Los Angeles Times

FINAL: That's all, folks. Thanks again!

EDIT: Thanks for all your questions! That's all we have time for today, but I'll hop back on tomorrow morning to answer any others that may come up.

A filmmaker set out to make a documentary about his former boss, a wealthy businessman with a checkered past. He ended up a central character in the life-or-death drama, involving an alleged murder-for-hire scheme, a double-cross and an FBI sting operation.

In what could be a scene out of a movie (someday it probably will be), documentarian J. Esco lay on the floor with his hands tied behind his back and his head in a pool of (fake) blood. On the wall, cutouts of articles, court papers and photographs are connected with red string. They all tie back to a photo at the top of a man: “Prince Fred.”

I was out at drinks with colleagues one Sunday in March when I received the first email from Esco that started this story. The subject line was “Murder for hire.” Esco had read another story I’d written about a murder for hire and a faked murder (why does this keep happening!) and wanted to share his story with The Times. He had not even called law enforcement yet about the alleged hit out on him.

It took nearly four months for me to report out the story (and for the FBI to investigate and eventually arrest “Prince Fred”).

Here’s a link to the full story on our site (where you can register your email and get 10 free articles as a Reddit user)

And check the comments for a summary with the highlights of the story.

PROOF:

(edited to fix formatting)