The Ghost: An Inmate Disappears in L.A. County Jail

After an inmate sucker-punches James Sexton, he defies the jail’s unwritten rules by failing to exact violent retribution, and finds himself ostracized by his peers. But he becomes an expert in the antiquated jail computer system and eventually wins promotion to an elite jail-intelligence unit. Leah Marx has a cell phone smuggled to inmate-informant Anthony Brown, part of the FBI’s increasingly ambitious scheme to catch dirty jailers. Jailers quickly discover the phone, however, and trace it to the FBI. Scrambling to hide Brown from the feds, the department enlists Sexton, who helps change Brown’s name in the computer system and dubs the plan Operation Pandora’s Box. For 18 days, from August-Sept. 2011, Marx struggles to find her informant. The effort to erase Anthony Brown from jail records showed how far leaders would go to shield themselves. A young deputy became central to the cover-up, and what began as a contraband phone case quickly spiraled into an obstruction probe. Reporter Chris Goffard, who previously told the story of Dirty John, guides listeners through this extraordinary clash between the Sheriff’s Department and the FBI.

You can listen to The Ghost: An Inmate Disappears in L.A. County Jail online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Ghost: An Inmate Disappears in L.A. County Jail is an episode from Dirty John by L.A. Times Studios.

This episode is 00:30:16 long.

This episode was published on Sep 16, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Dirty John when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.