Private Eye Confidential

INCHING CLOSER TO RECORDS RELEASE, SF SUNSHINE ORDINANCE TASK FORCE HEARINGS

2024-06-09T19:27:00.000-07:00

Justice delayed is justice denied. In upside down times, the Police and the District Attorney erect roadblocks to keep the truth from tumbling out in a 26-year-old bungled murder investigation.

Possible motives for San Francisco Police and the San Francisco District Attorney refusing to release materials in June 12, 1998 murder for hire of Gary Murphy:

Embarrassment. Within 24 hours of the morning murder, police knew the names of the two suspects and had four witnesses to parts of the gun killing. Two to three weeks later, they had the name of my former client, a grandmother who likely hired the killers before fleeing to Canada for the next six years. A police memo has disclosed police lost phone records and never maintained notes or a narrative file at the time. An Alameda County authority told me that San Francisco Police never requested for testing a gun that was recovered during a search in October 1998.
Liability. I am the first to report that the Murphy killers also sexually assaulted a pregnant Piedmont mother during a home invasion a week later, June 19, 1998. It's not a stretch to say San Francisco Police could have made immediate arrests after the Murphy hit, thus preventing the Piedmont attack. (Her children were home during the attack and she ended up giving birth to a healthy baby.) It's incredibly difficult to win a suit against police for inaction.
Bureaucratic Power and Indifference. It's a loss to have to surrender a case file to some random blogger/podcaster/private eye. Murphy was a three-time convicted felon and biker. He never rated as a sympathetic victim. If they didn't care then, why would they care now?
Darker Secrets. Everyone in the Murphy case is a criminal. My former client and mastermind, the grandmother, does not have a criminal record but her two sons were involved in large scale illegal marijuana grows at around the time of the murder. The other suspects are violent felons, and a witness/informant in the Piedmont case and Murphy case has a checkered past. Who knows what other details could spill if interview tapes were released.

I have now appeared twice before the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Task Force trying to ger full release of records in the case. The first time was October 24, 2023, before a small committee, which ruled 3-0 that my complaints against the Police Department and the District Attorney had standing to go before the full task force. The Sunshine Ordinance Task Force is unique in California city government in that it's a venue for hearing public records disputes against city government. However, the task force does not have power to compel a body to produce records.

Incredulously, DA representative Nikki Moore, a "transparency lawyer" hired by the DA, told the task force at the October hearing that the DA has zero records about the Murphy case and the decision not to prosecute in 2014. She said no emails, no memos, no reports, no police prosecution packet, nothing on a homicide. She hedged by saying the DA had never charged anyone in the case, a lie of omission. What's correct is that the DA opted not to charge anyone at the time. Task Force members that night found it hard to believe a DA's office does not keep records in homicide cases that are brought before them but not charged. My fourth pod episode is about the meeting that night. Police did not appear at the October meeting.

In a way, DA Moore might have done me a favor by claiming the DA has no records. Because that leaves the full committee with the only record known about the decision not to prosecute, which is the 2014 memo by retired Inspector Wynkoop. His memo becomes even more important because of Sunshine Ordinance 67.24 D (law enforcement) that states when the DA opts NOT TO PROSECUTE that all records should be released.

The full committee task force on June 5 voted to continue my motion to compel police to release the records. I screwed up because I thought I had given the committee my copy of the Wynkoop memo in my complaint materials.

At the meeting, I gave my argument then a police legal rep gave his. There was committee discussion, rebuttal arguments, and more discussion. The legal affairs rep that night who appeared remotely had a bit of smarminess to him. He's either the third or fourth legal affairs cop I've dealt with on the matter since I've been trying to obtain records. It sort of gives police a built-in excuse like "Hey, I'm new on the job" when asked to find the records.

I pounded my points: police had enough information to make arrests the weekend of the Murphy murder, the initial detectives were sloppy, the killers are known, police quit on the case, no work has been done on it in a decade. The DA declined to prosecute the gunman.

The police legal representative gave the same arguments: It's an open and ongoing case, and under state law police are exempt from turning over records. Our session was about 45 minutes.

The committee members seemed to listen attentively. I think many are former journalists. Some seemed to be missing the point. One seemed focus on punitive aspects, that police had missed response deadlines under the Public Records Act. I've never been interested in penalties. Another seemed to suggest that the DA should have another chance to say whether it's an open investigation. I vociferously objected to the idea of the DA getting any more say in the matter. Most asked excellent questions, drilling down on exactly what I'm after.

I became emotional as I was that close to winning a fight I've fought off and on for five years. I attend these meetings in person so the committee members can see that obtaining the records means so much to me

To be continued.

The Curious Police Memo in The Gary Murphy Homicide Investigation

2023-10-09T21:02:00.002-07:00

I call it "The memo" or "The Wynkoop memo," the name of the retired San Francisco Police Detective who wrote it about 10 years ago. Episode 2 of my Gary Murphy Assassination podcast highlights the document.

A gunman killed Gary Vincent Murphy in the late morning of June 12, 1998, at a halfway house that the ex-con Murphy managed near Ocean Beach.. The killer fled in a little blue Toyota driven by another man. I once had Murphy under surveillance for a former client who at the time battled him in family law court for custody of her 6-year-old granddaughter. The former client's daughter gave birth to the girl but soon after died of a drug overdose. The former client blamed Murphy for her daughter's death. I fired the former client three months before Murphy's murder because I found her too erratic and hostile. Murphy had fought with her since his daughter's birth and was well aware of the grandma's hostility.

I know my former client orchestrated the hit. I have obtained returned search warrants that state that police were investigating her, her then boyfriend, and the two suspects in the car linked to the shooting. I gave police my ex-client's name two weeks after the murder. Murphy and the three male suspects had all done time together at San Quentin state prison, some at the same time. Whether they knew each other prior to the slaying is unknown. My former's client's boyfriend served time in state prison for auto theft. The other two men are career felons.

For 25 years I have tried to keep the case alive. The Bay Guardian wrote about in 2004. Police have never seemed to care. I started doing my research in 2019 and released the first two podcasts in 2020. For the last three years I've waged a public records battle against SF police and the District Attorney. As a former crime reporter at newspapers and private investigator for a combined 37 years, I know that both agencies are hiding some things. I suspect they botched the case because of sloppiness and indifference.

The back drop to Wynkoop's memo is he realized the suspected gunman was about to get released from prison on a gun possession charge. Cops found the gun, possibly the Murphy murder weapon, when they searched the man's rental house in October 1998. The suspected gunman and his likely getaway driver were suspects in a home invasion sex assault of a pregnant Piedmont mother a week after the Murphy slaying. The memo details that police were onto the two the day of or day after the murder. Did police inaction result in the Piedmont home invasion and sex assault? Had they been more proactive could they have arrested the two before the Piedmont crime? The getaway driver is doing life in prison for the Piedmont case and other crimes he committed around the same time.

Here is the Wynkoop memo and a few pages of witness interview summaries released to me. It looks like Wynkoop drew the short straw, tried to do the right thing to resuscitate the case, and realized the former detectives on the case had botched it so badly that it couldn't be saved. There was no organized case file left for him, no transcripts, no phone records, no evidence from the scene. He was almost starting from scratch.

Three public records attorneys have turned me down on this case to pursue more records from the San Francisco Police Department and San Francisco District Attorney. I've filed complaints with the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Task Force to try to obtain more records. I'm not interested in whether the departments violated the timeliness of my records requests--they did. I'm interesting in compelling them to release all of the records and tell the whole story of how the investigation went wrong.

The public as well as Murphy's family deserve to know the truth.

In this email, Nikki Moore of the SFDA tells us she has found the Murphy records.

But about 8-10 months later, after claiming she has been searching for them, Nikki Moore tells me there are no records!!!!!! Which is it?

So, for all of the above reasons and the runaround, I have made complaints to the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Task Force to try to obtain the records in the Murphy case. It's been 25 years. The Ordinance states that when a decision has been made not to charge in a case, that the records should be released.

Police and the DA will try to cling to the old standby that the Murphy murder is somehow an "active and ongoing investigation." That's another lie.

I just went on to the SFPD web site under "homicides and cold cases" and input Gary Murphy for 1998. Nothing comes up at all on the case. They have not lifted a finger on it since Wynkoop wrote the memo. In fairness, the web site is not pulling up other cold cases so it apparently doesn't work at all.

Part of being accountable as a public agency is admitting your mistakes and being open with the public.

SFPD and SF DA Withholding Information in Gary Murphy Case

2022-03-13T13:05:00.003-07:00

Have you ever heard of a police department that doesn't want help from the public in bringing killers to justice? I never had either until I started two years ago trying to pry information from San Francisco Police Department and the SF District Attorney about the June 12, 1998, daylight assassination of Gary Vincent Murphy.

It seems that the last 10-20 years a "cold case" industry was born. Police formed new units to look at old cases. Media trumpeted cold case solves. TV shows fiction and documentaries focused on new DNA techniques and other scientific advancements in how cases are cleared. The podcast industry and the nation developed a true crime fascination. Police created this buzz, no better attaboy from the public for cops and prosecutors than solving the case everyone thought would never be cracked.

But what happens when a case goes bad for the cops? If it was as simple as appealing for more witnesses or help from the public, wouldn't they? The fact is that San Francisco Police never seemed interested in sharing much about the Gary Murphy case. There was an initial article after the crime, then I fed the SF Bay Guardian information for the great investigative piece in 2004 written by AC Thompson. Police have never ever reached out to the media and the public for help on this case. And with all I know, I think the silence is because they are withholding information that might reveal major mistakes in the case. It's been 23 years. If you are no closer to making any arrests, just admit it.

I've detailed the background and my investigation into the case thus far in my true crime podcast The Gary Murphy Assassination.

I am contacting an attorney about acquiring these records. I seek these records for selfish reasons: Looking into his death is my personal investigation. He also has a family that has never heard the truth. But a deeper reason is that as the public we deserve to examine our tax dollars at work. I have always said about police and prosecutors that with great power comes great scrutiny.

