and then be able to have specific narratives. so the public would be able to have access to them by going directly to the web. right now i am up to 249 narratives. ..

until the blood ran down his back and then they encircle the dogs are on his body while the blood was stripping down his back. there are other cases where were also beaten until they had blisters and while the blisters were open they took salt and poured salt directly into the wound so you just imagine the kind of treatment they dealt with it was just very hard in this in that time. >> how long did it take them to put this together? >> i don't have the necessary background in terms that i would imagine because this was a semester because the class consists of over 25 students at that time. >> how long do you think is going to take to get to the rest of them? >> to give you a little background, we actually

purchased the software and implemented this in 2009, august of 2009 so i am two years out. so i'm hoping my time frame is next year by the summer and be ready to present the general public by the semester. >> tells what he is and what he does. you said he is the most complex individual that you have written about in any of your books. take that, mark zuckerberg. [laughter] what mainly attracted you to tell his story? >> he basically came from a very hard backroom, very fundamentalist mormon family. he was kicked out of his house when he was 18 for a meeting to primero sex and he decided he

wanted to be an astronaut and changed his whole life and became james bond and he majored in geology and physics and the university of utah and learn how to fly your plans and scuba dive didn't and then he got into the johnson space center as a co-op program so it's for college kids but it is a feeder to the astor of training programs and he was achieving his dream. he was a stand up there, he was a big store, he became the social leader of all of the co-ops and the interns and he fell in love with a young intern and we've all done something stupid out of love. but he did is he stole a 600-pound safe full of moonrock from his professor's office and as i said spread them on a bed, had sex with his girlfriend and tried to sell them over the internet to a belgium jim dealer whose name was axel and you couldn't have invented this guy.

he collects rocks and treats them every monday night in this huge center where all of the guys treat rocks. his hobby is a sport where there is a wooden bird on a 100-foot pole and all these men stand around and shoot with crossbows. he sees this have on the internet i've got moon rocks for sale and he is a big believer in right and wrong so he immediately called the fbi coming e-mail with the fbi and had become a big sting operation and fattah roberts was taken down. i always give it away the you know he got arrested. >> you obviously have come off of the enormous success with not only the book but also the fact they are converted to movies which helps in terms of that notoriety. >> they always change the title and it's annoying. sex on the moon i feel like is

the first one they have to keep. >> you are locked in on that one. [laughter] you said you were working on this at the time the social network was being filmed so there was some sort of overlap. but i've always fought in the way that actors and actresses are only good as the bulls they choose, wright hers are only as good as the stories that they tell. so why was it -- all about what you just explained notwithstanding all the stories you could have told what was it that attracted you to this particular? >> for me the stories come from me. i get 20 or 30 phone calls every week. every college kid who does something crazy will call me. i always wanted to write about nasa. but when you think of nasa you think of the 60's, tom hanks in a little silver capsule and this let me get inside nasa today. so thad roberts all of the blue contacted me. he had just gotten out of prison.

he was on probation and was weird because i never met someone who spent a decade in prison before so i every inch to meet him in a crowded hotel lobby. [laughter] but he was the nicest most charismatic, good looking smart guy who did something stupid. >> the nicest fellow that you ever met. >> he was and i was amazed. no one had written about the story. there had been one article in the l.a. times. mabey in texas there had been more. but i hadn't seen this and i couldn't believe it. the first thing i did is i filed an information act with the fbi to get the fbi file which is thousands of pages. i even got with the fbi agents to come down they were wearing wires and i got the transcript of everything was set on the wonders and the first thing he said when he walked into the restaurant is if you are wearing a wire, and siggerud. so that's on tape. [laughter] so it was wild. it was about a year long interviewing. and so --

>> there is a section in the book i think is great where there's the correspondence between thad roberts who's going by the name orin. he was a geologist to an estimate but you have e-mails putative >> he was very excited that i was writing this book. he actually -- nasa gave him as a gift for solving the moonrock caper be named in asteroid after him so there is an eminem st floating around somewhere. but yes, everything in the book is reprinted directly, and a lot of the dialogue is actually, you know, straight from the transcript and everything. so, you know, i do get attacked a lot in the press for my style which is a very kind of dramatic cinematically of telling and non-fiction story but the reality is that everything, you know come in here is from the file. >> you brought that up so that's something i wanted to visit with you about.

