Editing Gerald Posner

{{Short description|American journalist and author}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2013}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Gerald Posner
| image       = Gerald Posner March 2013.jpg
| caption     = Posner in 2013 in Miami
| birth_name  = Gerald Leo Posner<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/18/style/trisha-d-levene-to-become-bride.html|title=Trisha D. Levene To Become Bride|date=March 18, 1984|work=The New York Times|access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref>
| birth_date  =  <!-- {{Birth-date and age|Month DD, YYYY}} -->
| birth_place = [[San Francisco]], [[California]], U.S.
| death_date  = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} or {{Death-date and age|Month DD, YYYY|Month DD, YYYY}} (death date then birth date) -->
| death_place = 
| other_names = 
| occupation  = Writer
| spouse      = [[Trisha Posner]] 
}}

'''Gerald Leo Posner''' is an American [[investigative journalism|investigative journalist]] and author of thirteen books, including ''Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK'' (1993), which explores the [[John F. Kennedy assassination]], and ''Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.'' (1998), about the [[assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.]] A plagiarism scandal involving articles that Posner wrote for ''[[The Daily Beast]]'' and his book ''Miami Babylon'' arose in 2010.<ref>[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/11/gerald-posner-resigns-fro_n_458169.html Gerald Posner RESIGNS From Daily Beast Over Plagiarism Scandal] by Danny Shea, ''The Huffington Post'', February 11, 2010.</ref><ref>[http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/3-Lessons-from-Gerald-Posners-Plagiarism-Scandal-2525 3 Lessons from Gerald Posner's Plagiarism Scandal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327144849/http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/3-Lessons-from-Gerald-Posners-Plagiarism-Scandal-2525 |date=March 27, 2010 }} by John Hudson, ''The Atlantic Wire'', February 12, 2010</ref><ref>[http://www.newsweek.com/2010/02/10/plagiarism-excuses.html Plagiarism Excuses. Taking—er, borrowing—a page out of the Gerald Posner playbook.] by David Graham, ''Newsweek'', February 11, 2010</ref><ref>[http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2010/03/amid-book-scandal-authors-gerald-posner-and-frank-owen-confront-each-other-at-miami-beach-botanical-garden.html Amid book scandal, authors Gerald Posner and Frank Owen confront each other at Miami Beach Botanical Garden] by Steve Rothaus, ''Miami Herald'', April 2010</ref>

== Early life and education ==
Posner was born in San Francisco, California, the only child of Jerry and Gloria Posner. His father was Jewish and his mother Catholic,<ref>{{cite book |title=God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican|last= Posner|first= Gerald|year=2015 |publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn= 978-1-416-57657-0|page=xii}}</ref> and both were native San Franciscans. His father was a labor union official.

Posner was raised Catholic.<ref>{{Citation
| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z2vCXKfcYY
| title = Roger Stone - Stone Cold Truth Radio (Nov. 26th, 2016)
| time = 1:16:40
| access-date = November 27, 2016
| work  = Stone Cold Truth
| publisher = [[YouTube]]
| date = November 26, 2016
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/a-look-inside-the-mysterious-vatican-bank-183740667.html|title=Vatican Bank may be too corrupt for Pope Francis to save: Posner|date=February 4, 2015 |access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref> He was educated at [[St. Ignatius College Preparatory]] and graduated summa cum laude from the [[University of California, Berkeley]] in 1975. In 1978, he earned his [[Juris Doctor|J.D.]] from the [[University of California, Hastings College of the Law]], where he served as the associate executive editor for the university's ''Law Review''.<ref>{{Cite web| title=Hastings Community (Summer 1995) | url=http://repository.uchastings.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1091&context=alumni_mag | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140908041717/http://repository.uchastings.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1091&context=alumni_mag | archive-date=2014-09-08}}</ref>

At age 23, he joined the law firm, [[Cravath, Swaine & Moore]], as one of the youngest attorneys ever hired by the firm.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-posner/ | work=The Huffington Post | first=Gerald | last=Posner | title=Gerald Posner}}</ref> In 1980, he went into private practice with a partner. In 1981, he represented Deborah Ann Fountain, Miss New York State, against the Miss America pageant after Fountain was disqualified for padding her bra.<ref>{{cite news |author1=AP |title=Beauty Contestant Seeks to Reverse Disqualification |work=Santa Rosa Press Democrat |date=May 21, 1981 |page=15A}}</ref> He left the law in 1986, when his first book, about Nazi [[Josef Mengele]]'s life on the run, was published by McGraw Hill.

== Journalism career ==

=== ''Mengele: The Complete Story'' ===
Posner's first book, co-written with British journalist [[John Ware (TV journalist)|John Ware]], was the 1986 biography ''Mengele: The Complete Story''. The book was the result of a five-year ''pro bono'' lawsuit that Posner brought on behalf of survivors of Josef Mengele's medical experiments at [[Auschwitz]].<ref name="bitterlawyer.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.bitterlawyer.com/gerald-posner-cravath-to-controversy/|title=Gerald Posner: Cravath to Controversy – Bitter Empire|date=June 10, 2009|access-date=October 6, 2016|archive-date=October 18, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018035531/http://www.bitterlawyer.com/gerald-posner-cravath-to-controversy/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Posner and Ware obtained exclusive access to 5,000 pages of Mengele's diaries and personal papers for their book.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/133d/essays/Posner1986TPolfer083.htm|title=Tiffany Polfer on Posner (1986)|access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref><ref>"How Nazi War Criminal Josef Mengele Cheated Justice for 34 Years," Chicago Tribune Magazine, May 18, 1986.</ref> The book was critically recognized as the "definitive" biography of Mengele.<ref>
* "A fascinating account of Mengele's life on the run and the fruitless efforts to apprehend him." "Mengele: The Complete Story: A Review," by Harry Trimborn, ''Los Angeles Times Book Review'', July 13, 1986, p. 9
* "The book effectively paints a picture of a lonely, embittered Nazi.  It knocks down decades of myths that Mengele was shielded by a protective squad of underground Nazis."  "Book Review: Mengele, Entertainment, United Press International, July 18, 1986, BC Cycle
* "The research is remarkable."  "Escape for the Angel of Death, Mengele: The Complete Story," by John Gellner, ''The Globe and Mail'' (Canada), July 19, 1986, p. D17
* "The Mengele story has now been told, excellently, by the authors of this book&nbsp;..." Books: Evil of the Mediocre/Review of Mengele, by Norman Stone, ''The Sunday Times'' (London), August 31, 1986, Issue 8456
* "Well researched and wonderfully free of all the customary fantasy and exaggeration&nbsp;... Fascinating."  "The Death Doctors," by [[Neal Ascherson]], ''The New York Review of Books'', May 28, 1987
* "This highly engrossing book gives the fullest account yet published of Josef Mengele's life&nbsp;..." "Mengele: Review," Publishers Weekly, June 1986
* "It's a pity that the official search for him did not match the vigor with which Posner and Ware stalk their subject in print."  Mengele: The Complete Story, Book Review Supplement, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', July 1986.</ref>

Posner testified before the [[United States Senate]] in 1986 about how Mengele used an [[International Red Cross]] passport to travel safely from Europe to Argentina in 1949.<ref name="kahler.org">{{Cite web| url=http://kahler.org/mengele.pdf | title=How Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele cheated justice for 34 years | access-date=December 16, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203002058/http://www.kahler.org/mengele.pdf | archive-date=December 3, 2012 | url-status=dead | df=mdy-all}}</ref>  He also testified about the discovery made by himself and Ware that Mengele had twice been captured by U.S. Army troops in 1945, but released both times before authorities realized he was on several wanted lists.<ref name="kahler.org"/>

In June 1986, Posner appeared with Mengele's only son, Rolf Mengele, on the ''[[Phil Donahue Show]]''. Syndicated columnist, [[Lewis Grizzard]], called the hour-long live program "an incredibly compelling piece of television journalism."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1986/06/26/a-riveting-program-on-angel-of-death/|title=A Riveting Program On 'Angel Of Death'|access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref>

Some of the content in ''Mengele: The Complete Story'' was utilized by the [[United States Department of Justice]]'s [[Office of Special Investigations (United States Department of Justice)|Office of Special Investigations]] (OSI), which in, February 1985, began an in-depth investigation into Mengele's post-war activities and whereabouts. The investigation, done in conjunction with the [[United States Marshals Service]],  was launched after allegations that Mengele was at any time in the custody of or had any relationship with U.S. government institutions or personnel after World War II. In its official report to the [[Attorney General of the United States]] in 1992, ''In the Matter of Josef Mengele'', OSI noted it was indebted to Posner for obtaining a witness statement concerning Mengele's whereabouts from October 1945 to August 1, 1948.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.justice.gov/criminal/hrsp/archives/1992/10-01-92mengele-rpt.pdf |title=In the Matter of Josef Mengele }}</ref>