I once had Gary Murphy under surveillance, about three months before he was killed. I worked at the time for his adversary, a grandmother of a little girl. Murphy had fathered the girl, whose mother died of an overdose just a few months after she was born. The grandma blamed Murphy, a biker who sold and used drugs, for her daughter's death and she thought Murphy was an unfit father. I fired grandma as a client because she became irrational and abusive towards me and a former associate who had worked for her trying to get Murphy's parole violated.

What little I do know came from SFPD providing some records to my assistant in August of 2019. One item was the police report. Cops had a car description and physical description of shooter and driver, who had apparently been to the halfway house the day before Murphy was shot.

The more eye-opening document police released at the time was the memo from Homicide Inspector Edward Wynkoop, since retired, that he wrote in 2012 and updated in 2014. One witness at the scene picked the shooter out of a photo lineup; police knew that the shooter had owned the car driven from the crime scene; police had a witness/informant who said that the shooter told him a woman had paid him $12,000 to beat up Murphy but that "things went wrong" during the assault.

Wynkoop's memo stated that detectives had interviewed 63 witnesses in the case. My former associate and I were among the 63 and we gave detectives in great detail information about our crazed former client who had hired us to get dirt on Murphy. Photo lineups identified the shooter and his driver. A search warrant served in 1998 on the shooting suspect's Oakland residence turned up firearms, and he was charged and convicted for the weapons.

Sounds like a lot of evidence, right? It was. Wynkoop put together a prosecution package and tried to get the SF DA to charge the case because the shooting suspect was about to be released from serving part of a 25-year sentence. Names in the memo are blacked out. There's one space where it could be two names together, and I wonder if that's my former client and her then boyfriend who happened to have been in San Quentin state prison at about same time. A memo I obtained from the Alameda County DA on the Oakland search warrant names my former client and her boyfriend.

Wynkoop tried but a San Francisco DA named named Diane Garcia told another DA that she "would not file on a one witness case." That sounds like total bullshit. Multiple witnesses with other other evidence. Prosecutors would have to take the word of ex-cons against my former client.

I have no idea whether police or the FBI ever interviewed my former client, who fled to Canada after the assassination and lived there for five years or so with her granddaughter. She has dual citizenship in Canada but is now back in Oakland. Her adult sons have drug convictions, and she was growing marijuana on her property in the years before Murphy was killed.

Objectively, there are some problems. In his memo Wynkoop stated that phone records in the case were not preserved by inspectors Camilleri and Casillas and that he could not obtain the phone records from the phone companies. That's a glaring mistake. Wynkoop mentioned that he had to listen to many of the interview tapes all over again because the interviews were not summarized. His memo tells me-without his saying it-- that the previous inspectors were disorganized and did not keep good records of their homicide investigation.

Police also mistakenly did not black out the shooter's last name in one part of the memo. I learned it anyway because I ran a search on the names of people who lived at the Oakland address that was searched and crosschecked it against those at the residence who had significant criminal histories. It's just another example of police sloppiness.

Perhaps another complicating factor is that the suspected gunman and the driver were also suspects in a 1998 sex assault and home invasion of a pregnant woman in her Piedmont home. The driver was convicted in the Piedmont case and is still in prison. Another man who played a part in that Piedmont case was the one who told police about the suspected gunman and driver in the Murphy case.

Police had promised in 2019 to release more records to my assistant but abruptly stopped and referred the matter to the police legal division. I made a request three months ago to San Francisco police for the entire file. They turned it down saying releasing information could jeopardize the case.

I based my records request on the 1999 San Francisco Sunshine ordinance, 77.24 D to be exact. It states that records will be released to public once a prosecution will not be sought. Again, the DA declined to prosecute the case.

What's next? I will get an attorney to sue for release of the records. And I will win.

The Car is The Key

2021-07-11T15:29:00.011-07:00

He wasn't just dodging. He used his children and his wife to lie to me, that he didn't live at the house in the East Bay hills.

I have a niche surveillance specialty: difficult service of process. I needed to drop papers on the man, a defendant in a personal injury auto crash. He drove a rented pickup that skidded on gravel, crossed into the opposite lane and badly injured the lawyer's client. Adding pressure is the law office is top shelf and a customer I want to satisfy for a long time.

The key to serving him? His vehicles. Maybe if you do this for a living like I do this is old news. I find many of my law firm clients are not always geared, ha-ha, to the importance of knowing about a car in order to serve someone. A vehicle is a signature, a unique identifier. Unless the person is super rich, with multiple vehicles and many properties, or destitute with no vehicles and no home, he or she will typically only drive one or two vehicles. You are your car! Find the car, find the subject.

My break in the case of the dodger in the hills was relentlessly scanning his social media. For an apparent deadbeat, he sure posted a lot of self realization and self improvement memes, often eight times a day. Strong hunch unemployed. Numbing to review al; that detritus but that's why we are pros. One day, about two months prior to me taking the job, he had an innocuous post that showed a dark sports car. He had bragged about being "so off the grid" but let slip that he bought a car to start building his credit.

Databases weren't much help for finding him because he was not the type to put things in his name. The address I focused on him was near his past addresses but he didn't own the place. The law office thought he was divorced. This was not true either as no divorce filings were found in area counties. The law office had used a process server to go to some of the other addresses but they weren't narrowing it down either. But at least at the address where I focused his old broken down orange Jeep, registered to him, was in the driveway.

Then the kids and the spouse started giving inconsistent answers, and I thought I heard a deep male voice in the background. It was either "He doesn't live here" or "he's not home." I left my business card and one day I found a number for him and called him. I told him that I did not want to keep bothering his family. He still didn't want to take his medicine.

The law firm authorized me to spend the extra time to serve him; I knew I was close. Sure enough, one day near the house I spotted the dark sports car from his Facebook post. I ran the paper plates--registered in his name. The next weekend I kept doing surveillance off and on, taking up a position 150 yards away on a hill where I could see the car and who was coming in and out of the house.

Show time! A husky man in a bright red sweater walked out of the house towards the sports car. I knew I had him and drove up on him then called out to him as he talked on his cell phone. "You are served!" I yelled and tossed the papers at his feet. I followed it up with a text telling him he was served. I think either his insurance company or his wife's insurance company agreed to come into the case.

License Plates and License Plate Reader Databases

Again, I'm in the business of creeping and sneaking to serve people, almost always after garden variety process server has not been successful and the subject knows he or she is being hunted. Another recent success was client's process server getting plates of luxury cars at a house in a gated community. Teen-agers claimed mom, a defendant in major fraud suit, didn't live there. That's funny, cause she owns the house!

Flashy cars easy to spot

My employee Angela developed information about where the defendant was now working. It became a simple task of: look for the distinct Range Rover she drove, parked at the building, and just wait for her to come out after work. I served her at her vehicle as she pretended not to see me, 3 feet away from her yelling her name, telling her she is served, showing her the stack of legal process. You could also run an ANI search (Alpha Name Index) in California by subject name and subject address. I just find it easier to go by and see what's in the driveway and near house since you are going to have a look anyway.

Most us are probably using databases, TLO or Delvepoint etc., that have access to DRN, a company that has vehicle location data. I'm not exactly sure of the DRN source but my guess is perhaps it's from repo or tow companies going out to high volume parking lots and densely populated areas.

I've certainly had good results via DRN. If I have a plate and the addresses popping up are confusing, advantage goes to the place where vehicle parked at night, especially if within last three months. It's just that license plate data tends to come from higher volume parking places, casinos, shopping centers, maybe apartment complexes.

The Geico Trick

This one is so good, and I learned it from a fellow private eye. If you have a date of birth and address where subject lives, use the Geico site to get an estimate. You will get back the year, make and model of car. However, you don't get the color. But you know what to look for when you start your plans to serve the person and to prepare for surveillance. Guess this will generate a bogus sales lead but so be it.

My message to any law office, paralegal, process server or private investigator is be more car/vehicle conscious. If the games and dodging start, knowing the exact motor vehicle will be an advantage.

Gary Murphy Murder San Francisco, Podcast Episode 2 Debuts

2020-11-24T22:32:00.000-08:00

Every creative project I do, writing a book or a short story or now, a podcast, comes from the heart. The Gary Murphy Assassination, a San Francisco Cold Case podcast is such an outlet. It's a case of mine that ate at me for 22 years. I'm not much closer to having ultimate gratification, like a court conviction, but I have satisfied my hunch that my former client orchestrated his June 12, 1998, murder at a halfway house where he lived in San Francisco's Outer Sunset.

I keep asking myself my motivation for picking at this old tragic case. In summary: It's my vengeance. The former client tried to use me and a former partner to get the goods on Murphy in a child custody case over his daughter, who was then 6. The client, the girl's grandmother, lost her daughter to a methadone overdose and raised the little girl while Murphy was in prison. When she didn't win custody she hired ex-convicts to kill him. He died with bullets in him, trying to jump out a second story window to flee his attacker. A little girl robbed of her mother and father. I can't even fathom a grandmother wanting to deprive a grandchild of a parent.

Episode 1 is called Gary and Grandma, Bitter Enemies. It's an overview of how I got into the case and it's about the main players in the case. (It's my maiden podcast voyage so don't expect high art.) Murphy was intense, pure rebel. The son of a World War II hero, and a criminal defense attorney, Murphy went all in on sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. He had an older brother who died before him. He was a freelance biker with convictions for possession or stolen property and slinging meth. His daughter remembers him as being loving and quick with a laugh, encouraging her to take piano lessons. Even in some ugly fights with grandma, Murphy always took the high road and never physically retaliated against her, though grandma went after him.

Episode 2 is called Bombshell Full of Questions. It's about what I learned about the police investigation into Murphy's death. I obtained a six-page police memo, from 2014, and a copy of a returned search warrant that police had served in Oakland at where the gunman lived. Police had a lot of evidence, including an eyewitness at the scene, an informant who laid out the plot, and motive supplied by yours truly.

Further complicating the Murphy probe is that its suspects, minus my former grandma client,at around the same time also robbed and sexually assaulted a pregnant woman at her house in Piedmont, while her two children were held captive downstairs. Alameda County convicted two men in connection with the case. My hunch though is that the Piedmont case took priority for all police and prosecutors involved. I think they had to make a decision: do we put them away for Piedmont or maybe risk trying to get them for Murphy.

