Jerry Clark retired as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2011 after twenty-seven years in law enforcement, including careers as a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. He received a PhD in public service leadership from Capella University, an MA in forensic psychology from the City University of New York John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and a BA in psychology from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Clark is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he is also co-owner of Clark & Wick Investigations LLC. He lives with his wife and two children in Erie.
Ed Palattella joined the Erie Times-News, in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1990. He has won a number of awards, including for his investigative work and coverage of crime. He arrived in Erie after reporting for the Point Reyes Light in Marin County, California. Palattella received an MA in journalism from Stanford University and a BA in English literature from Washington University in St. Louis. He lives with his wife and two children in Erie.
Clark and Palattella are the coauthors of Pizza Bomber: The Untold Story of America’s Most Shocking Bank Robbery, and A History of Heists: Bank Robbery in America. As a special agent with the FBI, Clark led the investigation of the Pizza Bomber case in Erie, Pennsylvania, which was FBI Major Case 203. Palattella covered the case as a reporter for the Erie Times-News. He continued to hear regularly, by phone, from the incarcerated Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong until shortly before her death in April 2017.