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    Busted: A Tale of Corruption and Betrayal in the City of Brotherly Love
    Unavailable
    Busted: A Tale of Corruption and Betrayal in the City of Brotherly Love
    Unavailable
    Busted: A Tale of Corruption and Betrayal in the City of Brotherly Love
    Ebook266 pages3 hours

    Busted: A Tale of Corruption and Betrayal in the City of Brotherly Love

    By Wendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    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. 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 11, 2014
    ISBN9780062085467
    Author

    Wendy Ruderman

    A reporter at the Philadelphia Daily News, Wendy Ruderman has worked at several media outlets, including the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, WHYY-TV and WHYY-FM, the Trenton Times, the Associated Press, and the Bergen Record.

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    Reviews for Busted

    3.5/5

    13 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A great story about a story. The book traces the background that lead to the Pulitzer Prize winning story of Tainted Justice. The reporters uncovered corruption and bad cops in the Philadelphia police department.
    • 4/5
      A really great read that you can't put down. The first thing I thought of after reading this was just how important paper investigative journalism is and has been in fighting for the people. If it becomes a lost art who will uncover corrupt police officers and politicians and other high level wrongdoings all that go unchecked because the common folk have very little chance of going against the machine and are usually scared. Well it is good to know that Ruderman and Laker are always trying to uncover the dark secrets of my city Philadelphia.
    • 4/5
      o