Has the Private Eye in Movies Lost Its Myth?

This morning we were amused, surprised and even a bit intrigued after reading several crime fiction articles.  One claimed that the “myth” of the private eye in movies, a la Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, is not a “renewable source.”  Another shook its figurative finger at publishers for their lack of “gritty” credibility.

We needed an extra cup of coffee–black like our noir-loving hearts–to digest these cynical tid-bits.

Below are links to these articles, with a few of our notes.  We wish we could added more, but we have work to do.  Investigating a case, interviewing witnesses, dragging a reluctant client to his probation.  The real-life stuff of a criminal defense attorney and a PI–funny how some people, non-PIs, think all we do is sit at computers and search databases.  Kinda like how some critics proclaim the private eye genre has gone flabby.  You get our drift.

The Private Eye Movie=Not a Renewable Resource

Forget It, Marlowe–It’s Chinatown. Subtitle: “How Roman Polanski‘s masterpiece demythologised the hard-boiled private eye” by  Graham Fuller, theartsdesk.com

The writer starts out saying that the “movie version of the hardboiled private eye…was never as enduring as his literary original.”  He goes on to say that the re-release of Polanski’s Chinatown reminds us that the myth consecrated by Spade and Marlowe is not a renewable resource.

Don’t get us wrong–we thoroughly enjoyed this article, which is noir-ly despairing of the “knight errant” role of the private eye as epitomized by Bogart as first Spade in The Maltese Falcon, then as Marlowe in The Big Sleep.  But we had trouble buying that this character’s heydey was during and after World War II.  We were also a bit confused with the analysis that the obese police captain character (who plants evidence and stoops to murder) in Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil had the “aura of a private eye.”  Uh, what happened to the epitomized knight errant model?

The writer devoted several paragraphs about Altman’s 1973 The Long Good-bye with Elliot Gould as Marlowe, a film we both love.  Some believe Altman’s movie version is more Chandler in spirit than, say, Hawks’s The Big Sleep. In this article, the writer believes it was private eye Jake Gittes in Chinatown, made a year or so after Altman’s The Long Good-bye, that restored the knightly myth.  Restored?  Did it really go away?  To our mind, Gould’s Marlowe held onto that tarnished knightly myth as a PI steeped in cynicism and shady deeds, yet we, the viewer, still got glimpses of a deeply personal involvement that sometimes errs on the side of morality. That’s the gumshoe myth that still appears in films, too.  We’re not saying all the time, but we certainly don’t think it stumbled off its cracked pedestal after WWII.  Anybody see Michael Shannon in the 2009 Australian film The Missing Person?

Bought off: how crime fiction lost the plot.  Subtitle “Thriller writing was once a British strength, but publishers are reducing it to a formulaic genre. Time, maybe, for murder most foul…” by Christopher Fowler, the Independent

We’re not British, but we found it interesting that the writer encourages readers to “step away” from crime fiction publishers’ current offerings because the “genre has backed itself into a dead end.”  His view is that publishers are falsely advertising their latest murder mysteries to be grittily realistic.

They aren’t grittily real?

May we take this to a bigger view of crime fiction?  One of us has been privileged to be a judge for the Private Eye Writers of America three times (2013 will be her fourth stint).  In this capacity, she has read several hundred private eye-crime novels, and many (she lost count) short stories in the genre as well.  And sometimes she agrees that the crimes portrayed aren’t realistic, gritty or otherwise, but just as often they are dead-on correct.  One way she knows this is she has investigated certain types of crimes, and other times she has analyzed the crimes with her once-PI-partner who is now a criminal defense attorney (with nearly 30 years in the criminal justice field), as well as with a good pal, a local homicide detective, who has been walking some very real, very mean streets for several decades.

Yet in a recent book she wrote, which she researched based on several real, gritty crimes, then followed up by having several experts in the field check the book for legal veracity and crime accuracy, one Amazon reviewer sniffed that one crime in particular was “implausible.”

Let’s go back to this article.  At the end, the writer makes a pitch for publishers to let readers discover other crime tales that lay outside of those that lean on gritty realism.  Tales that are farcical, tragic, even strange.  Sure, why not?

Both articles are fun, well written, educational reads.  We just disagree with grand, sweeping statements–be it the dying myth of a character or the honesty of crimes in fiction.