I'm the first to report the link between the two cases. The gunman in the Murphy case, a multiple felon, served about 14 years, not directly because of either case but because of the Derringer found during the search of his residence.

To the credit of San Francisco police, Inspector Edward Wynkoop in 2014 realized the Murphy gunman was about to get out of prison on his gun case. Wynkoop prepared a prosecution packet for the gunman and took it up the chain of command at the DA's office. The DA blew him off, calling it a "one witness case." It was anything but. In my opinion the DA didn't want to risk losing.

The real mystery to me is how police went from great leads and identifying suspects to ultimately not arresting anyone. They had a possible gun, the car that was used, informant testimony, motive, any maybe more.

Evidentiary challenges abounded, and maybe so too did sloppiness. In his memo, Wynkoop said he took over a case file that did not even have witness summaries. He had to listen to witness interview tapes all over again. There is nothing in the memo about ballistics results. The original investigator on the case was Antonio Casillas. I left messages for him. The memo said that Wynkoop had to go back to phone companies trying to get cell phone and other phone records but, of course, 14 years or so later phone companies don't have that information. The original investigators had not maintained a good case file or copies of phone records.

I always thought my former client, the grandmother, orchestrated the assassination. She had motive. The police memo laid out how a suspect had paid the gunman $12,000 cash, the same amount she had once paid me and my former partner. The returned search warrant specifically mentioned her and her former boyfriend by name. Unlike the San Francisco police memo, her name was not blacked out. However, she did flee to Canada for the next six years after the murder.

I fear that sloppiness or indifference doomed the investigation. Grandma the murderer is still free.

The Gary Murphy Assassination, A San Francisco Cold Case podcast by private investigator Mike Spencer

2020-08-25T22:20:00.000-07:00

Yes. I have entered the true crime podcast sphere with my debut pilot pod. I told someone the other day I had the pebble inside my shoe for 22 years before doing the pod. It's an old case of mine from 1998. An ex-con I had under surveillance in February 1998 for a child custody case was gunned down in cold blood at a halfway house he managed in quiet Outer Sunset District Neighborhood. Gary Vincent Murphy was so terrified he jumped out a second floor window. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

-Murphy and daughter

- Looking at the quiet neighborhood where Murphy was murdered

Murphy died June 12, 1998, about three months after my partner and I had fired our client: the girl's maternal grandmother. She was a hot-head and a pain in the ass who blew up at us because we couldn't find evidence that he was doing anything wrong that might impact the custody case or violate his parole. Murphy was an independent biker, not in a gang, and a three-time convicted felon. His last sentence, very little time and release to a halfway house that he managed, raised questions about whether he could have been a snitch.

-The halfway house on Quintara where Murphy was assassinated June 12, 1998

The great mystery of his violent and unusual death--a daylight assassination-- is whether his criminal past caught up to him or could it have been related to the volatile custody battle and my irascible former client. Nothing is 100-percent but I think the informant/snitch angle has been ruled out. What's not up for debate was how much he loved his daughter. He gave up drugs and alcohol and by most accounts he was turning his life around to be dad to his girl, Eden, whose mother had died six years earlier in Vancouver of a methadone overdose. My former client had blamed Murphy for her daughter getting into drugs.

Writing the podcast took me back to 1998 and to my old stomping grounds in Oakland where I had met the client and weeks later sat in my old boss's Lincoln Town Car looking at $12,000 cash the client had given us in a Ritz cracker box.

-Where I met the former client in 1998, formerly the Cantina in Glenview/Oakland

I don't want to get into too detailed a summary. Reporter A.C. Thompson of ProPublica joined me on it and gave his opinions and recollections. Before he was a national big-shot, Thompson worked at the San Francisco Bay Guardian and wrote an engrossing feature about the case. I had tipped him to it for the 2004 article. His story is like him: stealthy, graceful, and under the radar but always getting information from sources and interview subjects.

Cover story 2004 San Francisco Bay Guardian, article by A.C. Thompson

I also interviewed the victim's daughter, who is now in her late '20's. She and Murphy's family have always wanted more answers, and I'm trying to get them. She's been through so much but maintains a sense of humor and perspective. She has never seemed bitter. She now works with children.

My old apartment at the time, Glenview in Oakland

Obscure, sad mysteries attract me. I feel like if I don't look into and tell the story then the world won't understand the tragedy or at least have some empathy for the people. I wrote my graduate school of journalism investigative thesis about a Vietnam combat veteran in Antioch, California who killed his only daughter and then himself. The theme of that story was untreated post traumatic stress disorder. In the Murphy case my motivation--other than still being pissed off about my former client-- is trying to understand failings or complexity or reality of the criminal justice system. In 2019 I received some police records that reveal how close they might have been to catching the killers.

I owe big thanks to Brian Krans, a fellow UC Berkeley Journalism School alum who showed me how to record and narrate a podcast. He also did the meticulous engineering to mix and drop in the interview sound clips. Brian's amazing in not only his passion for journalism but for sharing his gifts.

My assistant Angela Rowen, herself a former journalist, bull-dogged the records from San Francisco Police Department and obtained the numerous criminal and civil court records. Kusic and Kusic of Vancouver obtained relevant records in Canada. Thanks for their help.

When I was a senior at Franklin and Marshall College I met this freshman Kris Oprisko who was kind of cool; he liked punk and all sorts of cool Australian bands. I've kept in touch with him over the years. He's apparently some sort of comic book artist wunderkind. He also builds his own guitars from scratch and owns a natural products store Earthwell Refill in San Diego. And he made the podcast theme music, Ether Shake. As soon as I heard it, I knew it was the theme.

I also thank Kim Green and Pursuit Magazine for support of the private investigator community and for her and Hal Humphreys just always doing cool video and audio interviews. Thanks too to Alice De Sturler of Defrosting Cold Cases for keeping the Murphy story in the news a bit. And thank you to the cool private eye community in Twitter land who support stuff like this.

Me in about 1997 wearing a trench coat on a sunny day for no real reason. Oh well

The Private Eye Organizes His Day, or Tries

2020-06-22T20:49:00.001-07:00

After I wake up at 4 a.m., and run my half-marathon, I find I have the focus to dominate my day starting at 7 a.m. up until I conclude my work day at 7 p.m. with a snappy salute to myself. I then wind down for an hour in a plank position while simultaneously eating my kale dinner. My dog and I then do trust falls until it's time for bed. My bruises have hardened so I'm not as mad at her as I used to be. The helmet has helped.

Dumb lies aside, I kind of do have a system for running my mornings and days. Nothing new here but the prioritization of daily tasks comes down to cash flow and serving regular clients first. I've now run the business for 25 years. I don't pretend to be some sort of visionary or business guru. I own zero black turtlenecks.

Your Mind on Your Money/Cash Flow

No what's coming in and when. You should know your regular payers. I have about 10 to 15 clients who always pay in 30 days. They will always come first, simple. But I like to know where all of my bills stand. If something is over 30 days, it's worth a polite mention to the client. Some pay after 30 days and that's kind of okay because they have a demonstrated history of paying.

Do not ever put off proven clients for something with more risk. You can do it a little. I will take court-appointed criminal defense investigations that might pay a little late as long as I know I have something coming in the door. DO NOT NEGLECT BILLING. A $125 past due bill becomes a big deal once you get more than a few of them. As I've also said. Personalize the debt: that $50 owed you is a bag of groceries or a fun outing. It's yours! Collect it.

Your Employees or Sub-Contractors

If you are a decent human you pay your staff and your subs before yourself. Slow-paying people is a quick way to poisoning your reputation. You will always need good people.

I have a great part-time employee and I need to give her hours. In good times I am making money from her. Times are a bit tight but I still need to find ways to give her hours. Don't be so bottom-line oriented that you risk losing good people. Pay them on time. If they are good, pay them like they are good.

Know your priority list

I keep a running list. You do too. I make it once or twice a week. I like to hand write it and keep it on a clipboard. You can not look at it for a day or two but don't space-out.

Keep an email thread with clients. I lose scraps of paper. I don't lose email! Each client has a different style. Some old-school attorneys don't like email and they don't like putting things in writing. So if I take a call from a private client or veteran attorney who does not like email, I send an email even to myself just so I have a record of it.

Move the chains, get on the scoreboard

Pick an appropriate sports metaphor, one for getting started. In rugby it would be making your fist tackle. Golf? Find the fairway. I don't start the day with my hardest stuff. I start with something that creates momentum. A written statement summary of an interview leads to? Guess what? An invoice and cash flow. Take quick look in the databases for that witness you are trying to find. You might get an easy one that you feel is 90% likely.

Do not bog down. Don't go down the rabbit hole first thing in the day. If that locate looks like it is going to take a lot of effort, maybe try something else. Same thing with an online background search. I have to give myself a couple hours uninterrupted to tackle bigger tasks.

Even if you don't always eat the elephant daily, or want to tackle the 300-pound fullback, with some easier tasks you have crossed stuff off your list.

Do carve out the time for the tough stuff

Surveillance or difficult serves or lots of driving to find witnesses will always take time. Be realistic about how much time it might take. If you do find time for other tasks, great. This of course all depends what's at stake. A trial and trial preparation is always going to take priority.

I have never particularly liked taking statements by phone. If I have five of them to do, I try to at least call two or three of the witnesses. This has always been a business about not only justifying your billing but first and foremost it's about getting results.

Be somewhat future conscious

I try to pick one thing a week to be proactive about marketing or building business. I used coronavirus down time to write and have a new web site designed. Love it! I know Zoom meetings are starting to suck but keep an eye out for one you might enjoy, like something through a bar association or other networking or continuing education group. Write letters to potential clients. Follow the news and see what attorneys in your market are doing.

Find your fun

Many times I end up working at least a few hours on weekends. Mondays and Tuesdays can be mellower. So if you like a really long bike ride or hike or golf, by all means go do the things you enjoy. Your business is not going to fall apart if you check out for a few hours. You will make it up.