=== ''Warlords of Crime'' ===
In 1988, Posner published ''Warlords of Crime: Chinese Secret Societies: The New Mafia'', an exposé of [[Triad (organized crime)|Triads]] and international heroin syndicates. Posner, and his wife, Trisha, traveled to Hong Kong, the [[Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)|Golden Triangle]], the Netherlands, San Francisco, London and New York to conduct in-person research with drug traffickers.<ref name="bitterlawyer.com"/> Clarence Petersen, reviewing the book for the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', commented, "Posner ... is persuasive for the facts he gathered, all the more so because his narrative is largely the story of how he got the story, what he was told by the criminals and by law enforcement agents here and abroad and, most persuasive of all, what he saw with his own eyes. He does not dramatize; he doesn't have to. The chilling story he unearthed speaks for itself."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1990/02/04/warlords-of-crime-chinese-secret-societies-the/ |title=Warlords of Crime: Review |work= [[Chicago Tribune]] |author= Clarence Petersen  |date=February 4, 1990 |access-date=March 9, 2015 }}</ref> Former New York detective and best-selling novelist, [[Dorothy Uhnak]], wrote in ''[[The New York Times]]'' that "''Warlords of Crime'' is powerful, frightening and, unfortunately, nonfiction."<ref>Warlords of Crime: Review, by Dorothy Uhnak, ''The New York Times'', Book Review, October 9, 1988, p. BR35</ref>

[[Touchstone Pictures]] purchased the film rights to ''Warlords of Crime''.<ref name="Outtakes 1989, p. 36">"Outtakes: Coming to America," by Pat H. Broeske, ''Los Angeles Times'', March 12, 1989, Calendar Section, p. 36</ref>

=== ''The Bio-Assassins'' ===
Posner's only novel is a biological warfare thriller set in the Cold War.  According to ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'', "Posner's first novel, a thriller whose development depends heavily on the author's convincing descriptions of the technology in intelligence work. The narrative works within the current conventions of its genre: principle is a mask for expedience; cynicism displaces conviction; proficiency implies virtue. But Posner, author of nonfiction works on Josef Mengele and Chinese secret societies, handles his material well. His descriptions move smartly; his characters, while somewhat two-dimensional, are convincing in their context; and his plot is constructed to satisfy demanding readers."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-07-050611-4 |title=Review: The Bio-Assassins}}</ref>

=== ''Hitler's Children'' ===
Posner's 1991 book, ''Hitler's Children: Sons and Daughters of Leaders of the Third Reich Talk About Themselves and Their Fathers'', included in-depth interviews with a dozen children of top Nazi officials.  The book was also well received. Karen Stabiner wrote in her review for the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', "This is a mesmerizing, blood-chilling book, a set of oral histories of the sons and daughters of 11 of Hitler's top men. It is barely possible to read more than a few pages at a time; the contrast between innocent childhood experience, and the awful understanding of that experience that came with time, is enough to make you weep."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-05-05-bk-2046-story.html | work=[[Los Angeles Times]] | author=Karen Stabiner | title=Nonfiction | date=May 5, 1991}}</ref>

[[Christopher Lehmann-Haupt]] in ''The New York Times'' questioned whether Posner's book length treatment was necessary to study the children of Nazi perpetrators.  "Perhaps it would have been more enlightening had Mr. Posner studied fewer cases more intensely, or even a single case from the most intimate point of view."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/24/books/books-of-the-times-nazis-children-contend-with-their-legacy.html | work=[[The New York Times]] |author=Christopher Lehmann-Haupt |author-link=Christopher Lehmann-Haupt | title=Books of The Times; Nazis' Children Contend with Their Legacy | date=June 24, 1991}}</ref>

=== ''Case Closed'' ===
In his 1993 book ''Case Closed'', Posner contended that [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] acted alone in the assassination of [[John F. Kennedy]] and Oswald's murderer, [[Jack Ruby]], acted independently as well. ''Case Closed'' was a ''New York Times'' bestseller and a finalist for the 1994 [[Pulitzer Prize for History]]. It was also the subject of a double issue of ''[[U.S. News & World Report]]'', and featured on programs such as [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s ''[[20/20 (US television series)|20/20]]'', [[CBS]] ''Special Reports'', and [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]'s ''[[Frontline (U.S. TV series)|Frontline]]''. The book was optioned for a television miniseries by [[David L. Wolper]], the producer of the miniseries ''[[Roots (1977 miniseries)|Roots]]''.<ref>"The JFK Debate Gets 'Case Closed,' The Movie," Outlook: Science & Society, "U.S. News & World Report," November 1, 1993.</ref> In his 2003 autobiography, ''Producer: A Memoir'', Wolper cited his failure to get movies made of ''Case Closed'' and the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] book, ''One Hell of a Gamble: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy'', as his two major career disappointments.<ref>{{cite book |title=Producer: A Memoir|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780743236874|url-access=registration|author=[[David L. Wolper]]|publisher=Scribner|year=2003|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780743236874/page/101 101]|isbn=9780743236874}}</ref>

In 1993, Posner testified before the [[United States House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security|Legislation and National Security Subcommittee]] of the [[United States House Committee on Government Operations]] about the findings in ''Case Closed''.<ref name="LNSS">{{cite book |title=The effectiveness of Public Law 102-526, the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992: Hearing before the Legislation and National Security Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, first session, November 17, 1993 |url=https://archive.org/details/effectivenessofp00unit |year=1994  |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=0-16-043551-X |page=[https://archive.org/details/effectivenessofp00unit/page/26 26]}}</ref> In 1998, the [[Assassination Records Review Board]] briefly referenced this testimony in discussing two unsuccessful attempts to acquire the interview notes of two physicians, James Humes and J. Thornton Boswell, that Posner said he possessed.<ref name="ARRB">{{cite book |author=[[Assassination Records Review Board]] |title=Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/report/arrb-final-report.pdf |access-date=March 4, 2013 |date=September 30, 1998 |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=134 |chapter=Chapter 7: Pursuit of Records and Information from Non-Federal Sources|chapter-url=https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/report/chapter-07.pdf}}</ref>

''Case Closed'' generally drew critical acclaim from the media; the ''Chicago Tribune'', the ''[[Toronto Sun]]'', ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'' and ''[[Newsday]]'' all cited Posner's "meticulous" research in their respective reviews.<ref>
* The ''Toronto Sun'', February 22, 1994: "In fact, I think all conspiracy theories are blown out of the water by Posner's meticulous research and careful conclusions."
* ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', November 27, 1993: "Painstaking re-examination of the greatest murder mystery of modern times: who killed JFK? It's no mystery concludes lawyer/journalist [Posner]: lone assassin Lee Harvey Oswald did it. And who would argue after reading this meticulous analysis, complete with graphics, illustrations and detailed appendices?"
* ''Chicago Tribune'', October 3, 1993:  "Half of 'Case Closed' is a meticulous examination of Oswald's entire life, culminating in an almost day-by-day chronicle of his movements in the last two months before the assassination&nbsp;... Its appeal lies both in its thorough, apparently even-handed research, and the fact that, following the publication in recent years of a near-constant stream of conspiracy books, 'Case Closed' may be the first by a respected author to argue persuasively for the Oswald-alone theory, a scenario most Americans dismissed years ago."
* ''Newsday'' (New York), September 16, 1993: "Posner employs meticulous research to reach what counts as a novel conclusion: That, for all its flaws, the Warren Commission was right. Oswald killed JFK without help from anyone."
* ''Sun-Sentinel'' (Fort Lauderdale, FL), September 18, 1993:  "Posner's exact and thorough destruction of the conspiracy theorists gives you Oswald the man, not Oswald the brilliant secret agent or Oswald the hapless patsy."
* ''Florida Today'', April 24, 2000:  "The industry standard belongs perhaps to lawyer-turned- investigative reporter Gerald Posner, whose meticulous Case Closed in 1993 was an immersion into assassination minutiae."
* ''Entertainment Weekly'', Gene Lyons, September 24, 1993:  "As thorough and incisive a job of reporting and critical thinking as you will ever read, Case Closed does more than buttress the much beleaguered Warren Commission's conclusion.&nbsp;... More than that, Posner's book is written in a penetrating, lucid style that makes it a joy to read. Even the footnotes, often briskly debunking one or another fanciful or imaginary scenario put forth by the conspiracy theorists, rarely fail to enthrall.&nbsp;... Case Closed is a work of genuine patriotism and a monument to the astringent power of reason. 'A'"
* ''U.S. News & World Report'', August 23, 1993:  "He [Posner] sweeps away decades of polemical smoke, layer by layer, and builds an unshakable case against JFK's killer."
* NYTBR (in the review of Norman Mailer's Oswald's Tale), April 30, 1995.  "Gerald Posner's 'Case Closed' (1993), which argues with an awesome command of evidentiary detail that Oswald did it, period."
* ''The Dallas Morning News'', June 22, 1997:  "More than three decades after the Kennedy assassination, there still are Americans who wonder. Gerald Posner's masterful study of that case should have laid those doubts to rest for thinking readers&nbsp;..."
</ref>

