Right Time to Hire a Private Eye

Increasing gas prices affects almost everyone. As the gas prices go up, the price on goods and services goes up. And, yes, the recession has affected Sherlock Investigations. If you're a client, it affects you, too.

Listen up: Not only have we lowered our prices, we have more time to conduct investigations. In both cases you win!

If you've been thinking of hiring a private investigator, now is the time. Whether it's to locate someone who owes you money, to sweep your office for electronic listening devices, conduct surveillance on someone, or to conduct pre-employment screening for your company, now is the right time.

Remember, we accept the challenge of unusual cases.

Contact us today; investigators are standing by.

D.B. Cooper's DNA

Last year the FBI asked Sherlock Investigations to supply DNA evidence for Kenneth Christianson, whom we believe was "D.B. Cooper." We sent them envelopes and stamps that Christianson had licked. We also sent them a right thumbprint from his Army discharge papers where he was a paratrooper.

All this is probably in a box in the basement of the FBI headquarters in Seattle.

Today we learned from a credible source that the DNA the FBI has from a clip-on tie that they found on a seat in the 727 that Cooper hijacked is in a "severely decomposed state," probably from mishandling. The DNA is probably not good enough to stand up in court, and probably not good enough to match any DNA supplied to the FBI from possible suspects.

The only other DNA evidence that the FBI had was 8 cigarettes that Cooper smoked during the skyjacking. We understand that over the years the FBI lost them.

The FBI lifted about 66 fingerprints that couldn't be identified. We don't know whether or not one of them was a right thumbprint.

Until New York Magazine came out with the story of our suspect last fall, the FBI had all but buried D.B. Cooper. We caused them to reopen the case.

The recent discovery of a parachute in the area where Cooper jumped looked like an amazing new clue. The chute turned out to be silk, when the one operable one that Cooper used was nylon.

If Cooper lived, he must have told someone about his feat. But it was almost 37 years ago, and Kenneth Christianson is deceased, and anyone that he told may also be deceased.

Broadway Buffs

From time-to-time our readers help us with locate cases. Once again, I need your help.

We're looking for a Broadway actress who was quite attractive and renowned about 50 years ago. Her name is Rosemary Williamson. Sometimes she went by Rosemary Williams. She's about 80 now, if still with us.

Williamson, we believe that's her birth name, was from, we also believe, Ohio.

Williamson was the subject of a provocative TIME magazine article called "I Never Knew..." on March 19, 1951.

There is also a photo available from LOOK magazine in 1949. It shows Rosemary Williams putting on makeup. Stanley Kubrick was the photographer.

Rosemary Williamson was listed as a show girl in the 1949/1950 comedy/musical "As the Girls Go" in New York.

We don't know what other shows she was in, if any.

If any of our readers know the current whereabouts of Rosemary Williamson, we'd really like to hear from you. Email us at sherlockinvestigations@gmail.com

D.B. Cooper Identified

Sherlock Investigations just obtained letters written by suspect Kenneth Christiansen, before the 1971 hijacking in which he describes himself physically, and offers a motive for the hijacking. The daring hijacking was carried out by a man identifying himself as D.B. Cooper. We believe that Christiansen could very well be D.B. Cooper.

Christiansen frequently flew to Hawaii and enjoyed sunbathing on Waikiki Beach. Indeed, in one letter he wrote, "Spent all afternoon in the sun, sure changed the color of my skin."

Yet, the FBI claims that Christiansen was "pale."

In other letters he reveals a possible motive for extorting $200,000 from Northwest Airlines. He writes of frequent strikes that caused him to get laid off.  In one, he says that "the peanut butter jar is getting low," so he'd better get a job. He worked various odd jobs during the strikes.

When working at Northwest, Christiansen got $150 a week. Yet, a year after the hijacking he bought a small house in Bonney Lake, Washington with cash.

When Sherlock Investigations first identified Kenneth Christiansen as the most likely suspect for being D.B. Cooper, Ralph Himmelsbach, the retired FBI Special Agent who had worked on the case for years said that if he were still on the case he would investigate Christiansen.

When Florence Schaffner, the stewardess (then not yet called flight attendants) who Cooper handed the hijack note to, saw the photo of Christiansen, she said that he looked more like Cooper than any photos the FBI ever showed her. She, and Tina Mucklow, the other stewardess, thought Cooper was about 45.

Kenneth Christiansen, then 45, was 170 pounds, 5'10" in shoes, and was dark-complexioned through constant sun tanning. But Special Agent Robbie Burroughs in Seattle said, "He's not a viable suspect."