I've written a true crime podcast the last couple months. It's now about to be produced. It's not my normal outlet but the process is enjoyable. Get your art fix too if you have the time. Always make a little time for things you enjoy.

Private Eye Action Junky, for 25 Years

2020-05-16T22:11:00.000-07:00

Coronavirus jerks with sense of time and has thrown off work and life rhythms. I don't often look back. It tends to be a waste. I did an interview with John Hoda today talking about "my career." As I spoke with him I mentioned a couple times I have now been in the private eye business 25 years. My reaction is holy crap, a quarter century of doing what I do and almost always enjoy.

I miss my old private eye life, when I would take dodgy cases from strange callers. Those days are long gone. With maturity have come good decisions and a lower tolerance for drama. It's a business, need to work smarter, blah-blah-blah. Coronavirus slows my field work and volume of work; the courts are closed and money is tighter. The Bay Area is not going back to normal any time soon.

I started in the business with nothing, knowing no one, no money, no family connections, just curiosity and figurative and literal hunger. I had a $700 dollar a month Berkeley basement apartment and a $500 car, not a monthly car payment but a car worth $500. It so happened I also had good timing, cause newspapers were experiencing first upheaval and at beginning of current death rattle. I had already worked in journalism's minor leagues, in Virginia, the Bay Area and Florida.

I knew by the time I was 20 I didn't want a "straight job." Quoth the Ramones: It's Not My Place in The 9 to 5 World. My dad had been a career corporate accountant; I had a sister with a law degree; I had another brother a CPA. Private investigations gave me what newspapers had: adventure. But it was tradeoffs, less socialization for more autonomy. When I try to add it all up, it's hard to top my work as a private investigator. I knew in college that law or accounting or that most "normal" jobs would mean maybe good pay but also being shackled to a desk.

When I do look back, I do so in 5-year life blocks. Age 0-5, toileting; 5-10, the brat years; 10-15 the brat years but more sports interest; 15 to 20 I like girls and books; 20-25 I like women, books and beer. The problem is that as we age a lot fades and mellows. It's impossible to be the same animal at 25 as it is at 54. My 5-year blocks the last 15 to 20 years have not been as sharp; 35-40, got married and grew the business; 40-45, became really good at business and quit competitive rugby; 45-50, repeat the business part; 50- present wrote a book, kept business, lost my mother, a sister, and a dog.

Before investigations, the reason I gravitated to contact, violent sports is that wins and losses clearly defined. In wrestling, I would mount a furious come back and win or get pinned in the first two minutes. In rugby, the contract was for two hours to be as violent and as athletic as possible even if that meant broken bones and weeks or months recuperating. It's a forced connection but I love that sport and private investigations have winners and losers. For work and sport, you have to embrace the process.

The time-bend of coronavirus makes me more reflective, more aware of mortality. If you are north of 45 haven't you already had some gut kicks from sudden deaths of loved ones? With time feeling more urgent or compressed I'm trying to map my next decade. The challenge is to blend good business practices with cases I enjoy.

News reporting offered the best adrenaline surges. I had the thrill of riding my motorcycle into the Florida swamps to beat cops to a double fatality car crash, heard the call on a scanner. I saw two SWAT team shootings up close. I drove into Miami for Hurricane Andrew with another reporter and photographer as all the traffic was heading the opposite way. I saw 3000 square foot luxury homes burning in 15 minutes in the Oakland hills wildfire. I walked in San Francisco during and after the 1989 earthquake. Reporting was intense. I must have done something right to have the head of Tampa DEA office and three other cop agencies call an in person meeting just to yell at me for 30 minutes. You do not ever forget that kind of fun, excitement and terror.

I feel like in coronavirus that my world is shrinking and I'm getting an early glimpse of retirement. I don't like it and am not ready for it. I can't be "wild and crazy" private investigator of 20 to 25 years ago but am not ready for sucking on Werther's, running databases and being a desk jockey all day.

My thesis is that as I age as a private eye, I have to put extra work into not only finding new clients but into finding the cases that will give me that daily thrill. My a-ha moments as a private investigator have almost always involved canvassing for witnesses, in person witness interviews, serving papers on evading subjects, testifying in court or stuff I've seen and documented on surveillance. I'm okay to good at surveillance. The reason I still do it is to prove to myself that I can still triumph. Surveillance is its own head and discipline. Just doing desk work has never fulfilled me. I've carved a niche at being good at finding, cultivating and interviewing witnesses.

Underlying all of this is that I don't have kids. I can take some chances and it's not always a brutal bottomline business for me. I do have an employee and through PPP I'm trying to help us both.

I realize that it's on me to keep learning and finding ways to learn, not just for myself but to keep serving new and old clients. There's the saying "Boredom is the shriek of under utilized capabilities." It's up to each of us. How do want to come out of the current malaise?

Getting older doesn't have to mean fading to grey. Restless is good. It means I still care.

Act Less Punched In The Face, A Coronavirus Coping Guide

2020-03-23T20:54:00.002-07:00

I often write for myself, helps me think stuff through and vent. These are trying times and I don't have that many challenges, maybe less than most since I don't have kids. This is a pep talk to me.

Don't be a bitch. Don't panic. Have a plan. Keep your shit together. Make yourself useful. If you can keep generating some business in two weeks you can string it out to a month, into two months, into three months if need be. You come from tough people, live up to their legacy. You've suffered broken bones and injuries galore in sports, this is that challenge but different. You are not a quitter. Help your wife, your neighbors, your community. Fold your laundry, take out the trash, try to drop a few pounds. Floss 3-5 times per week, shave twice weekly.

I relate to things through sports experience and metaphor. In more than 25 years of lacrosse and rugby I was almost always under-sized. (At least in wrestling I competed against people my same weight.) Rugby is the most humbling sport. I had to tackle monsters or at least make the attempt. One game out in the Valley a player named Rheino went week off a scrum with a 10 meter run at me. I didn't have time to think. As he was running me over I grabbed a handful of jersey and brought him down after five meters. Of course the next day I had bruises from my chest to under my chin. They must have beat us by 50 points. But I think that same year we played a touring side of older British cops and just kicked the crap out of them. Or, in college lacrosse games where I was a bench warmer I'd get into a game and just look for someone to drill or to de-cleat. Sport taught me to compete and to quickly put loss or embarrassment behind me. In wrestling I had no one but myself to blame.

I expect the lessons from sport to carry over to this new era of uncertainty, or at least the part about being resilient. No one knows how this pandemic is going to resolve. Will it be two months or a year? I was telling private eye colleagues last week that I can take slow business but I can't take the bottom falling out. That probably goes for 100% of small business. We are all going to need that resiliency and we all have it. To live is to figure shit out. My parents, born in the Great Depression, had seven kids, fed us, and sent us all to college. I should be able to figure out a difficult three to six months.

In the Bay Area we saw this all coming in late February or early March, especially when a friend told me about the damned Johns Hopkins disease and death tracker. I also reached out to a high school friend in Northern Italy who told me what to expect. For your sanity, do not check the death tracker more than about twice a day.

Last week floored me. The courts are closed, business has slowed. But I did pick up a few small cases. On Saturday March 14, my wife and I drove into a quiet San Francisco and got his and hers haircuts at our regular place. In an area we would normally have to circle for parking for 15 or 20 minutes, we parked right in front of the salon. The previous day I went for groceries, had to go to another spot to score a little extra toilet paper.

OTHERS HAVE IT FAR MORE DIFFICULT

As a matter of luck, my wife transferred about four or five months ago from running a skilled nursing facility to running a hospice division. Her former colleagues and anyone in health care is on the front lines, almost all without adequate protection. My wife leaves for work every day to go to her office in hard hit Santa Clara County. She tries to keep her staff calm. Yes, health care, grocery, delivery people, first responders and many other professions face risk and all kinds of insecurity. I try to keep this in mind when I get whiny.

MORE SURVIVAL TIPS

Have a plan, how can I get funding to try to provide for myself and my part-time employee? I will research a Small Business Agency loan. Take care of myself. Watch my drinking, have a drink or two to relax but I will need discipline. I have an ACL surgery to rehab. Do my therapy, take walks, play with the dog. I have 30 pound dumbbells, add an extra rep on the military presses and add to the pushups.

Eat a vegetable at least one a day.

Network. Do those virtual meetings with lawyers and private investigators. I know more people than I think I do. I have enjoyed a few emails and phone calls with people I have not contacted in years. I have kept a business running for 24 years. That is no accident. I must have done a few things right. Make new work connections in criminal defense, family law and civil cases. Position my business to come out of the blocks hard when this all ends. The networking and reaching out is great for mental well-being. I see people more as people than just business contacts.

Learn something from smarter contacts. We used to tell the kids we coached in rugby to hang out with smarter people because it would help them in school. Same idea.

Be cautious but not paranoid. Support local businesses a bit, maybe get that coffee to go or hit the taco truck. Every business is having a tough time. My wife decided we should keep the house-cleaner who visits a couple times a month. Go for walks but don't touch that pull-up bar near the lake. Keep washing the hands.

Don't overdose on news, or as one P.I. calls it the "24-hour shriek cycle." Decide when you want to consume. You can wake up with dread or go to be depressed, BUT DON'T DO BOTH! Lately, I have taken my depression in the mornings with my coffee.

Speaking of news, watch the consumption on social media. Don't argue politics on Twitter with Brian Bot-sworth or people from Bot-swana. I love to argue politics, could do it all day and that is the problem. Facebook acquaintances bringing you down, too tribal? Just mute. You can't make logical arguments with them so just skip it. Try to remain friends somehow but engaging in online fights is a colossal waste of time and psychic energy,

Pick a few passions. For me it's reading a little fiction every night, trying to research a crime podcast or watching Better Call Saul.

Be the person who lifts someone else.

Black Boxes and A Side of Cop Humor

2020-03-07T19:59:00.005-08:00

Remember your favorite high school teachers or college professors who gave you those aha moments in math, physics, chemistry or English? (I had zero aha moments in high school chemistry.) Auto reconstruction expert Bob Snook reminds me of those great teachers because he is one.

