The Michigan Daily-Friday, May 9, 1980-Page 11

Private investiga

(Continued from Page 3)
year-old Booth has a variety of in-
triguing stories.
WHEN A MEMBER of the Detroit
Mafia, who was also a witness in a $4
million suit, jumped bail in California
and returned to Michigan, .Booth was
hired to serve a subpoena on him. But
since he couldn't find his witness, Booth
guessed that maybe a Detroit Mafia
don might lead him to his man.
The don, whom Booth refused to iden-
tify, had a tunnel leading from his
Detroit home to fis garage and was
always trailed by two cars driven by his
hencemen. Late one night, Booth said,
the don "went to a store . . . on Mack
Avenue,. picked up two big cases of
groceries, and headed out to the lake."
There, Booth said he watched the three
men lift the canvas off a boat anchored
in a marina on Lake St. Clair, and
board the boat, and within minutes,
head back to their cars-without the
groceries.
Booth, figuring that the groceries
must have been intended for someone
on the boat, then called FBI detectives,
who found the man hiding out there. As
the detectives led the suspect away,
Booth handed him the subpoena.
IN OTHER INCIDENTS, Booth ser-
ved a subpoena on a major area Mafia
figure who invited Booth to have a glass
of wine with him; dressed as a skid-row
bum to find out the source of poisonous
wine which resulted in the death of two
bums; and discovered that a former
chief of police in a city near Ann Arbor
was consorting with the Mafia.

The average fee charged by the
private investigators is about $20 per
hour, although some detectives; if the
case is especially dangerous, charge up
to $50 an hour.
Just as the substance of the cases
varies, so does the time spent on each.
LeFerier said he has put in 20-hour days
working on a case. Conrad said in-
vestigators in her office have spent up
to 150 hours on a case, while Booth said
that he has worked on an investigation
for a year.
BOOTH SAID that a detective must
possess certain characteristics to be
successful.
"You can't be meek, and you have to
be inquisitive," he explained. "And you
have to have a lot of common sense."
But aside from personal qualities,
there are state laws which govern the
performance of private detectives.
ACCORDING TO SGT. Clare Fox of
the Private Security and Investigators
Section of the Michigan State Police, an
investigator must be a U.S. citizen, at
least 25 years old with the equivalent of a
high school education. The potential in-
vestigator must never have been con-
victed of high misdemeanors or
felonies, and must have either three
years experience in the investigating
area of a licensed detective or police
agency, or possess a degree in police
administration from an accredited
college.
One of the most widely-abused rules,
according to Fox, is that which states
private detectives cannot pose as
representing a police agency or unit of

tors get
government. Fox said there is "a
backlog of complaints," most of which
accuse certain detectives of
misrepresentation.
One of the other more costly rules is
the requirement of liability insuran-
ce-$100,000 for an individual, and
$200,000 for a corporation or partner-
ship.
Seime of the cases reported by the in-
vestigators are humorous. Booth
remembers an incident in which a
suspicious woman hired him to follow
her husband, who told his wife he was
leaving for a business trip to Cleveland.
"Two miles from his house, he picked
up some babe," Booth said. Booth and
the man's wife followed them into a

eye fuls
woman asked her husband. With that,
said Booth, "she poured - a long, tall
drink over him and his girl."
Booth remembered another incident
in which a woman asked him to find out
whether her husband were possessed.
"You don't need a private in-
vestigator," Booth told her. "You need
an exorcist."


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Chapter
TWO Neil Simon

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3:45
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