True Crime Blog
Baptism by Fire Before I had a chance to grab a cup of coffee or discover the location of my desk, I was given my first assignment as a homicide detective. A 16-year-old boy had been killed by a train in the City of Industry. It was a chilly fall morning, and I made the…
Fugitive apprehension was filler work for SPI/Metro. The nature of our assignments was responsive: someone was kidnapped, we’d go to work; a prisoner escaped, we started a manhunt; a judge was threatened, we’d set up around-the-clock protection while investigating the source. And so on.
The Greatest Job I ever Left SPI (pronounced “spy”), the acronym for Special Investigations Bureau, was a Detective Division assignment within the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. It has been renamed to Major Crimes Bureau. Personally, I liked SPI better. The bureau comprises several details: Metro, Prison Gangs, Biker Gangs, Vice, Surveillance, and Organized Crime.…
This Blog has Gone to the Dogs. In 1997 when I promoted to Homicide, I was introduced to a tool of investigation that was new to me: scent canines. Droopy-eared hounds, low and stable, good for cornering if they were ever to build up speed. Which they don’t. They are slow and steady, designed for…
In Marina del Rey There were worse places to process a crime scene than two miles offshore in Marina del Rey, California. But how, exactly, would one go about such a task, and what circumstances would call for such an investigation? Perhaps a case of suicide. Or murder. Those were the questions I asked a…
Cop Holidays For cops, a holiday shift can run the gamut from excitement to danger to boredom to emotional drain. When I was a patrol deputy, I generally worked all of the holidays. Being single at the time, I would volunteer so that those with families could have the time off. Like many cops, I loved…
The day I met Muhammad Ali, I was nineteen years old and working for a security company that provided services to the gated community wherein Mr. Ali lived. Our duties included alarm response and patrol, and there was a sentry stationed at the gate, 24/7. It was circa 1982, and Mr. Ali had not…
What’s the deal with your pen name? Is the book, A Good Bunch of Men, about you and your partner? How did you start writing? As my readership grows, I realize there are many who do not know me personally and might be interested in the backstory. As is the case with life, we never know…
The unincorporated county area of Watts is policed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. From 1955 to 1994, deputies assigned to the area worked out of the legendary Firestone Station. I had the privilege to be trained there in 1986, and I remained until the doors closed in 1994. The eighties saw the height…