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.