I took a Snook seminar last week on "Introduction to Vehicle Black Boxes" through Santa Clara County Trial Lawyers Association. Snook is a former supervisor of a California Highway Patrol MAIT unit, stands for Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team. He was a CHP sergeant before starting his business as a reconstruction expert in 1999. He's investigated vehicle crashes for about 40 years. I attend these seminars to learn about the process. My clients are lawyers. Information from experts may help me do my job better.

The self-effacing Snook knew he had a room of generalists so he gave an overview of black box history and some examples of real cases. My takeaway from the class is that black box data might occasionally cloud facts or information but it never lies, especially when used by an experienced reconstruction expert. I've often used the analogy that as a private investigator in auto crash cases I'm like a middle relief pitcher in a baseball game. I'm trying to get the case along to the closer, experts like Snook,

"How often does the technology in this thing change?" Snook asked, holding up his cell phone. He said the same is true of the technology in airbags and black boxes, constantly changing. Auto experts download, examine and interpret the data from the so-called black boxes to get at the truth in collisions. The term black box, for vehicles, was coined in 2003. It's really an ACM, airbag control module. They have evolved to electronic control modules. They have event data recorders. But accessing the data is complicated and experts might only get one crack at it.

The event data recorders are looking for "the jerk," a trip point where the front airbags are deployed. Jerk is that area where a short time and large speed collide, or change in speed over change in time. Every vehicle manufacturer has different standards for downloading the data, some are easier (Ford, Chevrolet) and some are nearly impossible (Porsche).

Laws were passed in 1984 to require airbags in 1989. The first airbag detonation fatality was in 1990. In 1998, dual front airbags were required.

Speaking of airbags, Snook said cops refer to makeup marks left on the deployed airbags as "Shroud of Turin." Tow drivers and mechanics are always "Billy Bob." Fire Departments cutting into vehicles and freeing people are "evidence eradication teams." And a motorcycle rider up in the air after being hit by a vehicle, shown in a video, is a "flying Wallenda."

In a few real life examples of using the data, he said that false positives do happen. One case was of a teenager driving a Corvette in the hills. The car left the roadway and driver and a passenger were killed. The data showed the vehicle speed as 149 mph. But Snook knew that speed was impossible because the Corvette drove on a windy road. "It was a vehicle reported speed and that is different from actual ground speed." It was the speed of the car flying off the cliff. In other cases he has seen data showing vehicle speed as "zero," but that's because the tires had locked. "You need solid reconstruction to back it up or it can be misleading."

The smoke in vehicles after airbags deploy? That's from the chemicals in the airbags. "The airbag is a bomb," he said. Airbags are packed in talcum powder and the explosion has nitrogen gas. Airbags deploy at 200 mph. In the defective Takata airbag cases it would be like "sitting in front of a shotgun," he said.

Bosch makes most of the black boxes. Newer ones are made by Berla, which are on vehicles of Avis and Hertz. Snook cautioned that Berla recorders will keep everything from a cell phone that is linked to a vehicle. "It tracks everything," he said of Berla.

When he downloads the data from a vehicle, three files are produced, a PDF, a code file or a CSB and the CDR-X. "You want the CDRX. It is meant to be the original. It cannot be manipulated. It becomes the original file." The data can be from 5 or even 6 seconds before a crash. He will compare data in a multiple vehicle crash to see what matches.

Of course there are laws that apply to data collection. You can't just go and do a download on a vehicle that your party was not operating. Applicable laws are California CV 9951 and federal 49 CFR Part 563.

Snook brought up one case where reconstruction was essential in contradicting a witness. A company had two Ford pickups that drove on a curve. One pickup left the road and went into a river, killing two in the pickup. The witness in the other pickup said that people in the truck "always wore their seat belts" and that the pickup was going 55 mph when it left the road. However, the black box showed the pickup's speed as 80 mph. Investigation also revealed that someone had done a bypass to silence the pickup's chime system for seat belts. He knew the witness lied about both the speed and claiming employees in the truck wore seat belts.

He closed with showing a video of 5 or 10 seconds of a car hitting a motorcycle at an intersection. He asked us which vehicle had the light. Almost no one could recall it. His point being that witnesses in vehicle cases are often unreliable. The motorcycle had the green light. No one in a vehicle is looking for a collision to occur so recall of incidents is difficult. He also suggested introducing false information into questioning witnesses. For example, if there were two lanes ask a witness which vehicle was in the third lane. If the witness says third lane you know they are not reliable.

Three Heinous East Bay Killings Close The Year

2019-12-18T22:06:00.000-08:00

I wish I could summon more cheer as another year comes to a close. I am working on a personal investigative project about justice denied to someone. I'm not feeling like Mr. Christmas Spirit.

Perhaps I have justice on the mind and when you are a hammer everything you see is a nail, or something like that. My blog has to do with three people getting incredibly raw deals. Three people and a dog to be more precise, all killed within a span of about a month. I understand the vigilante instinct and I don't even know these people.

What the three victims have in common is their humanity and decency, minding their own business when they died. They were each in different phases of life. The media had them in the headlines and newscasts for a couple nights until other news bumped them out of the public sphere. Maybe if the victims were cute blond women in upscale suburbs the media would obsess more about them.

What do you say to their families? Sorry? We'll get the killers, maybe, maybe not? I think I know the detective mentality enough to say police want to catch the bad guys. That's frightening isn't it. Experienced killers just cruising around the East Bay right now. Maybe your neighbor or your lowlife friend did it.

Case 1: Asshole driver, likely drunk, runs over 72-year-old grandmother and her dog in crosswalk killing both. Suzanne Ogi and her dog Molly were struck in the crosswalk on Niles Boulevard in Fremont in the evening. Driver apparently stopped and looked at the carnage after then took off, driving possibly a Buick LeSabre. My hunch is that the scumbag driver lives within 3-5 miles of scene and is on probation for a previous DUI. What I learned in a certification class on field sobriety test is that drunks can't divide their attention. They can drive home plastered 100 to 1000 times but as soon as there is change, like an animal and a human in front of them, they can't react in time.

Case 2: On December 10 in East Oakland, a 19-year-old woman was shot to death in her crashed Chevy Malibu. Madisyn White Carroll by all accounts was a good person. Maybe she was shot in a road rage-type incident. From the KTVU article about Madisyn:

She was the family problem-solver who helped care for her four younger siblings, two brothers and two sisters.

"I loved her so much, she was my best friend and I used to tell her everything," said Madisyn's sister, Eris. "My sister didn't deserve this at all, she was the nicest person. She was the most innocent person, she didn't deserve this."

Her family says Madisyn was artistic, loved clothes and makeup, and wanted to own her own store someday.

Madisyn graduated high school in May and was attending Chabot College. She had a retail job selling cosmetics and sometimes delivered food for Doordash but the company says she was not on the platform the night she was killed.

Case 3: A father of six, Rafael Lopez, 34, was shot and killed during a home invasion at his family's residence in Pittsburg, California, on December 14. Lopez loved to coach youth sports and apparently didn't have an enemy in the world. Reports show him as a loving father. Two men wearing masks burst into the home after a family gathering. Lopez fought with one of the gunmen when he was shot and killed. He dies in his fiance's arms with his family around him. Read the article. It's unfathomable.

I don't think I remember three similar tragic cases in the Bay Area within a matter of weeks. I can only hope the killers are caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent.

Walnut Creek Private Investigator Tips for Difficult Service of Process

2019-11-30T12:27:00.003-08:00

In 24 years in the business I have developed systems for successful process service on dodging and hiding subjects.

Private investigators are more expensive than garden variety process servers but we also have much higher success rates. Typical process servers are just knocking on doors and quitting. A diligent private investigator though learns to compile information and facts to get the job done. Expect to pay a private investigator more for superior service. Our rates on a difficult serve will start at about $300 and go to more than $1000.

We've never had to use disguises or pretexts to accomplish our serves. About as tricky as we get is walking a dog up to the subject house and serving them when they say hello to the dog.

It comes down to this: people will be with their cars, at home or at work. Vehicle/home address/work address are the keys to finding and serving them.

A California private investigator can serve just about any document that a registered process server can serve. My understanding is that private investigators in California cannot serve.

We serve lawyers, big firms to solo offices, in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. We are skilled at finding people, interviewing them and serving legal papers.

Another Cliched Portrayal of Private Eye Work

2019-10-30T14:22:00.003-07:00

The pattern goes like this: Friend or family member reads article about private investigator in New York Times or some other publication, sends it to me with a comment along the lines of "What an exciting job you have," and we then exchange pleasantries. I have always read the article before they send it to me. My typical response is, "Read it. Has nothing to do with my work."

My column is a rebuttal to the New York Times article "This Investigator Used to Stake Out Women. Now, She Tales Men Online." It's a profile of private investigator Marie Schembri of New York. I don't know her and she's probably great at her job. More power to her. I take issue with the column presenting an oversimplified version of what many private investigators actually do. It's lines like this that are misleading about the true nature of the work:

"These days, all Ms. Schembri really needs to do most of her sleuthing is a cellphone and an internet connection."

As someone who spent a decade as a crime and general assignment reporter I have an idea of what's going with how articles like this appear. The editor or reporter has a notion of private investigator work--they've seen the TV shows--so they set out to reinforce those stereotypes. And it helps to have a colorful P.I. character to reinforce them.

I actually like much of what Ms. Schembri has to say in the article. However, the writer is hell-bent on trying to make the point that Schembri's methods 25 years ago, much less tech dependent, are out of place in the modern private eye world. Yes and no.

The article does not discuss Shembri's business details. Does she just do all cheating male partner stuff? How much does she charge? Does she do legal cases? There's one part where it talks about her looking at Venmo purchases for evidence. That's great if done through Venmo but many people still use credit cards or other payment forms that are private.

My gripe is the article makes it seem like the work is relatively easy. It's not. It reinforces the notion that we are colorful characters--Schembri used to wear wacky getups--who jump from one entertaining case to the next.

I do about 90-percent legal investigations and 10-percent for private clients. The searching for evidence on social media is way overblown. It does come up in some of my civil and criminal defense cases but it's rarely the main form of evidence. It's part of the overall picture. Social media depends on the level the parties in a case use it.

