John Ferak

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A native of Joliet, Illinois, John Ferak returned to his roots in 2017 to become the editor/reporter for the Joliet Patch. He previously spent five years with the Wisconsin Investigative Team for USA TODAY and nine years in Nebraska at the Omaha World-Herald newspaper. He is an authority on wrongful arrest and conviction cases. His 2016 book for WildBlue Press, FAILURE OF JUSTICE, chronicled the nation’ s largest wrongful conviction case. His first book, BLOODY LIES told the story about a CSI director who went to prison for planting blood in high-profile Nebraska murder cases. In 2018, Ferak published WRECKING CREW: Demolishing The Case Against Steven Avery. The book chronicled the post-conviction strategy of Kathleen Zellner, the high-profile, high-octane lawyer, to free Avery, in the case that captured world-wide acclaim through the Netflix docu-series, Making A Murderer. This marks Ferak's first true-crime book chronicling cold-blooded murder in his hometown.