When Nick Cassavetes first brought me on to the Alpha Dog project in March of 2003, TV star Kevin Connolly was set to direct with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey McGuire set to produce. And Jesse James Hollywood was still missing.

The youngest man ever on the FBI's Most Wanted List had just disappeared in August of 2000, becoming nothing more than a vapor. Law enforcement officials had all but given up on ever finding him. That's why the DA, who also happened to be prosecuting Michael Jackson (someone I went to school with when we were kids) at the time of my research, was so willing to work with me.

Santa Barbara County Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen had wanted to use the movie and my book to help create a sort of global wanted poster to try to find someone somewhere in the world who would be able to identify the fugitive and turn him in to law enforcement authorities. Which is where my persistence would pay off big-time. Because Mr. Zonen soon provided me with access to his entire confidential case file from prosecuting Hollywood's four co-defendants for the purposes of helping our projects.

I got the prosecutor's trial notebook, police reports, probation reports, psychological records, photos, videotapes, transcribed defendant confessions, and more. These combined with the key interviews I got with crucial witnesses to one of the most sensational crimes in California history made me the world's foremost expert on the case. I helped Cassavetes write his screenplay for what would become Alpha Dog and then I went on to write Stolen Boy…