Picaro: Psychopaths, Warlords, and a Rogue Journalist on the Dark Side of History

Pícaro is a rogue and troublemaker who wanders the globe in search of adventure – barely escaping punishment or death. This describes Jeff B. Harmon, a war correspondent and filmmaker who covered twenty years of violent, clandestine history. Harmon also lived a dangerous double life - a gay man who infiltrated homophobic extremists in a right-wing Salvadoran death squad, Nazis in South America, and Afghanistan’s jihadists. Behind the scenes of his journalism career, he had secret dealings with the Mafia and CIA. Son of Larry Harmon, TV producer of Bozo the Clown, Jeff left his lunatic Hollywood upbringing to risk his neck covering the fall of Uganda’s homicidal dictator Idi Amin and the Soviet-Afghan war from both the mujahideen and Russian sides. During the war, he fought alongside Islamic holy warriors in an operation against the Soviet Army. Harmon’s unflinching documentation of war and hidden history provoked governments and rebel movements alike, resulting in three execution orders on his life.

Along the way, Harmon encountered the famous and infamous, from comic genius Stan Laurel to the murderous Central African Emperor Bokassa, and Roberto d’Aubuisson, reputed head of El Salvador’s death squads.

“I am awed by the excellence of the writing. It is an explosive work full of drama, secret history and an honesty so rarely encountered. A unique book that has the potential to be a major motion picture.” – Liz Trubridge, Executive Producer, 'Downton Abbey.'