma May Pose an Obstacle to Vaccine Development." He called COVID-19 "the ultimate test case for whether drug firms might at last become full partners in a public-private partnership."

Posner's penultimate chapter is titled "The Coming Pandemic". Biochemist Karen Bush told Posner in a 2016 interview that when it comes to the next pandemic, “It is not a question of if, it is a question of when.” The Dallas Morning News wrote that while "Long before coronavirus, Gerald Posner began writing ‘Pharma,’ which warns of ‘The Coming Pandemic.’ In Literary Hub, Posner wrote "On the Near Impossibility of Planning for a Viral Pandemic."

Editorial writings

Posner was a strong supporter of Al Gore during the 2000 presidential election, and wrote a Wall Street Journal editorial shortly after the 9/11 attacks reversing his opinion of George W. Bush.[91] Later he changed his opinion again; in October 2006, in "An Open Letter to the President",[92] published on The Huffington Post, he reverted to his original position that Bush was a bad president stifled by his stubbornness. He also wrote about investigative issues for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Talk, Newsweek, Time, the Miami Herald, and The Daily Telegraph. He was a regular contributor to NBC's Today Show, as well as other national shows on the History Channel, CNN, FOX News, and CBS. He was a frequent guest on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. A member of the National Advisory Board of the National Writers Union, Posner is also a member of the Authors Guild, International PEN, The Committee to Protect Journalists, and Phi Beta Kappa. He worked on all his projects with his wife Trisha Posner, who is also an author and artist.[93] Posner was the Chief Investigative Reporter for The Daily Beast, until he resigned over plagiarism charges in 2010.[94]

Film projects

Posner was a regular panelist on HistoryCENTER, the History Channel's weekly current affairs discussion program, from 2000 to 2002.[95] He has also had an on-air role in broadcast documentaries, including among others the 1993 Frontline "Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?"; "Who Killed JFK: The Final Chapter" (1994); "Hitler and Stalin, A Legacy of Hate"(1994); "The Secret KGB JFK Assassination File" (1999); "Jack Ruby on Trial" History Channel (2004); "Gangs of New York", History Channel (2002); "Conspiracy", TV Series (2004–05); "Beyond Biba – A Portrait of Barbara Hulanicki", (2009); "Roads to Memphis", a look at the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination, American Experience PBS, 2010; and "JFK Assassination: The Definitive Guide", History Channel (2013).[95][96][97]

Posner has also been a historical consultant on two Holocaust-related episodes – "Liberation and Revenge" and "Frenzied Killing", both in 2005 – of the documentary series "Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution'".[95][96] He was also the consultant to "Inheritance", a 2006 documentary about the story of Monika Hertwig and her effort to grapple with the enormity of the crimes of her father, Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp commander, Amon Goeth.[96] And in 2013, Posner was again the Historical Consultant, this time for PBS/NOVA "Cold Case JFK", an updated ballistics examination of the JFK assassination.[96]

Posner was also the consulting producer of the film documentary, "The Barrel of a Gun", by Tigre Hill, about the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer and the convicted murderer, Mumia Abu-Jamal.[96]

After graduating with honors from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1978, Posner moved from San Francisco to New York and started practicing law as a litigation associate at the New York–Wall Street law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore.[98] After leaving Cravath in 1981 he was a co-founder of the New York firm, Posner & Ferrara. It was there that he became involved in an ultimately unsuccessful 4-year pro bono effort on behalf of victims of concentration camp experiments against the West German government and the family of Nazi experimenter Josef Mengele.[98] After the publication of his first book about Mengele, Posner was "Of Counsel" to Posner & Ferrara.[99] In 2010 he began a series of high-profile client representations. Among them were three brothers of Afghanistan's then-president Hamid Karzai; Posner represented Mahmud Karzai, Qayum Karzai, and the so-called "King of Kandahar Ahmed Wali Karzai, who was assassinated in July 2011.[100] Posner also represented Haji Ruhullah, an Afghan security contractor described by "The Washington Post" as "a leading warlord in Southern Afghanistan." [101] Posner successfully defended Ruhullah against U.S. Army efforts to debar the Afghan from doing business with the U.S. government.[102] Posner also assisted other high-profile defendants. He advised Dr. Conrad Murray, charged with manslaughter in the death of pop icon Michael Jackson as part of a British documentary over Murray's role.[103] Posner provided pro-bono advice to Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer nicknamed in the press as the "Merchant of Death" and played by actor Nicolas Cage in the film, Lord of War. [104] According to Posner, his legal training has given him a "big" edge in his primary career as an investigative reporter and author.[98] Posner is a member of the New York and Washington D.C. Bars and the International Criminal Bar.[99]

