February 18, 2025 • 37 mins
Author Brian Brady’s latest book, Hiding in Plain Sight, is loosely inspired by a true crime, and he was personally involved in its investigation. We discuss writing about murder, what shows, movies, and books get wrong about real investigations, and the true story that inspired the book.
Learn more about Brian and read his books here: https://www.goldengatetales.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Warning.
This episode contains detailsthat some listeners
may find disturbing.
You can't have a murder mystery.
Without the murder.
That's a quote from today's guest,Bryan Brady.
An author whose second book,Hiding in Plain Sight, is loosely
inspired by a real case,
(00:23):
a case of abduction and murder.
And Bryan was directly involvedwith its investigation.
And he's going to sharehow they caught a killer.
This is a study of strange.
(00:55):
welcome back listeners I'm Michael May.
Now, as a show that dabbles in true crime,as a true crime consumer myself,
I'm often left wonderingabout the real investigators behind cases.
What are they really seeing,as opposed to how we, the public, hear
about the testimonies and commentsand read on blogs about the case?
What little details are detectivescatching that help them solve these cases?
(01:19):
Now, I had a great conversationwith Brian Brady about this and his books.
First, if you're a lover of all thingsweird and strange and mysterious.
Subscribe to a study of strangewherever you listen to podcasts.
Now here's my interview with Brian Brady.
Thank you.
Thanks for having me.
I'm very appreciative of your time.
I first started talking, to try to schedule
(01:40):
you on, and about a two months ago.
And then the holidays showed up,
and then we had a lot of wildfires,as I'm sure you're well aware, here in LA.
So thanks for bearing with me.
And again,I appreciate that you were being on.
Do you mind telling us a little bit
about your backgroundin law enforcement and also security?
(03:18):
Great.
And I you're from the Bay area.
And just historicallythere's been a lot of.
Yeah I'll say very public and well known
true crime and cases from the area.
Did that have an influence on yougrowing up there.
(04:30):
you transitioned
into writing and was thereone moment that hit you that.
Oh I want to do this or did this.
Did the writing influencegradually come upon you.
(05:47):
Right.
(06:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(07:00):
Right.
And that's a lot of what I wantedto talk to you about in terms of correct
and and what can happenin sort of the tropes of television
and narrative and stories and novelsand even someone that, you know,
my show doesn't always cover true crime,but it does a little bit.
And I've worked on documentaryfilm projects that involve true crime.
(07:21):
And I'm always fascinatedhow people like myself
that develop content around this genre.
We don't necessarilyhave a great perspective
of what really happens on the ground,and we miss things.
And, you know, on the internet wherepeople love to talk about these cases,
it becomes an echo chamberand a little ideas bounce around
(07:41):
until you talk to someonewho is actually there.
And they can usually, like, cut throughall that and get right to the point.
Yeah.
(08:03):
Exactly.
Yeah.
(08:24):
Right.
(09:01):
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
(09:42):
Right, right.
Right.
Oh, that's good to hear.
(10:10):
I would love to dive into your secondbook, Hiding in Plain Sight, real quick,
because I know that you've already
even mentioned that your bookshave been loosely based on true cases.
And I'd love to talk about hiding in plainsight.
Do you mind giving us, like, a shortsynopsis of the book and then telling us
about the true case, or whatyou're allowed to actually say about it?
(11:29):
Yeah.
(13:41):
Oh, wow.
Right.
(15:48):
Going each one.
Yeah.
(16:14):
Yeah.
Yeah.
(16:45):
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah.
(17:36):
Right.
It's very helpful.
So it really.
It sounds like this case came down
to one piece of evidence,which I think you said that coloring book.
And then good old fashioned,you know, knocking on doors.
(17:58):
Investigation.
Right.
(18:38):
Right.
So thepretest, just for someone like myself
who doesn't really know,is that to establish a baseline?
Okay.
Got it.
(19:16):
Wow. Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(19:43):
Wow. Right.
And so probably a difficulta difficult question to answer.
Or maybe not.
But do you think thatthis guy could have become
a serial killer or a multi-time killer,or do you think that there could have been
(20:03):
victims again in the future?
