Bill Says: It is an early Thursday morning. I was up before 7 a.m. to find thick clouds hanging low like fog and our area temperatures holding in the high 50's. Though it feels like Fall is upon us and even the plant life is behaving as such, it is still only Mid-August. I tossed out the remains of my prized stale popcorn, ( yes, I like old popcorn, but can only eat so much of it), upon the driveway and far quicker than I expected, some 11-black and white camp robbers descended upon it to feast. These have to be the noisiest birds in God's creation. They drive my two small dogs crazy, send them running in circles in their vain attempt to catch one and cause Jeremy to grasp his lethal BB gun in hand, so he can hopefully get some sleep. The birds love to taunt our cats and as soon as it is daylight, which comes at 5:30 a.m. right now and these highly intelligent birds begin their harassment of any of my cats still outside. They have now become an unwanted alarm clock. My neighbor has her own method of dealing with these troublesome birds. She lures them into her garage, catches them with her huge salmon net and beats them to death. These birds of prey have stolen far too many of her chicks and she has set the dogs of war against them.
I am watching the talking heads of morning news and observe our stock market plummeting yet again. Everyone is blaming everyone else. But it seems to center on our two major political parties painting the blame on the other side for our troubles. They seem to have forgotten who they work for- US! I have come to the decision that with so many people unemployed, so many people homeless and so many people hungry, that we should sincerely think about doing away with so many, ( see how many times I can use "so many" in a sentence- count them and win a prize!), stupid government programs and use the funds to help so many of our people here at home. Why should we be giving money to so many people who hate us? Why should we be providing funds for foreign governments to expand their economy, when our own economy is failing. Our own President goes out on a bus tour, using a multi-million dollar bus built in Canada. Why isn't he using an American built bus. I am sure we could've used our tax dollars to build an armored bus and just how many times will this huge RV be used? I won't even get into the gun deal our country's leaders made with the cartels to supply them with 2600 automatic weapons- who's campaign chest got paid?
Well enough on politics and human interest. Back to cases.
While conducting my investigations, I entered into one such case involving Mr. Edward Dilley. This man was the biggest licensed Operator in the state and taking home about $10 million a year from assisting dozens of charities with his pull-tab sales from some two dozen outlets around the state. Inspecting one outlet in Fairbanks I noticed that his retail space in a strip mall was quite large and he was selling all kinds of tourist stuff, clothes and toys, along with a set up small stand for about two-dozen pull-tab jars. I became suspicious and began inspecting his leases from these various malls and discovered that he was billing the charities the whole amount for the rent of these locations, including labor and utilities. That's when I opened my case and had an accountant in Anchorage help me out with the numbers part. It became a 6-month long investigation and involved my traveling around the state to collect copies of rental agreements, interview employees and gather additional evidence. When this case was completed, I and the accountant, Joe Koss, were able to provide enough evidence to pull Dilley's operator's license from him. I was also able to find an old felony conviction for him concerning a kidnapping/assault case in Oregon and a Bad Conduct Discharge from the military for AWOL.
To say the least, this man no longer considered me a nice guy. Though he did try to bribe me twice during the investigation. Once with a 1st class plane ticket to Juneau and back, and a collector's Indian motorcycle. Both of which I immediately reported to my boss. Dilley had acquired a vast fortune over the years by bleeding funds from these charities and he blamed me for taking it away from him.
I had to go by his home/business building one day and when I came into his private office I found him sitting in his chair, behind an ornate desk, fingering the trigger on a commemorative Marine Corps .45 caliber machine gun- though it was only semi-auto. He had an intense and angry glare upon his unshaven face and I decided to make the meeting shorter than planned.
Dilley moved to Nevada and attempted to open a legal brothel. But I sent my investigation on to Nevada and this prevented him from doing so. I don't like to be threatened.
During another investigation, Gary Wing of the ABC Board and I set up a sting operation in Fairbanks. We had picked up information of how the liquor stores in town were selling booze and pull tabs to minors. So, we had the 19-year old son of the North Pole Police Department Police Chief assist us by making buys of both liquor and pull tabs. We ended up burning all but one liquor store in town, which really surprised us. We used the same young man to bust an after hour joint, operating in a warehouse. Assisted by Fairbanks Police Department personnel, our young man went in wearing a wire and recorded what we needed to have to stage the raid. We went in and busted some 30-people for charges of illegal liquor sales, illegal gambling and prostitution. The young man eventually became a police officer and was later killed on duty, saving the lives of two of his fellow officers. He was a great kid!
