James Willwerth seems to have been a crime correspondent for TIME in the late 1960s and 1970s. A search using his name on the TIME website brings up a number of articles. "Narcotics: Search and Destroy - The War on Drugs" describes a 1972 heroin bust in Chinatown, for example, as going off as "motion picture perfect."

Willwerth is also the author of Jones: Portrait of a Mugger, and Badge of Madness: The True Story of a Psychotic Cop. There's an excellent New York Times book review of the former.