In his review for the ''Chicago Tribune'', [[Jeffrey Toobin]] wrote, "Unlike many of the 2,000 other books that have been written about the Kennedy assassination, Posner's ''Case Closed'' is a resolutely sane piece of work. More importantly, ''Case Closed'' is utterly convincing in its thesis, which seems, in light of all that has transpired over the past 30 years, almost revolutionary. His thesis is this: Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy by himself.&nbsp;... I started ''Case Closed'' as a skeptic—and slightly put off by the presumptuous title. To my mind historical truth is always a slippery thing. The chances of knowing for sure what happened in any event—much less one as murky as the Kennedy assassination—seem remote. But this fascinating and important book won me over. Case closed, indeed."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/09/12/who-didnt-kill-jfk/| work=[[Chicago Tribune]]| author=[[Jeffrey Toobin]] | title=Who Didn't Kill JFK?|date=September 12, 1993 | access-date=March 9, 2015}}</ref>

''Case Closed'' also drew widespread criticism from academics involved in assassination research as well as from non-academic assassination researchers who contended that it contained factual inaccuracies.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1993/09/22/case-closed-doesnt-close-the-oswald-file/| title='Case Closed' doesn't close the Oswald file| work=[[The Baltimore Sun]]| author=[[John M. Newman]] |date=September 22, 1993 | access-date=March 9, 2015}}</ref><ref name="dw">[[David Wrone|David R. Wrone]]. "Review of Gerald Posner, Case Closed.", ''Journal of Southern History'' 6 (February 1995), pp. 186–188.</ref><ref>[[Peter Dale Scott]], "A Review of Gerald Posner, Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK, Deep Politics II: Essays on Oswald, Skokie, Illinois, Green Archives Publications, 1995.</ref><ref>Harold Weisberg, Case Open: The Omissions, Distortions and Falsifications of Case Closed, NY, Carroll and Graf, 1994.</ref><ref>Martin Shackelford, "Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK, by Gerald Posner: A Preliminary Critique," The Investigator, August–September 1993.</ref> For example, historian [[David Wrone]] wrote that "massive numbers of factual errors suffuse the book".<ref name="dw"  /> [[Vincent Bugliosi]], whose own book ''[[Reclaiming History]]'' largely agrees with Posner's conclusions, accused Posner of "omissions and distortions" but also described ''Case Closed'' as "an impressive work".<ref>Bugliosi, Vincent. ''Reclaiming History'', Introduction, p. xxxviii</ref> "He is perhaps public enemy No. 1 to members of what might be called the JFK conspiracy industry," wrote journalist Paul Galloway.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/05/18/killing-conspiracy-theories/ | work=Chicago Tribune | first=Paul | last=Galloway | title=Killing Conspiracy Theories | date=May 18, 1998}}</ref>

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the assassination in 2013, Gallup released a national poll showing that while a majority (61%) of Americans still believed a conspiracy was behind JFK's death, the number of those who thought it was a lone assassin (30%) was the highest in 46 years.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/165893/majority-believe-jfk-killed-conspiracy.aspx |title=Majority in U.S. Still Believe JFK Killed in a Conspiracy |first=Gallup |last=Inc. |access-date=October 6, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160801184321/http://www.gallup.com/poll/165893/majority-believe-jfk-killed-conspiracy.aspx |archive-date=August 1, 2016 |df=mdy }}</ref>  Although some mainstream media commentators such as ''[[The Independent]]'' said that "for Americans, JFK will never be case closed",<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/for-americans-jfk-will-never-be-case-closed-8944486.html | location=London | work=The Independent | first=Rupert | last=Cornwell | title=For Americans, JFK will never be case closed | date=November 17, 2013}}</ref> others like ''[[The Economist]]'' cited "Case Closed" and concluded, "50 years on, face it, Oswald did it."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21590361-face-it-oswald-did-it | newspaper=The Economist | title=Face it: Oswald did it | date=November 23, 2013}}</ref>  

Historian [[Robert Dallek]] called ''Case Closed'' "authoritative,"<ref>Joseph Palermo, "The 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Part One), ''The Huffington Post'', November 8, 2013</ref> and said: "the best book on this subject is by a man named Gerald Posner, called 'Case Closed', I think he has responded very effectively to all the conspiracy theories, and there are so many of them."<ref>{{YouTube|MiQyDa4N8PQ}}</ref>  Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, [[Hector Tobar]] wrote in the ''Los Angeles Times'' that ''Case Closed'' was "the book that cured me of JFK conspiracies once and for all."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-book-jfk-conspiracies-cure-20131120,0,928971.story#axzz2mtZkTyzM | work=Los Angeles Times | first=Hector | last=Tobar | title=The book that cured me of JFK conspiracies once and for all | date=November 20, 2013}}</ref>

''Case Closed'' continued to generate widely divergent views. Film director [[Oliver Stone]] told a JFK assassination conference in Pittsburgh that ''Case Closed'' was discredited and "there's nothing in the movie (''[[JFK (film)|JFK]]'') that I would go back on."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/22/showbiz/oliver-stone-jfk-50th-anniversary/index.html | work=CNN | title=Oliver Stone: There's nothing in 'JFK' I would go back on - CNN.com | date=November 22, 2013}}</ref>  Posner, on the day of the 50th anniversary, told CNN's [[Anderson Cooper]] that "the only thing he [Stone] gets right in 'JFK' is the date on which Kennedy is killed."<ref>{{cite episode | title=Remembering John F. Kennedy's Assassination 50 Years Ago; Crisis Inside Air Force One; Marina Oswald Porter Remarried Two Years After JKF's Assassination; Oswald's Widow Marina Opened Up To McMillan About Their Marriage; Fascinating Story of the Pink Suit Jackie Wore the Day JFK Was Assassinated; J.D. Tippit Was Shot Four Times By Lee Harvey Oswald | series=[[Anderson Cooper 360°]] | network=[[CNN]] | url=http://www-cgi.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1311/22/acd.01.html | date=November 22, 2013 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212181214/http://www-cgi.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1311/22/acd.01.html | archive-date=December 12, 2013 | df=mdy-all }}</ref>

=== ''Killing the Dream'' ===
As controversial and talked-about as ''Case Closed'' was Posner's 1998 ''Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.'' (Random House). The book concluded that confessed assassin, [[James Earl Ray]], killed Martin Luther King Jr. acting alone, likely for the hope of collecting a racist bounty for the murder.<ref name="Bernstein">{{cite news |last=Bernsteain |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Bernstein (journalist) |date=April 22, 1998 |title='Killing the Dream': Ray Was King's Lone Assassin |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/04/19/daily/posner-book-review.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=December 14, 2014}}</ref> Among other portions of his book, Posner tracked down for the first time the mysterious "Raoul", fingered by James Earl Ray as the mastermind of a conspiracy to kill King and to frame Ray. After setting out to settle Ray's Raoul story, Posner challenged as a hoax the widely printed conspiracy story that Green Beret snipers from the 20th Special Forces Group were in Memphis on the day of the assassination.<ref name="Bernstein"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/parnell/killing.htm|title=Killing the Dream: A Review|access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/04/26/reviews/980426.26lewist.html |title=Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt|first=Anthony|last=Lewis|date=April 22, 1998| work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

''Killing the Dream'' was the largest private reinvestigation of the King assassination in 30 years.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/mlk/memphis/memphis.htm |title=The Truth About Memphis|first=Gerald|last=Posner|date=1998| newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] }}</ref> As was ''Case Closed'', ''Killing the Dream'' was widely praised and embraced by the mainstream press, and among the national broadcasts that featured the book included CBS' ''[[48 Hours (TV program|48 Hours]]'', ''Charlie Rose'' and ''TODAY''.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}}  Richard Bernstein in ''The New York Times'' wrote that the book was "the most comprehensive and definitive study of the King assassination to date.&nbsp;... He [Posner] has rendered a valuable service by putting the King murder under his magnifying glass. One finishes this book reassured that no dark secrets remain, that no unexplained details need bedevil the national composure."<ref name="Bernstein"/> Two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and columnist, [[Anthony Lewis]], in ''[[The New York Times Book Review]]'', said: "With ''Killing the Dream'', he [Posner] has written a superb book: a model of investigation, meticulous in its discovery and presentation of evidence, unbiased in its exploration of every claim. And it is a wonderfully readable book, as gripping as a first-class detective story."<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>"Writing in the clear, forceful manner of a reporter in total command of his facts, Posner has produced&nbsp;... the definitive account of a landmark event." ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', April 1998</ref><ref>"Prodigiously researched and painstakingly detailed. ''Savannah Morning News'', May 1988</ref><ref>"Combining fresh reporting with a careful review of the investigation, and using the common sense that is a scarce commodity in this field, Posner does for the King assassination what he did for the JFK killing in his book, 'Case Closed.'" ''[[USA Today]]'', April 1988</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CNN - Books: Reviews -"Killing the Dream" - April 27, 1998 |url=http://edition.cnn.com/books/reviews/9804/27/killing.the.dream.cnn/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021117104110/http://edition.cnn.com/books/reviews/9804/27/killing.the.dream.cnn/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 17, 2002 |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=CNN}}</ref><ref>"Posner's 'Killing the Dream; is a state-of-the-art review and reconsideration of everything that's known about Ray and the events that led up to King's assassination." "New 'leads' in King case invariably go nowhere," by David J. Garrow, ''The Atlanta Journal and Constitution'', Perspective Section, March 29, 1998, pp. C1–2.</ref>

On the other hand, conspiracy theorists bristled at ''Killing the Dream'', criticizing Posner for in part basing it on "a psychological evaluation of James Earl Ray, which he [Posner] is not qualified to give, and he dismisses evidence of conspiracy in King's murder as cynical attempts to exploit the tragedy".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.umsl.edu/~thomaskp/mlk.htm|title=Martin Luther King|access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref> William Pepper, Ray's final defense attorney, repeatedly dismissed Posner's book as inaccurate and misleading.  