The FBI claims that Kenneth Christiansen was 5'8" and 150 pounds, and pale, when Cooper was described as 5'10" to 6' tall, up to 175 pounds, and dark-complexioned.

Also, the FBI asked, why would he hijack a plane from his own company? Somebody would recognize him, they said.

Well, Florence Schaffner, who worked for the same airline, in the same capacity as Christiansen, didn't recognize the photo of him. Neither did Bill Rataczak, the co-pilot in the hijacked Northwest plane.

Kenneth Christiansen, before working for Northwest as a steward, was mechanic for the airline. He knew the planes. Recently, Bill Rataczak said that Cooper "knew the airplane."

Kenneth Christiansen's drink of choice was bourbon, and he chain-smoked. During the hijacking, Cooper ordered bourbon, and chain-smoked. The cigarettes he smoked on Flight 305 would yield valuable DNA evidence, but the FBI lost them.

Sherlock Investigations has a copy of Christiansen's Army discharge papers, where he was listed as a paratrooper. Many skydivers have said that the jump could have easily been pulled off. In fact, a few years ago the jump was duplicated. Yet, the FBI still believes that Cooper died when he jumped. Still, no body or parachute was ever found.

Kenneth Christiansen lived until 1994 in his house in Bonney Lake, Washington.

Locating Wiretaps and Bugs...Without Any Special Equipment!

Requests for bug sweeps come into Sherlock Investigations from all over the country. Electronic eavesdropping detection is expensive, especially so if I have to travel outside of the New York metro area. The truth is, (and this is a trade secret) most bugs and wiretaps are found through a visual inspection.

The key is, knowing what to look for. Thus, the manual, Locating Wiretaps and Bugs...Without Any Special Equipment!, by Skipp Porteous. In the manual, I tell, and show, you exactly what to look for. It has about 36 full-color photos, and full descriptions on how to conduct a sweep of a home, small office, or vehicle.

I'm a well-known TSCM (Technical Surveillance Counter-Measures) expert. In my manual, I reveal some of my trade-craft that will give you all you need to know about locating bugs and wiretaps.

If you suspect your spouse has bugged your home, or your neighbor has tapped your phone line, I'll show you how to find the bug or wiretap. And you'll save hundreds of dollars!

For more information, click here.

Surveillance On Couple of Chicks

Ten Maxims for Private Eyes

Skipp Porteous, owner of New York City's Sherlock Investigations, has been a private eye for years. Now, he shares the top ten things he's learned over the years.

1. Question everything.

2. Assume that your phone is tapped.

3. Look both ways on one-way streets.

4. Look both ways when the light turns green.

5. Make use of your rear-view mirror.

6. Never think that you're above the law.

7. Trust is earned, not assumed.

8. TV private eyes are fictional.

9. Don't make problems for yourself when solving other's problems.

10. Keep a sense of humor.

Ban Cell Phones at Meetings

Some companies now ban laptops at meetings to battle against multitasking. Cell phones should also be banned, but to prevent spying, not multitasking.

Corporate spying is growing along with technology. Perhaps the most common "bug" today is the cell phone. Not a bug in the cell phone, but the cell phone itself. If given $10,000 in cash, a lot of employees would dial a number on their cell phone before going into a confidential meeting.

That's all a competitor would have to do to learn a company's secrets. The cell phone would pick up all the conversation in a meeting and transmit it to whoever is listening, and, perhaps, recording.

Before high-level meetings, Skipp Porteous, of Sherlock Investigations, often sweeps a conference room for electronic listening devices. "I can assure them that the room is clean," Porteous said, "until the people attending the meeting arrive." To prevent eavesdropping from cell phones, Porteous says that all staff members should leave their cell phones in their desks.

While most employees are trustworthy, "You never know for sure," Porteous said.

Chute NOT D.B. Cooper's

Earl Cossey, who owned and packed the original parachutes that were supplied to the man known as D.B. Cooper on Thanksgiving eve in 1971, said that the chute recently given to the FBI was not one of the one's supplied to Cooper. "Not even close," Cossey said.

There's been inconsistency about the parachutes given to Cooper. The FBI said recently that Cooper's parachute was white, while other reports long ago said that the parachute was yellow and red. In his book on D.B. Cooper, Max Gunther said that "Clara" knew that the parachute Cooper used was red and yellow, when this fact hadn't been released to the media.