Have a great weekend, Writing PIs

Related articles

• Two Nonfiction Books About the Real World of Private Eyes (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Our Top 10 Posts About Private Investigations in 2012 (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Best of 2012: Our 7 Favorite Private Investigator Sites (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Real-Life Private Detective Tales: Three Memorable Christmas Investigations (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• PIs as Criminals: Great in Fiction, Bad in Real Life (writingpis.wordpress.com)

Our Top 10 Posts About Private Investigations in 2012

It’s almost time to ring in the new year! But before we commence 2013, we’re honoring 2012 by listing our top 10 posts from the last year. Interestingly enough, a few were written in 2010 or 2009, but they remained readers’ favorites.

Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes’s Top 10 Posts in 2012

To read a post, click on the link.

#1: Booklist’s Online “Web Crush of the Week”: Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes

#2: Private vs. Public Investigators: What’s the Difference?

#3: Private Investigator and Murder Cases

#4: He Said, She Said: Pros and Cons of Being Married to Your PI Partner

#5: iPhone Apps for Private Investigators

#6: Showtime Series Homeland Bloopers and Fave TV Female Private Eyes

#7: Can You Put a GPS on My Boyfriend’s Car?

#8: How to Find Someone: Free Online Research Tips

#9: How to Conduct a Trash Hit: A Private Investigator’s Dumpster Secrets

#10: When the Amazing Race Reality Show Called and Invited Us to Audition

Honorable Mention:  What’s the Importance of a Crime Scene?

Happy New Year, Writing PIs

Related articles

• Two Nonfiction Books About the Real World of Private Eyes (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Real-Life Private Detective Tales: Three Memorable Christmas Investigations (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• PIs as Criminals: Great in Fiction, Bad in Real Life (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Best of 2012: Our 7 Favorite Private Investigator Sites (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Can a Minor Hire a Private Detective? (writingpis.wordpress.com)

Real-Life Private Detective Tales: Three Memorable Christmas Investigations

Today being Christmas, we thought we’d share a few of our favorite investigation stories that occurred during the holidays, from the silly to the heartfelt.

Serving Christmas Divorce Papers to a Happy Jailer

Several years ago, an angry soon-to-be-ex-wife told her attorney that she wanted divorce papers served on her soon-to-be-ex-husband on Christmas Day.  No other day would do.  Not Christmas Eve, not the day after Christmas.  Christmas Day.  The divorce papers were to be her Christmas gift to the husband who she’d recently learned had a girlfriend on the side.

The attorney contacted us, asked if we’d be willing to fulfill this Christmas wish.  After hearing the story, we said sure.  The husband was a deputy in a local jail scheduled to work on Christmas Day. We drove to the jail, politely asked for him, and after he confirmed his identity, we served him the papers.

He read the first page, looked up at us, grinned, then exclaimed, “This might be the best Christmas I’ve ever had!”

Two Tales of Helping Clients Find Freedom on Christmas Eve
Some people assume that private investigators only have gritty, woeful investigative tales about the darker side of life.  Not true.  Sometimes PIs experience heartfelt results from long weeks or months (sometimes years) of investigation.  Our first story is how our investigative work over several months enabled a client’s release to his family on Christmas Eve.  Our second story occurred just yesterday when Shaun, now a criminal defense attorney, secured bail for a client who had been incarcerated under false accusations.

The Rancher Who Was Staring at 48 Years in Prison

Six or so years ago, an attorney hired us to prove that his client (who became our client as well) had not aimed and fired a gun directly at a couple who had intruded on his land.  In September, the rancher was charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder and incarcerated.  The D.A. was hot to find him guilty, which meant our client might not see freedom for 24 years minimum, 48 years maximum.

This rancher had never done anything criminal in his entire life.  He’d never even gotten a speeding ticket.  He and his family were devastated at the accusations, and the possibility of his being in prison for decades to come.

This was a physically demanding, gritty case where we searched acres and acres of cold ranchland (a little over 800 acres to be exact) in bone-chilling late fall and winter temperatures. We used metal detectors to meticulously search laid-out crime scene areas where we believed (after consulting with a ballistics expert) the slugs may have fallen.  It was critical to find these slugs–their placement would show the rancher had fired warning shots, not intentionally lethal shots.

Burrs worked their way up through the soles of our shoes, our bodies ached from hours of bending over, searching the ground, fighting disappointment whenever we hit false leads (years ago, parts of the land had been a dump, so the metal detectors kept pinging that they’d found metal, and we’d dig to find not slugs, but rusted bedsprings, nails and the like).