Gary and I assisted Fairbanks Police Department many times. During a burglary of the Fairbanks Curling Club, we happened to be out on our own patrol and ended up on the scene. We gave chase of the suspects and closed off their retreat in a residential neighborhood and kept them in their cars until a patrol car showed up. The suspects labeled us with the title of "Batman & Robin", and all night Gary and I argued who was who. My argument was that I was taller than he was, so I should be Batman. His argument was how he was the smarter, but I wouldn't buy into that one. Though his wife was my doctor and she used needles...I really have this fear of needles and the whole Batman and Robin thing eventually faded away. Well, we still got kidded some when we came into the police department.
We then pulled a summer of surveillance work for FPD. Setting up in three different hotel rooms over three months of weekends and pretty much on our own time, we provided extensive camera work on the trouble areas about town. From the second floor of the Motel 8, the 11th floor of the Polaris Hotel and 4th floor of the Northwood Building, we had radio contact with FPD and dispatched them to hot spots. We worked with a joint Army/Air Force/State Trooper/FBI and FPD task force to stop the violence in Fairbanks. At the time, this mainly involved B Company on Fort Wainwright. When it was all said and done, B Company was completely disbanded and the men not involved in a court martial, were sent across the globe. The camera work Gary and I did helped display the violence, where even automatic weapons were discharged as locals and military squared off. It was fun meeting with the Army general and having him call on Gary and I for suggestions. I'd never had a general ask for my advice before and he took it, which was more surprising.
I became involved in numerous forgery and embezzlement investigations and I really enjoyed squaring off with the lawyers. In one such case I had found a hidden account set up by five of these lawyers and I still remember their shocked expressions when I met with them to reveal our knowledge of their activities. I never went to college, but I knew criminal activity when I came across it. Joe Koss did a major assist in that case as he worked the numbers. Though I knew criminal activity, adding two plus two was still an effort.
As a result of that case, pretty soon I was handling a lot of the gaming annual financial reports for North Alaska, really stretching my brain power to the limit. But through this, I exposed a lot of fraud going on in the charitable gaming program. They just needed someone looking past the numbers and into what the money was being spent for.
I flew out to Savoonga on St Lawrence Island for an investigation. I wanted to know how a community of 250 people were doing 2.5 million dollars in gaming per year. An interesting thing I found out there was how they continued to make use of a personnel check. I found one check with over 50-names on the back as it continued to change hands in the place of cash. By the time I got it, no bank would have ever accepted it. Their bingo room floor was several inches deep in pulled pull-tabs. But a bar in Nome was even worse; their pull-tab area was up to three feet deep in pulled pull-tabs and boy, what a mess.
In 1994, I retired from law enforcement on disability from injuries I sustained while on the Seward PD. I decided it was time I learned to become a writer- which I am still working at after 17-years and 6-completed manuscripts.
In my next entries I will be listing the synopsis's for these manuscripts in the event one of the publishers or agents I am contacting happens to check out this blog. It will also provide you with the basis for my stories and you can offer up an opinion- choose wisely, my friends......God Bless!
I am watching the talking heads of morning news and observe our stock market plummeting yet again. Everyone is blaming everyone else. But it seems to center on our two major political parties painting the blame on the other side for our troubles. They seem to have forgotten who they work for- US! I have come to the decision that with so many people unemployed, so many people homeless and so many people hungry, that we should sincerely think about doing away with so many, ( see how many times I can use "so many" in a sentence- count them and win a prize!), stupid government programs and use the funds to help so many of our people here at home. Why should we be giving money to so many people who hate us? Why should we be providing funds for foreign governments to expand their economy, when our own economy is failing. Our own President goes out on a bus tour, using a multi-million dollar bus built in Canada. Why isn't he using an American built bus. I am sure we could've used our tax dollars to build an armored bus and just how many times will this huge RV be used? I won't even get into the gun deal our country's leaders made with the cartels to supply them with 2600 automatic weapons- who's campaign chest got paid?
Well enough on politics and human interest. Back to cases.
While conducting my investigations, I entered into one such case involving Mr. Edward Dilley. This man was the biggest licensed Operator in the state and taking home about $10 million a year from assisting dozens of charities with his pull-tab sales from some two dozen outlets around the state. Inspecting one outlet in Fairbanks I noticed that his retail space in a strip mall was quite large and he was selling all kinds of tourist stuff, clothes and toys, along with a set up small stand for about two-dozen pull-tab jars. I became suspicious and began inspecting his leases from these various malls and discovered that he was billing the charities the whole amount for the rent of these locations, including labor and utilities. That's when I opened my case and had an accountant in Anchorage help me out with the numbers part. It became a 6-month long investigation and involved my traveling around the state to collect copies of rental agreements, interview employees and gather additional evidence. When this case was completed, I and the accountant, Joe Koss, were able to provide enough evidence to pull Dilley's operator's license from him. I was also able to find an old felony conviction for him concerning a kidnapping/assault case in Oregon and a Bad Conduct Discharge from the military for AWOL.