The discovery of the parachute in a field in Clark County, Washington by a contractor building a road revealed another inconsistency. The FBI believes that Cooper didn't even open the parachute when he jumped, plunging him to his death. This is pure speculation on the FBI's part. Even he was able to open the chute, the FBI says that he would have died anyway, due to the rough terrain in which he would have landed.

When I first learned about the parachute that was found in a field near Amboy, Washington, I google-earthed the location. Clark County, to my surprise, is largely fields, not forest. The chute was found right where they think Cooper jumped. I still maintain that Cooper survived the jump, as no body or parachute was ever found.

D.B. Cooper's Money

In some of the stories about D.B. Cooper's parachute possibly being found, the extortion money is mentioned. Now the FBI is claiming that none of the $200,000 made it into circulation. Some $5800 was found on the banks of the Columbia River years later. 

Why do they think that none of the $200,000 from the 1971 crime never made it into circulation? Well, the FBI believes that Cooper died when he jumped out of the plane. They don't think he even opened the parachute. Of course, this is purely speculation on the FBI's part. Therefore, if D.B. Cooper died, then he didn't spend any of the money.

At the time, several rewards were offered for returning  any of the money, and the serial numbers of all the $20 bills were distributed to banks. In his 1985 book, "D.B. Cooper, What Really Happened," Max Gunther wrote:

"Bank people feel in general that their chances of participating in any meaningful way in such rewards are slim. If an alert teller or bookkeeping clerk spots a listed bill, that is typically the first minor step in an investigation. The bill may have changed hands many times since it was originally spent by the criminal being sought. Tracking the bill back to that criminal would involve a long chain of people, most of whom will feel they have a greater claim on the reward than the teller who first spotted the bill. In most cases the biggest share of the reward--if not all of it--goes to the detective or witness who makes the final connections leading to the arrest. The teller, if lucky, gets ten bucks and a letter of official gratitude. More often, the teller gets forgotten."

It's doubtful that any serious attempt was made to spot any of the bills.

Now, Kenneth Christiansen, who was employed by Northwest as a flight attendant, purchased a house with cash about a year after D.B. Cooper carried out his daring crime. Also, his lifestyle was seemingly beyond the means of most Northwest employees.

I recently talked with Bill Rataczak, the co-pilot of Flight 305, the Boeing 727 that Cooper hijacked. He told me that Cooper insisted that the wing flaps be tilted 15 degrees, to slow the plane down. "He knew that airplane," he said. "A flight attendant wouldn't know to do that." I reminded him that Christiansen was a Northwest mechanic before he became a flight attendant. He said that he didn't know that. He also didn't know that Christiansen was a former paratrooper.

The FBI asked Sherlock Investigations to submit DNA evidence from Kenneth Christiansen. We did about nine months ago. It's probably in a box with all the other evidence from the case, in the basement of the FBI office in Seattle. 

D.B. Cooper's Parachute?

We got word today that the FBI in Seattle has had a parachute that a farmer dug up in a field in Clark County, Washington for 3 weeks now. Larry Carr, the Special Agent in charge of the case, said that the FBI is looking for parachute experts to help them determine whether the chute they have belonged to D.B. Cooper.

This is odd, because the FBI should have in their case files all the information they need on the parachute to readily identify it. I've maintained for some time that the FBI is dragging its feet, and some wonder if they really want to solve this case.

If the parachute was the one used by D.B. Cooper, it proves our contention that he survived the jump, something the FBI denies. It still doesn't prove that our suspect, Kenneth Christiansen, was D.B. Cooper, but we're still working on that. The FBI won't even investigate our claim because they think Cooper died when he bailed out of the plane. They think that he didn't even open the parachute. No body, or parachute (until now) was ever found.

The parachute was found exactly where it is believed that D.B. Cooper jumped from the 727 in 1971 with $200,000 in cash. A farmer was building a road through a field and his plow hit the buried shoot.

Private Investigators, Private Investigators, Private Investigators

If you googled private investigators you got 4,270,000 listings! That's a lot of competition. Somewhere not too far down the list you found Sherlock Investigations.

But, if you googled ny private investigators, private investigators in new york, new york private eyes, or any combination thereof, you found that Sherlock Investigations comes up near the top, even though there are a lot of private eyes in New York.

Why is that? For one thing, we've been around since 1995. That should tell you something. From the beginning in 1995, we've been on the Internet. In fact, besides word of mouth, and the occasional publicity in the media, the Internet is the only place we're listed. Once in a while we run ads on Google's Adwords.

However, coming up first in "natural" order is better than an ad appearing when you google a search term.

