Skipp Porteous was formerly a fundamentalist minister, and then the founder of the Institute of First Amendment Rights, publisher of Freedom Writer magazine, and the author of five books. He was credited by the FBI as solving the only hijacking in US history to go without arrest by confirming the identity of D.B Cooper in his book Into the Blast. He was also the founder of Private Investigations in New York City, where he worked with high profile clients and multiple government agencies.