Sounds like the Smoking Gun has found one:
Three months ago, in what the talk show host termed a โradical departure,โ Winfrey announced that โA Million Little Pieces,โ author James Freyโs nonfiction memoir of his vomit-caked years as an alcoholic, drug addict, and criminal, was her latest selection for the worldโs most powerful book club.
In an October 26 show entitled โThe Man Who Kept Oprah Awake At Night,โ Winfrey hailed Freyโs graphic and coarse book as โlike nothing youโve ever read before. Everybody at Harpo is reading it. When we were staying up late at night reading it, weโd come in the next morning saying, โWhat page are you on?โโ In emotional filmed testimonials, employees of Winfreyโs Harpo Productions lauded the book as revelatory, with some choking back tears. When the camera then returned to a damp-eyed Winfrey, she said, โIโm crying โcause these are all my Harpo family so, and we all loved the book so much.โ
But a six-week investigation by The Smoking Gun reveals that there may be a lot less to love about Freyโs runaway hit, which has sold more than 3.5 million copies and, thanks to Winfrey, has sat atop The New York Times nonfiction paperback best seller list for the past 15 weeks. Next to the latest Harry Potter title, Nielsen BookScan reported Friday, Freyโs book sold more copies in the U.S. in 2005โ1.77 millionโthan any other title, with the majority of that total coming after Winfreyโs selection.
Police reports, court records, interviews with law enforcement personnel, and other sources have put the lie to many key sections of Freyโs book. The 36-year-old author, these documents and interviews show, wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms, and status as an outlaw โwanted in three states.โ
More details follow.






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