Episode 028: Dana Ridenour – Undercover, Animal Rights Extremists

Terrorism, Undercover AgentsOne Comment

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In this episode, retired agent Dana Ridenour reviews going deep undercover in California to infiltrate and build relationships with individuals associated with the animal rights extremists groups to gather intelligence about criminal activities and the location of activist fugitives.

She also talks about working drug investigations on the island of St. Croix, Resident Agency out of the FBI’s San Juan Office in Puerto Rico.

RidenourDana

Dana Ridenour

Special Agent (Retired)

11/12/95 – 04/06/2016

Retired agent Dana Ridenour served 20 years in the FBI. She explains how, in order to be successful, undercover agents accept that their job is to “build relationships to betray relationships.” 

Dana has written and released a crime novel inspired by her years working undercover. The title of the book is Behind the Mask.

Listed below are links to a FBI overview, newspaper articles about animal and eco extremists cases and a post about Dana’s novel:

FBI Testimony – Threat Posed by Animal Rights Extremists and Eco-Terrorists

Animal Rights Extremists

Eco-Terrorist Sentenced

Retired FBI Agent’s First Novel Shows It Is Not Only Our Enemies Who Betray Us . . .

Dana erad shot
Dana spent a year preparing for her undercover role gathering intelligence about animal rights extremists. She completely changed her diet and went vegan, which meant she refrained from eating and wearing animal products. Dana says that the undercover role tapped into her inner hippie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Dana’s second long-term undercover assignment in Los Angeles called for two undercover agents. Agent Bill Endorf (now also retired and her husband), her boyfriend at the time, was also a certified UCA. They worked the case together as a couple operating a storefront selling vegan products.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Orlando SSTF photo
After their undercover identities were compromised, the Bureau transferred Dana and Bill out of the LA area for their own safety. Dana worked out of the Tampa Division/Orlando RA before retiring from the FBI.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Version 2
Dana’s new release Behind the Mask provides a fictionalized version of her days working undercover infiltrating animal rights extremists groups. The novel can be found here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jerri Williams

View posts by Jerri Williams
Jerri Williams, a retired FBI agent, author and podcaster, jokes that she writes about the FBI to relive her glory days. After 26 years with the Bureau specializing in major economic fraud and corruption investigations, she calls on her professional encounters with scams and schemers to write police procedurals inspired by true crime FBI cases in her Philadelphia FBI Corruption Squad crime fiction series. Jerri’s FBI for Armchair Detectives nonfiction series enables readers to discover who the FBI is and what the FBI does by debunking misconceptions about the FBI in books, TV, and movies. Her books are available as ebooks, paperbacks, and audiobooks wherever books are sold. She’s the host of FBI Retired Case File Review, a true crime podcast with more than 300 episodes available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and all popular podcast apps, as well as YouTube.

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1 Comment

  1. 291: John Morrison – Animal Liberation Front, University Firebombing - Jerri WilliamsJune 28, 2023

    […] Episode 028: Dana Ridenour – Undercover, Animal Rights Extremists […]

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