Judyth Vary Baker was a teenage science prodigy who caught the attention of the top cancer researchers in the country, including Dr. Alton Ochsner – past president of the American Cancer Society and head of the prestigious Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans.

In the summer of 1963 Judy accepted a summer job at the Oschner Clinic in return for a promise to enter Tulane Medical School in the Fall. Arriving in New Orleans – a city she had never been to before – she learned that instead of working on a cure for cancer, she was actually there to help create a bioweapon – a fast-acting cancer virus for the purpose of killing Cuban leader Fidel Castro. This top-secret project put her in the company of prominent medical researcher Dr. Mary Sherman, the brilliant but bizarre David Ferrie, mobster Carlos Marcello, nightclub owner Jack Ruby, and a charming young man named Lee Harvey Oswald with whom she fell in love.

Two days before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Lee confided to Judyth that he suspected he was being set-up to take the blame for the death of the president – a crime that she claims he was trying to prevent. He also named some of the powerful figures involved in the conspiracy.

Emotionally shattered by Lee’s death at the hands of his old friend Jack Ruby four days later, Judyth was warned to keep silent and abandon her dreams if she wanted to live.

Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Investigative journalist and author Nick Bryant broke the story of high-level sex trafficking networks operating in the U.S. with his groundbreaking book "The Franklin Scandal" about a pederast ring based in Nebraska. Nick was one of the first journalists to break the Epstein story, and he lays out the common attributes of the notorious Franklin network and Epstein's more recent operations, and how both sought to minimize public awareness of underage victims.

He highlights key facts about Jeffrey Epstein: Why Epstein is likely only one purveyor among others; what's involved in bringing justice to his victims; and why the truth is coming out in what seems like an achingly slow fashion.

Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Laura Kern volunteered to join the U.S. Army's nurse corps in May 1968 at the height of the conflict in Vietnam. 22 years old, she remembers her first day in Vietnam as her most pivotal: "I just jumped off the helicopter with my bags looking for my supervisor...They wheeled a soldier by me missing both legs and one arm. They were blown off."

Laura talks about what it was like being one of 11,000 women who served in the war. Upon return, many of these women received a hostile reaction from their male counterparts, and suffered after effects from Agent Orange and PTSD. You can read more about Laura and her comrade's experiences in David Yuzuk's book, "Women in War."

Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

The ultimate insider in the world of espionage: 24-year CIA veteran Ric Prado has spent his life at the heart of the intelligence world as an Operations Officer through the end of the Cold War and the advent of the Age of Terrorism. After serving around the world, he was assigned to the Bin Laden Task Force and then led the Counterterrorism Unit, creating the special task force to combat terrorism post 9-11. In this episode, Ric lays out the challenge of stopping terrorist groups before they strike and how even after the disaster of 9/11, leaders and the intelligence bureaucracy still often err on the side of caution rather than preemptive action.

In his book “Black Ops,” Ric shares his personal story growing up as a Cuban refugee, entering the military, rising to the upper echelons of U.S. intelligence and even earning the CIA’s highest honor, a CIA Distinguished Career Medal. His life is a kickass example of the American dream.

Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Host Ralph Pezzullo is the guest this week—talking about his new book, “The Great Chinese Art Heist,” (Pegasus Crime.) Interviewed by renowned art theft expert Anthony Amore, Ralph breaks down the series of ‘pink-panther-like’ museum robberies of Chinese art and antiquities across Europe, and links them to the systematic looting and destruction during the Opium Wars of China’s famed Old Summer Palace.

Taking only what they perceive to be rightfully theirs—and often leaving valuable European artworks behind—It has become chic for Chinese billionaires to fund these art ‘reclamation’ thefts to demonstrate their patriotism, as they leverage the international criminal organization of the Chinese triads and their nefarious colleagues in different regions. Intimidated at running afoul of Chinese investment in their countries, their victims have done little to protest.

Pezzullo’s research also unearths China’s perspective that they endured a ‘century of humiliation’ at the hands of the west from the mid-19C to Mao’s Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, and that they are now pursuing “unrestricted warfare” aimed at Europe and the U.S. in their declared ‘Century of Revenge.’

“A treat for history buffs and caper fans alike!” – Publishers Weekly

Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

When the Vice-President of Iran invited Nizar Zakka to speak at a September 2015 conference – as CEO of a global tech NGO working closely with the U.S. government – he never hesitated, and promptly booked a flight from D.C. to Tehran. He never dreamed he’d end up in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison as a political prisoner, experiencing solitary confinement and repeated torture.

Following his speech at the conference, Nizar entered a taxi to take him to Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. En route his vehicle was pulled over by the infamous Iranian Revolutionary National Guard, and he was promptly seized and imprisoned.

Initially expecting the matter to be resolved in a matter of days, Nizar, a Lebanese citizen and legal U.S. resident, spent four years in prison. The U.S., led by the Obama administration, was wooing Iran at that time, and so didn’t go to bat for the release of a non-citizen resident of the U.S.-- even one that worked closely with government agencies focused on the Middle East. There was little progress or hope until Nizar began organizing his campaign for release from behind bars. With a big assist from his sister and the first Trump administration, he finally won his release.

Nizar now runs an organization called Hostage Aid Worldwide, dedicated to the release and support afterward for victims of unfair political imprisonment around the world.

Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Author Tom Sileo tells the inspiring story of the late Michael Ollis, one of thousands of young men who followed their fathers into the military. On August 28, 2013, Ollis, Staten Island native and 10th mountain soldier, was serving at Forward Operating Base Ghazni, a joint force partner mission with the Polish military. During a sneak attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest and Sgt. Ollis threw himself in front of Polish comrade, Karol Cierpica, whom he’d only met and fought side-by-side with minutes earlier. His selfless action saved the life of Cierpica and many others.

Celebrated to this day in the U.S. and especially his hometown of Staten Island, Ollis was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (the highest honor in the U.S. Army) and–perhaps even more remarkably–was honored by the Polish military as well, and is considered a hero in that country as well. Ollis’s family later met and embraced Cierpica (the man he saved) as family, and Cierpica named his son after Michael.

In his book, “I Have Your Back,” military author and expert on the Global War on Terror, Sileo honors one of America’s more recent heroes.

Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Born in Hawaii shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Wade Ishimoto grew up to help found the storied Delta Force special operations group. Wade shares the story of his amazing career in U.S. Army intelligence starting in Vietnam, to the planning of the failed 1980 mission to rescue the U.S. hostages from Iran. He describes what it was like to be on the ground in the desert of Iran when Operation Eagle Claw was compromised and ended in tragedy.

Author of “The Intoku Code,” Wade has lived his life following the precept, “Do good in secret.”

We’re honored to have Wade Ishimoto join us.

Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com