(20:29):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sorry.
(20:54):
Yeah, that makes sense.
That makes sense to hear so, you know,I mentioned earlier about sort of the echo
chamber of the true crime worldand content and blogs and people.
I'd love to follow these casesspecifically.
More unsolved cases like that tends to bebecause that's intriguing.
So like you were saying that newspaperslove serial killers.
What do you sellmore books if it even mentions it?
(21:15):
But in terms
of that world, what are people missing
that are just sort of followers on Redditand blogs and podcasts like mine?
What are they missing fromthe experience of real investigators
that are on the ground?
(21:41):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(22:22):
Right.
Right.
(22:58):
Right.
Right. Right.
And. Yeah.
And you see, you know,a lot of I'm thinking very generally
I'm trying to think of a specific example,but generally speaking,
with unsolved cases,whether they're old, new or whatever.
But you'll find people that say, oh, well,that person's that person's guilty
and they'll sort of in a biased way,pick out who they think
(23:18):
is the top suspect.
And you'll hear people complain of like,
why don't the policejust arrest that person?
And it's like, why don't they do that?
Exactly.
Exactly.
(23:57):
That's it.
Yeah.
Right.
(25:16):
Right.
(25:37):
Absolutely.
So you're ayou're currently working on a third book.
Is that correct?
Oh, nice.
Oh I love it.
Yeah.
(25:58):
Oh that's fantastic.
Is that one also basedon, the true story of any kind?
And now that you have to share it,I'm just curious.
Yeah.
Perfect.
That's great.
(26:23):
Nice.
(27:00):
That's right.
(27:31):
I love itbeing someone that you know lives
and works, around the entertainmentindustry in Los Angeles.
It's a sequelthat's now grown in budget and size.
You're now going overseas.You get to travel around.
I love it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(27:56):
Oh. That's right.
Yeah. On Netflix. Yeah. Yeah.
That's.
Yes, it is a good series.
I have my wife and I watch that.
I can't get herto watch a lot of investigation things.
My wife only wants to watch eithersci fi or half hour comedies.
(28:17):
And so we we have to sort of,
you know, do this tug of ropeto figure out what we're watching.
But she will watch The Lincoln Lawyer,and it's been very good.
ExAC.
Yeah, same. Same with mine.Same with mine.
So if you could go back to any of the,like, famous San Francisco or Bay area,
unsolved cases to do anything different,
(28:41):
who or what would that be?
Oh, it has to be.
Yeah, I would think so.
Yeah. Wow.
(29:41):
Yeah.
Legendary. Dave Tosh.
Yeah.
(30:12):
Yeah.
(30:54):
Right.
Yeah.
For sure.
For sure. And that'swhat it seems like to me as well.
I haven't, I haven't covered that caseand anything I've worked on
only because it's almost two.
Well known.
And I try to find thingsthat aren't as well known,
(31:15):
but that's, you know, so covered and doneand a million different ways.
Absolutely.
As their favorite.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(31:37):
Not enough yet.
so on that note, Brian,thank you so much for doing this.
I would love to find out
where people can find your booksand and anything like that.
You may want to share here.
(32:19):
Oh. Me too.
Me too.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
Well that's fantastic.
And I'll provide some linksin the show notes
for everybody to make it easy as well.
(32:42):
Fantastic.
do you have any advice for peoplethat are trying to get into writing
as well?
(33:50):
Right, right.
(35:00):
One of 1 million.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(35:22):
Oh, interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(35:54):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sage.
Advice for for anybody creating content.
Not just, not just writing these.
In this day
and age, there's a lot of different waysto self distribute all sorts of things.
And, and if you are working
with publishers or distributorsfor anything, definitely do your homework.
(36:17):
It may take a little extra,you know, work to, to check on people,
but you should do it. And, and you will find out the truth.
So that's great advice.
Well, thank you again, Brian,for taking the taking the time.
And I'll talk to you soon.
Thank you for listeningto a study of strange and a special
thank you again to Brian Bradyfor being a guest on the show.
(36:38):
As usual, if you enjoy this typeof content, make sure to follow the show
wherever you listen to podcastand check out our website.
