Product Description

In this touching story about the highest-level executive to turn whistleblower of all time, Mark Whitacre tells all. Enormously revealing and moving, this biography shares with its readers how, via faith in God and the patient love of his wife Ginger, Mark is today an inspiring spiritual force for good in the world. Written with finesse and passion, Mark Whitacre Against All Odds reveals the family's perspective, especially how Ginger kept Mark alive. Through her, his story begins where most other men's end-prison. It details how Whitacre got down on his knees in a filthy cell and begged God for guidance; how, from that moment on, he removed fears or doubts in his existence. Liberated after nearly a decade in prison, Whitacre's essential message is simple-live by the Golden Rule, always tell the truth, look for the good in everyone, and know that spiritual wealth is far more important than material wealth. Author Floyd Perry invites everyone to learn why Whitacre is called a national hero by the FBI and a spiritual inspiration by Paul A. Willis who wrote the Foreword. Discover how Whitacre is now dedicated to living in accordance with spiritual principles that apply to everyone's life. Well-written, candid, and sincere, Mark Whitacre Against All Odds is one of the best of the world's tell-alls-as genial, eccentric, and unique as Whitacre's life. Read this book and discover how Mark Whitacre has triumphed against all odds. Says the author "People say there is nothing certain in life except death and taxes. Well, you can add one more thing to that. The only other thing that is as certain in life as death and taxes is that Ginger and Mark Whitacre will never get divorced. It is an impossibility because their love is unshakable."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #452744 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 294 pages

Customer Reviews

No man does anything from a single motive
Mark Whitacre's heroic work in helping stop a huge conspiracy to fix prices and deny the consumer truly competitive prices was the subject of one of my favorite segments on Ira Glass' This American Life. There are other books about Whitacre's wearing a body mike monitored by the FBI not for a single meeting, a single week, or just a couple of months but for three solid years -- I'm still overwhelmed by that statement, three years while the FBI assembled a complete case. Perry's book points out that even FBI agents aren't permitted to wear a body mike for more than a few months because of the strain on one's psyche.

The film "The Informant" is coming out with Matt Damon as Whitacre, and I'm look forward to seeing that. But what I'm sure the film won't get into is the family relationship, and Whitacre's odyssey being shipped from one prison to another, passing through Pensacola where he met Perry, who was in federal prison camp for a breach of fiducioary duties. By having been a prisoner himself, Perry can dramatically describe the daily stresses -- and in Whitacre's case -- the sheer ordeal of being fingered as an informant. Next to being a child molester, that's apparently the one thing that will get you "shanked," or knifed by a fellow inmate who doesn't like the idea of being ratted on, if you the person being "ratted on" was defrauding hundreds of thousands of consumers, and the informant gets to be played by Matt Damon.

I fouind this book to be absolutely gripping; I didn't want to put it down and went on immediately to the next chapter after having been shocked by what Whitacre was going through. Beyond that, this book tells the story of a marriage and family life that survived the eight years of prison, and being transferred at a moment's notice, irrespective of the family's ability to follow. Indeed, one especially troubling story is Whitacre's being transferred a fourteen hour drive away that nonetheless took several weeks because he kept being sent to temporary prison openings for a couple of days, without any belongings, and without his wife even being able to know where he was, much less contact him by phone.

The book tells a story of how a man, beside himself with stress and having begun to embezzle from the company he was working for and, for three years, recording the senior management's most secretive and conspiratorial meetings, nonetheless finds the power in God and through God in his wife and family to perservere and become redeemed. In the face of many daily injustices, humiliations, and stress, Whitacre apparently never once was discplined during his eight plus years in prison. He took his punishment, accepted it as God's will, and seeing what he had done wrong, promised himself, his wife, his family, and God that he would become a better man.

This is an inspiring story, beautifully and cleverly written, with the best chapter headings and quotes I remember seeing anywhere -- to the point and evocative of not only the story being told but also the moral lesson to be taken from the chapter. If you like This American Life, you'll enjoy the same sense of empathy and challenge you find in Perry's work.

The fantastic story of a true hero

Mark Whitacre really is a real-life true hero, and this book lays out how he survived: with the help of a totally devoted and loving family.

Everyone who knows anything about Whitacre's case agrees he got screwed for what he did, and that he richly deserves a presidential pardon. Whitacre single-handedly brought down the corrupt, politically-connected price-fixing regime at the midwestern Arthur Daniels Midland corporation by wearing a wire for the FBI for 3 years, which is way longer than any informant had ever done. That did quite a number on his head, and all he got for his troubles was ten years' hard time.

Don't let the heavy religiosity of the book's forward scare you away -- most of this book is a fantastic journey and a great read.

Author Floyd Perry is especially good at delineating just how it all went down for Whitacre, and how he went through the meat-grinder of paranoia by being the good & loyal company man by day and the no-holds-barred truth-telling informant by night.

Whitacre's early encounters with the FBI are among the most interesting, especially since he first ran into them by accident, and since he was being coached by overbearing company men in his first FBI interview.

But there's much more, including how Whitacre dealt for a decade with the our big-biz, ugly mess of a prison system and with things like "diesel therapy" -- prison slang for the endless shifting from one prison to another that inmates have to endure. Speaking of prison slang, there's a funny (and sad, ultimately) glossary of key prison-slang terms in the back of the book which is a must-read.

But the real story here is how Whitacre's faith and family got him through the hardest years of his life, and Perry tells it wonderfully.

Buy this book, read it, tell your friends about it. You won't regret a moment of it.

(And watch for the Steven Soderbergh movie on Whitacre coming out next month, too.)

Great True Story of One Man's Triumph over Big-Ag and his own demons
This story would be compelling even if it were pure fiction. Unfortunately for Mark Whitacre, it's 100% true.

Mark overcame his own flawed character and a corporate culture which was bilking consumers for hundreds of millions of dollars, and emerged as a model citizen after paying for his own wrong-doing.

A must-read for any corporate executive. Also enjoyable for those of us who just want a good story about subterfuge and surviving years in prison, only to emerge as a top corporate leader despite a precipitous fall from grace.