ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing a book, like FBI undercover work, is hard, especially your first time out of the chute. Like novice FBI undercovers, you must rely on seasoned professionals who have been there before to teach and show you the way.

Thanks to the pros at WME, including Eric Lupfer and Mel Berger on the book side, Erin Conroy and Jill Gillett on the TV/film side, and Lisa Reiter at WME’s Speakers Bureau. Thank you, Eric, for giving me my first shot, and thank you, Jill, and Erin, for trying to make sense of the entertainment world, a world far stranger and more bizarre than my FBI world.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press Executive Editor Marc Resnick for making this book a reality, and for understanding what I am trying to do and how best to express it. Remember always that I love straight shooters.

Thanks to my coauthor and now good friend, Ralph Pezzullo, for the experienced and sound advice along the way. Your “grain of salt” theory has been my guiding light as I wrestle my way through this interesting journey. If nothing else, I can expect a few chuckles during our frequent phone calls. All the best.

Thanks to Lt. Detective Emmet B. Helrich (Ret. of the Burlington, Vermont, Police Department) for teaching me the right way to be a good cop, and for being a true friend and my blue mentor.

Thanks to Tom Suddath, a brilliant attorney but more importantly, thank you for your years of friendship since the days of improper use of the FBI car’s loud speakers. We have been together throughout professional good and bad times, and we always came out a little banged up but no worse for wear. Thank you for the introduction to Michael.

Special thanks to attorney Michael Sherman for whom, without a doubt, none of this would have happened. I cannot thank you enough for your sage guidance, steady hand, and your crystal ball of all things Hollywood. Thank you for your quiet and relentless work ethic on my behalf. Thank you for always putting me in the best position to succeed, even if I didn’t recognize it until much later. You are the consummate legal pro, with sharp elbows when needed and the no-nonsense truth when predators are lurking. I am forever in your professional debt.

A huge thank you to the FBI and all FBI Agents, especially street Agents past, present, and future, for letting me play cops and robbers alongside you for thirty-plus years. It was the professional ride of a lifetime, with so many crazy experiences and cases, but most of all, the crazy laughs. I miss it and all of you every day. Be safe. Godspeed.

Lastly, and most importantly, the biggest and most special thank you to my family for putting up with my sorry ass, while I ran around doing all this insane stuff … not knowing when I would be home or even where I was. To Rachel, thank you for being there every second of every day of every year. We done good. To James, Shane, Devon, Sam, and Lainey, thank you for reminding me of what matters most in life. Time for a new mystery ride.

From Ralph: Thank you Mike for granting me the honor of sharing his amazing and inspiring story with the public. The world needs more brave, dedicated people like you, my friend! My great appreciation also goes out to our agents, Eric Lupfer and Mel Berger; Marc Resnick and the talented professionals at St. Martin’s Press; and especially my wife, Jessica, and my children—John, Michael, Francesca, and Alessandra—for their love and support.