Frank C. Girardot

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FRANK GIRARDOT (born January 1961) is an American author, journalist, victim advocate, and radio host. He is best known for his biography of serial imposter Christian Gerhartsreiter, which will be updated and released by WildBlue Press in 2023 under the title BECOMING CLARK ROCKEFELLER. He is the former editor and columnist for the San Gabriel Valley News Group. Girardot got his start in journalism as a copyboy at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. Subsequent to the newspaper's closing, he worked for the Ontario Daily Report, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune , and the Pasadena Star-News. His 1994 story on the unsolved murder of Geneva Hilliker Ellroy, the mother of novelist James Ellroy, resulted in Ellroy's book MY DARK PLACES. Girardot has won several writing awards, including the Southern California Press Association's Award for Investigative Journalism in 1995, the Los Angeles Press Club's First Place Award for Sportswriting in 1998, and he was a finalist for the 2015 University of Florida Award for Investigative Data Journalism in 2015. Girardot headed a project for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group titled "Getting Away with Murder." Girardot is the author of true crime nonfiction books. He is co-author with Burl Barer of A TASTE FOR MURDER, BETRAYAL IN BLUE with Barer and Ken Eurell , and BURNED, the biography of serial arsonist John Orr. Burned was co-written with Orr's daughter, Lori Orr Kovach. Girardot has appeared on several true crime shows on various cable networks, including Investigation Discovery. He has been a frequent guest on Crime Time with Allison Hope Weiner on LipTV. He has also appeared on Fox News and Dateline NBC. His expertise includes murder investigation, serial arson, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Richard Ramirez, Clark Rockefeller, John Leonard Orr, and 20th Century Los Angeles area true crime. He plays guitar in Thunderheart, a band he formed in Temecula, California, with actor Dean Norris. Girardot resides in Pasadena, California with his wife Sarah Favot.