When a strange, older, man shows up to audit a college course in screenwriting, the professor becomes suspicious. The stranger turns out to be an FBI special agent, sentenced to prison for theft, and now leading a double-life and desperate to sell his story to Hollywood. Research uncovers an embarrassing chapter in FBI history, with Ed Tickel as the agency's "go-to guy" during the 1970's and 80's for blackbag ops. Mysteriously, the once respected agent goes rogue, and is suddenly caught using his skills to sell stolen jewelry and rob the FBI's own credit union vault. This is the nexus of the "official" and "unauthorized" versions of the Ed Tickel story, part fact, part fiction, and entirely odd.