Then one day, we found the first slug!  Then the second, the third…finally the fourth!  Out there on those hundreds of acres of chilly prairie, we whooped and hollered with joy!  The rancher’s mother heard us and ran, tears streaming down her face, to see if we’d found the evidence to prove her son’s innocence.

The D.A. dropped the more serious charges, and the rancher was released on a much-lower bond on Christmas Eve.  His family had an especially meaningful Christmas that year.

The Young Father Facing Months in Jail

Just yesterday, Christmas Eve, Shaun (Gums, Gams and Gumshoes co-author, former PI, and now a criminal defense attorney) went to court for the initial appearance of a young father accused of a restraining order violation on his ex-wife.  Without a lower bond, he would have lost his job, his home, and missed numerous opportunities to spend time with his sons.  The young father, who told Shaun he was innocent of the charges, was facing up to six months in jail if found guilty on all counts.

Shaun pointed out to the judge that, at worst, the young man was guilty of contacting his ex-wife so that he could obtain some much-needed antibiotic medicine for the youngest son, who had a bad ear infection.  The judge saw through the ex-wife’s hysterics and false accusations, and set bail at a Christmas Eve bargain of $50 cash.

We were asleep last night when awoken by the beeping of Shaun’s cell phone. The young man had texted Shaun to let him know he’d been released from jail and would be spending Christmas with his sons.  We didn’t mind being woken up–it was a terrific way to start Christmas Day.

For those who celebrate it, have a wonderful Christmas, Writing PIs

The Zen Man: Award-Winning Christmas Murder Mystery Novel Is Penned by Real-Life Private Investigator

Related articles

• During the Holidays, People Turn to PIs to Help Find Missing Relatives (Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes)
• Safety Tips for the Holiday Season (Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes)
• All I want for Christmas is Who: the Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe (hotcutegirlygeek.wordpress.com)

Best of 2012: Our 7 Favorite Private Investigator Sites

We like writing about private investigations here at Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes, and we also like reading about private investigations at other PIs’ and investigation-related sites. Below are seven of our favorite sites to visit — not meant to be all-inclusive, just a sampling of some of our picks. Note to writers: if you’re crafting a private eye character/story, these are excellent research sites to learn more about the real world of PIs.

PIBuzz.com, edited by Tamara Thompson, a highly respected California private investigator known for her expertise in Internet data gathering, genealogical and adoption research, witness background development and locating people .  One of our favorite offerings from her site are her near-monthly listings of “Private Investigator Research Sites.” Twitter handle: @PIbuzz

Diligentia Group, a boutique investigative firm that provides services to law firms, financial institutions, and decision makers who require comprehensive background and due diligence investigations.  A wealth of articles on this site, from “101 Things a Private Investigator Can Do” to “Finding Hidden Assets (and a Bloody  Sock) in UCC Filings.” Follow @b_willingham on Twitter

Sherlock’s Case Files. Written by Skipp Porteous, a New York PI who specializes in wiretap and “bug” detection. Also the co-author of Into the Blast: The True Story of D.B. Cooper.  Follow @Number1PI on Twitter.

Mike Spencer of Spencer Elrod Services, Inc., Private Investigations in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Spenser, a former journalist, writes informative, relevant and sometimes downright entertaining articles about the profession at his blog Private Eye Confidential.  Follow him on Twitter at @SpencerPI

Sequence, Inc. Tracy L Coenen, CPA and CFF, specializes in forensic accounting and writes informative articles on this topic, from “Techniques Used to Hide Income and Assets in Divorce Cases” to “Are Your Employees Committing Fraud?” 

PINow.com articles: PINow.com is an advertising site for private investigators that also includes a section on investigative articles. Some are written by professional PIs, others are links to articles about investigations.  Twitter handle: @PInow

Pursuit Magazine: This online mag/trade journal is also an online community for private investigators, legal professionals and those in the protective services industry.  They post articles on investigative trends, techniques and tools. Follow @PursuitMag on Twitter.