We've been around for a few years, and intend to be here a few years from now. So, if you need a private investigator to locate someone, run a background investigation, conduct surveillance, or perform a bug sweep, drop us an email at sherlockinvestigations@gmail.com

Also, we welcome unusual investigations, and believe me, we've had them.

People Search

We do a lot of things at Sherlock Investigations. I like to think that what we do, we do well.

It's always so rewarding when we locate a person for a client. About of a third of our business involves finding people. We've located all kinds of people. From deadbeat dads to runaway teens. We've located people in Africa, and even under a bridge in Tucson, Arizona.

We take personal pride in locating people. Generally, we never give up until we find the person. Often, in hours or days we can find someone. In rare instances it takes a year or two. The main thing is that we never give up.

If you've tried Net Detective, or companies using computerized services to locate people, and still haven't found who you're looking for, let Sherlock Investigations handle your locate. We're pleased that you trust us with your business.

Bug Detectors and Sweeps

I've always been interested in electronics. I found my first bug at 15. Since then I obtained my amateur (ham) radio license, KC2PYP, and even today, I have an amateur radio station in my home.

Formally trained in TSCM (technical surveillance counter measures) I've been doing wiretap and bug sweeps in the New York-metro area for a few years. My clients have ranged from ordinary people to celebrities, politicians, police, lawyers, accountants, hedge fund managers, socialites, and a famous auction house.

One thing that struck me a few years ago is that almost all bugs are found with a visual sweep. At least this is true where there is a fairly low threat. Of course, if the government taps your phone or bugs your office, it's going to be thoroughly professional and top notch. Even I probably couldn't find it, nor would I want to.

Most of my cases involves so-called infidelity cases. Jealous or suspicious spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, tap a phone, or place some bugs where they want to eavesdrop. Some of them do it themselves, others hire unethical P.I.s to do it.

In almost all these cases, the wiretap or bug can be found with a visual inspection, if one knows what to look for. With this realization, I wrote a manual so that people could learn to do it themselves. While it was aimed at my typical client, other P.I.s, who don't know anything about TSCM, could benefit too.

"Locating Wiretaps and Bugs...Without any Special Equipment" is a how-to manual for the do-it-yourselfer. It has about 36 full-color photos and describes in detail what to look for. I'm confident that almost anyone could find most wiretaps and bugs by following the steps in this manual.

Years of experience and knowledge have gone into this manual. In handy PDF form for downloading, it's only $29.95. TSCM work is expensive, but this little instruction booklet could save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. To order, just click here.

Now, if you suspect the authorities are tapping your phone or have bugged your office, you need a lawyer, not a manual.

Cell Phone Bugs

If you think that your cell phone is bugged, the bug is probably in your head, not in your cell phone. No, I don't mean implanted in your head, I mean it's just your imagination.

One day a guy called and told me that his dentist implanted bugs in his teeth. Yep, we get all kinds of crazies calling.

While a certain proportion of the population is paranoid schizophrenic, there are a few people who need to be concerned. If your a criminal, a big one, then you should be concerned that your landline is bugged. If you use only a cell phone, the FBI can bug that. But, you have to be a big enough fish.

The technology used to bug a cell phone is too expensive for most people, and it's sold to law enforcement anyway. Law enforcement can also get a court order to bug your cell phone through the telephone company's equipment. If the FBI bugs your phone, there is absolutely no way to tell, whether it's your landline or cell phone.

One lady who contacted Sherlock Investigations was sure that her cell phone was bugged. I asked her where she usually talked on it. In her car, she said. Her soon-to-be-ex knew too much about her plans and life that I knew something fishy was going on.

After two hours of searching, I found the listening device cleverly hidden in her car. Whenever she talked on her cell phone in her car, her husband could hear her side of the conversation. I removed the device and she gave it to her lawyer.

The chances of your cell phone being bugged, though, is very, very slim.

K-9 Detective

A couple of years ago notices were posted on all the doors leading to the stairwells in the 29 story building where I live. It seems that someone was letting their dog urinate on the landing of a particular floor. The management suspected a dog owner, so instead of going to the dog owners on that floor, they implicated all of us dog owners.

I know all the dog owners in my building and didn't believe that any of them would let their canines pee in the stairwell. So, I called the superintendant of the building and asked for him to call me if an incident ocurred again.

About two weeks later he called. A porter had discovered a puddle of pee on a stairway landing. I immediately put a leash on my dog Sparky, a Llhasa Apso, and headed to the elevator. We met the super on the designated floor and he showed me the puddle.