certainly that came out a lot in bringing down the house. so i wonder if you can talk about that technique that you employ as a writer. >> exactly to the estimate how you employed and why. "the new york times" just came out yesterday. i think that's part of it. >> it's been like this my entire career. i'm a very cinematic finger and this is the kind of stuff i like to read and it is a form of journalism i guess but i get all of these information i interviewed just about everybody, get thousands of pages of court documents, all the fpi stuff and then i sit down and i tell the story in a very visual way and there are going to be journalists who do not like it. i don't necessarily right for janet, i write for me and the people who like this kind of

book and the reality is it is a true story and it is as true as anything on the nonfiction list. you see a biography of cleopatra. nobody knows anything about cleopatra. you see a biography of lincoln and obama's biography has invented characters. it's a process. you have to take the facts and then write it in a certain way. i choose to write it in a very cinematic way. so, for instance i will interview sadr roberts and the other kid, gordon rusco anno there is a conversation that took place between these people and i know what was said but i don't know the exact words. so one journalist might say they talked about men rocks but to me that is a very boring and week way of telling that scene. i know they talked about moon rocks and what they did with the moon rocks, so i describe what they did with the moon rocks and there are some journalists who

love it and some who don't. and will be a controversy forever in terms of certain journalists will never liked it with the social network and accidental billionaires' mark cannot and said it's not true pity and he called me that jackie collins of silicon valley but he never pointed out anything that wasn't true. he just said the whole thing is not true and then he said he didn't read the book so i don't know where you go with that. but i think, you know, the reality is it is a very true story. he meant to have sex on moon rocks because he wanted to be like having sex on the moon. he spread them on the bed and had sex on the moon. he had a problem with that seen saying he just put them on the mattress but that isn't true. he did this on purpose and so i use the facts but i tell it in my style and some people like it and some people don't.

next book tv interviewed the author of edwin edwards governor of louisiana. during our recent visit to baton rouge as part of our cities tour exploring the literary culture of several locations around the country. >> edwin edwards was investigated some 2,000 times. he had never been investigated before. never. in all of his life and public life starting in 1954 all the way up until about 1972. and by the time he was taken the oath of office there was a grand jury already investigating him. i mean on the first day. edwin edwards's louisianan's only for term governor, for 16 years, not consecutive the but state constitution only allows you to serve two consecutive terms, so he served in the 1970's from 72 to 80 and

finnegan from 84 to 88 and the last term west 96. he was a record setter in just years alone. and i think it is the way the political system is set up now that we will probably never see that again. >> what kind of governor was he? >> it depends on who you talk to and i talked to a lot of people about that but on balance he was one of the best if not the best administrator that louisiana ever had as far as administrative state government. he had a very quick mind he could keep -- he knew what all 144 legislators were thinking, how they were voting, with the political persuasion was coming kept that, so consequently he knew before they got to his office what it is that they wanted. so he would have a ready answer for almost all of them. so he almost always knew yes what was politically expedient but at the same time he did move this date forward and that he was a fiscal conservative.

so he forced the legislature every year especially in the 70's to balance the budget at the end of each year but letting it get out of control. to that extent he was able to also change the severance tax on oil and gas. and when he did that he changed it from 25 cents a barrel on oil to 12% of the value when opec was taking over the production price of oil and began to shoot up. but when i did that, tens of millions of dollars suddenly flowed. by the end of the 1970's the headlines read we were suffering from an embarrassment of the bridges even the politicians couldn't figure out where to throw all the money so from the 1970's we were the most cash rich statement. louisianan was leading the nation in terms of programs, highway construction, everything at a time new york city was on the brink of bankruptcy.