Dexter King, one of Martin Luther King's sons, also criticized it.<ref>William F. Pepper. ''An Act of State'', rev. ed. (2008), Synopsis, by Mark K. Jensen, Scribd.</ref>  In 1999, the King family, represented by Pepper, brought a civil lawsuit in which a jury found evidence of a conspiracy involving [[Loyd Jowers]], the owner of a restaurant near the assassination site. In response to that verdict, Posner told ''The New York Times'', "It distresses me greatly that the legal system was used in such a callous and farcical manner in Memphis. If the King family wanted a rubber stamp of their own view of the facts, they got it."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/09/us/memphis-jury-sees-conspiracy-in-martin-luther-king-s-killing.html | work=[[The New York Times]] | first=Emily | last=Yellin | title=Memphis Jury Sees Conspiracy in Martin Luther King's Killing | date=December 9, 1999}}</ref>

=== ''Motown'' ===
Posner seemingly took a respite from assassination controversy in his 2003 book, ''Motown: Music, Money, Sex and Power'', a business history of one of the most successful U.S. recording labels. ''The New York Times''{{-'}}s [[Janet Maslin]] said the book was "actually a much more reputable book than its title suggests" and concludes that "Happily, Mr. Posner, a former Wall Street lawyer, has a good ear for tales, tall or otherwise. And he also assiduously digs into the business practices that turned the Motown story sour."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/02/books/books-of-the-times-tales-from-detroit-s-other-industry.html | work=[[The New York Times]] | first=Janet | last=Maslin | title=Books of the Times; Tales From Detroit's Other Industry | date=January 2, 2003}}</ref>  Most of the mainstream press echoed the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' which concluded that "Posner offers the most objective and thoroughly accurate history of the label to date, plus a detailed and complex portrait of its founder, [[Berry Gordy]]".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Our-editors-recommend-2639353.php|title=Our editors recommend|newspaper=Sfgate |date=January 19, 2003|access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref><ref>[http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20139168,00.html "An investigative journalist who keeps his narrative in fine rhythm, Posner details the dark side of the heavenly Motown sound"]</ref><ref>"Most of what Posner presents has been aired before, though seldom as relentlessly and with as much documentation. Like other '60s icons, Motown turns out to have had a side seamy enough to rival that of the Kennedys' Camelot. Posner roasts Motown to a turn to feed pop-culture fans' taste for destroying the idols they once worshipped. Delicious." Booklist, December 2012</ref>
In his ''New York Times'' review of the 2013 Broadway show ''Motown: The Musical'', [[Charles Isherwood]] noted: "For a full and coherent history of Mr. Gordy's game-changing music factory, you'd need to check out Gerald Posner's engrossing book 'Motown: Music, Money, Sex and Power.'{{-"}}<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/theater/reviews/motown-the-musical-berry-gordys-story.html | work=The New York Times | first=Charles | last=Isherwood | title='Motown: The Musical,' Berry Gordy's Story | date=April 14, 2013}}</ref> The criticism by some of ''Motown'' was that Posner was "tone deaf about music" but invariably noted that since he had written a business history, not a review of the label's music, "to his credit, Posner claims to be nothing more than a historian anyway&nbsp;..."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.popmatters.com/review/motown-music-money-sex-and-power/|title=Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power by Gerald Posner|date=March 5, 2003|access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref>

=== ''Why America Slept'' ===
In 2003 Random House published Posner's ''Why America Slept'', which discusses the conspiracy of the [[al-Qaeda]] terrorists who were responsible for the [[September 11, 2001, attacks]]. In the book, Posner claims that Prince [[Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud]] had ties to al-Qaeda and advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. This assertion was strongly denied by Prince Ahmed's family, who pointed out that he in fact loved the U.S., spent time at his home there, and invested heavily in the U.S. horse racing industry.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}} Prince Ahmed, two other Saudi princes named by Posner, and the chief of the Pakistani Air Force all died within days of each other from a blood clot after a simple operation, a car wreck involving only one vehicle, dehydration in the desert and a sabotaged helicopter explosion.<ref>{{cite news |title=Confessions of a Terrorist |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,480226,00.html |magazine=Time |date=August 31, 2003 }}{{Dead link|date=May 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="hnn.us">{{cite web|url=http://hnn.us/article/1680|title=Interview with Gerald Posner: Why America Slept|access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref> Three of the men were in their forties, and one in his twenties. In ''Why America Slept'', Posner became the first journalist to reveal the details of a U.S. interrogation against one of the highest-ranking al-Qaeda suspects caught to date.<ref name="hnn.us"/> ''Why America Slept'' reached No. 2 on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pkarchive.org/personal/NYTBestSeller4.html|title=The Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page|access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref>

=== ''Secrets of the Kingdom'' ===
In his 2005 book ''Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Secret Saudi-U.S. Connection'', Posner provides an account of the "close" business and personal relationship between the House of Saud and the U.S. government, including discussions of "dirty bomb" technology and the financial and political maneuvering surrounding [[9/11]]. Posner also asserts that the Saudis have built an elaborate doomsday scenario around their oil fields. The Saudis have denied this, and some skepticism has been expressed about the plausibility of Posner's account of such a scheme.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/26/AR2005052601317.html With Friends Like These], by Thomas Lippman, ''The Washington Post'', May 29, 2005</ref> According to Posner, he and his wife Trisha have been banned from entering Saudi Arabia as a result of the book.

=== ''Miami Babylon'' ===
This 2009 book explores the history of Miami Beach, with a particular focus on corruption, extravagance, and the drug trade. In a ''New York Times'' review, Byron Burroughs said: "Where Posner thrives is telling the stories of the first developers and artists who foresaw what Miami Beach would become and worked against all odds to build it."<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/books/review/Burrough-t.html/ Deco Meca], ''The New York Times'', December 24, 2009.</ref> Some of the individuals interviewed by Posner for ''Miami Babylon'' have complained of severe misquoting and inaccuracies.<ref>[http://blogs.herald.com/scene_in_the_tropics/2009/10/miami-babylon-backlash-backstabbing-and-bitchery.html Miami Babylon backlash, backstabbing and bitchery] by Lesley Abravanel, "Miami Herald", October 14, 2009.</ref> ''Miami Babylon'' has been optioned for a television series.<ref>[http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/05/gerald_posner_nabs_a_tv_deal_f.php Plagiarist Gerald Posner Nabs TV Deal for Miami Babylon. Where's Our Check?] by Tim Elfrink, "Miami New Times", May 27, 2010</ref><ref>[http://gawker.com/5549404/gerald-posners-originality-pays-off Gerald Posner’s Originality Pays Off] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100530033504/http://gawker.com/5549404/gerald-posners-originality-pays-off |date=May 30, 2010 }} by Hamilton Nolan, "Gawker", May 27, 2010</ref> The original name for the book was listed as ''American Babylon'', but it was changed prior to publication.<ref>Killing Three Dreams of the 1960s, Interview of Gerald Posner by Paul Totah, Genesis Alumnae Magazine, Winter 2008–2009, p. 19</ref>

=== ''God's Bankers'' ===
''God's Bankers'' is a 2015 book based on a 200-year history of Vatican finances and the [[Vatican Bank]].<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.simonandschuster.com/Gods-Bankers/Gerald-Posner/9781416576570 |title=God's Bankers at Simon & Schuster|date=September 15, 2015|isbn=9781416576594|last1=Posner|first1=Gerald|publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref> It became Posner's third ''New York Times'' bestseller (after ''Case Closed'' and ''Why America Slept'') on February 22, 2015.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2015-02-22/hardcover-nonfiction/list.html/ |title=New York Times Bestseller Nonfiction Hardcover List for February 22, 2015|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>