My theory was that Sparky would be very interested in dog urine, because when I walked him three times a day he sniffed every tree, bush, and everything that didn't move. He could identify every dog in the neighborhood by the urine he smelled. However, if it were human urine in the stairwell, Sparky would have no interest.

I walked him by the puddle and he paid no attention. He just wanted to go down the stairs. Then I actually walked him through it. He still paid no attention. If it were a dogs', he would've sensed it as soon as he walked through the door and become very interested.My conclusion, I told the super, was that a person, a human being, peed in the stairwell. Understanding my reasoning, he agreed with my premise.

Soon, Sparky proved to be a good detective, as a woman with Alzheimer's disease was found to be the culprit.

Sparky suffered a massive stroke on Saturday, November 10, 2007. He was 15 years and 7 months old. He's missed.

D.B. Cooper, New York Magazine

This week's New York magazine has another column dedicated to the mystery of D.B. Cooper. An FBI spokesman said that our suspect, Kenneth Christiansen, was dismissed as a suspect because he did not meet "the threshold of the basic physical description" of the hijacker.

New York says, "Really?" Geoffrey Gray, the author, responded, "One of the FBI's primary witnesses to the crime, stewardess Florence Schaffner, told New York that of all the suspects the FBI has ever shown her thoughout the years, the suspect that look the most like D.B. Cooper is Ken Christiansen. Why would the FBI discount the observations of their own witness?"

What is the FBI's basic description of the hijacker? Here it is: Race: White. Sex: Male. Age: Mid-40s. Height: 5'10'' to 6'. Weight: 170 to 180. Build: Average to well built."

We have a Washington state driver's license that belonged to Kenneth Christiansen. He was 45 years of age in 1971, and according to the driver's license weighed 170 pounds, and was 5'8" in bare feet, which could easily make him 5'10" in shoes. He was white, probably with a suntan, and as a trained paratrooper, well built. And his photo looks astonishing like the FBI composite drawing.

Since Sherlock Investigations revealed the name of Kenneth Christiansen, the FBI has not only reactivated the case, but also gone to the media. They believe that the hijacker plunged to his death after bailing out of the Northwest 727 in 1971. So, any theories of a man surviving the jump are automatically rejected by them.

To this day, they haven't called Sherlock Investigations, or Lyle Christiansen, Kenneth's brother who turned him in. However, several months ago they asked for DNA samples, which we supplied. We're still waiting.

FBI and D.B. Cooper

Since New York Magazine broke the name of our suspect, Kenneth P. Christiansen, in the infamous D.B. Cooper saga, the FBI reactivated the 36 year-old case. However, they say that our suspect, Christiansen, is not D.B. Cooper.

The FBI is convinced that "Cooper" failed to open his parachute when he jumped, so they automatically eliminate anyone who was alive after November 24, 1971. They have no evidence of the parachutist's death, since no body, or red and yellow parachute has ever been found.

Our suspect, Kenneth Christiansen, was trained by the Army to jump with 90 pounds of equipment strapped to his body. Twenty-one pounds of cash would have been easy for him. Also, many skydivers acknowledge that an experienced paratrooper or skydiver would know what to expect on a jump like that, and could easily survive it.

They do suspect that Cooper was from the Seattle area. Christiansen lived in Bonnie Lake, Washington, a Seattle suburb.

They say, though, that Cooper apparently didn't know that much about flying planes. So? How many flight attendants and mechanics do? Christiansen worked as both for Northwest Airlines. At least he knew enough to instruct the pilot to fly the plane lower and slower than usual.

When Lyle Christiansen first suspected his brother and went to the FBI he didn't give them any evidence. He even tried to hide his brother's name from them, and his story was just one among many hundreds that they received. To this day, they've obtained NO evidence directly from Christiansen. At Sherlock Investigations we've gathered lots of evidence, including DNA and Christiansen's thumbprint.

Most importantly, the FBI maintains that Cooper was 6 feet tall and weighed 175 to 180 pounds, had brown eyes, and a tan or swarthy complexion. Kenneth Christiansen was 5'10 in shoes, and according to his driver's license, 170 pounds. (Many people lie on their driver's license applications, so he could have been a few pounds heavier.) He also had hazel eyes. Many people confuse brown eyes with hazel eyes. Christiansen also loved the sun, and spent as much time in tropical places and beaches as he could.

