Gus Russo is a veteran investigative reporter, author, documentary producer, and musician. His first book, Live By the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK was praised by the New York Times as “compelling, exhaustively researched and
even handed.” Kirkus Reviews called Sword, “Probably the last book on the Kennedy assassination you will need to read....Gripping and convincing!”. Sword was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1999, and was optioned for a mini-series before publication by Showtime Networks.

In January 2006, Russo, as co-writer with Wilfried Huismann, delivered a breakthrough 90-minute documentary for the German public television network WDR. The film, “Rendezvous With Death,” clarifies the relationship between Cuba’s intelligence service and JFK’s killer. So far the film has aired in fifteen countries. In addition, Russo was an occasional consultant to Hollywood screenwriter
Ron Bass. Russo’s fifth book (w/ Steve Molton), was Brothers in Arms: The Kennedys,
the Castros, and the Politics of Murder Brothers in Armslwas named Winner of the 2008 History Prize by the New York Book Festival. In November 2013, Russo co-produced a two-hour television special to commemorate the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination, hosted by Tom Brokaw, for NBC News.

Previously, Russo has worked an investigative reporter for PBS’ Frontline series, where he was the co-lead reporter on a massive two-year investigation that led to the landmark four-hour production, Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald (1993). For that project alone, Russo traveled to three countries and interviewed over three hundred primary witnesses, here and abroad.

Russo has also been a consultant for programs such as Sixty Minutes, Sixty Minutes II, and Eye To Eye with Connie Chung. Russo has researched for numerous writers including Seymour Hersh, Gerald Posner, Anthony Summers, and Laurence Leamer, and has written for Variety, Baltimore Magazine, The Nation, The Washington Post, Book Forum, Spy Talk, American Heritage, Huffington Post, Mother Jones and other publications.

Russo is also author of The Outfit: The Role of Chicago’s Underworld in the Shaping of Modern America. The Outfit was also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Russo’s next book, Gangsters and GoodFellas was a collaboration with former NY mobster Henry Hill.

Gus Russo has also been a professional musician, composer, bandleader and he has played with, or in tandem with John Phillips, The New Mamas and Papas, Phoebe Snow, Michael Murphy, The Byrds, Livingston Taylor, Poco, Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary, Commander Cody, and Firefall (w/ Rick Roberts). Russo the musician also wrote commercial jingles and film scores (Basket Case, Brain Damage, etc.)