Flim-Flam Man (2004)

After not speaking to her father for four years, Vogel opens his casket and slips a note onto his chest: ''We forgive you for all the bad things you did.'' Hardly a teary eulogy, but Vogel's father, John, was a manipulative, racist criminal who was tracked by federal agents for printing nearly $20 million in counterfeit bills. In his own messed-up way, he was also an adoring father, surprising his ''number-one daughter'' with a Fiat convertible and waking her up early in the morning to see beautiful sunrises. Though Vogel writes with emotional distance (she is, after all, an investigative reporter), her story is original, tragic, and heartbreaking in the way only true life can be.