In the ''New York Times'', Damon Linker said that "''God's Bankers'' provides an exhaustive history of financial machinations at the center of the church in Rome, from the final decades of the 19th century down to Pope Francis' sincere but as yet inconclusive efforts to reform the church's labyrinthine bureaucracy.&nbsp;... From there Posner weaves an extraordinarily intricate tale of intrigue, corruption and organized criminality.&nbsp;... The cumulative effect of Posner's detective work is an acute sensation of disgust—along with a mix of admiration for and skepticism about Pope Francis' efforts to reform the Vatican Bank and its curial enablers."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/books/review/gods-bankers-by-gerald-posner.html/ |title="God's Bankers" by Gerald Posner|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 20, 2015|last1=Linker|first1=Damon}}</ref>   Trine Tsouderos wrote in the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'': "Wall-Street-lawyer-turned-author Gerald Posner lays it all out in his deeply researched, passionately argued book, ''God's Bankers''."<ref name="https"/> According to ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'', "Posner uses his superlative investigative skills to craft a fascinating and comprehensive look at the dark side of the Catholic Church&nbsp;... Accessible and well written, Posner's is the definitive history of the topic to date."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4165-7657-0 |title=Publishers Weekly Review of God's Bankers|date=February 3, 2015}}</ref> ''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' said: "A dogged reporter exhaustively pursues the nefarious enrichment of the Vatican, from the [[Borgias]] to [[Pope Francis]]&nbsp;... A meticulous work that cracks wide open the Vatican's legendary, enabling secrecy."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/gerald-posner/gods-bankers/ |title=Kirkus Review of God's Bankers}}</ref>

''[[Booklist]]'' said that "A decade of exhaustive research into the deep and mysterious history of the Vatican's finances is a monumental task, but controversial author Posner proves more than up to this daunting challenge.&nbsp;... It's a fast-paced read that brings history alive on every page.  The book will captivate those who prefer their historical nonfiction spiked with real-life tales of murder, power, and intrigue."<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.booklistonline.com/ProductInfo.aspx?pid=7195433 |title=Booklist Review of God's Bankers}}</ref>

Some reviewers have noted that ''God's Bankers'' contains inaccuracies, the most serious of which is Posner's allegation in Chapter 11 that [[Bernardino Nogara]], the wartime director of the Vatican's ''Amministrazione Speciale per la Santa Sede'', was a Nazi intelligence agent. This allegation is based on his finding of a man named Nogara named in the interrogation report of ''[[Abwehr]]'' recruiter Reinhard Reme, which he suggests could only be [[Bernardino Nogara]], who was therefore working for the Nazis throughout World War II. Dr. Marilyn Mallory, a scholar familiar with the pontificates of Popes Pius XI and Pius XII, rebutted Posner in a 2015 article in ''Inside the Vatican'', asserting that the interrogation report, found in the [[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|National Archives]] in London, identifies the man as Bruno Nogara, a Venice school teacher who was arrested by the Allies in April 1945.<ref>{{cite news |last=Mallory |first=Dr. Marilyn |date=March 1, 2015 |title=A Superficial and Biased Book on the Vatican Bank |url=https://insidethevatican.com/magazine/culture/a-superficial-and-biased-book-on-the-vatican-bank/}}</ref> Faced with this evidence, Posner amended the paperback version of ''God's Bankers'', now stating on page 137 that there were in fact two ''Abwehr'' agents named Nogara: Bruno Nogara and Branch Nogara, listed in Appendix C of Reme's interrogation report. Posner argues that it is Bruno Nogara, who is listed as a member of ''Abwehr'' Unit 257 under ''Reichsstatthalter'' Hubert Pfannenstiel, while Branch Nogara is listed under ''Abwehr'' Unit 254, commanded by ''Reichsstatthalter'' Ernst Schmidt-Burck. Thus, there were two different ''Abwehr'' units under two different commanders, and therefore two different Nogaras.

But ''[[The Tablet]]'', a London-based Catholic journal, points out that the source cited by Posner, a copy of which can be read online,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://images.nationalarchives.gov.uk/assetbank-nationalarchives/action/viewAsset?id=60214&index=1&total=2&view=viewSearchItem%20The%20National%20Archives|title=Image details – Interrogation report of Abwehr recruiter Reinhard Reme – The National Archives Image library|access-date=January 1, 2017|archive-date=January 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170101091338/https://images.nationalarchives.gov.uk/assetbank-nationalarchives/action/viewAsset?id=60214&index=1&total=2&view=viewSearchItem%20The%20National%20Archives|url-status=dead}}</ref> clearly identifies Branch Nogara not as a person, but as the small town of [[Nogara]] located just north of the [[River Po]], where ''Abwehr'' Unit 254 maintained its supply depot. According to ''The Tablet'', there is no second person named Nogara.<ref>Patricia M McGoldrick, (October 10, 2015), ''The Tablet'', London, 10 October 2015, p. 20</ref>

Citing disclosures in ''God's Bankers'', Posner wrote an opinion editorial in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' on February 13, 2015 calling on Pope Francis "to approve the release of the Vatican's Holocaust-era files in its secret archives. They probably contain not only answers to how early the Vatican knew about the Nazis' mass murder of innocents, but also crucially important documents from the Vatican Bank, founded in June 1942."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-posner-vatican-bank-20150215-story.html |title=It's high time for Pope Francis to open the Vatican Bank's files|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=February 14, 2015}}</ref> Subsequently, Posner started collecting online signatures in petitions to Pope Francis to release the Vatican Bank's World War II archives and the Vatican's Holocaust documents. Posner said that his goal was to get more than 1,000 signatures to present to Pope Francis when the Pope visited the U.S. in September 2015.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rationaldoubt/2015/03/1899/ |title=God's Bankers – Interview with Author Gerald Posner, Part One|date=March 25, 2015}}</ref>

=== ''PHARMA'' ===
Posner's history of the American pharmaceutical industry was published by Simon & Schuster imprint Avid Reader Press for March 10, 2020.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Pharma/Gerald-Posner/9781501151897 |title=PHARMA: Greed, Lies and the Poisoning of America at Simon & Schuster|date=March 10, 2020|isbn=9781501151897|last1=Posner|first1=Gerald|publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref> ''Kirkus'' said that the book is "A shocking, rousing condemnation of an industry clearly in need of better policing."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/gerald-posner/pharma/|title=Kirkus Review of PHARMA}}</ref> ''Literary Hub'' selected ''PHARMA'' as one of the "most anticipated books of 2020," and in a review, author [[John Freeman (author)|John Freeman]] stated: "The cat’s out of the bag on this one, we all know pharma has been a disaster for many Americans, but Gerald Posner specializes in telling you what you don’t know: in his ''New York Times'' bestsellers like ''Case Closed'' and books like ''Hitler’s Children'' or ''God’s Bankers'', what he has perfected is achieving the kind of disgust only a massive research dive can bring.... Posner has created a medical leviathan for our times."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lithub.com/lit-hubs-most-anticipated-books-of-2020/3/ | title=Literary Hub review of PHARMA| date=January 14, 2020}}</ref> [[Beth Macy]], author of Dopesick, says that "I could not put down Gerald Posner’s ''Pharma'', the definitive story of how one family, the Sacklers, set out to get exquisitely rich on the back of unsuspecting Americans—then blamed the so-called 'abusers' instead of their own highly addictive drug."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Pharma/Gerald-Posner/9781501151897 | title=Advance Praise for PHARMA at Simon and Schuster| date=March 10, 2020| isbn=9781501151897| last1=Posner| first1=Gerald| publisher=Simon and Schuster}}</ref>

Natasha Singer in ''The New York Times Book Review'' said the book was “A withering and encyclopedic indictment of a drug industry that often seems to prioritize profits over patients…[PHARMA] reads like a pharmaceutical version of cops and robbers."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/books/pharma-gerald-posner.html | title=New York Times Book Review of PHARMA| newspaper=The New York Times| date=March 12, 2020| last1=Singer| first1=Natasha}}</ref> ''The New York Times Book Review'' also selected ''Pharma'' as one of "11 Editor's Weekly Choices," calling referring to the book as a "major work"<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/23/books/review/11-new-books-to-read-this-week.html | title=April 26, 2020 "11 New Books We Recommend This Week"| newspaper=The New York Times| date=April 23, 2020}}</ref>

''PHARMA'' included extensive coverage of the opioid epidemic and the [[Sackler family]]. In [[Stat (website)|STAT News]], Posner listed some of his new findings about the Sackler family.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Posner |first=Gerald |date=2020-03-10 |title=I thought I understood the Sacklers' opioid empire. Startling documents I found showed I was wrong |url=https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/10/startling-documents-reveal-new-facets-sackler-opioid-empire/ |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=STAT |language=en-US}}</ref> In ''[[WIRED]]'',<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Posner |first=Gerald |title=The Mom Who Took on Purdue Pharma for Its OxyContin Marketing |url=https://www.wired.com/story/mom-who-took-purdue-pharma-oxycontin-marketing/ |access-date=2024-08-02 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028}}</ref> Posner wrote about Marianne Skolek, who became an activist against [[Purdue Pharma]] and its narcotic painkiller, [[OxyContin]], after her daughter died of an overdose.

''PHARMA'' was published the day before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. A week before publication, Posner wrote an opinion piece in ''The New York Times'', [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/opinion/contributors/pharma-vaccines.html "Big Pharma May Pose an Obstacle to Vaccine Development."] He called COVID-19 "the ultimate test case for whether drug firms might at last become full partners in a public-private partnership."

