John Oller, a lawyer and journalist, is the author of seven books, including, most recently, Rogues’ Gallery: The Birth of Modern Policing and Organized Crime in Gilded Age New York (2021). His first book, Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew (Limelight Editions, 1997), was lauded by film critic Leonard Maltin, who called it “an exceptional piece of work” and “an outstanding biography . . . among the best I’ve read in years.”  

Born in Huron, Ohio, John is a graduate of The Ohio State University with a B.A. in journalism (summa cum laude), having written and edited for the daily student newspaper, the Lantern, and interned as a reporter for such newspapers as the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Rochester Times-Union. His undercover exposé on the infiltration of the Ohio State campus by the Moonies religious cult led to his selection as a congressional journalism intern in Washington, D.C., where he wrote press releases for a Michigan congressman.

After college he obtained his law degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. (magna cum laude), and joined the law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York as an associate in the litigation department.  For many years he represented Major League Baseball in many high-profile cases, including the celebrated George Brett “Pine Tar” case and the Pete Rose gambling case. As a partner in the firm, he went on to specialize in complex commercial and securities litigation, and was a principal author of the Audit Committee Report for Cendant Corporation (at the time, the most massive fraud in American corporate history); the New York Times called the report a definitive case study in the area of accounting irregularities and fraud. He taught legal writing as part of his firm’s continuing legal education program for many years, and is the author of One Firm – A Short History of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, 1888 -  (2004). He holds the record as a four-time winner of the firm’s annual golf tournament in Florida. 

At the end of 2011, John retired from active legal practice to concentrate on his writing career.  His 2014 e-book, An All-American Murder, is a true crime story of an unsolved cold case murder in Columbus, Ohio in 1975. The book led to the reopening of the case and a renewed investigation by Columbus Police that identified the killer as someone other than the man accused 40 years earlier. It has since been the subject of a television documentary.  

The year 2014 also saw the release of American Queen: The Rise and Fall of Kate Chase Sprague—Civil War “Belle of the North” and Gilded Age Woman of Scandal (Da Capo). In 2016 came The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution (Da Capo), and in 2019 Dutton published White Shoe: How a New Breed of Wall Street Lawyers Changed Big Business—and the American Century.

John is a member of Biographers International Organization and the Ohio State University School of Communications Advisory Board.

When not writing, John pursues his hobbies of golf, theater, film, museums, aimless walking, and travel (especially France and Italy). In the US, he lives in New York City and has a part-time home in California wine country.