True Crime Experts 2025…so far!

 
 

Howard Blum

Former New York Times Reporter & Author

Howard Blum is a former reporter for the N.Y. Times where he was nominated for two Pulitzers for Investigative Reporting and is the author of several bestselling non-fiction books. WHEN THE NIGHT COMES FALLING was an instant New York Times and Amazon bestseller, and is being made into a series by Village Roadshow Productions.

Howard lives in East Hampton.

 
 
 
 

Joseph Giacalone

Retired NYPD Sergeant SDS, Expert on Law Enforcement & Author

Joseph Giacalone is a retired NYPD Sergeant SDS, current adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, author, and media resource. Joe is a widely sought-after expert on everything involving law enforcement.

His textbook, THE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE FUNCTION: A GUIDE FOR NEW INVESTIGATORS is in its 4th Edition and has been used throughout the country to train new detectives and supervisors. He is also under contract for a new textbook involving cold cases. Joe was also the former Commanding Officer of the NYPD’s Bronx Cold Case Squad.

Joe can be heard every Friday morning for The Crime Report on Suffolk County’s only talk radio station, 103.9 FM. Learn more at josephgiacalone.com

 
 
 
 

Photo by Richard Lewin

Hugh King

Town Crier & Historian for East Hampton Town

Hugh King is the Town Crier and Historian for East Hampton Town and has been studying local history since the 1980’s.

His goal is to make people aware of East Hampton’s history, beyond the moniker “the Hamptons.” He believes it is important that all its citizens know about the village’s past to help plan for the future.

The favorite part of his job of enlightening others is learning from his own research.

Hugh is the Village Historian and Historic Site Director in charge of Home Sweet Home Museum, the most distinguished salt-box home in East Hampton, as well as the three Village Windmills, Hook, Gardiner and Pantigo.

As Village Historian, he answers inquiries concerning Village history, arranges and conducts open-air historical tours, and shares Village history at Board of Trustee meetings. As Historic Site Director, he conducts walk-throughs of Home Sweet Home and arranges guides for the Hook Mill.

Prior to working for the Village, Hugh was a teacher for 33 years, and from 1963-1999, he was an actor in local theater productions.

From 2000-2014 he worked alongside his wife, the respected historian Loretta Orion, who tended the Home Sweet Home gardens. The historic gardens reflect styles and plant species found in the United States and Europe that date back from medieval times to the nineteenth century. 

 
 

Mayor Jerry Larsen

Former East Hampton Village Police Department Chief

A lifelong resident of East Hampton, Mayor Jerry Larsen has dedicated his entire career to serving the East Hampton Village community. Motivated by his childhood dream of becoming a police officer, Mayor Larsen served as a member of the East Hampton Village Police Department for 34 years, 14 of which were as Chief of Police.

He is the former president of the Suffolk County Police Association, a county-wide organization that encompasses 2,500 local departments. Beyond his policing experience, Larsen was appointed to serve as Department Head of Emergency Services for East Hampton Village and is a member of the Village’s Kiwanis Club, which hosts and promotes local service opportunities and family events.

Mayor Larsen is a past board director at the East Hampton Chamber of Commerce, and LTV Studios. He was the former President and Coach of East Hampton Little League. 

Mayor Larsen and his wife Lisa own ProTec Security, a local business that provides home security systems. His experience as both a public servant and a Village business owner offers him a nuanced perspective that, coupled with the skills he acquired as Village Police Chief, puts him in a unique position to tackle the issues affecting the residents of East Hampton Village.

Mayor Larsen is one of the co-founders of Hamptons Whodunit, and has six children who grew up in East Hampton.

 
 

Cary London 

Trial Attorney & Civil Rights Lawyer

Cary London is a partner at the law firm of Shulman & Hill, PLLC, and Chair of their Civil Rights Division. He has previously worked for the NYPD, Bronx District Attorney’s Office, Brooklyn Defender Services, and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Richard Lee Price. 

He has handled over 10,000 civil rights and criminal cases from inception to verdict, and is considered a premier trial attorney who is one of the last “True Believers” in the civil rights context. Mr. London is a graduate of the University of Virginia and New York Law School. 

For more information on Mr. London’s practice, please visit shulman-hill.com 

 
 

Sheryl “Mac” McCollum

Founder, Cold Case Investigative Research Institute (CCIRI)

Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an three time nominated Emmy Award winning CSI from CBS46’s CSI Atlanta, National Law Enforcement Officer Hall of Fame Inductee, Director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute (CCIRI), a writer for CrimeOnLine, Forensic and Crime Scene Expert for Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and a working CSI for a metro Atlanta Police Department. 

Sheryl holds a master’s degree in Criminal Justice with an emphasis on Policing. She is the co-author of the textbook, COLD CASE: PATHWAYS TO JUSTICE. She is a contributing writer for CRIME online, a crime-fighting website founded by Nancy Grace, television personality and former. 

Sheryl “Mac” McCollum has worked with criminals like famed Mafia hit man Frank Cullotta, Johnny Lee Cleary, the ex Imperial Wizard of the KKK, the Flint River Killer, Alcatraz Inmate #1355 Robert Schibline and Jimmy Hoffa’s driver, The Weasel, to gain intel on how to solve certain cold cases. She has also worked side by side with notable family members such as Lana Wood, Beth Holloway, Sue Savio, Lois Duncan, Donna Pettis and Susan Levy. She not only admires them but has genuinely befriended them all. For almost forty years, Sheryl has used her training and experience in criminal justice to solve some of the country’s most difficult cases.

