Matthew Cox was released from prison last month after serving nearly a decade in federal prison for mortgage fraud. At the height of his crime, led the FBI on a multi-state chase as he assumed different identities and landed himself on the FBI's Most Wanted list. Once they caught him, he was facing life in prison but a plea deal spared the now 50 year old from a life behind bars.
I've known Cox for over five years and found him to be one amazing storyteller. I've known him as a man who is sincerely sorry for his actions and aware that he might have a chance at a second act ... as a writer. The Atlantic recently did an article on Cox and he gave me some time to talk about his new life.
“Everyone does their time in prison differently,” Cox told me during a recent interview, “Some prisoners fight their convictions, others workout in the recreation yard, I wrote my fellow prisoners’ true crime stories.”
After listening to hundreds of stories over nearly a decade, Cox, an avid reader of nonfiction, realized he was surrounded by a wealth of material. Cox said, “Companies like Netflix and Amazon were looking for content and here I was in prison listening to some of the most mind-blowing true crime stories I've ever heard.”
The issue, according to Cox, is that the bulk of prisoners aren't able to write their own stories. “Everyone thinks they have some remarkable story like Jordan Belfort [Wolf of Wall Street, but either their story is just not that interesting or they don't know how to tell it. That's where I found my talent."
After writing the true crime-memoir, Once a Gunrunner for Efraim Diveroli (the character played by Jonah Hill in the movie War Dogs), word got around the prison. Cox was then approached by bank robbers, Ponzi schemers, and cocaine cowboys, saying "Wait until you hear my story." Cox listened and wrote.
“Everyone’s got a story,” Cox said. The challenge for Cox was whether they had a story worth dedicating his time and energy to. Cox told me, “I needed to narrow the scope, so, I looked for the more unique, clever or bizarre crimes with sympathetic subjects and story arc.”
Cox's stories range from the outrageous, like It's Insanity, the tale of a delusional megalomaniac who embezzled nearly $200 million from the federal government (money he intended to use to bankroll his plan to take over the world), to the story of how the perfect bank heist went sideways in Cash Logistics. In The Source, Cox reveals the identity of the man who ordered the execution of an LA kingpin, a murder that to this very day remains unsolved.
The typical project required Cox to order law enforcement reports and court documents. “It was important for me to document as much of what my subjects were recounting; for the sake of accuracy,” he says. “I had to read their trial transcripts, indictments, police reports, and sentencing related submissions. . . It takes a lot of time.”
In mid-2015, Cox arranged for an article to be written in Rolling Stone magazine about one of his subjects, Douglas Dodd, and his oxycodone distribution ring. The film rights were subsequently sold to New Line Cinema—and a book deal followed. Generation Oxy: From High School Wrestlers to Pain Pill Kingpins, was released by SkyHorse Publishing in October 2017.
“At that point,” says Cox, “I realized writing could be more than just something to pass the time, it could be a career. . . I started focusing on writing synopses, rather than full length books.” During prison, Cox decided to acquire as many stories as possible. “I’m going with the Joshuah Bearman model,” he explains. Bearman’s 2007 Wired magazine article, The Great Escape, became the movie Argo. “Bearman then founded Epic Magazine.”
Cox’s plan while lying on the cot in his cell was to get out of prison, create his own website—focusing specifically on true crime—and publish his own stories on his own site, Inside True Crime. He launched the site upon his release from prison in July. “Anyone can read the articles,” he tells me, “there are pictures of the subject and illustrations. I just wanted it to be fun but I'm hoping that this the start of my new life.”
Cox has already uploaded nearly twenty stories on Inside True Crime; everything from tales of international narco traffickers to confidence men. One of Cox's personal favorites is Bent, the tale of a homeless teen turned credit card counterfeiter who disappeared with millions of dollars in funds confiscated by the U.S. Secret Service. “I don’t know why,” laughs Cox, “but I see Justin Bieber playing the stories protagonist, John Boseak.”
In this month’s The Atlantic, the magazine features Cox’s own story as a nonfiction crime writer in The True Crime Writer in Cell Block B4. The piece focuses on Cox’s passion for storytelling, the amazing stories he’s written, and his hope of having them adapted to films. “Ultimately,” Cox said, “I’m hoping that telling these stories will translate into a better chapter in my life.
I'm all about 2nd Chances!
