Private Eyes Share Some Tips p. 13

By: Mark Fitzgerald

Two top private investigators address an overflow session
at the annual Investigative Reporters and Editors conference sp.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS cannot afford the luxury of presuming someone innocent until proven guilty, says two top private detectives.
"You have to think in terms of fraud. You've got to think the guy is guilty before you walk in," private investigator Michael Kessler told an overflow session at the recent Investigative Reporters and Editors annual conference in St. Louis.
"As investigative reporters it's hard. We're supposed to keep a straight mind frame. But if you walk in with the assumption that nothing is wrong, you're not going to find anything," Kessler added.
Kessler is a New York City-based private detective who has assisted on numerous network television news investigations. He and another renowned private detective, William Dear of Dallas, traded their investigative tips during a session entitled, "How the gumshoes do it."
As it turns out, they do it the same way investigative reporters do it: Poring through public records, paying attention to the tiny details and constantly asking the question, "What's wrong with this picture?"
Even without subpoena power and the special access afforded law enforcement, reporters are in a very good position, said Dear.
"You know we are not police officers. We are investigative reporters. But you know what? We are luckier than police officers," Dear said.
To get much of their information, Dear noted, police must go through channels, get court permission, wait for clearances.
None of that hobbles the determined investigative reporter, said Dear, who is probably best know for cracking the so-called Dungeon and Dragons case involving the disappearance of boy genius James Dallas Egbert III.
And far from having to peek over hotel transoms, Dear and Kessler said much of their detective work involves records that should be familiar to any reporter.
"As simple a thing as pulling public records can break a case," Kessler said.
In fact, a public records search should be a reporter's first step in any investigation, he said.
Kessler, for example, said he was able to document a $1 million ghost employee scandal in New York almost entirely by checking the most prosaic of records, such as parking tickets.
"We know someone getting a parking ticket in California could not be working in New York the same day," he said.
Little things mean a lot, Kessler said.
Check, for instance, strange markings on invoices: Often they are put there so a white-collar thief can keep straight which invoices are phony.
"Look for different bank accounts on endorsements," Kessler said.
That helped in a case in which an embezzler was stealing company money intended to pay New York City taxes. The thief created an account for a "New York City Tax Services," and deposited hundreds of checks made out to "New York City Tax."
Writer Jim Neff, who moderated the IRE session, said he has had similar success with ordinary records such as birth certificates.
When, for example, he was researching Mobbed Up, his biography of Jackie Presser, Neff discovered some interesting information from the Teamsters chief's birth certificate.
The certificate shows Presser was given a false name, an amalgam of his then-unmarried parent's names. Further, Neff said, the parents skipped out on the medical bill.
"So here's a guy, he's only a couple hours old and he's already taken part in his first scam," Neff said. "This little detail told me quite a bit about his background."
Similarly, death notices can be a quick way to locate family members, Neff said.
"Go up one generation and look through the notices for similar names. It can tell you the names of brothers and sisters, married names of sisters.
"I use it to trace missing people. I used death notices to trace Jackie Presser's five wives, including one he never mentioned," Neff said.
Neff and the investigators cautioned IRE members not to use material they cannot legally have, such as credit histories.
"You may say, well, as long as I've got the information, I don't care if its legal or illegal," private investigator Kessler said. "You've got to care," he continued. "You've got to care because one day you may have to explain to a judge where you got your records."
Above all, be discreet, the detectives said.
"You've got to remember the bad guy will be looking around also," Kessler said. "Keep it close to the vest when you are doing these kinds of investigations."