Crime

Connie Francis took a seven-year hiatus from singing after surviving a rape, dealing with the murder of her brother, and battling several health problems. After so many tragedies, she feels like her old self again, and has begun performing once more.

Two experts on drug trafficking tell Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the difficulties of curtailing the production and sale of illicit drugs that originate outside the U.S. They debate whether or not American support of Burma's ethnic minorities could help reduce opium production.

Ann Rule was a writer for True Crime magazine when she was assigned a story about a serial killer who turned out to be a former acquaintance of Rule's. Rule worked with Ted Bundy at a suicide prevention center. She had even reported suspicions about Bundy to police. Her account of Bundy's crimes and her time working with him is called "The Stranger Beside Me."

John D. Case was a prison warden based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He worked to improve the prison system through better training and pay for prison employees and an emphasis on inmate rehabilitation. He also advocates for the repealing of laws which he feels lead to unnecessary prison sentences.

Terry talks by phone to Nick Caramandi, a made man in the mafia who turned witness for the government, while in the studio, Philadelphia Inquirer organized crime reporter George Anastasia will join Terry to talk about the life of the Philadelphia mobster. Anastasia has just written a book about the Philadelphia Mafia called "Blood and Honor: Inside the Scarfo Mob - The Mafia's Most Violent Family" (Morrow). Caramandi was a major player in Scarfo's organization before going into hiding under the Federal Witness Protection Program.

On Oct. 5, The New York Times published an article detailing alleged sexual misconduct by film executive Harvey Weinstein that dated back nearly three decades.