Personal life

Posner is married to author and journalist Trisha Posner.[105]

Controversies

Plagiarism and quote falsification

In 2010, Posner was the chief investigative reporter at The Daily Beast. Following the revelation that a number of Posner's stories for the Beast contained portions plagiarized from articles in other publications, Posner resigned from the Beast.[94][106][107][108][109] According to Posner, the plagiarism was inadvertent and the result of the "compressed deadlines" of the Beast and confusing his assembled research with his own writing in the "master files" he assembled on each story. Allegations of plagiarism also surfaced concerning his book, Miami Babylon (October 2009).[110][111] Posner said the Miami Babylon plagiarism occurred because of a new system of "trailing endnotes", because an individual he interviewed read one of the plagiarized sources and reiterated it during the interview, and because he mistook other people's writing for his own after scanning source documents into a computer database.[112][113] The Miami New Times also found that Posner "seems to add, subtract, or misattribute quotes" and displayed a series of such "apparently altered or misattributed quotes".[111][114] For all the examples shown, Posner cited a source article, where an examination of the source showed that the quote given in Posner's writing was either substantially altered (e.g., words added), never said by the subject, misattributed, or used out of context.

Posner subsequently hired attorney Mark Lane, threatening litigation against the Miami New Times on grounds of tortious interference (i.e., that its investigation and reporting of this case damaged Posner's business relationship with his publishers) and emotional distress.[115][116][117] In a press release, Posner stated "Although I'm convinced Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy, I've always believed that had Mark Lane represented Oswald, he would have won an acquittal. That's why Mark Lane was the obvious choice as my own attorney."[115] Soon thereafter, the Miami New Times published evidence of additional plagiarism from multiple sources in both Secrets of the Kingdom and Why America Slept.[118] According to Poynter Institute senior scholar Roy Peter Clark, "This constitutes plagiarism by any definition I can think of. ... The capturing of someone else's material that is this extensive cannot, in my opinion, have been done accidentally."[119] Evidence was also presented indicating that Posner had repeatedly "scrubbed" elements of the journalism scandal from his Wikipedia page.[119] According to Posner, the media reports detailing his journalistic transgressions were actually the result of a "coordinated effort" to "discredit ... Miami Babylon" because of the book's "unvarnished and investigative history".

Harper Lee lawsuit

On May 3, 2013, Posner was named in a federal lawsuit brought by famed author Harper Lee in Manhattan. Lee claimed that Samuel Pinkus, her literary agent's son-in-law, tricked her into signing away her rights to To Kill a Mockingbird, directing the royalties to be paid into a corporation formed by Posner for that purpose.[120]

Before Posner filed an answer, he and one other defendant settled with Lee and were dismissed from the lawsuit.[121] The parties did not disclose the terms of the settlement.[121] Posner told the Miami Herald that, "I have always maintained that not a single contention about me in the complaint was accurate. I was simply the wrong person named in the wrong lawsuit."[122] And to Law360, he said, "I am gratified the complaint was dismissed. There was never any basis for this lawsuit against me."[123]

Bibliography
  • Mengele: The Complete Story (1986)
  • Warlords of Crime: Chinese Secret Societies – The New Mafia (1988)
  • Bio-Assassins (1989)
  • Hitler's Children: Sons and Daughters of Leaders of the Third Reich Talk About Their Fathers and Themselves (1991) ISBN 978-0-394-58299-3
  • Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK (1993) ISBN 978-0-679-41825-2
  • Citizen Perot: His Life and Times (1996) Random House ISBN 978-0-614-05801-7
  • Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1998) ISBN 978-0-375-50082-4
  • Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11 (2003) ISBN 978-0-375-50879-0
  • Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power (Music of the Great Lakes) (2003) Random House ISBN 978-0-375-50062-6
  • Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Saudi-U.S. Connection (2005) ISBN 978-1-4000-6291-1
  • Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth and Power – A Dispatch From the Beach (2009) ISBN 978-1-4165-7656-3
  • God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican (2015) Simon & Schuster ISBN 978-1-4165-7657-0
  • Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America (2020) Simon and Schuster ISBN 978-1-5011-5189-7

