CURRENTLY, I HOST a YouTube based true crime podcast, Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime. What separates this podcast from the more traditional genre inundating the industry is its focus on exploring unique criminals as well as their crimes and cases.
Please check it out; and don’t forget to subscribe!
I’M A BIG BELIEVER IN TRUSTING my subjects, while verifying the accuracy of their version of the events. Everyone’s memory is fallible and they’re often mercurial. With that said, I documented each subject’s story using the Federal Freedom of Information Act, various states’ Public Records Acts, and the federal and state district courts’ criminal dockets. Typically, I’d end up with law enforcement reports, interview memorandums, emails, indictments, trial and sentencing transcripts, and a slew of documents related to the subject’s complete criminal investigation and court proceedings.
After reviewing the material, I often had a more complete understanding of the subject’s case than the subject himself. I then combined the accuracy of the documentation with extensive subject interviews to write the most accurate version of the subject’s true crime story.
PRIOR TO TAKING ON A SUBJECT’S STORY I thoroughly discussed the various types of intellectual property created by writing their life story. Transparency is always the best policy. Once we reached an understanding, I had many of the subjects contractually tie their life rights to the synopsis and/or true crime/memoir.
These rights are available for sale and/or option through the following agency:
Doug Grad Literary Agency, Inc.
156 Prospect Park West
Brooklyn, NY 11215
MY LITERARY QUALIFICATIONS are limited to true crime stories, written during my incarceration. I do, however, have the unique perspective of writing from “inside” the prison walls with my subjects. I also have a BA from the University of South Florida, I’ve taken a few creative writing courses, and I’ve read several books on how to write nonfiction. But I haven’t won any literary awards and I can’t tell you that my work has been featured in Rolling Stone, GQ, Wired, Esquire, etc. Unfortunately, the cold hard facts are that acclaimed national magazines publish true crime stories about criminals like me, but they don’t publish stories by criminals like me.
Regardless, I was surrounded by a virtual sea of true crime material and I consider myself a semi-talented writer. But I’m one hell of a storyteller. Besides, with the quality of the stories at my disposal, I’m not sure how talented of a writer I had to be.