JohnTempleBooks website

John Temple

AUTHOR & SCREENWRITER

Barranca del Cobre Chihuahua Mexico March 2023

Bio

Charleston WV Opioid event with President Obama Oct 2015

John Temple is a non-fiction author, investigative journalist, screenwriter and professor.

His four nonfiction books chronicle dramatic stories of American life and illuminate critical current events and issues. Those narratives include the rise and fall of the nation’s largest opioid pill mill as well as a Nevada ranching family’s notorious armed standoffs with the federal government. John has spoken across the country about the roots of the opioid epidemic and has written for the Washington Post, Daily Beast, HuffPo, and other major media outlets. He has appeared many times as an expert on national television, radio, and podcasts.

In recent years, John has turned his attention to screenwriting, including his work as a staff writer on the 2023 Showtime drama TV series Waco: The Aftermath. He is a professor at the University of Hawai’i.

work

American Pain (2015) was the king of the Florida pill mills, a mega-clinic expressly created to serve addicts posing as patients. From a fortress-like former bank building, American Pain’s doctors distributed massive quantities of oxycodone to hundreds of customers a day, mostly traffickers and addicts who came by the vanload. Inked muscle-heads ran the clinic’s security. Former strippers operated the pharmacy, counting out pills and stashing cash in garbage bags. Under their lab coats, the doctors carried guns—and it was all legal… sort of.

John and his writing partner and wife, Hollee, have written a feature film screenplay adaptation of American Pain.

* Finalist for the Edgar® Award in Best Fact Crime

* New York Post, “The Post’s Favorite Books of 2015”

* Suspense Magazine’s “Best True Crime Books of 2015”

* Foreword Reviews’ INDIEFAB Book of the Year in True Crime

* Publishers Weekly, Big Indie Book of Fall 2015

Up in Arms (2019) chronicles how an isolated clan of desert-dwelling Mormons became the guiding light of America’s Patriot movement. The nation was riveted in 2014 when hundreds of armed Bundy supporters forced federal agents to abandon a court-ordered cattle roundup. Then in 2016, the Bundys led a 41-day armed takeover of a wildlife refuge in Oregon. A propulsive narrative populated by rifle-toting cowboys, apocalyptic militiamen, undercover infiltrators, and the devout Bundys themselves.

“[An] intelligent, impeccably researched deep dive into two clashes between the federal government and right-wing antigovernment protesters . . . Temple’s even-handed and painstaking reportage yields a clear and unbiased portrait of this subsection of the movement.” —Publishers Weekly

“Give[s] the reader the information needed to decide whether he or she belongs on Team Bundy or Team Fed—or neither.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“If you want to understand the extremist militia groups popping up around the country lately, you need to start with Nevada’s notorious Bundy clan. Temple shines a light on the people as well as the religious, political and economic factors that gave rise to this dangerous movement.” —The Revelator

The Last Lawyer (2009) is the true, inside story of how an idealistic legal genius and his diverse band of investigators and fellow attorneys fought to overturn a client's final sentence. It received the 2010 Scribes Book Award from the American Society of Legal Writers.

Deadhouse: Life in a Coroner's Office (2005) chronicles the exploits of a diverse team of investigators at a coroner's office in Pittsburgh.

John was a staff writer for this season of television, with credited bylines on three of the five episodes.

Waco: The Aftermath, (2023) starring Michael Shannon and Giovanni Ribisi, is a five-part Showtime drama series portraying the searing aftermath of the disastrous FBI 1993 standoff at the Branch Davidian compound – an event that helped radicalize Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols and many others. For better or for worse, the actions and decisions of that fateful spring galvanized American militia movements and helped catalyze events that led up to the Oklahoma City Bombing.

Co-written with his wife, Hollee, and composer sons Gideon and Hank, Star Machine is the family's first musical collaboration! John & Hollee wrote the book for the show while their sons wrote the music and lyrics. The musical comedy was a semi-finalist for the

2021 O’Neill National Music Theater Conference and received a staged concert at Baldwin Wallace University in April 2024. Star Machine was a 2024 finalist for Northwestern’s American Music Theatre Project.

Jaz and Nikki are a talented sister act striving to break into the LA music scene in the summer of 2002. Jaz craves stardom, no matter the cost. But Nikki insists that creative control comes first, even if that means no one hears their music. When Jaz lands on a ridiculous TV talent show, this conflict threatens to tear them apart.

Beat Down is a feature film about a down-on-his-luck schemer from a West Virginia boxing family who comes home to borrow money from his mother, a two-time world champion, and winds up fighting in a rowdy amateur boxing competition.

Shot in West Virginia and North Carolina in Spring 2023, Beat Down screened at the 2024 Nashville Film Festival. It also won Best Feature and Best in Festival at the Appalachian Film Festival. Beat Down was directed by Curren Sheldon, written by John Temple, and produced by Elaine McMillion Sheldon, Curren Sheldon, John Temple and Hollee Temple.