I've never worn a disguise. I don't really need to. I serve lots of legal papers on people who are dodging. Want to know how I get them? I watch for them to come out in public. They always do. No need for me to play dress up. I spend my time interviewing witnesses, researching court records, picking apart police reports. Process-oriented stuff that doesn't make for a splashy news feature.

I wish the media would save it's portrayal of the bizarro private eye and focus more on the serious aspects of the work.

Creativity in Criminal Defense

2019-08-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

Necessity is the mother of invention, and so is a limited budget. I attended a Contra Costa Bar criminal defense luncheon where a clever attorney, Qiana Washington, told us about some of her methods that help her win in trial. Her speech was geared towards fellow defense lawyers but her tips are also useful for enterprising private investigators.

Guess what? Judges and juries hate to be put to sleep by hours of questioning and dry testimony. Washington explained that in almost all cases defense lawyers don't have budgets to get approval to take jurors to crime scenes. So she tries to bring the crime scene to them, with a variety of methods.

Defense lawyers Qiana Washington and Joseph Tully.

Most private investigators use some or all of these methods from time to time, Washington has used them too and not had a problem getting photos, video or exhibits into evidence, Police authenticate it and the exhibits are good to go. Some of her methods:

Screen shots off a video to simulate slow motion. There are software editing programs for this. She is then able to show the jury the video in real time.
Cell phone video.
Go Pro camera and video. Very helpful for showing a judge and jury a scene. You can also edit the video.
Drones! You can get a decent one off Amazon for $400. Of course, there's a learning curve operating one. Also, check for applicable city laws before you use one in a city. For example, drone footage not allowed in Richmond, Calfiornia but it is in nearby Vallejo, California.

For exhibits, she has used:

Illustrations. One was used in a sex assault case to show the dimensions of the accused and of the complaining witness. She recommends a San Francisco company called Think Twice.
A magnet board. She made one from a photo and printed out an illustrations. "You can get action figures from Toys R Us, put magnets on glue-on figurines. It allows you to move action figures around the board to do real-time re-enactments."
Power Point re-enactments and animation functions of Power Point.
Cheap or free software for things like interior design. Look for programs through Apple Store or google.

It's helpful to have 3-dimensional objects to show in court, she said. "You need to find ways to bring depictions of the scene to the courtroom. Seeing is believing but you have to help them see it to believe it. It's called 'winning' after that."

I asked her: How do these methods and exhibits go over with judges"

"Judges want to see it too!," she said. "It breaks up the monotony. There are only so many times you can ask someone 'then what happened'? before someone falls asleep." She also likes to work scenes from movies such as My Cousin Vinny into her closing arguments (I shot the clerk scene." She needs to show the story of what happened and not just tell it. "I just go straight in."

Private Investigator for Bay Area California Attorneys and Legal Community

2019-07-14T15:52:00.000-07:00

We are now officially Spencer Legal Investigations, Inc.. We are still based in Walnut Creek and Oakland, serving everywhere from Sonoma to Santa Clara County.

I changed the company name to reflect what my business has done best for more than 20 years. I started in the business doing criminal defense investigations for the Alameda County court-appointed program and civil cases for members of the Alameda Contra Costs Trial Lawyers Association.

We will still serve private clients without an attorney if the case is a good fit but for us the process works smoother if we are retained through a law office. Private clients often need good legal advice before starting their own family law or civil or criminal case investigation. But sometimes we are a good fit for the private client wanting a specialized background investigation or to try to locate an estranged family member.

I still do this work because I care deeply about justice and the legal system. I believe in fairness and the discovery of facts so that a judge, jury, attorney or client can know where they stand. Our justice system could not function without committed investigators, in the private and government sectors.

WHAT WE DO BEST:

Major Civil Investigations
In persona injury and wrongful death cases we:

Identify and canvass for witnesses
Interviews and statements of witnesses
Build rapport with witnesses so we can contact later for depositions etc
Full video and photography of a scene
Order 911 and dispatch reports
Conduct public records searches on all parties
Learn of history of any past incidents
Look for and document relevant social media and media coverage of an incident

Criminal Defense Investigations

Review discovery
Work closely with attorneys to come up with an investigative game plan
Canvass and re-interview of witnesses, look for new witnesses
Background investigations on complaining witness and others in case
New photography and video of a scene
Social media and media reviews of parties in a case
Build rapport with witnesses
Write thorough reports
Professional, credible testimony
Background checks on law enforcement involved

Family Law Cases

Co-habitation investigations
Surveillance in child custody cases
Background checks on new partners and associates of a parent
Alimony reduction and asset investigations of parties

Locating Witnesses and Serving Legal Process On Dodging/Hiding People

We always start with cheaper searches first to find people
Review of social media and public records for possible new addresses
Network with investigators and process servers in other areas
Stakeouts and surveillance to serve subjects

A Tweet Storm of Tips for Investigative Interviewing

2019-05-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I wrote a column about issues and ideas I think about before I interview witnesses. As someone who serves trial lawyers in criminal and civil cases, witness interviews are my constant. I'm paid to be a good interviewer.

Ten years ago I joined Twitter. I think it's the best social media platform for not just news but for professional networking among private investigators. We share ideas, make dumb jokes, and argue at times like caged weasels. Many professional private investigators on Twitter are super sharp, dedicated professionals. We all like to learn from each other.

On Twitter I broached the idea of sharing tips for interviewing witnesses. Instead of summarizing the responses, I thought I would just post the Tweets. Enjoy!

Criminal Defense Investigations: The Big Picture

2019-02-10T14:08:00.000-08:00

Every now and then as private investigators we need to come up for air, look around and gain a deeper understanding of how and where we fit into a legal case. We all have roles to play.

Last month I poked my nose into a useful criminal defense class produced by the Alameda County Bar Association and taught by a master of criminal law, Oakland attorney Darryl Stallworth. I learned about the structure of a good criminal defense case. As private investigators we tend to run from investigation to investigation without thinking much of larger themes. Interview that witness, take that photo, gather those records, onto the next one rat-a-tat-tat.

Stallworth told the room full of attorneys, and this private eye, a blueprint he has used to organize his case log for trial. He developed his methods in two decades as a DA and defense lawyer, often handling homicide defense and other tough cases in Oakland and Alameda County. He used to be a prosecutor. His style is smooth and engaging, one who takes in the big picture, sweats details and does not get blind-sided.

He drew parallels between his job and how how authors of legal thrillers organize their stories. He drafts his closing argument first. He enjoys reading fiction. He told the audience, "You are the author, producer and the writer. We don't do it because we are scared or afraid. The best way to start the story is with your last chapter."

The map he keeps coming back to is "DCPC": Direct evidence, Circumstantial evidence, Physical evidence and Common Sense.. He admits he's old school and likes keeping his materials in a 3-ring binder after scanning. He keeps a master of the case log on a 128-gigabyte USB stick.

The file will include: Bates-stamped materials, photos, news article, lab reports, social media information. He has his private investigator do social media searches on all the people in a case.

His log includes a cast of characters and a summary of every one in the case, civilians, lab people, everyone. High up in the file is the direct evidence, starting with eyewitnesses. He then moves on to other witnesses and circumstantial evidence. He tackles motive. What is common sense motive? What is lack of motive or dispels motives?

His case summary is about two pages and highlights what is the case really about. He organizes the summary from most relevant to least relevant.

Essential to any criminal defense case is what are the elements and aspects of the crime? He prints out the definitions and elements from California penal code.

His other categories are:

Defense Witnesses, including client interview, client testimony, his experts, background of the client and character witnesses.
Motions
Private Investigations, often consisting of information from new witnesses, talking to witnesses who not see the incident, re-interviewing witnesses and independent photos, video and phone records. "Don't rely on what the prosecution gives you for photos," he said.

He brought up a good point about witness interviews that might escape us as private investigators. Always ask witnesses about whether mentally or physically impaired at time they saw what they claimed to see. Some witnesses might be under the influence of alcohol or medications.

When picking a jury, he looks for a juror with whom he could have a good discussion over lunch. Can the person follow the law and keep an open mind? Can the person be true to themselves and resist pressure?

Stallworth also covered the burden of proof. He likes to keep things simple for the jury. The DA must prove the act and the mental state. About "beyond a reasonable doubt" he said, "Explain it to me like I'm a 4-year-old." He said that not guilty means not proven. When he does a trial he keeps coming back to the facts of the case and his DCPC outline.

He pays attention to facts a DA can't dispute, aspects of a case that a DA keeps avoiding or can't explain. "Tell your story," he said.

Intrigue at the Fremont Library

2018-09-10T23:34:00.001-07:00

There I was, sitting and waiting to read my book to an audience at the Fremont Library last week. Yep, just sitting, Yep, just waiting. Sitting and waiting. And, oh, nibbling graham crackers the library put out for "the crowd." Was anyone going to show up to my brown bag author reading?

Flier for Sept. 7, 2018 Fremont library reading

Sure enough, two ladies came into the room to take seats. Then a couple more people. Then my neighbor Kevin. The woman who gave me my first job as a private investigator, Rita, from Union City, stunned me walking into the room. I had not seen Rita in more than 22 years. Eventually, I had a room of about 15 private-eye curious at the reading and book signing. As usual, I ended it with about 30- or 40-minute question and answer session.

Rita K., my very first boss as a private investigator

Even though Fremont is my new adopted home-city, the reading at the library felt like a homecoming. My love of reading developed as a boy at the Wilton, Conn., public library. My dad took me there every Saturday for a couple hours. My earliest reading experiences featured stories of Native Americans and bears, lots and lots of bears, mostly grizzlies. I soon graduated to Jack London books, swapping bears for wild huge dogs. It felt good to be back among book stacks, reference desks, readers and friendly librarians.

You can't have writing without love of reading. So in ways, my dad, a public library, and a woman who gave me my first private investigator job helped me produce my pithy 99-page book. I also want to thank librarian Starry Eigenman for putting the brown-bag reading series together, Neighbor Kevin and others who came to the event. Thank you to those who have bought the book.