so, it got the body of a lot of people, ted kennedy for instance when he was -- ted kennedy was basically trying to overthrow jimmy carter in the convention of the nomination of the democratic nomination for president, and kennedy contacted for some friends contacted edwin edwards to see if he would be interested in going on the ticket as the vp in the hopes that maybe he could make some sense out of the federal budget, and try to get america back on the position of the ones in the budget from year to year. so, he became quite known for that. edwin edwards was first indicted in 1985, and the federal indictment. then he had the first trial of 1985 and there was a retrial in 1986 and he was acquitted in the second trial. charges back then were he was supposed to be possible certificates at that time the federal government have a

program where in order to serve rural counties the federal government would according to the states, how the states all the needed medical care of in the countryside they would issue these strategic needs and they would wind up being very valuable because health care corporations would take the certificates and then they would get federal money to help build these facilities. so it became very lucrative. anyway, so he was charged with helping his friends out when he did that kind of thing. but the problem with that was the jury, the final jury that acquitted him said they didn't do anything different than what any other business person would do and the first trial what happened appointed by jimmy carter by the way got on the witness stand and said did you

do this to your family and friends and he said well, you know, you really help of your friends, that's true, you know about everybody because that's what you're there to do. as a matter of fact i remember one time when you wanted -- you called me up for some help, and john stopped that line of questioning and took another term but there were other reporters that were in the gallery who followed up on that and found out that they actually called edwin edwards to try to get him to put pressure on the ranking senators from louisianan to put pressure on justice to get them a federal judgeship. and of course it didn't work. but it's funny that he was being accused of that so the dynamic in the trial was the federal judge overseeing the trial was the guy that had gotten the job overseeing the guy that wanted his job, prosecuting the guy that he had tried to use to get that job.

so anyway, he went down in flames and i was convinced that at that point especially in 1986 when edwards was acquitted he came out on the courthouse steps and real against the federal government. he called them just about everything else of in the book you could think of, the fbi, the federal prosecutor, the agents that were on the case, and he said far more than he should have. in fact his wife cut a famous picture of his life she was putting her hand over his mouth and so that was the beginning of the end for him. he had always been a smart alec and people in power don't like that. so, he always was very quick with a joke. you know, he told in the 83 election that they train his republican opponent it's so slow that it takes them an hour and have to watch 60 minutes. things like that. he should have been -- he could have been a stand-up comedian

that could have been better than seinfeld, this guy but then he gets to 1991 he says david duke a reporter said is there anyplace for you to possibly be alike because you are pro liberal, he's for conservative. is there anyplace you can be likened without even thinking he says yes, there is we are both wizards on the machines. i mean, not very many politicians get away with lines like that but it made a very good feeder for those of us in louisiana and elsewhere. he's been profiled by 60 minutes. so, he always had something on the ball upstairs, but there was always that little sinister flow somewhere where people just as time went on didn't really trust them. and there was a lot of times when he probably could have defended himself, but he insisted that defending himself always made it worse. he saw people other politicians

and powerful people who were always trying to defend themselves against charges, yet the reality was that the more they defend themselves the worse off they became so he would just pass it off and move on. he never was bothered by films like that. the second major indictment were the most recent ones where he was indicted for extortion, 26,000 he ended up being convicted on 17. and it was where he was supposed to be regaining the river road licenses. the story is the truth of the story is that there was only one license left by the time he became governor for the fourth term and the was the 15th license. louisianan indeed only 15 riverboats to louisianans of the 15th license was up for grabs. all the others had been distributed. so, he was indicted, investigated and invited for

allegedly extorting money to get that 15th license. and let's see, there was robert, who already owned a river boats and to keep his license he was allegedly extorted in the the there was ricky who worked for the players casino in lake charles who said that he was extorted for keeping the edwards said lostroh vv koza' meaning he and his son from harming them and like charles. anyway, they never really believed it and their testimony proved that to begin with. so the real charge came down. they had gotten together years before. his father built most of the models in america the edward barlow organization. well, eddie jr. for his 30th

birthday his father gave him the san francisco 49ers. so he spent lavished all kinds of money. in fact, eddy is the reason for the salary cap that we have today in the nfl. but the nfl also had by laws that said that you are not supposed to be associated with gambling operation. well, they just bypassed that. they just ignore all that. so he comes to louisiana and decides he wants to have a casino. so he begins to use him to do all legal work and all the paperwork for what it's going to take to get the casino. of the northwest louisianan in shreveport so they get together with the send him a retainer agreements. he never returns them. he never pays them. but it edwards continues to do it. everything he needs to allow in fact edwards puts them together

