This March 1991 Boston Magazine article profiles David Nagle, a career criminal and paid government informant whose testimony was central to the first-degree murder conviction of Jimmy Rodwell for the 1978 killing of Louis Rose, a Woburn drug dealer. Nagle, who had been working as an informant for the DEA, FBI, Boston police, and other agencies since at least the mid-1970s, provided testimony along with fellow informant Frankie Holmes that convicted Rodwell — despite no physical evidence, no gun, and no eyewitnesses linking him to the crime. The article details how Nagle's role as a paid snitch effectively served as a "get-out-of-jail-free card," allowing him to avoid serious prison time on over 116 felony charges across 13 years while continuing to commit crimes including armed robberies and drug dealing. Jimmy Rodwell's father, Jack Rodwell, spent nearly a decade and over $90,000 trying to exonerate his son, convinced that Nagle and Holmes had lied, while law enforcement figures who knew Nagle described him as a "pathological" and "calculating" liar. The piece uses Nagle's story to illustrate broader concerns about the criminal justice system's growing dependence on informants whose incentive to lie — in exchange for reduced sentences and cash payments — critics argue is corrupting the system.