See also

References
  1. "Trisha D. Levene To Become Bride". The New York Times. March 18, 1984. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  2. Gerald Posner RESIGNS From Daily Beast Over Plagiarism Scandal by Danny Shea, The Huffington Post, February 11, 2010.
  3. 3 Lessons from Gerald Posner's Plagiarism Scandal by John Hudson, The Atlantic Wire, February 12, 2010
  4. Plagiarism Excuses. Taking—er, borrowing—a page out of the Gerald Posner playbook. by David Graham, Newsweek, February 11, 2010
  5. Amid book scandal, authors Gerald Posner and Frank Owen confront each other at Miami Beach Botanical Garden by Steve Rothaus, Miami Herald, April 2010
  6. "Review: God's Bankers by Gerald Posner".
  7. Posner, Gerald (2015). God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican. Simon & Schuster. p. xii. ISBN 978-1-416-57657-0.
  8. "Roger Stone - Stone Cold Truth Radio (Nov. 26th, 2016)", Stone Cold Truth, YouTube, event occurs at 1:16:40, November 26, 2016, retrieved November 27, 2016
  9. "Vatican Bank may be too corrupt for Pope Francis to save: Posner". Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  10. http://repository.uchastings.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1091&context=alumni_mag
  11. Posner, Gerald. "Gerald Posner". The Huffington Post.
  12. AP (May 21, 1981). "Beauty Contestant Seeks to Reverse Disqualification". Santa Rosa Press Democrat. p. 15A.
  13. "Gerald Posner: Cravath to Controversy – Bitter Empire". June 10, 2009. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  14. "Tiffany Polfer on Posner (1986)". Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  15. "How Nazi War Criminal Josef Mengele Cheated Justice for 34 Years," Chicago Tribune Magazine, May 18, 1986
    • "A fascinating account of Mengele's life on the run and the fruitless efforts to apprehend him." "Mengele: The Complete Story: A Review," by Harry Trimborn, Los Angeles Times Book Review, July 13, 1986, p. 9
    • "The book effectively paints a picture of a lonely, embittered Nazi. It knocks down decades of myths that Mengele was shielded by a protective squad of underground Nazis." "Book Review: Mengele, Entertainment, United Press International, July 18, 1986, BC Cycle
    • "The research is remarkable." "Escape for the Angel of Death, Mengele: The Complete Story," by John Gellner, The Globe and Mail (Canada), July 19, 1986, p. D17
    • "The Mengele story has now been told, excellently, by the authors of this book ..." Books: Evil of the Mediocre/Review of Mengele, by Norman Stone, The Sunday Times (London), August 31, 1986, Issue 8456
    • "Well researched and wonderfully free of all the customary fantasy and exaggeration ... Fascinating." "The Death Doctors," by Neal Ascherson, The New York Review of Books, May 28, 1987
    • "This highly engrossing book gives the fullest account yet published of Josef Mengele's life ..." "Mengele: Review," Publishers Weekly, June 1986
    • "It's a pity that the official search for him did not match the vigor with which Posner and Ware stalk their subject in print." Mengele: The Complete Story, Book Review Supplement, San Francisco Chronicle, July 1986.
  17. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 3, 2012. Retrieved December 16, 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  18. "A Riveting Program On 'Angel Of Death'". Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  19. "In the Matter of Josef Mengele" (PDF).
  20. Clarence Petersen (February 4, 1990). "Warlords of Crime: Review". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 9, 2015.
  21. Warlords of Crime: Review, by Dorothy Uhnak, The New York Times, Book Review, October 9, 1988, p. BR35
  22. "Outtakes: Coming to America," by Pat H. Broeske, Los Angeles Times, March 12, 1989, Calendar Section, p. 36
  23. "Review: The Bio-Assassins".
  24. Karen Stabiner (May 5, 1991). "Nonfiction". Los Angeles Times.
  25. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt (June 24, 1991). "Books of The Times; Nazis' Children Contend with Their Legacy". The New York Times.
  26. "The JFK Debate Gets 'Case Closed,' The Movie," Outlook: Science & Society, "U.S. News & World Report," November 1, 1993.
  27. David L. Wolper (2003). Producer: A Memoir. Scribner. p. 101.
  28. The effectiveness of Public Law 102-526, the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992: Hearing before the Legislation and National Security Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, first session, November 17, 1993. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1994. p. 26. ISBN 0-16-043551-X.
