Collaborations

MOST WANTED: Pursuing Whitey Bulger, the Murderous Mob Chief the FBI Secretly Protected

By Thomas J. Foley and John Sedgwick, Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 2012

On June 23, 2011, the electrifying news swept the nation:  The notorious gangster Whitey Bulger was finally captured by the FBI after sixteen years as a fugitive on its Most Wanted list.  Many were relieved.  But for earnest, hardworking Thomas J. Foley, a former Massachusetts state police colonel and the investigator who sparked Bulger’s flight from Boston, the moment was bittersweet.  The FBI may have caught Bulger, but as Foley well knew, they were also responsible for his escape.

Written by John Sedgwick, MOST WANTED exposes and explores that grim triangle, between Whitey, the FBI and Foley, as it has never been detailed before.  It has long been known that Whitey Bulger was a secret FBI informant, but it has never been revealed—until now—that the FBI was actively protecting Bulger from Foley, foiling Foley’s efforts to stop Bulger’s murderous ways time and again.  At one point, the FBI even presented Foley with a plaque at a holiday party that read: The Most Hated Man in Law Enforcement, a not so subtle suggestion that he should lay off the investigation.  Ultimately, Foley indicted Bulger on nineteen murder charges during the time that he was an FBI “top echelon” informant.

Written like a real-life thriller, MOST WANTED presents a classic double chase, with Foley the man at the center, both sought and seeking.  In the end, his investigative efforts resulted in criminal convictions of a half-dozen of Boston’s most notorious wiseguys and also led to the conviction of John Connolly, one for the FBI agents who abetted Bulger. Connolly is now serving a forty year prison sentence.  Foley is a cop’s cop, and, with Sedgwick, he honestly recounts how his wide-eyed admiration for the nation’s top law enforcement agency was gradually transformed by dark realities he didn’t want to believe.

"If you want to understand shoe-leather police investigation at its very best, pick up ‘Most Wanted.’ What’s clearest from Foley’s gripping account is that old-fashioned, grind-it-out police work really is the only answer against organized crime."Boston Globe

"Tom Foley’s riveting accounts provides the missing piece to this epic saga, the inside story that only a true insider could tell." –Dick Lehr, co-author of the New York Times Bestseller Black Mass

THE ART OF DOING GOOD: Where Passion Meets Action

by Charles Bronfman and Jeffrey Soloman, with John Sedgwick, Jossey-Bass, 1988

The sequel to the Art of Giving, this is a book for and about the social entrepreneurs who deliver on the dream of improving our world in a small way, or a large one.  Through interviews with eighteen prominent visionaries like Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children's Zone, Michael Brown of City Year and Darrell Hammond of the playground-building organization, Ka-BOOM, and many other non-profiteers who are less famous but equally impactful, The Art of Doing Good elucidates the critical elements that go into the creation of an effective, change-making non-profit, one that, in its realm, is just as transformative as a Google or an Apple.  It takes the reader from that first electrifying moment of inspiration when the idea for the new venture is born, to the market testing, the staffing-up and the money-raising, through to the construction of a system to deliver change steadily, quarter by quarter and year by year.  The Art of Doing Good is simultaneously a celebration of these do-gooders and a close examination of them.  What has allowed these few to succeed so wildly, while so many others fail?  What resources do they have to call on that makes the difference?  Unlike with the previous volume,  the Cost of Doing Good is for those who want to make a difference with no money down.  None of these social entrepreneurs start with money, and yet they have all flourished nonetheless.  This book answers the key question—if money doesn't account for success, what does?

SEX, LOVE, AND MONEY: Revenge and Ruin in the World of High-Stakes Divorce

by Gerald Nissenbaum, J.D., and John Sedgwick, Hudson Street Press/Penguin, 2010

We all know the stereotypes of divorce: the cheating husband, the broken wife.  But after handling warring spouses for nearly forty years, attorney Gerald Nissenbaum knows divorce like nobody else.  For he knows the money-hungry wife who emptied the entire house—from the furniture to the light fixtures—leaving her husband with a single stewpot on the front hall, with a penny inside.  He knows the multimillionaire husband who, in response to his wife's quest for discovery, dumped a moving van full of documents on his wife’s sidewalk, never figuring that she would find within it the one page that would cost him half his fortune.  In short, he knows what is in his clients’ hearts--the anguish, distress, fear, humiliation, longing, fury . .  all the most powerful emotions that can erupt in this brutal, harrowing time.