At their request, we provided the FBI with DNA from Kenneth Christiansen and his brother. Only when the FBI conclusively eliminates him based on that evidence will it prove that Christiansen wasn't Cooper. Meanwhile, he is the leading suspect, and to reject him as a suspect because the FBI didn't bother to obtain a copy of his driver's license is negligent.

The truth is, the FBI hasn't a clue who D.B. Cooper was, so they like to say that he died when he parachuted from that plane.

We'll wait for the DNA results.

DB Cooper in New York Magazine

After months of investigating the identity of the notorious DB Cooper, Sherlock Investigations reveals the culprit's identity in a major article in New York magazine (Oct. 29, 2007 issue), on the news stands on October 22, 2007.

In the piece, you'll learn about how we came across his identity, and why we think this man is the infamous DB Cooper. This case has baffled the FBI for almost 36 years. Now, the true story of DB Cooper comes to light.

Click here to view article: http://nymag.com/news/features/39593/

DB Cooper Identified!

For months now, Sherlock Investigations has been working on the notorious DB Cooper case. DB Cooper, in case you don't know, hijacked a Northwest Orient plane in 1971 and extorted $200,000 from the airline, saying that he had a bomb in his briefcase. He also demanded four parachutes along with the money. After the plane was airborne, he did the unheard of...he bailed out, with the cash strapped to himself.

Years later, some $5800 in cash was found along the Columbia River in Washington, but his yellow and red parachute, and more importantly, DB Cooper, were never found.

The man buying the ticket for that flight used the name Dan Cooper. After the heist, the media interviewed a man named D.B. Cooper. Somehow the name stuck, and DB Cooper became sort of a folk hero.

For almost 36 years now (the hijacking took place on Thanksgiving Eve, November 24, 1971) the FBI has been trying to solve the case. They've interviewed thousands of people and have had many leads, but have come up empty-handed.

Professional and amateur sleuths have followed the case for years. Several people have come forward and said that they're DB Cooper. Others have said that their deceased loved-one was DB Cooper.

Sherlock Investigations has been investigating a man who fits the profile more than any other suspect, and we believe that our suspect was the real DB Cooper.

Very soon, a major weekly magazine will feature our suspect, and how we found him. The article includes photos. Watch your newstand!

People Search

The Internet is a great way to locate someone. Often, just entering someone's name in Google will come up with an address, phone number, and sometimes even an email address. Then there are specialized sites like classmates.com, anywho.com and a number of others.

When the going gets rough, people often click on the various ads found on Google and Yahoo. Most of these companies have access to databases such as the "headers" provided by the three major credit reporting companies. The headers contain basic information such as name, address, date-of-birth, Social Security Number, and often a phone number. Sometimes they include a place of employment.

When running a name through one of these companies that advertise on the Internet, you usually have to give your credit card information to see the results of your search. Many times, you'll get a long list of names, and you'll be left to figure out which one, if any, are the person that you're looking for.

Some companies offer Free People Locators. This will work if the person that you're looking for is in "plain sight" and not hiding from you or anyone else.

People contact Sherlock Investigations after they've tried all of the above. We specialize in finding hard-to-find people. Sure, we have access to all the databases that the other companies have. Too often, though, the person we're looking for is not on a database, or if they are, the data is old. People move a lot, and it takes months for the paper trail to catch up.

Sherlock Investigations offers hands-on service, and we work closely with our clients until we find the person you're looking for. You don't get this kind of service from most of the companies advertising on the Internet.

Some people, for any number of reasons, just don't want to be found. That's where Sherlock Investigations comes in. Based in New York City, we've gone in person as far as Tucson, Arizona to locate someone. In that case, we found her living under a bridge.

Free People Locator services may work fine for some people, but not hard-to-find people. Our rates may be higher than those of some agencies, but how many offer a guarantee? Not many, believe me. Our guarantee is that we will keep a case open and active until we locate the person you've hired us to find. We locate heirs, witnesses, deadbeat dads, runaway teens, fugitives, debtors, lost siblings, parents, and children.

If you're still looking for a free people locator, remember, you get what you pay for.

Ask the Private Investigator

The phone rings all day long and the email keeps coming in to Sherlock Investigations. Most of these callers and emailers ask questions about the nature of investigations, our rates, or just ask us to take their case.

But, if you have questions of a general nature, you can ask them on this blog. We monitor the blog constantly, and will post an answer to your question asap.

Just click on Comment, and then wait for our answer.

You can also make Comments about the subjects we write about, and also Comment on other people's Comments.

So, whether you have a serious question, or just want to join the fun, leave a note on Comments.

