Matt Birkbeck

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Birkbeck in 2014 Journalist and author Matt Birkbeck.jpg
Birkbeck in 2014

Matt Birkbeck (born Brooklyn, N.Y.) is an American investigative journalist and author.

Contents

He is best known for his books A Beautiful Child (2004), which told the tragic story of "Sharon Marshall" and her "father" Franklin Delano Floyd, and the sequel Finding Sharon (2018), which is a memoir about his ten-year effort, along with the FBI and National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, to find Sharon's true identity. Both books were adapted by Netflix for the 2022 documentary Girl in the Picture , for which Birkbeck is executive producer.

He also wrote the critically acclaimed Deconstructing Sammy (2008) about the life of Sammy Davis Jr. and efforts to resolve his debts and his legacy following his death in 1990, The Quiet Don: The Untold Story of Mafia Kingpin Russell Bufalino (2013), about the influential Mafia boss Russell Bufalino, and he also authored A Deadly Secret (2002/2015), about New York real estate scion Robert Durst, who was accused of murdering his wife Kathie Durst and two others. [1] The book was adapted by Lifetime for the 2017 movie The Lost Wife of Robert Durst.

His latest book is The Life We Chose (2023), tells the story of William D'Elia, who was the former head of the Bufalino Crime Family and the so-called son and confidant to former mob boss Russell Bufalino.

Birkbeck has written magazine pieces and features for a variety of publications, covering the aftermath of the 2004 Super Bowl riots for Boston Magazine , the cross-country pursuit of a civil rights worker by white supremacists for the Philadelphia Inquirer , features for The New York Times , the Robert Durst investigation for Reader's Digest , the U.S. Secret Service prosecution of baseball legend Denny McLain and the Mafia for Playboy , and others.

Career

Birkbeck worked as a newspaper reporter first at the Pocono Record and then at The Morning Call , and also served as a correspondent for People magazine from 1998 to 2004 covering mostly crime and human interest stories including the 1999 death of John F. Kennedy Jr.,and the Robert Durst investigation. His reporting on the Robert Durst case led to the publication of his first book A Deadly Secret , which subsequently served as the guide for law enforcement in their pursuit of Durst. Following Durst's arrest in 2015, police found two copies of A Deadly Secret inside Durst's Houston condo. [2]

At The Morning Call [3] [4] [5] he covered the federal courts in the Middle District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and Allentown and wrote investigative stories.

His lengthy reporting from 2005 to 2010 on Pennsylvania's casino initiative exposed political corruption at the highest levels of state government, including then-Governor Ed Rendell and the state Supreme Court. [6] In 2009 Birkbeck was subpoenaed to testify before a special prosecutor appointed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to investigate alleged leaks in the prosecution of a businessman with alleged mob ties who was awarded a license to operate a casino. [7] Birkbeck's reporting on the case served as the basis of his bestselling book The Quiet Don: The Untold Story of Mafia Kingpin Russell Bufalino, which was published in 2013 by Berkley/Penguin.

Birkbeck joined niche business publisher Harrison Scott Publications in Hoboken, N.J. in 2010. HSP was sold to Green Street in 2020.


Books

Film adaptations

Girl in the Picture debuted on Netflix on July 6, 2022, and is based on A Beautiful Child and Finding Sharon . It was directed by Skye Borgman, with Birkbeck serving as executive producer. [8] A day after its release, it was Netflix's number one movie in the world, and remained there for several weeks. [9]

A Deadly Secret was adapted by Lifetime in 2017 for the movie The Lost Wife of Robert Durst . It starred Katharine McPhee as Kathie Durst and Daniel Gillies as Robert Durst.

