Introducing: Pandora’s Box: The Fall of L.A.’s Sheriff

It Was Simple: The Betty Broderick Murders

Los Angeles Times

Dirty John, Los Angeles Times, History, Murder, Patt Morrison, Marriage, La Times, Usa, Betty Broderick, Tv & Film, Divorce, True Crime

3.9 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pandora’s Box: The Fall of L.A.’s Sheriff is a six-part true crime investigation from the Los Angeles Times about one of the biggest law enforcement scandals in U.S. history. Follow Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Christopher Goffard as he uncovers how Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, once hailed as a reformer, became entangled in a shocking cover-up inside the nation’s largest jail system. From FBI informants and jailhouse brutality to corruption at the highest levels, this series reveals how deputies hid an inmate, intimidated federal agents, and ultimately brought down one of California’s most powerful sheriffs.

Transcript

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0:00.0	These cases are incredibly tough.
0:05.0	This is as raw as it gets.
0:06.0	It's like LA County Jail.
0:07.0	Something is always an existential threat.
0:09.0	Do you want to catch all the crooked deputies I have?
0:12.0	It sounds like there's something going on.
0:14.0	I would not have subjected the FBI to me saying I don't trust them.
0:19.0	That is unacceptable to me. I told every inmate before we started, I don't trust them. That is unacceptable to me.
0:21.3	I told every inmate before we started,
0:23.2	I don't care what you're here for.
0:25.0	I don't want to talk about what you're here for.
0:27.1	Don't tell me about your case because I don't want to hear it.
0:44.2	When FBI Special Agent Leah Marks began paying regular visits to Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles,
0:48.3	it did not immediately raise any alarm among the people who ran the jail.
0:53.3	It was not unusual for a federal agent to show up to interview inmates.
0:59.4	Most of the time, jailers just looked at her federal ID and let her in without asking why she was there. If they did, she said she was investigating a human trafficking case. It was a good
1:06.2	sounding story, believable, Perfect to deter further questions.
1:13.1	It was a little bit of a shock. And Central Jail is very old. I walked in,
1:23.3	and after you go through the Sally Port, there were buckets on the floor from the leaks all over the ceiling that you just kind of had to walk around and walk through and you don't get a lot of guidance. You just walk in.
1:35.1	Leah Marks was in her late 20s and relatively new to the FBI, just beyond her rookie year. She was here to secretly investigate claims that deputies were brutalizing people in their
1:45.6	custody. The L.A. County Sheriff's Department ran the jails, which for years had been known as
1:51.1	caldrons of violence and dysfunction. Marks and her FBI colleagues had been interviewing
	...

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