Phishing PayPal

We recently received an email from "PayPal." Only it was not from PayPal.


Of course we didn't recognize the $93.12 charge, and had we not be aware of these kinds of scams we would have clicked on the "Cancel this payment." To do so, though, we would have been asked to share passwords or personal or company financial information that would have led to identity theft, and likely caused great financial loss.


A couple of things about this email made us suspicious. The first one is the sender's email address. Even though it says "PalPal" before the email address, the email address of aw@ppl-dpt.com is not a genuince PayPal email address. Their email is always ........@PayPal.com.


Also, genuine PayPal email will not have typographical errors. Note that European is "european," all lower case.

Just to make sure, we went to our PayPal account and clicked on History. There never was a transaction made for the amount of $93.12.

There are also other problems with the email. See if you can spot them.

We forwarded this email to PayPal at spoof@PayPal.com and received the response copied below. PayPal acknowledged that the email we received was not genuine, and is known as "phishing."


Be aware that phishing comes in many forms. Examine unknown emails carefully.

Never open attachments if you're not sure who sent the email. Even then, you have to be careful. If you open an attachment, and apparently nothing happens, you may have just placed spyware on your hard drive.

This is the bogus email that we received:

PayPal aw@ppl-dpt.com
To: Sherlockinvestigations@gmail.com

We recorded a payment request from "Internet Safe-Shopping - shopsafe.com -" to enable the charge of $ 93.12 on your account.

Because the order was made from a european internet address, we put an Exception Payment on transaction id #PayPal-T2254 motivated by our Geographical Tracking System.

THE PAYMENT IS PENDING FOR THE MOMENT.

If you made this transaction or if you just authorize this payment, please ignore or remove this email message. The transaction will be shown on your monthly statement as "Internet Safe-Shopping -shopsafe.com-".

If you didn't make this payment and would like to decline the $ 93.12 billing to your card, please follow the link below to cancel the payment:

Cancel this payment (transaction id #PayPal-T2254) [link removed by Sherlock]

NOTE: Because email is not a secure form of communication, please do not reply to this email.

Copyright 1995-2007 PayPal Inc. All Rights Reserved.


Our response from the real PayPay:

RE: Q510 - Thank you for your email to PayPal
"spoof@paypal.com"

Thanks for taking an active role by reporting suspicious-looking emails.The email you forwarded to us is a phishing email, and our security team is working to disable it.

What is a phishing email?

Phishing emails attempt to steal your identity and will often ask you to reveal your password or other personal or financial information. PayPal will never ask for your password over the phone or in an email and will always address you by your first and last name. Take our Fight Phishing Challenge at https://www.paypal.com/fightphishing to learn 5 things you should know about phishing. You'll also see what we're doing to help fight fraud every day.

You've made a difference. Every email counts. By forwarding a suspicious-looking email to spoof@paypal.com, you've helped keep yourself and others safe from identity theft. Thanks,

The PayPal Team

Scam-proof Passwords

One night last year I swept an accountant's office in midtown Manhattan. By "swept," I mean TSCM, or an electronic surveillance countermeasures job, or, in other words, bug sweep.

I found a video camera hidden in a plant. It was easy to find because most plants don't have a wire leading to them. In this case, the owner placed the camera as part of his security system.

I was part of a team. The other part were Israeli computer geeks. They had a disk that they shoved into the computers in the office and, literally, in two seconds, uncovered all the passwords in each computer.

Most hackers and identity thieves don't have such sophisticated software. They don't need it. Many people use their pet's name, their first name, nicknames, "password", "123456," "qwerty," "abc123," "letmein," "monkey," their birthdate, or part of their Social Security Number, as their password. Hackers and identity thieves know this.

Obviously, any password stored on a computer is obtainable. However, the best passwords...ones that people cannot guess...are random passwords. Examples are: 4kC?l0*, or 4ilJH%, or #Ikn*M. These were created randomly by hitting different keys blindly.

Of course, if you have passwords like this, and I recommend it, you have to write them down, because you'll never remember them. Just don't tape them to your computer.

Junior McFadden

Once again we ask our reader's assistance in locating someone. Several times recently Sherlock Investigations has received tips that led to the person that we were looking for. So, amateur sleuths, go to it!

The photos below were taken in Japan in 1973. The subject was in the U.S. Army, Camp Fuji in Japan.

He was born in Missouri, and 18 or 19 years old at the time, which means he was born in 1954 or 1955.

At one time that we know of, he went t0 Yamashita Park and Camp Honmoku, both in Japan.