Deconstructing Sammy was optioned for a feature film, documentary and scripted TV series by Byron Allen for his Entertainment Studios in 2015. [10]

Awards

Birkbeck received an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award in San Francisco in 2002 for his groundbreaking stories on mortgage fraud in the U.S. [11] He wrote a multi-part investigative series A Price Too High in 2001 that exposed how home builders, appraisers, mortgage companies and major banks conspired to defraud thousands of homebuyers, mostly minorities from the New York area, and forced them into bankruptcy and foreclosure. His reporting spurred numerous state, local and federal investigations, as well as Congressional hearings. The New York Times followed up his reporting with a lengthy feature in April 2004. [12] Birkbeck and the Pocono Record were sued for libel by a home builder in 2003, and the case went to trial in Monroe County, Pa. in 2010 before a jury, which ruled in favor of Birkbeck and the newspaper. [13]

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<i>A Deadly Secret: The Strange Disappearance of Kathie Durst</i> Book by Matt Birkbeck

A Deadly Secret: The Strange Disappearance of Kathie Durst is the true story of Robert Durst, the heir to a New York real estate dynasty who has been a person of interest in the missing-person case of his wife Kathie since her 1982 disappearance. The book was written by journalist and author Matt Birkbeck, and was published by Berkley/Penguin. A Deadly Secret was released in hardcover in 2002 and in paperback in 2003.

A Beautiful Child (ISBN 978-0425204405) is the best selling non-fiction book by author Matt Birkbeck, published by Berkley/Penguin in 2004 and in paperback in 2005. It tells the story of a young woman known by many names, including Sharon Marshall, who was kidnapped as a toddler and raised by a convicted felon, Franklin Delano Floyd. The book was also published in several foreign countries, including Denmark, Germany and Poland. A Beautiful Child spurred numerous websites dedicated to finding Sharon's true identity. Through suggestions from those sites along with reader suggestions from around the world, Birkbeck, in partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, conducted DNA testing on relatives of several girls who went missing in the early 1970s. World-wide interest in the book kept the Sharon Marshall story alive and led to the discovery by Birkbeck of her biological daughter, who had been placed for adoption in 1989. Sharon's DNA was believed to have been degraded, but testing comparisons to her daughter provided a positive match and her DNA was placed into CODIS, the FBI's database.

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<i>Murder of a Mafia Daughter</i> True crime book by Cathy Scott

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<i>The Jinx</i> (miniseries) 2015 documentary miniseries

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<i>Girl in the Picture</i> 2022 American Netflix original documentary film directed by Skye Borgman

Girl in the Picture is an American Netflix original documentary film directed by Skye Borgman. It's based on the books A Beautiful Child and Finding Sharon by Matt Birkbeck, who also serves as executive producer. The story is centered on a young girl known as Sharon Marshall, who was abducted by a federal fugitive Franklin Delano Floyd and then raised as his daughter. Over the course of the next two decades, she was sexually assaulted by Floyd, forced to marry him and ultimately died in a suspicious hit-and-run accident in 1990. The film follows the shocking events that transpired afterward, and the years-long efforts by Birkbeck, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the FBI to find her true identity. The film was released on July 6, 2022.

References

  1. "Robert Durst Biographer Matt Birkbeck on What the Jinx Got Wrong".
  2. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1688787-robert-durst-houston-search-warrant.html
  3. "Matt Birkbeck". Mcall.com. Archived from the original on January 29, 2013. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
  4. "Matt Birkbeck: About the Author". Harpercollins.com. March 24, 2010. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
  5. "Matt Birkbeck biography". Authors.simonandschuster.ca. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
  6. "DeNAPLES CHARGED ** Four counts of perjury filed over alleged ties to mobster, 3 others ** Casino license suspended, but Mount Airy remains open". Mcall.com. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  7. King, Larry. "Reporter again subpoenaed in DeNaples case". Inquirer.com. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  8. "'Girl in the Picture' makes sense of a senseless, complex crime". July 5, 2022.
  9. Bean, Travis. "The Top 10 Movies And Shows On Netflix: July 8, 2022". Forbes. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
  10. Galuppo, Mia (October 28, 2015). "Sammy Davis Jr. Biography 'Deconstructing Sammy' Acquired by Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios". Hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  11. Stevenson, Keith R. "Record reporter wins national award for real estate series". Poconorecord.com.
  12. Moss, Michael; Jacobs, Andrew (April 11, 2004). "Blue Skies and Green Yards, All Lost to Red Ink". The New York Times . Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  13. "Re: Gene Percudani v. Pocono Record". Morelaw.com. Retrieved January 18, 2022.