Posner's penultimate chapter is titled "The Coming Pandemic". Biochemist [[Karen Bush]] told Posner in a 2016 interview that when it comes to the next pandemic, “It is not a question of if, it is a question of when.” ''The Dallas Morning News'' wrote that while "[https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/books/2020/03/10/long-before-coronavirus-gerald-posner-began-writing-pharma-which-warns-of-the-coming-pandemic/ Long before coronavirus, Gerald Posner began writing ‘Pharma,’ which warns of ‘The Coming Pandemic.’] In [[Literary Hub]], Posner wrote [https://lithub.com/on-the-near-impossibility-of-planning-for-a-viral-pandemic/ "On the Near Impossibility of Planning for a Viral Pandemic."]

The [[Society of American Business Editors and Writers]] selected 'PHARMA' as a [https://www.investopedia.com/sabew-picks-the-best-business-book-of-2020-5088197 finalist for the Best Business Book of 2020]

The [[Florida Book Award]] selected 'PHARMA' for its Gold Medal award for the [https://news.fsu.edu/news/2021/04/19/2020-florida-book-awards-winners-announced/ Best General Nonfiction Book of 2020].

Posner relied on his reporting from 'PHARMA' to write a series of opinion pieces in national publications about either shortcomings in the drug industry or about the concerns that the Sackler family might not be held accountable for their role in the marketing of Oxycontin in their privately-owned drug company, [[Purdue Pharma]]. [https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-05-17/sacklers-opioid-epidemic-bankruptcy In the '' Los Angeles Times'' he argued for the appointment of an independent examiner] in the bankruptcy of Purdue Pharma so that the case would not leave "unanswered the many troubling questions about the full extent of the [Sackler] family’s role in igniting and fanning the opioid epidemic for its own profit."  Posner subsequently co-wrote two opinion pieces about the Sacklers in ''The New York Times.'' In July 2020, he joined with bankruptcy law professor Ralph Brubaker in a piece titled [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/opinion/sacklers-opioid-epidemic.html "The Sacklers Could Get Away With It."] Posner wrote "At stake is whether there will ever be a fair assessment of responsibility for America’s deadly prescription drug epidemic." In December, Posner teamed with another bankruptcy law professor, Jonathan C. Lipson, in a ''New York Times'' opinion piece titled [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/05/opinion/sackler-purdue-pharma-doj.html "The Sacklers’ Last Poison Pill."]

Besides the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma, Posner joined Margarida Jorge, the campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now, [https://www.newsweek.com/pharma-insiders-are-raking-money-despite-no-guaranteed-covid-19-vaccine-opinion-1531996 in a ''Newsweek'' opinion piece] that criticized pharmaceutical executives for profiting from rumors and press releases about COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. And in February 2021, Posner wrote in ''[[USA Today]]'' asking President Biden not to make [[Janet Woodcock]] the permanent director of the [[Food and Drug Administration]]. Posner wrote that "The Biden administration should avoid rewarding any government official who contributed to the opioid crisis having become the most lethal prescription drug epidemic in American history."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Posner |first1=Gerald |title=FDA's Janet Woodcock failed to stop the opioid epidemic |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/02/03/janet-woodcocks-failure-fda-opioid-epidemic-column/4352787001/ |access-date=17 May 2023 |work=[[USA Today]] |date=2021-02-03}}</ref>

Posner also helped break the story of the role [[McKinsey & Company]] had in advising Purdue Pharma how to energize its flagging OxyContin sales.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cJ0O1idRg8 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/9cJ0O1idRg8 |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=How McKinsey helped Purdue Pharma sell OxyContin |website=[[YouTube]] |date=December 2020 }}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt8eA-X-Q4M&t=421s |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/bt8eA-X-Q4M |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=Gerald Posner on How Opioid Billionaire Sacklers Skirt Accountability |website=[[YouTube]] |date=December 20, 2020 }}{{cbignore}}</ref>

[[Tucker Carlson]], when interviewing Posner about his reporting that the Sacklers might evade justice for their role in the [[opioid epidemic]], said [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2MVFKwxpQQ "Gerald Posner may be the best known and most thorough investigative reporter in this country."]

=== Editorial writings ===
Posner supported [[Al Gore]] during the 2000 presidential election, and wrote a ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' editorial shortly after the [[September 11, 2001 attacks|9/11 attacks]] reversing his opinion of [[George W. Bush]].<ref>[http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=95001212 I Was Wrong About Bush], ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', 2001-09-25.</ref> Later he changed his opinion again; in October 2006, in "An Open Letter to the President",<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-posner/an-open-letter-to-the-pre_b_30865.html | work=The Huffington Post | first=Gerald | last=Posner | title=An Open Letter to the President | date=October 3, 2006}}</ref> published on ''[[The Huffington Post]]'', he reverted to his original position that Bush was a bad president stifled by his stubbornness.{{Third-party inline|date=April 2022}} He also wrote about investigative issues for ''The New York Times'', ''[[The New Yorker]]'', ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', ''Talk'', ''Newsweek'', ''Time'', the ''[[Miami Herald]]'', and ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''. He was a regular contributor to NBC's ''Today Show'', as well as other national shows on the History Channel, CNN, FOX News, and CBS. He was a frequent guest on MSNBC's ''Countdown with [[Keith Olbermann]]''. A member of the National Advisory Board of the [[National Writers Union]], Posner is also a member of the [[Authors Guild]], [[International PEN]], [[The Committee to Protect Journalists]], and [[Phi Beta Kappa]]. He worked on all his projects with his wife, [[Trisha Posner]], who is also an author and artist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trishaposner.com/ |title=Trishaposner.com |publisher=Trishaposner.com |access-date=September 19, 2010}}</ref> Posner was the Chief Investigative Reporter for ''[[The Daily Beast]]'', until he resigned over plagiarism charges in 2010.<ref name="The Posner Plagiarism Perplex">[http://www.slate.com/id/2244430/ The Posner Plagiarism Perplex], by Jack Shafer, ''Slate magazine'', February 11, 2010.</ref>

Since 2023, Posner has published several [[Anti-gender movement|anti-trans]] articles,<ref>https://www.justthefacts.media/p/the-transgender-money-pipeline</ref><ref>https://nypost.com/2024/03/04/opinion/secret-files-show-how-international-group-pushes-shocking-experimental-gender-surgery-for-minors/</ref> many based on the works of Jennifer Bilek, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist.<ref>https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2022/02/fears-of-creeping-transhumanism-give-space-for-overt-conspiracism-in-gender-critical-communities/</ref><ref>https://progressive.org/magazine/antisemitism-meets-transphobia-greenesmith-lorber/</ref>

=== Film projects ===
Posner was a regular panelist on ''HistoryCENTER'', the History Channel's weekly current affairs discussion program, from 2000 to 2002.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/1102068/Gerald-Posner/filmography | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131225001130/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/1102068/Gerald-Posner/filmography | url-status=dead | archive-date=2013-12-25 | department=Movies & TV Dept. | work=[[The New York Times]] | date=2013 | title=Gerald Posner}}</ref> He has also had an on-air role in broadcast documentaries, including among others the 1993 ''[[Frontline Television News|Frontline]]'' "Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?"; "Who Killed JFK: The Final Chapter" (1994); "Hitler and Stalin, A Legacy of Hate"(1994); "The Secret KGB JFK Assassination File" (1999); "Jack Ruby on Trial" [[History (U.S. TV channel)|History Channel]] (2004); "Gangs of New York", [[History (U.S. TV channel)|History Channel]] (2002); "Conspiracy", TV Series (2004–05); "Beyond Biba – A Portrait of Barbara Hulanicki", (2009); "Roads to Memphis", a look at the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination, American Experience PBS, 2010; and "JFK Assassination: The Definitive Guide", History Channel (2013).<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref name="imdb.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0692716/|title=Gerald Posner|website=[[IMDb]]|access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historychannel.com.au/tv-shows/1312/jfk-assassination-the-definitive-guide|title=Shows|publisher=History Channel|access-date=October 6, 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211092137/http://www.historychannel.com.au/tv-shows/1312/jfk-assassination-the-definitive-guide|archive-date=December 11, 2013|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Posner has also been a historical consultant on two Holocaust-related episodes – "Liberation and Revenge" and "Frenzied Killing", both in 2005 – of the documentary series "Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution'".<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref name="imdb.com"/> He was also the consultant to ''[[Inheritance (2006 film)|Inheritance]]'', a 2006 documentary about the story of Monika Hertwig and her effort to grapple with the enormity of the crimes of her father, [[Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp]] commander, [[Amon Göth]].<ref name="imdb.com"/>  And in 2013, Posner was again the Historical Consultant, this time for PBS/NOVA "Cold Case JFK", an updated ballistics examination of the JFK assassination.<ref name="imdb.com"/>

Posner was also the consulting producer of the film documentary, "The Barrel of a Gun", by [[Tigre Hill]], about the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, and Faulkner's convicted murderer, [[Mumia Abu-Jamal]].<ref name="imdb.com"/>