McCollum’s law-enforcement career began in 1982 at the Rape Crisis Center at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. From there, she was director of the Metro Atlanta Cold Case Crime Analysis Squad. During the 1996 Olympic Games, she was the coordinator for the Crisis Response Team that planned and trained for four years and responded to the Centennial Olympic Park bombing, providing victim services.

McCollum in 2004 founded Cold Case Investigative Research Institute (CCIRI), which unites researchers, practitioners, students and the criminal justice community to work collectively to advance research, training and techniques in solving cold cases. CCIRI is a nationwide volunteer network that assists victims’ families and law enforcement by working on unsolved homicides, missing persons and kidnapping cases. So far, more than 8,000 students and 600 experts have volunteered their time and talents. 

She added her own branded acronym for law enforcement. Among the famous, ABA (all points bulletin), BOLO (be on the lookout), Sheryl added the A-WIC (anyone with information contact)! 

Sheryl has reviewed, consulted and worked on thousands of criminal cases across the USA and has appeared on Dateline, Nancy Grace, Dr. Oz, CSI Atlanta, Fox Nation, and Discovery ID.  

Some of her most famous cases include: The Boston Strangler, Natalie Wood, Kathleen Savio (Drew Peterson), Don Lewis (Tiger King), Natalee Holloway, the Missing and Murdered Children (Wayne Williams) and Tu Pac Shakur. 

Some of Sheryl’s accolades include The President’s Innovation Award, an Emmy for CSI Atlanta: True Crime Special, a Department of Justice Award for the 1996 Olympic Games Crisis Response, a Metro Atlanta Crime Commission Award, and she was inducted into the Law Enforcement Officer Hall of Fame with a 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Sheryl is a native Atlantan and graduate of Woodward Academy where she met her husband, and Georgia State University. She is most proud of her marriage to Walt who was her high school sweetheart and their two accomplished college age children, Huck and Caroline. Sheryl has four sisters who all volunteer for the CCIRI.

 
 
 
 

Joseph Scott Morgan, M.F.S., F-ABMDI

Podcast Host, Death Investigator & Author

Joseph Scott Morgan, M.F.S., F-ABMDI is the Distinguished Scholar of Applied Forensics at Jacksonville State University where he holds the faculty rank of Associate Professor of Applied Forensics. Morgan holds a Master of Forensic Sciences degree from National University and is a Board-Certified Fellow of the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators.

In 1985 Joseph Scott Morgan began working for the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office in New Orleans. During his tenure as the Senior Investigator with the Fulton County Medical Examiner in Atlanta, Georgia, Morgan helped establish the national training guidelines for Medicolegal Death Investigators. To this day, Joseph Scott Morgan remains one of less than 200 people nationwide to attain “Fellow” status through the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators.

Morgan is considered one of the leading experts on the Coroner System in the United States. He has a particular research interest in the areas of:

  • Estimation of time since death

  • Injury assessment on the scenes of deaths

  • Mass fatality investigations

  • Training curricula and development for state coroner systems

  • Notification of next of kin methodologies

  • Impact of notification of next of kin on practitioners

  • Forensic practice in rural settings

Joseph Scott Morgan has appeared, for the past two years, on both Headline News and CNN as the on-air forensics expert. In 2013 Morgan was named “Georgia Author of the Year” for his memoir entitled BLOOD BENEATH MY FEET: THE JOURNEY OF A SOUTHERN DEATH INVESTIGATOR.

 
 
 
 

Casey Sherman

Honorary True Crime Chair

Casey Sherman is a renowned investigative journalist and a New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe & USA Today #1 Best-selling Author of 18 books including BLOOD IN THE WATER, THE FINEST HOURS (now a major Walt Disney Studio motion picture starring Chris Pine & Casey Affleck), and PATRIOTS DAY (now an acclaimed motion picture from CBS Films starring Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Bacon).

Sherman led an historic re-investigation of the Boston Strangler case, which he chronicled in his book, SEARCH FOR THE STRANGLER.

Sherman’s 2023 true crime best-seller HELLTOWN is now in development as a limited television series for Amazon Studio. Sherman will serve as Executive Producer on the project, which is slated to star Oscar Isaac (“Dune”), with director Edward Berger (Netflix – “All is Quiet on the Western Front”), and produced by Team Downey (Robert Downey, Jr. & Susan Downey - HBO’s “Perry Mason”).

Sherman’s A MURDER IN HOLLYWOOD was a 2024 USA TODAY #1 true crime best-seller and finalist for Book of the Year honors at the annual Clue Awards.

His other best-selling books include James Patterson’s THE LAST DAYS OF JOHN LENNON which spent more than 23 weeks on the New York Times best-sellers list, 12: THE INSIDE STORY OF TOM BRADY’S FIGHT FOR REDEMPTION, and HUNTING WHITEY: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE CAPTURE & KILLING OF AMERICA’S MOST WANTED CRIME BOSS, which he adapted into a sold-out stage play starring Neal McDonough (“Yellowstone,” “Tulsa King”).

Sherman has appeared on more than 200 television and radio programs and is a contributing writer for TIME Magazine, Esquire, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Boston Magazine and the Boston Herald.