Ralph Frammolino

Ralph Frammolino reported for nearly 25 years at the Los Angeles Times, where he and former colleague Jason Felch were finalists for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for their articles about the J. Paul Getty Museum and looted antiquities. Prior to that, Mr. Frammolino's investigative stories led to the federal conviction of two advertising executives for submitting inflated bills to the City of Los Angeles; exposed a back-door admissions system at UCLA that favored children of the rich, famous and powerful over better qualified candidates; and prompted a change in California's organ donation law by revealing how the Los Angeles County coroner's office sold corneas removed during autopsies without the consent of surviving relatives. His reporting assignments have taken him to Beijing, Rome, Athens, London and the Caribbean island of Montserrat; and he was part of the Times effort that snagged the Pulitzer Prize for Spot Reporting on the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. His work has also appeared in the New York Times and the Columbia Journalism Review. After leaving The LA Times in 2008, Mr. Frammolino worked as a journalism teacher in India and is now a media consultant for various aid projects in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, where he trains working journalists on investigative reporting techniques and right to information laws. "Chasing Aphrodite" is his first book.