  29. Assassination Records Review Board (September 30, 1998). "Chapter 7: Pursuit of Records and Information from Non-Federal Sources" (PDF). Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board (PDF). Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. p. 134. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
    • The Toronto Sun, February 22, 1994: "In fact, I think all conspiracy theories are blown out of the water by Posner's meticulous research and careful conclusions."
    • The Sydney Morning Herald, November 27, 1993: "Painstaking re-examination of the greatest murder mystery of modern times: who killed JFK? It's no mystery concludes lawyer/journalist [Posner]: lone assassin Lee Harvey Oswald did it. And who would argue after reading this meticulous analysis, complete with graphics, illustrations and detailed appendices?"
    • Chicago Tribune, October 3, 1993: "Half of 'Case Closed' is a meticulous examination of Oswald's entire life, culminating in an almost day-by-day chronicle of his movements in the last two months before the assassination ... Its appeal lies both in its thorough, apparently even-handed research, and the fact that, following the publication in recent years of a near-constant stream of conspiracy books, 'Case Closed' may be the first by a respected author to argue persuasively for the Oswald-alone theory, a scenario most Americans dismissed years ago."
    • Newsday (New York), September 16, 1993: "Posner employs meticulous research to reach what counts as a novel conclusion: That, for all its flaws, the Warren Commission was right. Oswald killed JFK without help from anyone."
    • Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL), September 18, 1993: "Posner's exact and thorough destruction of the conspiracy theorists gives you Oswald the man, not Oswald the brilliant secret agent or Oswald the hapless patsy."
    • Florida Today, April 24, 2000: "The industry standard belongs perhaps to lawyer-turned- investigative reporter Gerald Posner, whose meticulous Case Closed in 1993 was an immersion into assassination minutiae."
    • Entertainment Weekly, Gene Lyons, September 24, 1993: "As thorough and incisive a job of reporting and critical thinking as you will ever read, Case Closed does more than buttress the much beleaguered Warren Commission's conclusion. ... More than that, Posner's book is written in a penetrating, lucid style that makes it a joy to read. Even the footnotes, often briskly debunking one or another fanciful or imaginary scenario put forth by the conspiracy theorists, rarely fail to enthrall. ... Case Closed is a work of genuine patriotism and a monument to the astringent power of reason. 'A'"
    • U.S. News & World Report, August 23, 1993: "He [Posner] sweeps away decades of polemical smoke, layer by layer, and builds an unshakable case against JFK's killer."
    • NYTBR (in the review of Norman Mailer's Oswald's Tale), April 30, 1995. "Gerald Posner's 'Case Closed' (1993), which argues with an awesome command of evidentiary detail that Oswald did it, period."
    • The Dallas Morning News, June 22, 1997: "More than three decades after the Kennedy assassination, there still are Americans who wonder. Gerald Posner's masterful study of that case should have laid those doubts to rest for thinking readers ..."
  31. Jeffrey Toobin (September 12, 1993). "Who Didn't Kill JFK?". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 9, 2015.
  32. John M. Newman (September 22, 1993). "'Case Closed' doesn't close the Oswald file". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved March 9, 2015.
  33. David R. Wrone. "Review of Gerald Posner, Case Closed.", Journal of Southern History 6 (February 1995), pp. 186–188.
  34. Peter Dale Scott, "A Review of Gerald Posner, Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK, Deep Politics II: Essays on Oswald, Skokie, Illinois, Green Archives Publications, 1995.
  35. Harold Weisberg, Case Open: The Omissions, Distortions and Falsifications of Case Closed, NY, Carroll and Graf, 1994.
  36. Martin Shackelford, "Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK, by Gerald Posner: A Preliminary Critique," The Investigator, August–September 1993.
  37. Bugliosi, Vincent. Reclaiming History, Introduction, p. xxxviii
  38. Galloway, Paul (May 18, 1998). "Killing Conspiracy Theories". Chicago Tribune.
  39. Inc., Gallup. "Majority in U.S. Still Believe JFK Killed in a Conspiracy". Archived from the original on August 1, 2016. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  40. Cornwell, Rupert (November 17, 2013). "For Americans, JFK will never be case closed". The Independent. London.
  41. "Face it: Oswald did it". The Economist. November 23, 2013.
