The first thing I did after I finished reading Ruth Kreindler’s compelling saga of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 – both its prelude and aftermath – was give the book to an acquaintance of mine who produces movies.

Air Accident Investigation Branch photo

The bombing of a Pan Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland was headline news for more than a decade. It was the subject of many books, documentaries, conspiracy theories and even a feature film. But huge and fascinating aspects of the story have not been told until now. The Fight for Justice Lee Kreindler and Lockerbie was published earlier this year.

Its unlikely author along with Chris Angermann is Ruth Kreindler, the widow of renowned aviation attorney Lee Kreindler.  From their marriage in 1952 until Lee died in 2003, she was an extraordinary partner, more than a wife she was a confidant, diarist, and sounding board.

The Kreindlers in 1978 before Pan Am 103 would change everything

It is a common misperception following a plane crash that an easy payday awaits lawyers. A raft of legal impediments stand between the families of crash victims and compensation. There are even more barriers in cases involving international terrorism.

The ability to sue is important for families of victims, but equally if not more important as a mechanism for discovering the truth.  It is this latter point that makes The Fight for Justice such a fascinating read, reporting as it does how many people were manipulating evidence and outright lying. It brings to mind the challenge facing victims of the 737 Max disasters, who for the past 5 years have been unable to get at the truth because of a plea bargain the government made with Boeing.

On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Scotland, killing 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground. In the weeks before the disaster, there had been an unheeded warning that an attack on a Pan Am flight to America would occur before Christmas. This tragic lapse in securing the flight led Lee Kreindler to think there might be a path to justice.

As 1989 began, a parade of grieving relatives passed through the New York office of Kreindler & Kreindler. Lee warned them the case would be difficult.

“We must show that the airline or its agents knew they were doing something improper that could cause death and destruction, but they continued to do it anyway,” Ruth Kreindler writes of the visits victims’ families made to her husband’s office. He told them, “It will not be easy, and it will take a long time.”

Between 2001 and 2008, I worked at Kreindler & Kreindler as an investigator. Lee had hired me to examine the circumstances of the 9/11 attacks. I found him to be a thoughtful boss with a quick and creative mind.

During my time there, I learned firsthand that investigative tools used by journalists; documents, interviews, analyses and even crowd-sourcing, could be equally useful in helping lawyers build impenetrable arguments. What I failed to appreciate at the time, was how the 9/11 terror case was built on the success of the Pan Am 103 litigation.

Until reading this book, I also failed to understand the 2-decade long roller coaster ride that was the Pan Am litigation.

In Chapter 7 of Ruth Kreindler’s book, we learn of an on-again/off-again visit to New York by whistleblowers from Pan Am’s contract security force in Germany. The months-long choreography of these critical interviews could have come from a Marx Brothers movie had the subject matter not been so dreadful.

ABC News correspondent Pierre Salinger was duped by Pan Am claims of a government coverup

In Chapter 12, in a precursor to how disinformation has come to be used in the 21st Century, there are the jaw-dropping and entirely made-up stories circulated by Pan Am lawyers that the American Drug Enforcement Agency and/or the Central Intelligence Agency were responsible for the bomb being placed onboard the jumbo jet. These theories were picked up by news organizations as prestigious as Time, NBC News, and by ABC News correspondent Pierre Salinger, who would later go on to promote a similar conspiracy claim in the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800. (From this, the internet slang term Pierre Salinger syndrome was created.)

As investigations uncovered information implicating Pan Am or its security company, “someone at Pan Am or its insurer planted a story casting doubt with made-up alternative theories,” Ruth Kreindler writes.

Ms. Kreindler does not let her advanced age keep her from describing the full details of the event that dominated nearly one-third of her married life.  The book is peppered with sex, drugs, thievery, lies and plain old bad manners. And there’s no let up in drama when all this winds up in court, either.

Lee Kreindler was no competition for Harvey Specter AKA Gabriel Macht in the looks department. He was balding and portly with a rubbery face and oversized glasses. But even the most attractive litigator would need to be a great storyteller to keep a jury’s attention with a story as complicated and detailed as this one.

They had a huge amount of information, Ruth explains. It was always about “how to frame the argument.”

Whether Lee learned that from Ruth, or she learned it from him, her account of the case takes on the same challenge. It is a fact-filled, highly detailed, sweeping but still intimate account brought to vivid life with a stunning conclusion.

This is why I insisted my friend the filmmaker read this book. “It’s the next blockbuster,” I told him. What I know about Hollywood is next to nothing. But I know a good story when I read one.

Read more about The Fight for Justice, here.