A study of strange.comwhere you can find out more information
and subscribefor special things through our Substack,
which you'll find on the support tabon that site.
Until next time, thank you and good night.
Warning.
This episode contains detailsthat some listeners
may find disturbing.
You can't have a murder mystery.
Without the murder.
That's a quote from today's guest,Bryan Brady.
An author whose second book,Hiding in Plain Sight, is loosely
inspired by a real case,
(00:23):
a case of abduction and murder.
And Bryan was directly involvedwith its investigation.
And he's going to sharehow they caught a killer.
This is a study of strange.
(00:55):
welcome back listeners I'm Michael May.
Now, as a show that dabbles in true crime,as a true crime consumer myself,
I'm often left wonderingabout the real investigators behind cases.
What are they really seeing,as opposed to how we, the public, hear
about the testimonies and commentsand read on blogs about the case?
What little details are detectivescatching that help them solve these cases?
(01:19):
Now, I had a great conversationwith Brian Brady about this and his books.
First, if you're a lover of all thingsweird and strange and mysterious.
Subscribe to a study of strangewherever you listen to podcasts.
Now here's my interview with Brian Brady.
Thank you.
Thanks for having me.
I'm very appreciative of your time.
I first started talking, to try to schedule
(01:40):
you on, and about a two months ago.
And then the holidays showed up,
and then we had a lot of wildfires,as I'm sure you're well aware, here in LA.
So thanks for bearing with me.
And again,I appreciate that you were being on.
Do you mind telling us a little bit
about your backgroundin law enforcement and also security?
(03:18):
Great.
And I you're from the Bay area.
And just historicallythere's been a lot of.
Yeah I'll say very public and well known
true crime and cases from the area.
Did that have an influence on yougrowing up there.
(04:30):
you transitioned
into writing and was thereone moment that hit you that.
Oh I want to do this or did this.
Did the writing influencegradually come upon you.
(05:47):
Right.
(06:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(07:00):
Right.
And that's a lot of what I wantedto talk to you about in terms of correct
and and what can happenin sort of the tropes of television
and narrative and stories and novelsand even someone that, you know,
my show doesn't always cover true crime,but it does a little bit.
And I've worked on documentaryfilm projects that involve true crime.
(07:21):
And I'm always fascinatedhow people like myself
that develop content around this genre.
We don't necessarilyhave a great perspective
of what really happens on the ground,and we miss things.
And, you know, on the internet wherepeople love to talk about these cases,
it becomes an echo chamberand a little ideas bounce around
(07:41):
until you talk to someonewho is actually there.
And they can usually, like, cut throughall that and get right to the point.
Yeah.
(08:03):
Exactly.
Yeah.
(08:24):
Right.
(09:01):
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
(09:42):
Right, right.
Right.
Oh, that's good to hear.
(10:10):
I would love to dive into your secondbook, Hiding in Plain Sight, real quick,
because I know that you've already
even mentioned that your bookshave been loosely based on true cases.
And I'd love to talk about hiding in plainsight.
Do you mind giving us, like, a shortsynopsis of the book and then telling us
about the true case, or whatyou're allowed to actually say about it?
(11:29):
Yeah.
(13:41):
Oh, wow.
Right.
(15:48):
Going each one.
Yeah.
(16:14):
Yeah.
Yeah.
(16:45):
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah.
(17:36):
Right.
It's very helpful.
So it really.
It sounds like this case came down
to one piece of evidence,which I think you said that coloring book.
And then good old fashioned,you know, knocking on doors.
(17:58):
Investigation.
Right.
(18:38):
Right.
So thepretest, just for someone like myself
who doesn't really know,is that to establish a baseline?
Okay.
Got it.
(19:16):
Wow. Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(19:43):
Wow. Right.
And so probably a difficulta difficult question to answer.
Or maybe not.
But do you think thatthis guy could have become
a serial killer or a multi-time killer,or do you think that there could have been
(20:03):
victims again in the future?
(20:29):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sorry.
(20:54):
Yeah, that makes sense.
That makes sense to hear so, you know,I mentioned earlier about sort of the echo
chamber of the true crime worldand content and blogs and people.