  42. Joseph Palermo, "The 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Part One), The Huffington Post, November 8, 2013
  43. Video on YouTube
  44. Tobar, Hector (November 20, 2013). "The book that cured me of JFK conspiracies once and for all". Los Angeles Times.
  45. "Oliver Stone: There's nothing in 'JFK' I would go back on - CNN.com". CNN. November 22, 2013.
  46. "Remembering John F. Kennedy's Assassination 50 Years Ago; Crisis Inside Air Force One; Marina Oswald Porter Remarried Two Years After JKF's Assassination; Oswald's Widow Marina Opened Up To McMillan About Their Marriage; Fascinating Story of the Pink Suit Jackie Wore the Day JFK Was Assassinated; J.D. Tippit Was Shot Four Times By Lee Harvey Oswald". Anderson Cooper 360°. November 22, 2013. CNN. Archived from the original on December 12, 2013.
  47. Bernsteain, Richard (April 22, 1998). "'Killing the Dream': Ray Was King's Lone Assassin". The New York Times. Retrieved December 14, 2014.
  48. "Killing the Dream: A Review". Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  49. Lewis, Anthony (April 22, 1998). "Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt". The New York Times.
  50. Posner, Gerald (1998). "The Truth About Memphis". The Washington Post.
  51. "Writing in the clear, forceful manner of a reporter in total command of his facts, Posner has produced ... the definitive account of a landmark event." The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 1998
  52. "Prodigiously researched and painstakingly detailed. Savannah Morning News, May 1988
  53. "Combining fresh reporting with a careful review of the investigation, and using the common sense that is a scarce commodity in this field, Posner does for the King assassination what he did for the JFK killing in his book, 'Case Closed.'" USA Today, April 1988
  54. "'Killing the Dream,'a heavily researched and well-written examination of the facts by author Gerald Posner, strives to lay the question to rest, much to the chagrin of a cadre of conspiracy buffs. Posner succeeds." http://edition.cnn.com/books/reviews/9804/27/killing.the.dream.cnn/index.html
  55. "Posner's 'Killing the Dream; is a state-of-the-art review and reconsideration of everything that's known about Ray and the events that led up to King's assassination." "New 'leads' in King case invariably go nowhere," by David J. Garrow, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Perspective Section, March 29, 1998, pp. C1–2.
  56. "Martin Luther King". Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  57. William F. Pepper. An Act of State, rev. ed. (2008), Synopsis, by Mark K. Jensen, Scribd.
  58. Yellin, Emily (December 9, 1999). "Memphis Jury Sees Conspiracy in Martin Luther King's Killing". The New York Times.
  59. Maslin, Janet (January 2, 2003). "Books of the Times; Tales From Detroit's Other Industry". The New York Times.
  60. "Our editors recommend". Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  61. "An investigative journalist who keeps his narrative in fine rhythm, Posner details the dark side of the heavenly Motown sound"
  62. "Most of what Posner presents has been aired before, though seldom as relentlessly and with as much documentation. Like other '60s icons, Motown turns out to have had a side seamy enough to rival that of the Kennedys' Camelot. Posner roasts Motown to a turn to feed pop-culture fans' taste for destroying the idols they once worshipped. Delicious." Booklist, December 2012
  63. Isherwood, Charles (April 14, 2013). "'Motown: The Musical,' Berry Gordy's Story". The New York Times.
  64. "Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power by Gerald Posner". Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  65. "Confessions of a Terrorist". Time. August 31, 2003.
  66. "Interview with Gerald Posner: Why America Slept". Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  67. "The Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page". Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  68. With Friends Like These, by Thomas Lippman, The Washington Post, May 29, 2005
  69. Deco Meca, The New York Times, December 24, 2009.
  70. Miami Babylon backlash, backstabbing and bitchery by Lesley Abravanel, "Miami Herald", October 14, 2009.
  71. Plagiarist Gerald Posner Nabs TV Deal for Miami Babylon. Where's Our Check? by Tim Elfrink, "Miami New Times", May 27, 2010
  72. Gerald Posner’s Originality Pays Off Archived May 30, 2010, at the Wayback Machine by Hamilton Nolan, "Gawker", May 27, 2010
  73. Killing Three Dreams of the 1960s, Interview of Gerald Posner by Paul Totah, Genesis Alumnae Magazine, Winter 2008–2009, p. 19
  74. "God's Bankers at Simon & Schuster".