==Legal career==
After graduating with honors from the [[University of California, Hastings College of the Law]] in 1978, Posner moved from San Francisco to New York and started practicing law as a litigation associate at the New York–Wall Street law firm [[Cravath, Swaine & Moore]].<ref name="bitterempire.com">[http://bitterempire.com/gerald_posner_cravath_to_controversy_investigative_journalist/ Gerald Posner: Cravath to Controversy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304083930/http://bitterempire.com/gerald_posner_cravath_to_controversy_investigative_journalist/ |date=March 4, 2016 }}, ''Bitter Lawyer'', June 10, 2009.</ref> After leaving Cravath in 1981 he was a co-founder of the New York firm, Posner & Ferrara.  It was there that he became involved in an ultimately unsuccessful 4-year pro bono effort on behalf of victims of concentration camp experiments against the West German government and the family of Nazi experimenter [[Josef Mengele]].<ref name="bitterempire.com"/> 
After the publication of his first book about Mengele, Posner was "Of Counsel" to Posner & Ferrara.<ref name="linkedin.com">https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerald-posner-a93bb410  {{Self-published source|date=June 2022}}</ref>
In 2010 he began a series of high-profile client representations. Among them were three brothers of Afghanistan's then-president [[Hamid Karzai]]: Posner represented [[Mahmud Karzai]] and [[Qayum Karzai]], as well as the so-called "King of Kandahar", [[Ahmed Wali Karzai]], who was assassinated in July 2011.<ref>[https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/07/06/what-the-heck-is-gerald-posner-doing-in-afghanistan/ What the Heck is Gerald Posner Doing in Afghanistan?], ''Foreign Policy'', July 6, 2010.</ref>  Posner also represented Haji Ruhullah, an Afghan security contractor described by "The Washington Post" as "a leading warlord in Southern Afghanistan."<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/corrupt-afghan-trucking-for-us-military-probed-by-congress/2011/09/15/gIQA9KHnVK_story.html/ Corrupt Afghan trucking for U.S. military probed by Congress] {{dead link|date=June 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, ''The Washington Post'', September 15, 2011.</ref>  Posner successfully defended Ruhullah against U.S. Army efforts to debar the Afghan from doing business with the U.S. government.<ref>[http://www.northjersey.com/news/us-fraud-fighting-effort-in-afghanistan-criticized-1.1214642/ US fraud-fighting effort in Afghanistan criticized ] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307102524/http://www.northjersey.com/news/us-fraud-fighting-effort-in-afghanistan-criticized-1.1214642 |date=March 7, 2016 }}, ''NorthJersey.com'', September 14, 2011.</ref>
Posner also assisted other high-profile defendants.  He advised Dr. Conrad Murray, charged with manslaughter in the death of pop icon [[Michael Jackson]], as part of a British documentary over Murray's role.<ref>Gerald Posner interviewed by [[Matt Lauer]] on NBC TODAY show, August 19, 2009.</ref>  Posner provided pro-bono advice to [[Viktor Bout]], the Russian arms dealer nicknamed in the press as the "Merchant of Death" (played by actor [[Nicolas Cage]] in the film ''Lord of War'').<ref>Nicholas Schmidle, [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/03/05/disarming-viktor-bout/ Disarming Viktor Bout], ''The New Yorker'', March 5, 2012.</ref>
According to Posner, his legal training has given him a "big" edge in his primary career as an investigative reporter and author.<ref name="bitterempire.com"/>
Posner is a member of the New York and Washington D.C. Bars and the International Criminal Bar.<ref name="linkedin.com"/>

In 2015, the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' called Posner "a merciless little pitbull of an investigator."<ref name="https">{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-prj-gods-bankers-vatican-gerald-posner-20150305-story.html/ |title=Review: God's Bankers by Gerald Posner|website=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=March 5, 2015 }}</ref>

==Personal life==
Posner is married to author and journalist [[Trisha Posner]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trishaposner.com|title=Home|access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref>

==Controversies==

===NSA Surveillance of Princess Diana and the Paget Report===
In 1999, in the premier September issue of [[Talk (magazine)|''Talk'' Magazine]], Posner wrote about the mistakes of French and British investigators in the 1997 death of [[Diana, Princess of Wales]] ([https://www.posner.com/geraldposner/2015/08/al-fayeds-rage-Posner-9-1999.html "Al Fayed's Rage"]). According to Posner, "an active U.S. intelligence asset" let him listen to "an innocuous portion of an undated conversation between [Princess] Diana and di Lima (the wife then of the Brazilian ambassador to the United States)."  The recording, Posner reported, "was one of several collected by the National Security Agency." [https://www.posner.com/geraldposner/2015/08/al-fayeds-rage-Posner-9-1999.html According to Posner], "The NSA never directly targeted Diana, but picked up her conversations as an incidental part of a separate monitoring operation."  The NSA refused to acknowledge that the surveillance tapes existed but did admit that it had [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2006/12/12/nsa-denies-monitoring-calls-of-princess-diana/900ec011-812a-4b69-a8be-edb1427d9bb9/ "39 classified documents about Diana totaling 124 pages."] News that the NSA might have spied, even inadvertently, on the Princess of Wales, [https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/aug/06/monarchy.freedomofinformation caused a furor] in the United Kingdom.

Posner also reported that the driver of the car in which Diana was killed, Henri Paul, [https://www.posner.com/geraldposner/2015/08/al-fayeds-rage-Posner-9-1999.html had met with his French intelligence handler] in the hours before the fatal crash. "In fact, according to an American law enforcement official and an American intelligence agent, Paul spent the last several hours before the crash with a security officer from the DGSE. That may come as news to the French police; in an internal report a French police commandant named Jean Paul Copetti concluded that it was 'not possible' to determine Paul's whereabouts during that time."

In 2006, Scotland Yard released [https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/news/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/14_12_06_diana_report.pdf The Operation Paget Inquiry Report Into the Allegation of Conspiracy to Murder: Diana, Princess of Wales and Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed]. [[Operation Paget]] was the result of a multiyear investigation by the British police into lingering questions about whether the death of Princess Diana might have been the result of foul play. The Paget investigators interviewed Posner. The final report confirmed that driver Henri Paul had in his possession 12,560 French Francs at the time of his death. That was the amount Posner had reported Paul's intelligence handler had given him in cash only a few hours before the fatal accident. According to the British investigators, "The DGSE stated that they did not know Henri Paul. Gerald Posner gave ‘source’ information that they were with Henri Paul on Saturday night. Even if correct, the source stated that the meeting was of a routine nature and not connected to the Princess of Wales’ visit to Paris. She was apparently only discussed in passing."<ref>The Operation Paget inquiry report into the allegation
of conspiracy to murder Diana, Princess of Wales and Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed Report, p. 191</ref>

[[Operation Paget]] also reviewed Posner's charges about the NSA in the report's Chapter 15, "Central Intelligence Agency/National Security Agency, USA." As to the portion of a taped conversation Posner heard, the British investigators concluded "The inference from Gerald Posner’s information was that the Embassy, and not the Princess of Wales, was the subject of any telephone interception....Gerald Posner’s sources did not indicate to him that the Princess of Wales herself was under targeted surveillance by the NSA. The importance of such information, had there been any, would not be lost on the sources and it is reasonable to assume that they would have passed on that information to Gerald Posner had they been in possession of it."<ref>The Operation Paget inquiry report into the allegation of conspiracy to murder Diana, Princess of Wales and Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed Report, p. 736, 741</ref>

''The New York Times'' titled its coverage of [[Operation Paget]] as [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/15/world/europe/15diana.html "The Final Word on Diana's Death (Don't Bet on It)]". It reported on what Posner heard when the intelligence source had played him a small part of a surveillance tape: 

<blockquote>"Lord Stevens said he felt confident that nothing had been withheld from him, and added that even if the intelligence agencies had been eavesdropping on Diana, which they had not been, they would not have heard anything interesting.

For instance, the American investigative writer Gerald Posner says in the report that through a source, he heard an intercept of a telephone call between Diana and Lúcia Flecha de Lima, wife of the Brazilian ambassador at the time. The inference, the report says, was that the embassy, not Diana, was being bugged.