Shout-Out to Corra Group.  This California-based organization specializes in background checks and pre-employment screening. We’ve sub-contracted work to this organization in the past, and they’ve always been professional, timely and easy to work with.  They used to have more articles on their site, but there’s still several (click here to read articles).  Twitter handle: @corragroup

Have a great week, Writing PIs

Related articles

• Two Nonfiction Books About the Real World of Private Eyes (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Should You Hire a Private Detective to Watch Your Spouse at a Holiday Party? (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Can a Minor Hire a Private Detective? (writingpis.wordpress.com)

Two Nonfiction Books About the Real World of Private Eyes

Here at Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes, one of us, Shaun, is also a criminal defense attorney, the other, Colleen, a multi-published writer.  After teaching classes to writers at various conferences about developing realistic private eyes in fiction, we co-authored a nonfiction book geared to writers, and later Colleen wrote a second nonfiction book packed with articles she’s written on the art of private investigations.  Below are details about both books.

How to Write a Dick: A Guide for Writing Fictional Sleuths from a Couple of Real-Life Sleuths
Available on Amazon for $4.99 at http://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Dick-Fictional-ebook/dp/B00595K1UK

This nonfiction research book for writers, co-authored with attorney and former investigator Shaun Kaufman, provides facts and guidance for novelists, scriptwriters and others who are crafting mystery, legal thriller or suspense stories. This book also appeals to readers who are simply curious about the techniques and tools of real-life private eyes. Topics include a history of private investigators; descriptions of various specialized fields and how to gain experience in them, from insurance investigations to white-collar crime investigations to pet detection; how private investigators conduct surveillances on foot and in vehicles; the basics of homicide investigations and how private investigators might be involved; a gumshoe glossary and much more.

“If you want authenticity in creating a fictional private investigator for your stories, then this is a must-have reference book. Its authors, Colleen and Shaun, are living, breathing PIs with years of actual experience in the PI game.” ~ R.T. Lawton, 25 years on the street as a federal special agent and author of 4 series in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

“Forget Google and Bing. When you need to research PI work, go to the experts, Colleen Collins and Shaun Kaufman: they live it, they teach it, they write it. How to Write a Dick is the best work of its kind I’ve ever come across because it covers the whole spectrum in an entertaining style that will appeal to layman and lawmen alike. This will be the industry standard for years to come.”
—Reed Farrel Coleman, three-time Shamus Award winner for Best PI Novel of the Year and author of Hurt Machine

How Do Private Eyes Do That?
Available on Amazon for $2.99 at http://www.amazon.com/How-Private-Eyes-That-ebook/dp/B005SSZJM8

This nonfiction book is useful for writers conducting research for mystery, thriller and suspense novels, as well as for readers interested in learning about real private detectives. The book provides dozens of articles on the art of private investigations, including case examples and a listing of recommended writers’ and professional private investigators’ sites. Topics include how to locate missing persons, how to find cell phone numbers, tips for catching cheating spouses, where to access free online research sites, techniques for conducting successful witness interviews, tips for investigating white-collar crime and more.

“A must have for any writer serious about crafting authentic private eyes. Collins knows her stuff.” ~ Lori Wilde, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author

“Real-life private investigator Colleen Collins spills the beans.”
~The Thrilling Detective

Have a great week, Writing PIs

Related articles

• Private Detective-Author Colleen Collins Offers Three Book Gift Ideas For The Holidays (consumer.einnews.com)
• Should You Hire a Private Detective to Watch Your Spouse at a Holiday Party? (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• PIs as Criminals: Great in Fiction, Bad in Real Life (writingpis.wordpress.com)

Should You Hire a Private Detective to Watch Your Spouse at a Holiday Party?

Some investigators who specialize in infidelity investigations believe that if you’re suspicious that your spouse or significant other is having an affair, holidays are a prime time to hire a private detective to watch that person, especially at company holiday parties where their guards might be down.

Note from Shaun Kaufman, Shaun Kaufman Law: There are a number of reasons why you might want to have a legal case filed, or ready to be filed, before hiring a private investigator to follow your spouse, whether at a holiday party or not.  One reason is that the evidence gathered by the private investigator is given to the attorney, and then it is protected by the work product and attorney-client privileges (meaning, your attorney controls whether and when the information is released).  Another reason is so that the surveillance can be tailored to the needs of the case — such as watching the soon-to-be-ex-spouse for excessive drinking/drug use and to document the amount of money the ex-spouse-to-be is spending on his paramour.

