Interview with Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman

Barbara Laker, author of "Busted: A Tale of Corruption and Betrayal in the City of Brotherly Love"

Barbara Laker's Website

Barbara Laker a native of Kent, England, Barbara Laker came to the United States when she was 12. She graduated from the University of Missouri Journalism School in 1979. She worked for theClearwater Sun, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, theDallas Times-Herald and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer joining the Philadelphia Daily News in 1993. At the Daily News, she has been a general assignment reporter, assistant city editor and investigative reporter.

When Benny Martinez walks into the offices of the Philadelphia Daily News in 2008 to speak with reporter Wendy Ruderman, the paper is on the brink of bankruptcy. What he tells Wendy and her colleague Barbara Laker is too shocking to ignore: his career as a confidential informant for a member of the Philadelphia Police Department’s narcotics squad has drawn him into a web of corruption, and now Benny is afraid for his life.

Busted is Ruderman and Laker’s riveting account of their investigation into the acts committed by powerful rogue members of the narcotics squad. By dint of perseverance, ingenuity, and good old shoe-leather reporting, the women unraveled a tapestry of lies. Starting with the discovery of fabricated search warrants, they soon find that the scandal encompasses a systematic looting of immigrant-owned businesses and allegations of brutal sexual assault.

When Ruderman and Laker produce a devastating series of articles that blows the lid off the scandal, they not only win the fight for justice. They also win a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, an unthinkable triumph for two city reporters at a beleaguered local paper.

Wendy Ruderman, author of "Busted: A Tale of Corruption and Betrayal in the City of Brotherly Love"

Wendy Ruderman's Website

Wendy Ruderman, born in Cane Place, NY and raised in Cherry Hill, NJ has been a newspaper reporter for more than 15 years. After graduating from Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) with a bachelor’s in communications in 1991, Ruderman earned a master’s from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1997. She worked in the statehouse bureau of The Trenton Times, Associated Press, and Bergen Record. She joined the Philadelphia Daily News in 2007. As of May 2012, she is the police bureau chief at the New York Times.

When Benny Martinez walks into the offices of the Philadelphia Daily News in 2008 to speak with reporter Wendy Ruderman, the paper is on the brink of bankruptcy. What he tells Wendy and her colleague Barbara Laker is too shocking to ignore: his career as a confidential informant for a member of the Philadelphia Police Department’s narcotics squad has drawn him into a web of corruption, and now Benny is afraid for his life.

Busted is Ruderman and Laker’s riveting account of their investigation into the acts committed by powerful rogue members of the narcotics squad. By dint of perseverance, ingenuity, and good old shoe-leather reporting, the women unraveled a tapestry of lies. Starting with the discovery of fabricated search warrants, they soon find that the scandal encompasses a systematic looting of immigrant-owned businesses and allegations of brutal sexual assault.

When Ruderman and Laker produce a devastating series of articles that blows the lid off the scandal, they not only win the fight for justice. They also win a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, an unthinkable triumph for two city reporters at a beleaguered local paper.

Steve Murphy, Executive Producer & Host