What did he hear? 'I could only decipher a British woman and a woman with a slight Hispanic accent talking about hairstyles,' he said."</blockquote>

===Plagiarism and quote falsification===
In 2010, Posner was the chief investigative reporter at ''[[The Daily Beast]]''. Following the revelation that a number of Posner's stories for the ''Beast'' contained portions plagiarized from articles in other publications, Posner resigned from the ''Beast''.<ref name="The Posner Plagiarism Perplex"/><ref>{{cite web|last=Bustos |first=Sergio R. |url=http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/11/1473780/gerald-posner-quits-daily-beast.html |title=Gerald Posner resigns from Daily Beast amid plagiarism allegations |publisher=Miamiherald.com |access-date=September 19, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Shafer |first=Jack |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2243850/ |title=Plagiarism at the Daily Beast: Gerald Posner concedes lifting from the Miami Herald  |publisher=Slate Magazine|website=Slate.com |date=February 5, 2010 |access-date=September 19, 2010}}</ref><ref>[http://www.slate.com/id/2243991/ More Posner Plagiarism], by [[Jack Shafer]], ''[[Slate magazine]]'', February 8, 2010.</ref><ref>[http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joan_walsh/salon/2010/04/01/daily_beast_lifts_from_salon/index.html Daily Beast lifts from Salon – again] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100403232238/http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joan_walsh/salon/2010/04/01/daily_beast_lifts_from_salon/index.html |date=April 3, 2010 }} by Joan Walsh. April 1, 2010.</ref> According to Posner, the plagiarism was inadvertent and the result of the "compressed deadlines" of the ''Beast'' and confusing his assembled research with his own writing in the "master files" he assembled on each story. Allegations of plagiarism also surfaced concerning his book, ''Miami Babylon'' (October 2009).<ref>[http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/03/gerald_posner_plagiarized_seve.php Gerald Posner Plagiarized Several Passages in Miami Babylon, Author Says], by Tim Elfrink, ''Miami New Times'', March 16, 2010.</ref><ref name="mnt1">[http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-04-01/news/gerald-posner-plagiarized-new-times-pbs-and-many-others/ Gerald Posner plagiarized New Times, PBS, and many others] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110107065130/http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-04-01/news/gerald-posner-plagiarized-new-times-pbs-and-many-others/ |date=January 7, 2011 }}, by Tim Elfrink, ''Miami New Times'', March 30, 2010.</ref> Posner said the ''Miami Babylon'' plagiarism occurred because of a new system of "trailing endnotes", because an individual he interviewed read one of the plagiarized sources and reiterated it during the interview, and because he mistook other people's writing for his own after scanning source documents into a computer database.<ref>[http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-03-25/news/gerald-posner-plagiarizes-again-this-time-at-book-speed/php Gerald Posner plagiarizes again, this time at book speed] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503101155/http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-03-25/news/gerald-posner-plagiarizes-again-this-time-at-book-speed/php/ |date=May 3, 2012 }}, by Tim Elfrink, ''Miami New Times'', March 25, 2010.</ref><ref>[https://abcnews.go.com/print?id=10124625 Posner Says He Failed to Source Material for Book], by Hillel Italie, ''ABC News'', March 17, 2010.</ref> The ''[[Miami New Times]]'' also found that Posner "seems to add, subtract, or misattribute quotes" and displayed a series of such "apparently altered or misattributed quotes".<ref name="mnt1"  /><ref>[http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/03/more_gerald_posner_plagiarism.php More Gerald Posner Plagiarism in Miami Babylon, From New Times, PBS, and Many Others], by Tim Elfrink, ''Miami New Times'', March 30, 2010.</ref>

Posner subsequently hired attorney [[Mark Lane (author)|Mark Lane]], threatening litigation against the ''Miami New Times''  on grounds of [[tortious interference]] (i.e., that its investigation and reporting of this case damaged Posner's business relationship with his publishers) and emotional distress. Posner's choice of attorney was particularly notable, as Lane was a well-known conspiracy theorist in regards to the death of President John F. Kennedy, while Posner had written his debunking of such theories in his 1993 book, "Case Closed".<ref name="pr">[http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/attorney-mark-lane-retained-by-author-gerald-posner-to-represent-him-in-media-case-93667849.html Attorney Mark Lane Retained by Author Gerald Posner to Represent Him in Media Case], May 13, 2010.</ref><ref>[http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/05/gerald_posner_hires_rush_to_ju.php Gerald Posner Hires Rush to Judgment Author Mark Lane in Plagiarism Case], by Tim Elfrink, ''Miami New Times'', May 13, 2010.</ref><ref>[http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Plagiarism-Plagued-Posner-Hires-Grassy-Knoll-Guru-to-Take-On-New-Times-93694679.html Plagiarism Plagued Posner Hires Grassy Knoll Guru to Take On New Times], by Jessica Sick, "NBC Miami", May 13, 2010.</ref> In a press release, Posner stated "Although I'm convinced Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy, I've always believed that had Mark Lane represented Oswald, he would have won an acquittal. That's why Mark Lane was the obvious choice as my own attorney."<ref name="pr"  /> Soon thereafter, the ''Miami New Times'' published evidence of additional plagiarism from multiple sources in both ''Secrets of the Kingdom'' and ''Why America Slept''.<ref>[http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/05/gerald_posner_plagiarized_in_w.php Gerald Posner Plagiarized in Why America Slept and Secrets of the Kingdom, Research Shows], by Tim Elfrink, May 18, 2010.</ref> According to [[Poynter Institute]] senior scholar Roy Peter Clark, "This constitutes plagiarism by any definition I can think of.&nbsp;... The capturing of someone else's material that is this extensive cannot, in my opinion, have been done accidentally."<ref name="mnt2">[http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-05-20/news/posner-plagiarizes-again/ Posner Plagiarizes Again] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100521052838/http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-05-20/news/posner-plagiarizes-again |date=May 21, 2010 }}, by Tim Elfrink, May 20, 2010.</ref> Evidence was also presented indicating that Posner had repeatedly "scrubbed" elements of the journalism scandal from his Wikipedia page.<ref name="mnt2"  />

===Harper Lee lawsuit===
On May 3, 2013, Posner was named in a federal lawsuit brought by author [[Harper Lee]] in [[Manhattan]]. Lee claimed that [[Samuel Pinkus]], her literary agent's son-in-law, tricked her into signing away her rights to ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]'', directing the royalties to be paid into a corporation formed by Posner for that purpose.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/agent_is_atticus_filch_dHGLvpNU7ivrWxftqQSlwL | url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607221801/http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/agent_is_atticus_filch_dHGLvpNU7ivrWxftqQSlwL |archive-date=2013-06-07 |title='To Kill a Mockingbird' owner sues to reclaim copyright to novel |first=Bruce |last=Golding |date=May 4, 2013}}</ref>

Before Posner filed an answer, he and one other defendant settled with Lee and were dismissed from the lawsuit.<ref name=":0">{{cite news| url=https://news.yahoo.com/kill-mockingbird-author-settles-copyright-suit-against-2-001300697.html|title='To Kill a Mockingbird' author settles copyright suit against 2 defendants; terms undisclosed|date=September 6, 2013|agency=[[Associated Press]]|work=[[Yahoo! News]]}}</ref>  The parties did not disclose the terms of the settlement.<ref name=":0"/>  Posner told the ''[[Miami Herald]]'': "I have always maintained that not a single contention about me in the complaint was accurate.  I was simply the wrong person named in the wrong lawsuit."<ref>http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/06/3609822/posner-off-the-hook-robin-thicke.html {{dead link|date=June 2017}}</ref> To ''[[Law360]]'', he said: "I am gratified the complaint was dismissed. There was never any basis for this lawsuit against me."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.law360.com/articles/470604/harper-lee-settles-with-agent-over-mockingbird-copyright|title=Harper Lee Settles With Agent Over 'Mockingbird' Copyright |publisher=Law360|access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
<!-- ISBNs and publishers needed -->
*''Mengele: The Complete Story'' (1986)
*''Warlords of Crime: Chinese Secret Societies – The New Mafia'' (1988)
*''Bio-Assassins'' (1989)
*''Hitler's Children: Sons and Daughters of Leaders of the Third Reich Talk About Their Fathers and Themselves'' (1991), {{ISBN|978-0-394-58299-3}}
*''Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK'' (1993), {{ISBN|978-0-679-41825-2}}
*''Citizen Perot: His Life and Times'' (1996), Random House, {{ISBN|978-0-614-05801-7}}
*''Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.'' (1998), {{ISBN|978-0-375-50082-4}}
*''Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11'' (2003), {{ISBN|978-0-375-50879-0}}
*''Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power (Music of the Great Lakes)'' (2003), [[Random House]], {{ISBN|978-0-375-50062-6}}
*''Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Saudi-U.S. Connection'' (2005), {{ISBN|978-1-4000-6291-1}}
*''Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth and Power – A Dispatch From the Beach'' (2009), {{ISBN|978-1-4165-7656-3}}
* ''The Third Man: Was there another bomber in Oklahoma City?''(2013),{{ISBN|978-0-9891-4210-6}}
*''God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican'' (2015), [[Simon & Schuster]], {{ISBN|978-1-4165-7657-0}}
*''Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America'' (2020), Simon and Schuster, {{ISBN|978-1-5011-5189-7}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
*[[Journalism scandals]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://www.posner.com Posner's Official website]
*[http://geraldposner.blogspot.com Posner's blog]
*[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-posner Posner's Huffington Post writings]
*[http://www.thedailybeast.com/contributors/gerald-posner.html Posner's Daily Beast articles]
*[http://www.theskepticsguide.org/podcast/sgu/435 Interview of Gerald Posner] for the podcast [[The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe]].
*[http://www.bitterlawyer.com/gerald-posner-cravath-to-controversy/ From Cravath to Controversy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216023046/http://www.bitterlawyer.com/gerald-posner-cravath-to-controversy/ |date=December 16, 2013 }}
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8MsA9xZJok Interview with Gerald Posner on Assassination of John F. Kennedy]

{{Assassination of John F. Kennedy|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Posner, Gerald}}
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[[Category:Researchers of the assassination of John F. Kennedy]]
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[[Category:University of California College of the Law, San Francisco alumni]]
[[Category:New York (state) lawyers]]
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