hil Stanford is a writer and investigator based in Portland, Oregon. He is a former columnist for the Oregonian and Portland Tribune and author of The Peyton-Allan Files, a real-life mystery about a 1960 "lover's lane" murder that held the city of Portland in thrall for over a decade. Stanford is also the author of the regional bestseller Portland Confidential, a gritty and frequently hilarious story of the Great Portland Vice Scandal of 1956-57. Both books are available at ptownbooks.com. As a journalist, Stanford is best known for his continuing work on the 1989 murder/cover-up of Oregon Corrections director Michael Francke.  He co-wrote the screenplay for Without Evidence, a feature film starring Angelina Jolie, based on the case. His 1994 Oregonian series on the “Happy Face Killer” case resulted in two innocent people being released from prison.  He was recently featured on ABC's 20/20 in a show about the case. Before coming to Oregon, Stanford worked as a magazine writer and editor in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, and as a private investigator in Miami. He has written on crime, national security and intelligence matters for a number of national publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Washingtonian Magazine, Parade, Columbia Journalism Review and Rolling Stone.