I read a little piece from the introduction and then the personal injury chapter of Steve Khera, a former Corvette dealership manager from Fremont curb-stomped so badly at a Reno casino that he fractured his eye socket. Spoiler alert: before he and his legal team (including me) could collect on the civil case feds busted him for firearms and drug dealing. He went to criminal trial and got 30 years.

Neighbor Kevin and Neighbor Cat

I like the Q&A sessions the most at my readings. Some samples, and my rough answers.

Q: What's the hardest part about being a private investigator?

A: The pressure to always get good results. It doesn't matter that you did a good job for your last few clients. It's all about doing a good job for the current client. And we can't always get good results. You just have to show you did your best and justify you are worth the money. I always say I can't guarantee results but I can guarantee effort.

Q: What case of yours had the most surprising outcome?

A: I think the time I found the guy living in a back yard near the freeway who was going to inherit $7 million but who didn't really want to come forward to collect it.

Q: How do rate yourself next to other private investigators.

A: Well, I'm probably in the upper-third, just like my rank in my high school graduating class. I know there are some who are better but I think I'm better than most. I try hard.

For Sale At East Bay Booksellers in Oakland, Plus a Fremont Library Reading

2018-07-05T22:11:00.001-07:00

My book is now available at East Bay Booksellers, formerly Diesel, at 5433 College Avenue in Oakland. It's a cool, independent bookstore. Perhaps after you buy the book, head next door to George & Walt's to read it while enjoying a cocktail. Heck, make an Oakland evening out of it.

My book is pure Oakland, the city where I founded my business in 1996/1997. Many scenes in Private Eye Confidential, Stories From a Real P.I. are in Oakland, from a car chase on Piedmont Avenue to finding a missing heir in a back yard in Fruitvale who inherited more than $7 million. Read the East Bay Express review.

Selling books is tough. I'm grateful for those who have bought and reviewed it. Published by 99: The Press, it's available online on Amazon for $14 paperback and about $9.00 in Kindle form. It is the only short, entertaining book about the work of a private eye. You can finish it in about 3 hours.

Reader Chuck liked it!

READING AT FREMONT LIBRARY, NOON, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7

I will be doing a reading and a question and answer session at the Alameda County Library in Fremont on September 7. It's at 2400 Stevenson, pretty close to BART. Come on down. I will do a signing and a question and answer session. My reading is part of a series of brown bag author sessions that the library hosts. As Fremont is my home these days, looking forward to having it here. Without libraries I never would have become a reader or a writer.

Backgrounding A Ghost

2018-04-22T15:50:00.000-07:00

In the private sector we are always running into budget constraints. Such was the case a few weeks ago when a client hired me to do a background check on his ex-wife's new live-in boyfriend. I had a limited budget, thought I did all the right steps but pretty much came up with nothing.I feel badly about it but without more funds there's not much else I could do. The client wanted to know about this man because his young son would be spending time around him.

In more than 20 years of doing this work I don't think I've ever encountered a subject with less information about him available in social media and public records. My inquiry subject has an unusual name too, which would have made finding something on him that much easier. My next steps, had funds been approved, would have been surveillance and interviewing former landlords, roommates and neighbors. The case is a reminder that sometimes I will really have to dig to get useful information.

My normal practice when I background someone is getting a history on where they have lived. And I did this on the person, searched in person in the California counties where he has lived as well as statewide in California to the extent that I could online. I also looked online in the state where he lived outside of California. I also checked the Pacer federal records system. He had no lawsuits, no liens, no judgments, no marriages, no divorce, no child support judgments, no state occupation licenses, no restraining orders, no real property. Absolutely nothing. Another strange aspect is that the database report showed no possible relatives. I also ran him through all the free sites that might provide info, i.e. Pipl, Spokeo, Radaris.

I also did a search on LinkedIn and internet searches but no mentions of a possible employer. I checked Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. Nothing, zip, zilch.

Think about it though. If a person never gets into trouble, never promotes himself and stays off social media, what is there to find? It's rare but I think this guy consciously keeps a low profile.

The client knows I made the good faith effort. It's just that in our business getting nothing sticks in my craw.

Learning Through Fiction, LCC 2018

2018-03-24T11:46:00.002-07:00

Putnam, Husom, L'Etoile and Spencer

I had my annual crime fiction/mystery fix at Left Coast Crime, in Reno, a couple days ago. I moderated the panel I Got Stripes: Behind the Scenes with Real Law Enforcement Professionals.

It was my third Left Coast Crime in four years and my first as a panel moderator.( I crash the party as a nonfiction writer.) I get so much out of it meeting accomplished mystery writers. They are all pros who had interesting backgrounds and jobs before they started their writing careers. Not only do they have to be good enough to get agents and publishers, but they then have to grow and build their brands.

This event is an annual reminder of the power of meeting new people. In a rut, depressed, need new ideas? Go out and meet people. The right people bring energy and wisdom.

My initial reaction when I got my panel assignment was "Great, I've never been a cop. Time to fake it." But on more reflection, I've been circling cops through my job as a reporter and now private investigator for 30 years. I have enough knowledge to facilitate author discussions. Plus, I had great panelists adept at entertaining audiences.

My introduction was:

"My interest in law enforcement goes back three decades. I have shadowed police, prosecutors and the criminal justice system for 30 years. In my 20s I covered police and crime at daily newspapers in Virignia, California and Florida., the last 20 years I have had my own investigations agency working for trial lawyers. Sometimes police are my professional adversaries and sometimes, depending on the case, they are my friends. But I think a key and vital difference is that a reporter or a private investigator are almost never first to a scene or an event. It’s law enforcement that sees the horror firsthand, brings culprits to justice or maybe gets to know criminals in a jailer/inmate capacity.

So I am honored today to host this panel with not only former law enforcement professionals but with massively talented fiction writers. Join us as we lift up the crime scene tape and have a look around!"

We had fun! David Putnam told us about his career as an L.A. County sheriff's deputy. While off-duty at a meth lab surveillance, he started writing his novels. He had been reading mysteries and thrillers and realized he could do better. He had encountered one criminal who was so bad that his agent had him "soften him up" a bit to make him more believable. David writes a 1,000 words a day, every day.

In real life, Christine Husom is a county commissioner in her native Minnesota. She's also a former sheriff's deputy and prolific writer. She has two series, the Winnebago County mysteries and the Snow Globe Shop mysteries. She also has my favorite book title, "Frosty The Dead Man." She suggested Minnesota is fertile ground for mysteries because of lots of places and lakes to stash bodies.

Next to me was James L'Etoile, a former associate warden at Folsom prison who spent his career working in prisons and jails. He said that writers have to be careful about not loading up their stories with too many procedural aspects. He offers the Elmore Leonard advice: When you write, leave out the parts readers skip.

All gave great advice for writers wanting to know more about the world of law enforcement, such as go for ride-alongs, attend court hearings or trials, sign up for a citizens police academy that many departments offer.

Thanks to all the friendly, talented, knowledgeable authors at Left Coast Crime.

Why We Are Reluctant to Take Calls

2018-02-28T19:15:00.001-08:00

My old boss John Nazarian likes to say: the people who hire private investigators are either rich or crazy. I won't go as far as John. However, in dealing with potential private clients I try to ensure they are reasonable and that we can work together.

The following is a rather comical exchange that played out on Google ratings. Online reviews give malcontents a chance to tee off on small business owners.

Here is a one-star for yours truly left by Angry Man:

Poor communication, requires attorney representation.

(Update: note owner has written a defamatory response. Perhaps he is unaware of the law. I left very concise and comprehensive messages for this person, whose office is up the street from my former attorney. In fact, another investigator is now representing me on the same information. This man never called back, in fact he finally took a call, and abruptly/rudely stated "no, this wasn't what he did, want interested..."and that he only worked for law offices. The manner he spoke in was very condescending and suggested I was a snoop/trouble maker when in fact I was trying to protect an asset. In reality, it wasn't profitable enough for him, that's all. Now, he has colder civil law by posting a defamatory response (and a fake good review by his family to balance mine out...a conflict of interest reported to Google) which is also a violation of privilege, a crime in CA, as it discusses the content of private voicemails I left involving a personal matter. No different than a lawyer discussing privileged voicemails publicly.

This man should lose his license. I have kept copies. The State of CA will find out.

Update two: just called and let the owner know he has committed defamation, by posting his response about my personal voicemails to the public, and violated confidentially privilege, a crime in CA, by discussing my voicemail to his agency publicly/characterizing them bizarre and rambling. This is a misdemeanor in CA. Confidential messages left by a person soliciting services, in distress, are just that, and cannot be discussed publicly/criticized as "bizarre"...This is also criminal defamation. He has done this to rebut the review. There was in fact nothing strange anyways about my voicemail,c which involved a problem with an in law and went into detail. Another PI is already representing me. Regardless, this man has a clear ethics problem and is out of compliance with CA law-he knows that messages to an investigator are confidential.

Now he is harassing me with rude texts-see photos here:

(Photo does not show. Sent him a text after he called me tonight to tell me I am "A fucking jerk-off." I reminded him that he bombed my voicemail like no one else and that he seems a bit unstable.)

Response from the ownerin the last week

Caller left me 12 minutes of bizarre, rambling voicemail in 14 minutes, in four calls one night. Called him back, my mistake. Told him it was a matter I could not help him on and would only work through an attorney. Please do not allow ratings from non customers, especially ones who make inaccurate statements and assumptions.

Private Eye Q&A and Upcoming Events

2018-02-18T20:29:00.000-08:00

The Q&A sessions have been the best part of my readings to promote Private Eye Confidential, Stories From A Real P.I. These segments with the small audiences keep me sharp because I have to assess the question and do a rapid scan of my memory for answers.

Celebrating after a reading with the audience, aka poker friends.

I try to keep my reading part brief, no more than 15 to 20 minutes. I read about why I wrote the book, maybe a few pages about transitioning from journalism into investigations, and then a chapter. It's a short book so I don't want to read the very best parts and spoil them for readers. I don't want to show you my best dance moves first!