with hollywood casinos out of dallas and so, they have -- they do a proposal that is the best of any of them that are on the table. so he knows he is going to win. well, he says looker, getting the license is the easy part, the hard part will be selling it to the voters. so we need money, and a quarter of a million dollars to begin to campaign up and down northwest louisiana so people will vote for it because it has to be passed by the referendum. so, he says well, just do it right. with the whole thing and we will give you half a million dollars. i don't need half a million dollars. we only need about 250. here, take 4,000i will get you a check. but he never delivered. he never would deliver the check and it's because he had a guy in his office who said you need to stay away from edwards' because they are bad news. i don't want to associate with them. so he forces -- he forces

edwards to fly to san francisco and pick up cash. so edwards goes in and picks of the cash. of course that instantly looks wrong and edwards knows that and he is, you know, he was dumb for making that move. but the reality was that dicarlo stayed on the defense team after the charges were filed. he stayed on the defense team right up until and jordan, the u.s. prosecutor and the assistant prosecutor goes to the owner and says if we beat you lose your fortune and spend a lot of time in prison. are you sure that your story is st.? so he flat and he comes back and so cannot of 400,000 was

extortion so he flies to baton rouge and says i was a victim. the fbi has recorded some 100, 200 conversations where he had continually called him and said what are you here, what we need to do? we will do whatever we need to do. only the initiated three of those calls. so it's really hard to balance out who is the real victim here based on that. when he was convicted on the 17 accounts in 2000, many of 2000 he goes to prison in october of 2002 and stayed for eight years and three months. he got a sentence which was double the prescription at that time the had prescriptions on the sentences and the federal judge because they had that discussion just double the sentence, so she could have gotten out in less than five years under the prescription, but they got out in eight years

and three months. but it came out and said they gave me life and i came back. he is just unsinkable. he is unsinkable. he's one of the greatest politicians of all times because he actually did do something as far as administering the steel business. and at the same time he was a great vehicle and everyone likes their great theater. you know, they can only take that the figures to the point. they just have to have a gut feeling of whether or not they actually like the leader and edwards is a master of that. >> what made you decide to write the book and how long did it teach you to put it together? >> he came to me through a friend and said would you like to write this kind of rough? and i told the friend i really don't want to read the biography because there's a lot about him i don't like. i've covered him for the better part of 25 years and i just -- he was always too much of a

smart alec for me and i just didn't really like his politics. backroom deals. all the stuff that you would hear about and think about so it's nice to know that you're still an objective reporter that you can see both sides of the story and i said i will go over them and talk to them out of curiosity i would like to with your thinking so we sort of struck an agreement he would tell me what he thinks is the truth and then i will go back and follow-up. i do an incredible amount of research and tracking back down on these stories, and indeed at the end of the five years i have 2,000 pages and 3,000 footnotes and so it took me two years to get it down to the 621 pages. but i loved it. it's a lot of work. it's very tedious. i loved it because it really showed me the greater picture not just of the man's life in

the picture, but it showed what created that life and what he created as a result of being a part of that picture. i wish that everybody if they want to have an understanding of american politics would go back and look at the player's right now and tell who they are and where they came from because that would give you an idea about sort of where we are headed for a student of history you could sometimes figure out the direction of how everything is going to finish. and right now it doesn't look good. >> did your perception change after writing this book? >> it did to an extent. it didn't completely change. i would like to believe i told my objectivity as far as possible. yes i did like him as a person. when you are spending five years with somebody come every week or so then you do develop sympathy. but that's the temptation of all biographers felt for sympathy for the person that your writing

about. and he did have good reasons for doing some of the things that he did. but the other part of that is what every person who ever aspires to and grabs the high office, and that is the power that goes along with it does compromise a person. i don't care how strong they are morally, it just does because people look at you and they reject that power on to you, and the ego begins to feed into that. and then before long a person at the extreme end of that feels like they are above the law such as president richard nixon. when you start to look at it in that perspective, i don't care how strong you are. it will change you unless you quit while you are ahead. and most politicians cannot do that. they cannot walk away from it. >> what is edwin edwards doing

now? >> he is 84-years-old and he has a wife who is 51 years his junior. she is as incorrigible as ever and he says that a man is only as was the woman that he feels. he just keeps going. he is unsinkable. he knows that he is going to die one day and he says i've had more good luck than most people have had and i had good to become more good luck than i deserve so eight years in prison was a small price to pay. and, you know, did he finish of being a multimillionaire? not what i see. i can't really say he stole the bank or the treasury and he says that is one of a few things he was never accused of. he never took any money from the taxpayers. but -- and his trial