About the Author

Maurice Possley

is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who left the Chicago Tribune after nearly 25 years as an investigative reporter specializing in criminal justice. He was a journalist for 36 years and was a finalist for the Pulitzer three times for his work on wrongful convictions and wrongful executions. In 2008, he was part of a team of Tribune reporters who were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for their work investigating a series of articles on hazardous children's products. Their work prompted numerous recalls and led to the most comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in the history of the agency.

 

He is the author of three non-fiction books: Everybody Pays: Two Men, One Murder and the Price of Truth; Hitler in the Crosshairs: A GI's Story of Courage and Faith; and The Brown's Chicken Massacre. He has taught investigative journalism and covering the courts at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and the University of Montana's School of Journalism.

Michael Segal

Michael Segal was born and raised on the north side of Chicago. The son of a furrier, he received an undergraduate degree from Loyola University of Chicago. He began working full-time as a certified public accountant and at the same time attending DePaul University Law School where he obtained a law degree.

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After several years of providing outside financial services to a small brokerage, Near North Insurance, he was invited to join the firm as a business manager. Later, he became a partner there and ultimately assumed full ownership. Segal was an early pioneer in recognizing that insurance services were a non-tangible commodity that could be delivered and marketed through cyber-technology deliveries and services.

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Under Segal’s leadership, Near North Insurance grew from a small, storefront office into the nation’s fifth-largest independent insurance brokerage. Powered by a diverse and youthful team, Near North's business encompassed wholesale distribution, facultative reinsurance, structured settlements, and a motion picture guarantee company. The firm reported annual sales in excess of one billion dollars, supported more than 1,000 employees in eight U.S. cities and London, included numerous Fortune 500 companies as clients, and developed a wealth of specialized market segments.

the true story of a fictional crime

Conviction at any Cost

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