The Author Trap: Inside The Scheme Selling Lies to Hopeful Writers

When Liberty German and Abigail Williams, two young girls from a small Indiana town, tragically lost their lives in February 2017, a nationwide manhunt ensued for the “man on the bridge.” After a five-year investigation, a suspect was finally arrested. Brandi Churchwell, host of 13th Juror, traces the long, difficult path to answers, the arrest of Richard Allen, and how the prosecution assembled its case.

Michael Esposito hired 50 journalists, promised them a dream job, and disappeared without paying a dime. Years later, he resurfaced under various new names, taking tens of thousands from couples on their wedding day. But one of his early victims never let it go in their attempt to unmask the scammer who just wouldn’t stop.

In 1985, a priceless painting vanished from a university museum in Arizona. The FBI had no leads. 32 years later, it turned up behind a bedroom door in a suburban New Mexico home. Turns out the retired couple living there may have pulled off one of the most audacious art heists of the 20th century.

The story of a Syrian-American blogger whose posts during the Arab Spring captured hearts around the world—including a woman in Montreal who believed she was falling in love. But Amina Arraf, the author of Gay Girl in Damascus, wasn’t real. She was a hoax. So how did so many people, including news organizations and governments, fall for it? And at what cost?

In 2012, a Ukrainian man enrolled at a high school in Pennsylvania, pretending to be a teenage prodigy named Asher Potts. He made the honor roll and became a local hero. Until the day police showed up in class and arrested him. The immigrant who scammed his way into the American dream.