  • TV rights to the USA Network
  • Global British rights sold to Ebury, a division of Random House; first serial to Boston Magazine

"Sex, Love and Money is the Kitchen Confidential of divorce—a deliciously gossipy, scandal-filled, insider’s view of the high-stakes, big-money world we rarely get to see." –Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of Vanished and High Crimes.

"Crackling with hard-boiled patter and insider goods, Sex, Love and Money transforms the business of divorce into the stuff of pulp fiction, low farce and grand tragedy. A detective, legal wonk, and father confessor, Gerald Nissenbaum, along with coauthor John Sedgwick, offers an exuberant expose that shuns cynicism in favor of bemusement, empathy and a giddy celebration of man’s tenacity and capacity for folly." –Megan Abbott, Edgar Award-winning author of Queenpin and Bury Me Deep

THE ART OF GIVING: Where the Soul Meets a Business Plan

by Charles Bronfman and Jeffrey Solomon with John Sedgwick, Jossey-Bass, 2009

In this definitive guide, world-renowned philanthropist Charles Bronfman and lifelong expert and non-profit leader Jeffrey Solomon show donors and potential donors how to become street-smart, effective philanthropists.

Despite their critical importance to philanthropy, donors have few resources for solid information—deciding what type of gift to give, how to structure it, the tax implications, what level of follow-up and transparency they should expect, among many other complexities.  With candid, clear advice, this book fills that vacuum and helps anyone gain a special understanding of philanthropy as a business undertaking as a soulful process.  It also shows nonprofits how to open a dialog with the donors they serve to make smart, meaningful choices with their funds to create change.

Whether you are a potential donor, active donor, or a nonprofit professional working with donors, The Art of Giving reveals how the act of giving benefits not only the recipients of the donation but also oneself.

  • Winner of the Axiom business book gold medal for the finest book on philanthropy published in 2009

"Anyone interested in philanthropy and not-for-profit must read The Art of Giving.  It’s a key playbook on how to set your goals and be sure your money is spent wisely on all sides." —Leonard Lauder, chairman, The Estee Lauder Companies, Inc.

"In The Art of Giving, Charles Bronfman and Jeffrey Solomon offer the reader a rare gift: honesty, practicality, experience, savvy, self-awareness.  Together, the donor and the professional guide us through the vineyards of philanthropy better than the solo practitioner or the cloistered academic." –Reynold Levy, president, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

A Life In Leadership: From D-Day to Ground Zero

An Autobiography by John C. Whitehead, Basic Books, 2004

Born to middle-class parents in Montclair, New Jersey, John Whitehead was a child of the Depression but went on to be one of the greatest leaders of the Greatest Generation.  In this intimate, charming autobiography, he shares his stories and the lessons he's learned about quiet leadership, which he found to be far more effective than the noisier, more self-aggrandizing version widely in evidence today.  On D-Day, he commanded one of the landing crafts at Omaha Beach, and witnessed close-up one of the most terrifying battles in American military history. Later, as co-chair of Goldman Sachs, he pioneered the globalization of international finance that is a fact of business life today.  In 1985, Whitehead was appointed Deputy Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and became the architect of the Reagan administration's successful efforts to wean the countries of Eastern Europe from the Soviet Union, and to encourage the democratic movements that eventually resulted in the fall of the Berlin Wall.  After 9/11, he was appointed by New York Governor George Pataki as Chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, charged with the difficult and emotionally wrenching task of rebuilding Ground Zero. Whitehead provides a vivid, first-hand account of the hard decisions the LMDC made in trying to meet its goals of re-developing lower Manhattan and honoring the victims of 9/11—altogether a fitting capstone to a remarkable career.

"If we hope to recapture a different industry ethos, this book should be required reading for all new hires."New York Observer