David Freed (author)

Biography

Freed was born in Albany, Georgia and grew up in Colorado. After graduating from Colorado State University in 1976, Freed began his journalism career at the Colorado Springs Sun and the Rocky Mountain News in Denver in the 1980s. Both newspapers are no longer in operation.

Freed is a licensed pilot, noting in the August 2013 issue of Air & Space that he owns and operates a Piper Cherokee built in 1965.

The Los Angeles Times

Freed worked as an investigative journalist with The Los Angeles Times in the 1980s and 1990s. He spent time reporting on Operation Desert Storm with assignments in Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Freed wrote a series of articles starting in 1990 that highlighted flaws in Los Angeles County's criminal justice system, including overcrowded county jails and poor enforcement of lesser crimes. This series made Freed a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Freed shared the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Reporting with fellow writers at the newspaper for reportage on the Rodney King riots in 1992.

The Atlantic

In the May 2010 issue of The Atlantic, Freed reported on the plight of scientist Steven Hatfill who was investigated extensively by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) following anthrax attacks in 2001. Freed's article, "The Wrong Man," told the story of the FBI's efforts to track down individuals responsible for mailing anthrax powder to targets throughout the United States. Hartfill was targeted due to his work with the Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, his use of an antibiotic called Cipro useful in fending off anthrax and faulty investigating done by consultant Donald Wayne Foster. After six years of investigations and court proceedings, the FBI settled with Hatfill for $5.8 million after a U.S. District Court judge found no evidence that Hatfill was responsible for the anthrax attacks. Freed's account of the FBI investigation included extensive interviews with Hatfill, who had not provided his account with any publication prior to 2010. The article was one of the feature writing finalists for the 2011 National Magazine Awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors.

Smithsonian Air & Space

Since 2011, when he wrote about fractional luxury jet ownership, Freed has been a regular contributor of feature-length stories for the magazine of the National Air & Space Museum, covering a broad range of topics. In August 2012, he wrote about Curiosity, NASA's most recent Mars rover. In December 2014, after a trip to Hanoi, Freed produced a story exploring what the Vietnam War was like for North Vietnamese soldiers who shot down American warplanes using Russian-built SA-2 rockets. SA http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/missile-men-north-vietnam-180953375/ In 2016, he was named a contributing editor to the magazine.

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. 'Arizona Project'

Following the assassination in June 1976 of Arizona Republic investigative reporter Don Bolles, Freed became a member of a team of reporters known as the "Desert Rats" that convened in Phoenix to carry on Bolles' work.

Literary career

Freed, under the pseudonym Fred Grimes, wrote a humor book titled Dear Ernest and Julio: The Ordinary Guy's Search for the Extraordinary Job. The nonfiction work, published by St. Martin's Press in 1998, featured a series of application letters for odd jobs sent to real employers by Freed. Each letter details an unusual talent, skill set or anecdote that attracted a response from the recipient.

Freed has also written five mystery-thriller novels centered on a protagonist named Cordell Logan: Flat Spin (2012), Fangs Out (2013), Voodoo Ridge (2014), "The Three-Nine Line (2015), and "Hot Start" (2016). In each novel, Logan, a retired military assassin and fighter pilot turned flight instructor, is tasked with solving a new mystery. All of Freed's Cordell Logan novels are published by The Permanent Press. A sixth novel titled The Kill Circle was due for a September 2017 release.

In addition, Freed has written screenplays in Hollywood, including "The Devil Came on Horseback" and a "A Glimpse of Hell" starring James Caan and Robert Sean Leonard which, at the time, was the highest rated program in the history of FX Networks.

Teaching

Freed is an adjunct professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Communications at Colorado State University, Fort Collins.