Introducing: Fallen Angels: A Story of California Corruption

A mysterious drug overdose at a posh Pasadena hotel leads our host and LA Times investigative reporter, Paul Pringle, into Los Angeles’ darkest corridors of power and wealth. Pringle discovers that the dean of the University of Southern California's medical school is leading a secret double life. As Pringle and his team at the LA Times untangle a sordid web of lies, drugs, and greed, they encounter obstacles and resistance at every turn—from USC, law enforcement and even within their own organization. Fallen Angels explores how money and privilege can corrupt our most important institutions and destroy people's lives.

Fallen Angels: A Story of California Corruption is based on Pringle’s book, Bad City: Peril & Power in the City of Angels.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Started talking about this incident that you witnessed it. Start
telling me that there was a cover up, drugs and
the officials cover up.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
You couldn't believe it.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
From iHeart podcasts.

Speaker 4 (00:16):
It's like the police knew. It's like they knew who
he was before they got here.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
A story about money, power and corruption at the places
we should trust the most.

Speaker 5 (00:29):
The Medical School of Dean at USC was leading a
secret double life.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Yes, absolutely breathing, I'm a doctor.

Speaker 4 (00:37):
Actually, like, there's no way that that guy's a doctor.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
I'm Paul Pringle and I'm an investigative reporter for the
La Times.

Speaker 6 (00:46):
Harriet's it's not someone who's rattled, but there was something
about the call that rattled her.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
This is the story of an investigation that starts in
a hotel room in Pasadena, California. It reaches all the
way to the top of two of the most powerful
institutions in the city of Los Angeles.

Speaker 6 (01:03):
When people fall in line, they fall in line.

Speaker 7 (01:06):
Only a month or two after the investigation began, I
received some strange visitors at my house.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Hey, how did you find this out?

Speaker 7 (01:15):
How did you link us together? There are actually several
instances that looking back, I realized, oh, everyone knew.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
This is Fallen Angels, A Story of California Corruption.

Speaker 5 (01:26):
As an investigative report, every story could be all lost.
I had to get this story published, otherwise it would
just betray flying a journalist in the first place.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
It's just like real aggressively, let's go, let's get to
the bottom of this.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
Hey man, I've given you everything I could possibly give you.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
We're always going to have predators. It's the good people
who stand by and do nothing that allow them to flourish.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Listen to Fallen Angels, a Story of California Corruption, starting
March twenty eighth on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.