Why did you decide to share your story? Are you concerned about being contacted from those you helped put behind bars?
I spent 26 years in the FBI, all as a street agent and many in an undercover capacity. I've successfully posed as a contract killer, fence, drug dealer, and international weapons dealer, to name just a few of my many roles, but my hardest assignment was posing as a pedophile. What I learned in that three-year investigation so disgusted me that I wanted to alert others to this underground network of men targeting boys. I truly wasn't interested in pounding my chest about how cool I was to work undercover. Had I not worked this case I seriously doubt I would have written the book. I guess you could say I'm on a mission to expose the "boy-lover" agenda.
Although my original manuscript was limited to the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) investigation, no publisher my agent contacted wanted a book strictly on NAMBLA. Several publishers did express interest if I would include other undercover cases. So I re-tooled the book to include a dozen other assignments. Once I did that, two publishers made an offer. In discussing the other investigations I did not provide full names of the defendants. I referred to them only by their first name or nickname. It wasn't out of fear that I did that but rather if they served their time and successfully re-entered society, I wasn't interested in causing them more harm or embarrassment. The photos I included in the book of non-NAMBLA targets are all deceased. I would hope those still living wouldn't decide to come after me, but as I joked with my publisher, if I get whacked at a book signing that should really enhance sales.
Why did you decide to pursue an undercover career?
I'm a product of the Hollywood hype. I love movies and TV shows about clandestine operations. Even before I joined the FBI, I was hoping to enter the world of Serpico. I was very fortunate because I got to live out that dream. I lived on the edge and loved it. Prior to joining the FBI, I was a Marine. The Marine Corps instilled in me a warrior ethos, and I welcomed the job of protecting the sheep from the wolves. There was never a day I regretted my decision to join the FBI or enter the undercover program.
How did you prepare for undercover roles?
Obviously, we had intelligence briefings on a particular crime problem, but my best teachers were the informants I worked with and the bad guys I arrested. I learned so much more from them than I ever did from some seminar or workshop. Part of the thrill in any undercover assignment is convincing the bad guys you are one of them. You need to know enough to pass. In the early days before such easy access to the Internet, I would spend hours, even days at the library trying to research a particular topic to give me that extra little something that made me believable. Once the Internet became available the task was much easier.
What was your most dangerous assignment?
Since I lived to write the book, I guess none could be classified as the most dangerous. Every assignment had its own danger. There was physical danger...I've been threatened with death and actually shot two people in a drug deal that went wrong. Following the arrests in the US in an international weapons investigation, FBIHQ ordered me to stop communicating with overseas targets fearing I was being "triangulated" by a foreign government. I worked gangs and bought drugs from Crip members in South Central Los Angeles. But there may have been more subtle dangers. I spent six months undercover at the track betting on horse races everyday. My wife feared I would get addicted to gambling. The NAMBLA case provided its own kind of emotional and psychological danger. All that to say it's difficult to pinpoint one case as the most dangerous.
Was there ever a situation where your true identity was revealed?
After each arrest my true identity was revealed but I was never exposed during the course of the undercover operation. I had some close calls. In the book I discuss two instances while working undercover when people who knew me as an FBI agent walked into the middle of our case. In one instance, during the course of a heroin transaction negotiated in the lobby of a Los Angeles hotel, I was holding $500,000 in a brief case. The bad guy had said seconds earlier that if anything went wrong his partner had a gun and I would be the first person killed. A couple I knew from Cincinnati, Ohio walked into the lobby and the wife spotted me. Through some subtle gestures I signaled this was not the time for hugs and kisses. I was wearing a wire with the microphone taped to my chest and when I later reviewed the tape, I could actually hear my heart pounding. It was a classic “pucker-factor” moment.
Did your family know when you were undercover? Were you ever concerned for their safety?
Within limits I told my family as much as I could about my work. I may have stepped over the line and told them too much at times. Certainly if the assignment was dangerous I would minimize the danger, but I could usually turn even a rough situation into a funny story. My family was more important to me than my work. I wanted my wife to trust me and know that I really was working those late hours and not running around on her. That trust worked. I have two great kids and a wife who stuck by my side for 35 years.
Of course I was concerned about my family's safety and took precautions to protect them. I always checked my mirrors when I drove home. I would take different routes home, occasionally pulling over to insure that I was not being followed. Los Angeles is a big city so the chances of running into a target were minimal. There was one incident though that my daughter clearly remembers. She was about six. I was targeting the LA Mafia family and was purposely slow in paying them the $30,000 I owed for cocaine they had fronted me. The capo of the family had previously threatened me. My daughter and I were shopping at K-Mart when one of the mob associates walked in. I spotted him before he saw me and I whisked my daughter out the back through the warehouse. For several years she enjoyed telling the story of going into a part of K-Mart where customers weren't allowed to be...only she never knew the reason why.
Can you please tell me about posing as a pedophile for your last assignment?
It was my most difficult assignment. I was a father. I had coached my son and daughter's youth league teams. I had taught Sunday School. It was hard for me to imagine anyone who could view these children as sexual objects. The members of NAMBLA refer to themselves as "boy-lovers." Their entire mindset revolved around this sexual attraction to boys. I didn't view the world through those eyes. A dentist we later convicted told me about a Sylvan learning commercial he taped and replayed because the actor, a boy, was so beautiful. A favorite movie was Lord of the Flies because the boys ran around during the entire show shirtless. One evening the question was asked, "who is your favorite boy actor?" I couldn't think of anyone and repeated an earlier answer, Ricky Schroder in Silver Spoons. I honestly can't recall ever seeing an episode. I didn't see the world through their eyes and it was difficult to relate. Every other criminal with whom I interacted...drug and weapons dealers, gamblers, mob guys, and their associates... were only concerned with one thing: the color of my money.
Where can readers purchase your book?
The book is available at Amazon.com and most national book retailers such as Barnes and Noble and Borders.