  75. "New York Times Bestseller Nonfiction Hardcover List for February 22, 2015".
  76. ""God's Bankers" by Gerald Posner".
  77. "Publishers Weekly Review of God's Bankers".
  78. "Kirkus Review of God's Bankers".
  79. "Booklist Review of God's Bankers".
  80. Mallory, Dr. Marilyn (March 1, 2015). "A Superficial and Biased Book on the Vatican Bank".
  81. "Image details – Interrogation report of Abwehr recruiter Reinhard Reme – The National Archives Image library".
  82. Patricia M McGoldrick, (October 10, 2015), The Tablet, London, 10 October 2015, p. 20
  83. "It's high time for Pope Francis to open the Vatican Bank's files".
  84. "God's Bankers – Interview with Author Gerald Posner, Part One".
  85. "PHARMA: Greed, Lies and the Poisoning of America at Simon & Schuster".
  86. "Kirkus Review of PHARMA".
  87. "Literary Hub review of PHARMA".
  88. "Advance Praise for PHARMA at Simon and Schuster".
  89. "New York Times Book Review of PHARMA".
  90. "April 26, 2020 "11 New Books We Recommend This Week"".
  91. I Was Wrong About Bush, The Wall Street Journal, 2001-09-25.
  92. Posner, Gerald (October 3, 2006). "An Open Letter to the President". The Huffington Post.
  93. "Trishaposner.com". Trishaposner.com. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
  94. The Posner Plagiarism Perplex, by Jack Shafer, Slate magazine, February 11, 2010.
  95. "Gerald Posner". The New York Times.
  96. "Gerald Posner". Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  97. "Shows". History Channel. Archived from the original on December 11, 2013. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  98. Gerald Posner: Cravath to Controversy, Bitter Lawyer, June 10, 2009.
  99. https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerald-posner-a93bb410
  100. What the Heck is Gerald Posner Doing in Afghanistan?, Foreign Policy, July 6, 2010.
  101. Corrupt Afghan trucking for U.S. military probed by Congress, The Washington Post, September 15, 2011.
  102. US fraud-fighting effort in Afghanistan criticized Archived March 7, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, NorthJersey.com, September 14, 2011.
  103. Gerald Posner interviewed by Matt Lauer on NBC TODAY show, August 19, 2009.
  104. Disarming Viktor Bout, The New Yorker, March 5, 2012.
  105. "Home". Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  106. Bustos, Sergio R. "Gerald Posner resigns from Daily Beast amid plagiarism allegations". Miamiherald.com. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
  107. Shafer, Jack (February 5, 2010). "Plagiarism at the Daily Beast: Gerald Posner concedes lifting from the Miami Herald". Slate.com. Slate Magazine. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
  108. More Posner Plagiarism, by Jack Shafer, Slate magazine, February 8, 2010.
  109. Daily Beast lifts from Salon – again Archived April 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine by Joan Walsh. April 1, 2010.
  110. Gerald Posner Plagiarized Several Passages in Miami Babylon, Author Says, by Tim Elfrink, Miami New Times, March 16, 2010.
  111. Gerald Posner plagiarized New Times, PBS, and many others, by Tim Elfrink, Miami New Times, March 30, 2010.
  112. Gerald Posner plagiarizes again, this time at book speed, by Tim Elfrink, Miami New Times, March 25, 2010.
  113. Posner Says He Failed to Source Material for Book, by Hillel Italie, ABC News, March 17, 2010.
  114. More Gerald Posner Plagiarism in Miami Babylon, From New Times, PBS, and Many Others, by Tim Elfrink, Miami New Times, March 30, 2010.
  115. Attorney Mark Lane Retained by Author Gerald Posner to Represent Him in Media Case, May 13, 2010.
  116. Gerald Posner Hires Rush to Judgment Author Mark Lane in Plagiarism Case, by Tim Elfrink, Miami New Times, May 13, 2010.
  117. Plagiarism Plagued Posner Hires Grassy Knoll Guru to Take On New Times, by Jessica Sick, "NBC Miami", May 13, 2010.
  118. Gerald Posner Plagiarized in Why America Slept and Secrets of the Kingdom, Research Shows, by Tim Elfrink, May 18, 2010.
  119. Posner Plagiarizes Again, by Tim Elfrink, May 20, 2010.
  120. Golding, Bruce (May 4, 2013). "'To Kill a Mockingbird' owner sues to reclaim copyright to novel". Archived from the original on June 7, 2013.
  121. "'To Kill a Mockingbird' author settles copyright suit against 2 defendants; terms undisclosed". Yahoo! News. Associated Press. September 6, 2013.
  122. http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/06/3609822/posner-off-the-hook-robin-thicke.html
  123. "Harper Lee Settles With Agent Over 'Mockingbird' Copyright". Law360. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
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