Posted on September 21, 2019 at 4:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Who better to write true-crime stories than someone who committed such deeds?
After years of fraud finally caught up to Matthew Cox, he landed in prison in Florida.
An acquaintance planted the idea of writing a memoir; Cox, with little else to do behind bars, studied the art of nonfiction and produced a draft.
While that version had a fatal flaw — Cox wasn’t a remotely sympathetic character — it turned out to be exactly what he needed.
Other inmates began approaching Cox to tell their own stories, and he discovered that the skills he’d applied to fool investors could be put to better use in writing and marketing true-crime tales.
Case in point: His pitch to the Atlantic to write an article about him was greeted with skepticism ... but came to fruition, as evidenced in the August issue.