Fredric Dannen

Fredric Dan­nen is a jour­nal­ist and author with a spe­cial­ty in crim­i­nal jus­tice. He has been a staff writer for the New York­er and Van­i­ty Fair.

In 1990, Hit Men, his book about the Amer­i­can music indus­try and the influ­ence of orga­nized crime, spent a month on the New York Times best­seller list. Bill­board award­ed it sec­ond place in its list of “The 100 Great­est Music Books of All Time.” One of Dannen’s Van­i­ty Fair arti­cles prompt­ed the Sixth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals to rebuke the U.S. Jus­tice Dept. for fraud­u­lent­ly with­hold­ing excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence in the case of Cleve­land auto work­er John Dem­jan­juk, who was extra­dit­ed, wrong­ly con­vict­ed, and sen­tenced to hang in Israel as the Nazi war-crim­i­nal “Ivan the Ter­ri­ble.” He secured the only inter­view giv­en by Los Ange­les police chief Daryl Gates on the heels of the infa­mous Rod­ney King beat­ing, and the only inter­view ever giv­en by crime boss Loren­zo Nichols, the crack king­pin of New York City.

While con­duct­ing research for a forth­com­ing book, Dan­nen uncov­ered lost evi­dence in the case of Calvin Wash­ing­ton, a Tex­an wrong­ly con­vict­ed of homi­cide. As the direct result of Dannen’s efforts, Calvin Wash­ing­ton won a full par­don for inno­cence, the first ever grant­ed by Texas gov­er­nor Rick Per­ry under the state’s DNA statute.