At our investigations agency, we get more “is he/she cheating?” cases around the holidays

At our agency, we specialize in legal investigations, but occasionally the “Will you investigate if my spouse is cheating?” case comes into our office, and yes, we typically get a few more of these requests around the holidays.  We’ve been asked to watch the activities going on at a company party at a restaurant, for example.  And a few years ago we spent a chilly Christmas Eve outside a family’s party…we were ready to leave when we caught the wife sharing a holiday kiss with her brother-in-law.  The husband was right–she was seeing someone else.

If you suspect your husband or wife, or someone within whom you’re in a serious relationship, is having an affair, it’s a good idea to hire a level-headed, experienced third party–a professional private investigator–to check it out rather than take it upon yourself  to play sleuth for several reasons:

You’re emotionally involved. You don’t want to be in a situation where you’re tense, drinking holiday punch, feeling paranoid and looking for clues.  In your fraught state, you might see clues and behaviors that don’t really exist, or are due to something quite innocent.  Or, worse, you do find clues and you fall apart, grow enraged, get into a fight…not good.  We’ve handled cases where nice, law-abiding people, who’ve never received so much as a speeding ticket, become out-of-control monsters after discovering their partner kissing/etc. someone else–and guess who gets hauled off to jail for disrupting the peace or worse?  The finder, not the doer.

A PI has the experience and tools to document infidelity. A qualified PI has done this kind of work before, so he/she knows how to blend in, locate the subject, and document the case.  A good PI, observing evidence of infidelity, does not call their client at that moment–remember the wife in Texas who ran over her dentist-husband three times in a hotel parking lot?  That’s because the PI she’d hired called her from the hotel with the information that her husband was there with another woman.  A PI not calling a client at the “scene of the crime” goes back to being emotionally involved (see above item).  A good PI will, instead, make it clear before they accept the case that the PI discusses their findings with their client after the incident has ended.  At that time, armed with photographs or other evidence, the client can decide how to discuss the infidelity with their spouse…or attorney.

If you’re tempted to skip hiring a PI and instead ask a good friend or relative to sleuth, don’t.  As well meaning as friends and family are, they don’t have the background and tools (cameras, recorders, etc.) to conduct the case.  Also, there’s a good chance your spouse/partner might recognize the friend or the cousin’s vehicle and be alerted what you’re up to.

If a “I think my husband/wife is cheating” call comes into our office, the first thing we do is ask if they’ve discussed these concerns between the two of them.  If not, we encourage the person to do so.  If they say they have, and they’re still suspicious, we suggest marriage counseling.  After that, we suggest hiring a PI.

Writing PIs

Interested in reading about the real-world of private eyes? Like reading crime stories? Check out Three Book Ideas for the Holidays.

Showtime Series Homeland Bloopers and Fave TV Female Private Eyes

Today we look at the Showtime series Homeland and one its obvious bloopers, plus reviews of some iconic TV female private eyes of yesteryear.

Homeland Bloopers

We dig Homeland, the Showtime series about a decorated hero, Nicholas Brody, who returns to the U.S. as a serious threat to the U.S., and the CIA officer, Carrie Mattison, who risks everything, including her heart and sanity, to expose this threat. Every week, the stories are gripping and complex as Brody and Carrie dance around each other with lies, suspicion and enough chemistry to blow up the screen.

And then there’s the bloopers.  Every time we watch the show, we have a moment (or two) when we groan.  Skip down to Fave TV Female Private Eyes if you’re behind in your Homeland watching and don’t want to read this story spoiler.

Okay, for those of you willing to read on, we groaned out loud at this recent blooper:

The vice-president’s kid’s hit-and-run scene. The kid and his girlfriend (Brody’s daughter) are on their first date and, in the process of ditching the Secret Service, they hit a homeless woman.  Sitting 20-30 feet away in their running car, they look out the back window at the fallen woman.  The kid doesn’t want to go back and help her because, to paraphrase, “I’m the vice president’s son!” Meanwhile, someone has run over to check out the fallen woman.  The vice-president’s son’s car is fully visible, with a light over the back license plate.  And it doesn’t dawn on him, or Brody’s daughter, or the shows’ writers that it’s easy to read that license plate and, oh, turn it in as the vehicle that committed the hit and run?

And another gripe about the whole kids ditching the Secret Service and pulling a hit-and-run.  Surely the vice president’s son’s vehicle, not to mention his cell phone, are GPS’d.  There’s evidence that the vehicle was at the hit-and-run scene.

