John Ferak Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of True Crime History Books

John Ferak is a nonfiction, mystery, and crime fiction novelist who was born in Joliet and spent much of her childhood in Plainfield Illinois. He went to the Broadway-based St.Mary Nativity grade school.
Some of his favorite memories growing up in the Nowell Park suburb on the eastern side of the city include playing several basketball games organized by the Catholic Youth Organization.
He also remembers the many times he used to play Little League baseball.

When he was thirteen years old, his family moved to Plainfield and by the time he turned sixteen, he was certain he was destined to become a journalist.

In his teenage years, he started working for “The Plainfield Enterprise” as a sports stringer, as he covered and took photos for the Plainfield High School basketball and football games.

Ferak then went to Eastern Illinois University where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1995. During his time there, John Ferak was involved in all manner of societies and activities.

He was on the Apportionment Board of the student government, The Daily Eastern News student newspaper, the collegiate Chapter of Professional Journalists, the homecoming committee of the University Board, and the Sigma Nu Fraternity.
John also held numerous editor and reporter positions on the student newspaper “The Daily Eastern News” and at some point was a senior investigative reporter.
For his summer internships, he worked for the South Bend Tribune, Aurora Beacon News, and the Joliet-Herald News.

After graduating from Eastern Illinois University with his journalism degree, he began looking for a job.

It was at this time that he developed a strong commitment and passion for public service journalism. Over the years that he has been active, he has worked as a journalist through much of the greater Midwest.
Some of the places that he has worked after college include the Omaha World-Herald, The South Bend Tribune, Green Bay Press-Gazette, and the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights.

Ferak has also worked on the USA Today Network statewide investigative team and for about five years, he worked at their Appleton-based “The Post Crescent.”

With the internet growing in popularity, he applied and was appointed Joliet Editor at “Patch.” Since 2017, he has been working for “Patch” as a reporter and editor, covering New Lenox, Bolingbrook, and Joliet.
John Ferak published “Bloody Lies” his debut work in 2014 and has been writing ever since.

“Wrecking Crew” by John Ferak is an in-depth story about the famous Steve Avery homicide. On Halloween Day of 2005, a woman named Teresa Holbock was found dead and the local police believed that the man responsible was Steve Avery.
He is a man who had brought a $36 million case against the police for wrongful incarceration. He had spent much of his life in jail for a crime he was ultimately found innocent of.

It is a famous case that is the subject of the “Making a Murderer” series on Netflix and several books too.

In this novel, John Ferak writes in intimate detail about the strategy taken by the high-octane and high-profile lawyer Kathleen Zellner, to get her client set free after he was already convicted.
Zellner who is one of the United States’ most effective wrongful conviction attorneys provided the author with exclusive access to her pro bono efforts, which he used as inspiration for this work.
It is clear that Zellner strongly believed that her client was a victim of a corrupt justice system and she intended to do everything in her power to get justice for him.

It is a work well worth the read, as it takes you through the evidence and provides reasons why Steve is not guilty in addition to the corruption inherent in the case on the part of law enforcement.

John Ferak’s novel “Body of Proof,” tells the story of Jessica O’Grady, a nineteen-year-old who disappeared soon after telling Christopher Edwards her lover that she was pregnant.
The man’s steady girlfriend also happens to be pregnant and they have been talking about marriage.

The Omaha police believe they have enough reason to go after Chris for the disappearance of Jessica and call in the crack CSI team from Douglas County led by Dave Kofoed.
The CSI team is known for being the best as it has often located hard-to-find evidence that has sent many of the worst criminals in the state to prison.

They were the ones who worked hard to find a spot of blood at the bottom of a dumpster nearly six months after the victim disappeared.

Kofoed the leader of the team arrives on the scene not after glory, as he is only after getting the work done as he often ascribes the efforts to his team.
Freak writes a fascinating work that is made better by the many years he spent working as a newspaper reporter.

He sticks to the facts, even as he interjects his opinions and emotions into the story, making it even better than a work of fiction.

“Failure of Justice” by John Ferak is an amazing work that tells the story of half a dozen people wrongfully convicted in Nebraska.

For more than four years, the case remained unsolved until a former police officer turned pig farmer decided to make the police look bad by solving it himself.
He was ultimately hired by the county sheriff and was allowed to work on the case with official permission.

The investigation he conducts ultimately ends in the arrest of half a dozen people who are referred to as The Beatrice 6. Many of them denied involvement in the murder but had been threatened into confessing.
There were all manner of failures that happened in the case including ignoring exculpatory evidence, bad polygraph readings, false confessions, and bad reading of DNA, which resulted in the injustice.
Three women and three men who all had a history of mental illness had been convicted each for at least twenty years.
But when DNA testing came onto the scene all of them were proved completely innocent.