To say the least, this man no longer considered me a nice guy. Though he did try to bribe me twice during the investigation. Once with a 1st class plane ticket to Juneau and back, and a collector's Indian motorcycle. Both of which I immediately reported to my boss. Dilley had acquired a vast fortune over the years by bleeding funds from these charities and he blamed me for taking it away from him.
I had to go by his home/business building one day and when I came into his private office I found him sitting in his chair, behind an ornate desk, fingering the trigger on a commemorative Marine Corps .45 caliber machine gun- though it was only semi-auto. He had an intense and angry glare upon his unshaven face and I decided to make the meeting shorter than planned.
Dilley moved to Nevada and attempted to open a legal brothel. But I sent my investigation on to Nevada and this prevented him from doing so. I don't like to be threatened.
During another investigation, Gary Wing of the ABC Board and I set up a sting operation in Fairbanks. We had picked up information of how the liquor stores in town were selling booze and pull tabs to minors. So, we had the 19-year old son of the North Pole Police Department Police Chief assist us by making buys of both liquor and pull tabs. We ended up burning all but one liquor store in town, which really surprised us. We used the same young man to bust an after hour joint, operating in a warehouse. Assisted by Fairbanks Police Department personnel, our young man went in wearing a wire and recorded what we needed to have to stage the raid. We went in and busted some 30-people for charges of illegal liquor sales, illegal gambling and prostitution. The young man eventually became a police officer and was later killed on duty, saving the lives of two of his fellow officers. He was a great kid!
Gary and I assisted Fairbanks Police Department many times. During a burglary of the Fairbanks Curling Club, we happened to be out on our own patrol and ended up on the scene. We gave chase of the suspects and closed off their retreat in a residential neighborhood and kept them in their cars until a patrol car showed up. The suspects labeled us with the title of "Batman & Robin", and all night Gary and I argued who was who. My argument was that I was taller than he was, so I should be Batman. His argument was how he was the smarter, but I wouldn't buy into that one. Though his wife was my doctor and she used needles...I really have this fear of needles and the whole Batman and Robin thing eventually faded away. Well, we still got kidded some when we came into the police department.
We then pulled a summer of surveillance work for FPD. Setting up in three different hotel rooms over three months of weekends and pretty much on our own time, we provided extensive camera work on the trouble areas about town. From the second floor of the Motel 8, the 11th floor of the Polaris Hotel and 4th floor of the Northwood Building, we had radio contact with FPD and dispatched them to hot spots. We worked with a joint Army/Air Force/State Trooper/FBI and FPD task force to stop the violence in Fairbanks. At the time, this mainly involved B Company on Fort Wainwright. When it was all said and done, B Company was completely disbanded and the men not involved in a court martial, were sent across the globe. The camera work Gary and I did helped display the violence, where even automatic weapons were discharged as locals and military squared off. It was fun meeting with the Army general and having him call on Gary and I for suggestions. I'd never had a general ask for my advice before and he took it, which was more surprising.
I became involved in numerous forgery and embezzlement investigations and I really enjoyed squaring off with the lawyers. In one such case I had found a hidden account set up by five of these lawyers and I still remember their shocked expressions when I met with them to reveal our knowledge of their activities. I never went to college, but I knew criminal activity when I came across it. Joe Koss did a major assist in that case as he worked the numbers. Though I knew criminal activity, adding two plus two was still an effort.
As a result of that case, pretty soon I was handling a lot of the gaming annual financial reports for North Alaska, really stretching my brain power to the limit. But through this, I exposed a lot of fraud going on in the charitable gaming program. They just needed someone looking past the numbers and into what the money was being spent for.
I flew out to Savoonga on St Lawrence Island for an investigation. I wanted to know how a community of 250 people were doing 2.5 million dollars in gaming per year. An interesting thing I found out there was how they continued to make use of a personnel check. I found one check with over 50-names on the back as it continued to change hands in the place of cash. By the time I got it, no bank would have ever accepted it. Their bingo room floor was several inches deep in pulled pull-tabs. But a bar in Nome was even worse; their pull-tab area was up to three feet deep in pulled pull-tabs and boy, what a mess.
In 1994, I retired from law enforcement on disability from injuries I sustained while on the Seward PD. I decided it was time I learned to become a writer- which I am still working at after 17-years and 6-completed manuscripts.
In my next entries I will be listing the synopsis's for these manuscripts in the event one of the publishers or agents I am contacting happens to check out this blog. It will also provide you with the basis for my stories and you can offer up an opinion- choose wisely, my friends......God Bless!
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