S8 Ep372: In Russia, Brett Forrest investigates Billy's path, visiting a Rostov-on-Don volunteer camp and seeking associates like Mikhail Polynov. He analyzes Billy's strange travel photos and highlights the suspicious timing of FBI handler Tim Reintjes' visit to t
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
1917 ROSTOV ON DON
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is CBS. I On the World. I'm John Matchler. I'm with Brett Forrest, the Wall Street Journal correspondent, whose new book is Lost Son, an American family trapped inside the FBI's secret wars. Terry and Bill Riley last year from their son, Billy Riley, June 24, 2015. |
| 0:26.8 | Brett Forrest travels there in December of 17 to Oxford, Michigan, and has a conversation with the family that engages him. |
| 0:34.9 | Why? And that is one of the compelling subplots of this book, Brett, |
| 0:39.8 | because your own travels as a young man were equally adventurous and risky. You traveled to |
| 0:47.8 | Africa and you traveled to Russia. You spent a lot of time in Russia. So what were you thinking |
| 0:52.9 | about after you left mom and dad and over the next year about |
| 0:58.0 | Billy Riley and his adventure? |
| 1:01.9 | Well, for me personally, John, it was always a sort of dual calculation here. |
| 1:07.1 | One was as a reporter at the Wall Street Journal with professional responsibilities |
| 1:13.3 | of trying to unearth interesting stories and important stories to tell, but also filing |
| 1:21.4 | regular stories and publishing regularly and meeting demands of my editors. I'm always looking at the, I was always looking at this story, at least in the early stages, |
| 1:31.0 | as I was trying to figure out if this was something worth doing, |
| 1:34.9 | if it's something that the journal should do. |
| 1:37.3 | But on the other hand, or in addition, I had a great personal attachment or interest in it because Billy had gone missing in Russia. |
| 1:48.9 | I had first gone to Russia in 2002 looking for a sort of new adventure, a new chapter in my life. |
| 1:57.1 | And my travels there diverted my own path. I ended up living in Moscow for five years. |
| 2:03.6 | I ended up living later in Kiev. |
| 2:05.6 | And I've been working at that time in those two countries for about 15 years and had developed a lot of friendships, |
| 2:12.6 | a lot of professional contacts and traveled widely in both countries. |
| 2:16.6 | So the fact that Billy had gone |
| 2:18.5 | missing there in connection to the war between these two countries was something that was almost |
| 2:22.8 | irresistible for me. Yes, quite convincing that you were the man at the right time, at the right |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.