I then open it up to questions. Some from most recent reading Green Apple Books on The Park in San Francisco:

Are you worried about what some of your former clients might think of the book? Yes. I was very careful to make former clients highly anonymous. In some cases where it was a high profile case or a matter of public record, I kept the true names. I have great concern about former and current clients and respect their trust. I did not write the book to brag or tattle but rather to convey what the work is really like.
Do you work closely with police ever? Not really. I'm mindful to not interfere with an ongoing police investigation. I will always defer to police in a sensitive case. However, I have to evaluate when enough time has passed and when I need to jump in for a client. I tend to do more criminal defense investigations, so I'm on the opposite team. But if I ever have information that will help police, and not harm a client, I will certainly share it with the cops.
Have you ever tipped off the media? In two decades of work I think I have tipped the media maybe once or twice, but it was not on something currently in the headlines. I tipped off media to a notorious cold case a couple years after a murder. I've done a pretty good job recognizing that I'm now in the business of shutting up and protecting clients.

We go over client screening, ethics, the number of times I've been in fights on the job (twice).

The headliner! Reading at Green Apple Books on The Park

Heading for A Sunny Place for Shady People:

I will be reading on March 8, Thursday, at the AWP Conference in Tampa, Fla. I will be with publisher 99 The Press. I've never been to AWP. It looks fantastic. Can't wait to get back to Florida, where I was born and worked as a cops and crime reporter in Sarasota. From the AWP web site:

"The AWP Conference & Bookfair is an essential annual destination for writers, teachers, students, editors, and publishers. Each year more than 12,000 attendees join our community for four days of insightful dialogue, networking, and unrivaled access to the organizations and opinion-makers that matter most in contemporary literature. The conference features over 2,000 presenters and 550 readings, panels, and craft lectures. The bookfair hosted over 800 presses, journals, and literary organizations from around the world. AWP’s is now the largest literary conference in North America."

I Did Not Shoot a Man in Reno, Yet:

March Madness indeed! Then, I will be moderating a panel at Left Coast Crime, Crime On The Comstock in Reno, Nevada. My panel on Thursday, March 22, is titled I Got Stripes: Behind the Scenes with Real Law Enforcement Professionals. My panel of talented fiction/mystery writers is: Robin Burcell, Christine Husom, James L’Etoile and David Putnam. I'm in awe of fiction writers. I nearly pulled my hair out writing a somewhat straightforward 99 page non-fiction book.

This will be my third Left Coast Crime. I've met great people at it, including @AuthorPI, on Twitter, street name John Nardizzi, PI, novelist, and lawyer. I'm lucky to crash the party and rub elbows with these gifted writers. I'm feeling the pressure to do a good job with the panel.

Professor P.I. and a San Francisco reading Feb. 1

2017-12-28T18:43:00.002-08:00

I had the great pleasure of sitting in for my professor friend Dean Rader's class at the University of San Francisco. The class is called "The American Experience" and draws from a variety of works in arts, literature, poetry, autobiography and film. I went in with a loose plan to teach the class: spend an hour or so reading from my new book and then just chop-it-up talking to students about media, politics, film, wherever the discussion might lead. (One student wrote an essay about Private Eye Confidential, which I appreciate and have reprinted below with permission.)

I enjoyed my couple hours of teaching as it was like being the wacky uncle taking care of the kids: all of the fun without the responsibility. What could be better about telling a few impressionable students about the greatness of "Chinatown" and why it's the best private eye movie ever? Felt like I was passing the noir-apprecication torch. Working with students and with the public in general always energizes me, just the cure for an often solitary, isolating profession.

The teaching is good practice for upcoming book readings of mine. My next reading is Thursday night, February 1, 7:30 p.m.

Green Apple Books on the Park
1231 9th Avenue, SF CA 94122
(415) 742-5833
Open daily from 10am to 10pm

At these events I read for about 20 minutes and then open it up for questions and answers.

Here is the student's position paper that she wrote after the class. One line of hers stands out as I had not always thought about my business in this way:

Regardless of one’s ability to actually investigate, the most important components are transactions with people—you are either telling someone the worst or best news of his or her life. This type of job requires integrity and charm, regardless of the case’s outcome.

Gabby Valentincic

Dean Rader

Honors 332: The American Experience

November 20, 2017

Unwrapping Private Investigation

Mike Spencer shares his thoughts and firsthand experiences as a real Private Investigator in Private Eye Confidential to show everything that his job encompasses. The diversity of cases emphasizes the adaptability it takes to be a P.I. and the different skills that are useful in certain situations compared to others. Of all these skills and traits, the most significant attributes of a successful private investigator are charm, honesty, and trustworthiness.

While slyness and craftiness may seem to correlate with private investigation, trustworthiness and integrity are especially necessary for success. Trustworthiness and overall charm are helpful to not only the client, but also to any other person involved in gathering information during the course of the case. As Spencer says, “A decent personality is a big plus in the private sector, where you are either selling your services or selling your trustworthiness to a witness. It helps if you can talk to anyone” (16). Throughout the book, Spencer addresses all types of people that he has encountered, from unfaithful spouses, to drug abusers, to big corporations, and everything in between. One would likely talk to a distraught wife with a cheating husband somewhat differently than someone who is caught up in gang fighting and meth abuse. However, the connection between the two is the adaptability, trustworthiness, and the overall personality of the P.I. to relate to each case individually. Regardless of one’s ability to actually investigate, the most important components are transactions with people—you are either telling someone the worst or best news of his or her life. This type of job requires integrity and charm, regardless of the case’s outcome.

One of the reasons why Mike Spencer has been successful is because he is genuine. He does not accept every single case solely for the purposes of making money easily. For example, with his case with the woman in Alameda who was suspicious of her husband and his mistresses, Spencer said “Nonetheless, I am happy to talk with a potential client for five or ten minutes even if it doesn’t lead to business… Before taking the job, I grilled her to make sure that she wanted to hire me. I was not going to take her money casually” (25). This portrays passion for the job by genuinely caring about the clients and ensuring that they are fully interested in order to approach the case sincerely. Clients that are hiring private investigators are more than likely fragile, and as John Nazarian had said ‘“Meet with them while they still have tears in their eyes”’ (23) and therefore will need someone who is honest and authentic to be involved in such a serious matter in their life.

While private investigation requires numerous skills, including reliability, credibility, craftiness, intelligence, etc., the most significant traits for a P.I. are integrity, trustworthiness, and adaptability. Mike Spencer continually revealed that establishing an honest relationship with a client results in approaching cases fully engaged with passion and integrity to be successful in providing the client with the information that they desire.

Book Party Oct. 8 in Oakland, the City I Love

2017-09-04T22:27:00.001-07:00

Party, come on out, buy my book. I'll buy you a beer. I'll tell you a couple twisted private eye stories that will curl your toes or other body parts. The event is on that Sunday 4 pm to 6 pm in a "conference room" at the fabulous Montclair golf driving range and bar.

I'm going back to Oakland!

I lived in Oakland from 1995 to 2014, almost all those years just down the hill from the Montclair driving range. The book launch party is a homecoming of sorts to bring together my loves: Oakland, friends, writing, private investigations, beer and golf. There's a patio area outside so I might even bring my dog.

Locals used to call the driving range bar "the hole." It sits at the bottom of a driveway where Dimond Canyon starts and feeds into Sausal Creek. It was also called the hole because it used to have sewage whiff. But, the Lee family fixed all the problems many years ago turning it into, dare I say, a more respectable establishment. At the bar on any given night you could find: cops, pot growers, a Golden State Warriors starter, gamblers, mechanics, art students, serious golfers, dads avoiding the family, boozy strangers, etc. My book's stories are set in places like Montclair golf. The bar and Oakland hills has its own colorful subculture, blissfully opposite of what you might find in San Francisco.

Agent Buttercup

Oakland attracts people who want to do it their way or the highway. I'm no different. I started my business in 1996 wanting to help clients and make a living doing something fun and interesting. I wanted success on my own terms. It's a city of fierce pride and independence. My book features many true cases that unfolded in Oakland. Read the East Bay Express review of it.

I measured time in Oakland by events. Before I even lived in the City permanently I had been in the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 and covered as a reporter the 1991 East Bay hills wildfire. I got burned off my motorcycle running from flames along Grizzly Peak Boulevard on that hot windy day when more than 3000 homes were destroyed. I met my wife in Oakland and we married in 2005 at the Bellevue Club on Lake Merritt.

Covert art for an old article

I moved around to series of slightly better apartments and a house off Park Boulevard as I became less feril. First place I lived sat on top of what is now the Blackberry Bistro in Glenview at Park and Wellington. The place was small, hot and noisy, so I moved to a nicer apartment across from the synagogue near the entrance to Highway 580. Then, my wife and I bought our first house, on Lyman Road directly below the golf course bar by about a mile. Oakland was a good place for being anonymous, always a lot going on where I could just observe without being detected.

I grew attached to the place and to the people. I helped coach the Warthogs, an amazing youth rugby team in Oakland. I still have many Oakland attorneys as clients. I remember all the horrible times too: the June 2007 assassination of Chauncey Bailey and Lovelle Mixon murdering four Oakland cops in 2009.

Oakland office

The City itself always seemed a tad corrupt and mismanaged. Jerry Brown developed the uptown area but the City has never seemed to do anything in a cohesive and unified manner. My personal crime victim stat sheet included: a stolen motorcycle, two cars stolen but found, two sets of golf clubs stolen out of cars and a home burglary I almost interrupted. ( I have always bought my golf clubs from Montclair Golf because of the great selection and service. ) I knew about four people who had been held up at gunpoint in Oakland in a two-year period.

Daisy in redwoods near Montclair golf

More pleasant memories include hikes around the trails at Lake Chabot and all the abundant nature just a 5 or 10 minute drive up into the hills. I learned to play golf at Lake Chabot, a hilly beast to learn how to hit off of funky lies. More favorite memories are of times I spent with great neighbors or just walking my old dog Daisy in the neighborhoods.

My reading will be brief. I want to spend the time celebrating with friends old and new in my old stomping grounds. There's a beer in every book!