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Michael Graham was an investigative reporter with the San Diego Union-Tribune and LA Daily News in the 1970s and 80s. The Daily News in 1986 published Graham's investigation into members of an investment group known as the Billionaire Boys Club being implicated in two high-profile murders. The following year NBC aired "Billionaire Boys Club" as a two-part miniseries. Graham, who lived in Santa Monica, died Jan. 8 of pneumonia brought on by treatment for cancer, per his former LADN colleague Arnold Friedman.
Friedman says that after leaving the Daily News in 1986, Graham wrote for "NYPD Blue" and other TV shows and wrote the screenplay for the Fox TV movie, "Getting Away With Murder: The JonBenet Ramsey Mystery." A child kidnap-murder case that Graham covered for the Detroit Free Press haunted him for years and eventually became the inspiration for his 2006 novel, "The Snow Angel," Friedman says.
A memorial service is planned for 1:30 p.m. on March 14 at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church at 14th Street and Ocean Park Boulevard in Santa Monica.