Nevertheless, we love the show, can’t stop watching it despite the occasional groaner.

Fave TV Female Private Eyes

Over at The Zen Man, Colleen’s posted several articles about her fave TV female private eyes of yesteryear. To read an article, click on a  link.

Favorite Women Private Eyes on TV #1: Nora Charles

Favorite Women Private Eyes on TV #2: Honey West

Favorite Women Private Eyes on TV #3: Maddie Hayes

Have a great week, Writing PIs

Related articles

• A “Homeland” Conspiracy Theory (newyorker.com)
• Why Nicholas Brody needs to die on ‘Homeland’ (popwatch.ew.com)
• The Stages Of Getting Addicted To Homeland (thoughtcatalog.com)
• The Writing PIs ranked #8 in PINow’s Top 75 Investigators on Twitter 2012 (writingpis.wordpress.com)

Process Servers and Violence

We’re now a law firm, with one of us still working as a private investigator. The one who’s still working as a PI got tired of dealing with people turning violent when she’s serving legal papers, so she’s been sub-contracting that work to a fantastic process server who runs his own agency.  Today we learned he’s sold his process service agency.  Why?  Because recently he was attacked by a man who didn’t like being served legal papers.  A man who’s wealthy and holds an esteemed position in his profession.

The process server ended up spraying this attacker with pepper spray in order to get away to safety.

This episode brought back horrific memories of a local PI who was murdered several years ago in the course of serving legal papers.  As our former process server told us, “No job is worth losing your life over.”

This episode echoes other posts we’ve written about the dangers that sometimes occur when serving legal papers.  One of us, Shaun, had a person (to whom he’d just served papers) follow him all the way to his car, pounding her fists on his back the entire way.  Another time, a guy tried to run Shaun over with his car.  Colleen just this past year has had two different women follow her, screaming and threatening violence because they didn’t like being served legal papers.

Below is a post we wrote several years ago titled “Pit Bulls and Process Services.”  It wasn’t the first time someone sic’d their dog on us.  And by the way, we’re looking for a new process server.

Pit Bulls and Process Services (2009)

We just had another scare this morning while attempting to serve legal papers — the owner sent a massive pit bull to “greet” us. This was after my business partner, standing on the front porch, politely asked if so-and-so was home.

Fortunately, my business partner thought quickly and put his foot against the screen door, blocking the dog’s exit.  Mind you, my partner loves dogs.  He’s trained German Shepherds as show dogs in the past. We have two Rotweillers (but we never send them to an open door to greet strangers–in fact, we’re well aware their looks alone might scare people, so we put the dogs into a separate room if we’re expecting people who haven’t met the dogs to come to our office).

This wasn’t the first time we’ve attempted to serve legal papers and had people sic dogs on us.  The last time, my partner did the same thing as today (he had his foot pressed on the outside door, preventing the dog from exiting).

There was a recent episode of Dog the Bounty Hunter where a person released an aggressive pit bull (dog on “Dog”), and Dog shot some kind of pellet (not ammunition) at the dog to scare it away.

We don’t carry any type of gun, and don’t believe in carrying guns, but after these two episodes we’re considering carrying some type of protection (pepper spray?) although how quickly could we manage that with a charging dog?  It’d be ideal to meet people at public places to serve them papers, but that’s rarely an option.

This is a question we’ll broach with other PIs and process servers, get their reactions, and we’ll post their suggestions here.

Stay tuned, Writing PIs

Related articles

• The Writing PIs ranked #8 in PINow’s Top 75 Investigators on Twitter 2012 (writingpis.wordpress.com)

PIs as Criminals: Great in Fiction, Bad in Real Life

“I Want You to Put Some Muscle on This Guy”

Sounds like a line out of a bad noir movie, but we’ve actually had someone request that. In this case, the man wanted us to put some muscle on a guy who’d stolen his Ferrari.  Yes, Ferrari. We explained that unlike Tony Soprano, we don’t do muscle.  The guy then asked if we could locate the stolen Ferrari.  That we can do, and did

We’ve also been asked multiple times to attach GPS devices on vehicles the requestor doesn’t own to downloading listening software on people’s cell phones. After explaining that we do not conduct such illegal activities, we explain to callers that if they decide to do such criminal acts on their own, they’ll be facing felony charges if caught.