I'd love to follow these casesspecifically.
More unsolved cases like that tends to bebecause that's intriguing.
So like you were saying that newspaperslove serial killers.
What do you sellmore books if it even mentions it?
(21:15):
But in terms
of that world, what are people missing
that are just sort of followers on Redditand blogs and podcasts like mine?
What are they missing fromthe experience of real investigators
that are on the ground?
(21:41):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(22:22):
Right.
Right.
(22:58):
Right.
Right. Right.
And. Yeah.
And you see, you know,a lot of I'm thinking very generally
I'm trying to think of a specific example,but generally speaking,
with unsolved cases,whether they're old, new or whatever.
But you'll find people that say, oh, well,that person's that person's guilty
and they'll sort of in a biased way,pick out who they think
(23:18):
is the top suspect.
And you'll hear people complain of like,
why don't the policejust arrest that person?
And it's like, why don't they do that?
Exactly.
Exactly.
(23:57):
That's it.
Yeah.
Right.
(25:16):
Right.
(25:37):
Absolutely.
So you're ayou're currently working on a third book.
Is that correct?
Oh, nice.
Oh I love it.
Yeah.
(25:58):
Oh that's fantastic.
Is that one also basedon, the true story of any kind?
And now that you have to share it,I'm just curious.
Yeah.
Perfect.
That's great.
(26:23):
Nice.
(27:00):
That's right.
(27:31):
I love itbeing someone that you know lives
and works, around the entertainmentindustry in Los Angeles.
It's a sequelthat's now grown in budget and size.
You're now going overseas.You get to travel around.
I love it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(27:56):
Oh. That's right.
Yeah. On Netflix. Yeah. Yeah.
That's.
Yes, it is a good series.
I have my wife and I watch that.
I can't get herto watch a lot of investigation things.
My wife only wants to watch eithersci fi or half hour comedies.
(28:17):
And so we we have to sort of,
you know, do this tug of ropeto figure out what we're watching.
But she will watch The Lincoln Lawyer,and it's been very good.
ExAC.
Yeah, same. Same with mine.Same with mine.
So if you could go back to any of the,like, famous San Francisco or Bay area,
unsolved cases to do anything different,
(28:41):
who or what would that be?
Oh, it has to be.
Yeah, I would think so.
Yeah. Wow.
(29:41):
Yeah.
Legendary. Dave Tosh.
Yeah.
(30:12):
Yeah.
(30:54):
Right.
Yeah.
For sure.
For sure. And that'swhat it seems like to me as well.
I haven't, I haven't covered that caseand anything I've worked on
only because it's almost two.
Well known.
And I try to find thingsthat aren't as well known,
(31:15):
but that's, you know, so covered and doneand a million different ways.
Absolutely.
As their favorite.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(31:37):
Not enough yet.
so on that note, Brian,thank you so much for doing this.
I would love to find out
where people can find your booksand and anything like that.
You may want to share here.
(32:19):
Oh. Me too.
Me too.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
Well that's fantastic.
And I'll provide some linksin the show notes
for everybody to make it easy as well.
(32:42):
Fantastic.
do you have any advice for peoplethat are trying to get into writing
as well?
(33:50):
Right, right.
(35:00):
One of 1 million.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(35:22):
Oh, interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(35:54):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sage.
Advice for for anybody creating content.
Not just, not just writing these.
In this day
and age, there's a lot of different waysto self distribute all sorts of things.
And, and if you are working
with publishers or distributorsfor anything, definitely do your homework.
(36:17):
It may take a little extra,you know, work to, to check on people,
but you should do it. And, and you will find out the truth.
So that's great advice.
Well, thank you again, Brian,for taking the taking the time.
And I'll talk to you soon.
Thank you for listeningto a study of strange and a special
thank you again to Brian Bradyfor being a guest on the show.
(36:38):
As usual, if you enjoy this typeof content, make sure to follow the show
wherever you listen to podcastand check out our website.
A study of strange.comwhere you can find out more information
and subscribefor special things through our Substack,
which you'll find on the support tabon that site.
Until next time, thank you and good night.
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