Ads to Help People Wiretap

It’s interesting how many ads are out there (magazines, Internet) for cellphone software that a buyer can then download on someone’s cell phone and listen to (and track) all their conversations.  We’ve had callers say, “But they claim their product is legal in the ads!”  No, they don’t claim their product is legal, but they sure make it sound that way.

Real-Life PIs Who Go Bad

Although all the private investigators we know play by the legal rules, there are the few who drift over to the dark side.  Some drift in a big, bad way like Anthony Pellicano, the former high-profile Los Angeles PI who’s now serving time in a federal prison for illegal possession of explosives, firearms and homemade grenades, unlawful wiretapping and racketeering.

Then there’s former Concord, California, private investigator Christopher Butler who’s spending 8 years in a federal prison for committing a string of felonies that included the theft and sale of drugs from the Contra Costa Narcotics Enforcement Team and setting up “dirty DUI” schemes where men going through contentious divorces were set up for drunk driving arrests.

Bad PIs Are Good in Fiction

When it comes to fiction, however, bad is good.  It bumps up the stakes and tension if a fictional sleuth, knowing he/she is committing a felony, does it anyway.  They illegally track with a GPS, knowing the consequences if they get caught, but they’re doing it for a compelling reason (to save a child, for example).  Adds complexity and tension to the story, doesn’t it?  Or they go into the gray zone and purchase that illegal cell phone software as a last means to track a killer.  As a writer, knowing what’s legal or not for your protagonist sleuth helps you crank up the stakes.  Plus it adds plausibility.

Mark Your Calendars: The Zen Man will be free November 25-27!

Speaking of fictional PIs, one of the Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes’ novel, The Zen Man, which features a man-and-woman PI team, will be free November 25 – 27, 2012.  Yeah, one of them’s a good PI who does some bad things.

Semifinalist Best Indie Books of 2012, The Kindle Book Reviews

“A brilliant mystery novel…I eagerly await the return of the Zen Man.”
~Becky Sherriff, The Kindle Book Review

“What I didn’t expect were the touches of romantic language, as delicate and erotic as a glance by Humphrey Bogart from under his hat. I also didn’t expect the humorous touches in what is essentially one man’s life-or-death fight to save his soul, his business and the love of his life.”
~Bonnie Ramthun, multi-published mystery and YA author

“Move over Sam Spade, Nick and Nora; make room for a Denver who-dun-it, Colleen Collins’s The Zen Man. Brilliant and fast-paced writing. I couldn’t put it down.”
~ Donnell Ann Bell,
 Award-Winning Author of The Past Came Hunting

Related articles

• Can a Minor Hire a Private Detective? (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• The Writing PIs ranked #8 in PINow’s Top 75 Investigators on Twitter 2012 (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Imprisoned detective may pose risk to star clients (foxnews.com)
• Pellican- Private eye (surveillanceculturelmu.wordpress.com)
• Former private investigator sentenced to eight years in police corruption scandal (mercurynews.com)

Can a Minor Hire a Private Detective?

Today we’re answering a reader’s question: “Could a minor hire a private detective?”

Answer: A minor can hire a private detective so long as the minor’s request is legal.  In other words, just like with adults, a minor can’t hire a PI to conduct such illegal activities as harassment, stalking or  intimidation.  The minor must also have the ratification of the minor’s parents.  This flows from a rule of contract law pertaining to a minor’s ability to enter into binding contracts.  To paraphrase, this rule says that minors can enter into enforceable contracts so long as they have their parents’ assent.

Perhaps a more important question is: Would a private investigator want to be hired by a minor?  A PI having his/her actions directed by someone under the age of 18 is exposing him/herself to liability and professional criticism.  If something were to go wrong during the investigation–say, an unexpected confrontation between the PI and the object of the investigation–there could be a challenge to the PI’s exercise of professional judgement.  Let’s say the object of the investigation, upset about the confrontation, files a professional negligence lawsuit against the PI, accusing him/her of harassment and invasion of privacy.  The plaintiff might use, as a damning circumstance, that this so-called “professional” PI was taking orders from a minor.  The PI could look bad, even very bad, in court when he/she admits they were working a case being directed by a teenager.

Great question!

Have a great week, Writing PIs

Related articles

All about the life and work of an investigator (slideshare.net)

Ten Articles About Private Investigations (thezenman.com)

An E-Misperception: It’s Easy to Find People on the Internet (thezenman.com)