His friends called him "Junior," and the handwriting on the pictures may read "Junior McFadden," but that is open to interpretation.

The jeep pictured has a sign reading, perhaps, "FDO."

"Junior McFadden," if still living, is not in any kind of trouble. We just have a client who would like to find him and has given permission for us to post this search on our blog.

If you think you know the identity of this person, please email us at sherlockinvestigations@gmail.com or call us at 1-888-354-2174. All responses will be strictly confidential.

Whitey Bulger Update

In locating hard-to-find people for many years now, I've learned that it's easy to widen your scope. Instead of just trying to find the person that you're looking for, try to find someone who knows where that person is. Almost no one completely disappears. There are usually a number of people who know where that person is.

I recently posted on this blog a request to help me find two flight attendents who dealt with D.B. Cooper when he skyjacked a Northwest Airlines plane in 1971, then bailed out with the ransom money, never to be seen again. As a result of that posting, we've located both women through informants who read the blog and got in touch with me. Even though both women had changed their names, people knew them, and where they were.

I first posted this "sighting" of Whitey Bulger on Monday, August 28, 2006, more than a year ago. He still has not been located, and the FBI never got back to me about my "tip." As a government agency, I think the FBI is cumbersome and too often careless.

It's my hope that someone will come forward with some valid information on Whitey Bulger. I know, all sorts of kooks may come out of the ether and contact me. That's a chance I'm willing to take. I know that people know where Whitey Bulger is, and may have reason to turn him in.

James "Whitey" Bulger has been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List since 2000. They're offering a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest. A Boston mob figure, Bulger worked for years as an FBI informant. Now he's wanted in connection with several murders. He's considered armed (a knife) and dangerous. Photos of the white-haired Bulger are on the FBI's web site.

To this day, I believe that I spotted him on Saturday, September, 2003. Here's my story: At approximately 1:25 p.m. I arrived with a friend at The Zipper theater at 336 W. 37th Street in New York to see a show called "Berkshire Village Idiot," a one-man comedy about Western Massachusetts. After picking up our tickets at the box office, we sat in the waiting area for about 15 minutes until they opened the theater. Then we were ushered to our seats, which were second row center. The show began about 10-12 minutes later.

About 2:30 p.m., a half hour into the show, I noticed a distinguished-looking man sitting about 10 yards away from me, diagonally on the right. He was sitting at the far end of the front row. There were four people sitting to his left.The physical appearance of the man caused me to do a double take. My first thought was that he looked like Whitey Bulger. His white hair was closely cropped on the sides. He appeared to have no hair on top. He was dressed in black slacks, a black short-sleeved shirt, and thick-soled black sandals, with no socks. While he appeared very trim, his arms were somewhat muscular. He looked to be in his late 60s to early 70s. On the floor to his right was a medium-sized black, nylon backpack.

Dismissing my "sighting" as someone who looked coincidentally like Bulger, I let it go, but I occasionally glanced over at him. One time, our eyes met, and momentarily locked. After that, I avoided letting him see me look at him. For the next few minutes he acted figidty. Although the show has some funny lines, I never observed him laughing, or even smiling to the extent of revealing his teeth. In one scene, the lights were extinguished and the theater was almost completely dark. When the lights came back on, I noticed that the man had disappeared. His black bag was also gone. It was about 2:45 p.m.I sat for a few minutes wondering what to do. It made sense to me that Bulger, being from Massachusetts, would find a show about Massachusetts of interest.

My adrenaline began to rise. The seat in front of me, which was the front row, was empty. I quickly climbed over it and hurried out of the theater. I spoke to an usher who was seated on a folding chair outside. I asked her if she had seen a man leave, and I described him. She said that she had, and mentioned that he had left in a hurry, and didn't look at her, or say anything. I also spoke to the person in the ticket office. He had also noticed the man leave in an apparent rush. I went outside and looked up and down 37th Street, but didn't see the man, and found no one else who had noticed him.

Then, I called a contact at the FBI. My friend took my verbal report and suggested that someone would get back to me. I imagined that the FBI would first question me, and then go down to the theater and fingerprint the area where the man sat. If Bulger's fingerprints were found, then the sighting was real, and they would know at least that he was in New York.I never heard from the FBI about this. Either they knew that Bulger was in some other location, or they're just slack in looking for him.

Internet Scams

People contact Sherlock Investigations every week who have been robbed by someone they met online. To make matters worse, the recipients die off before their generous benefactors even realize that they've been had.

We've all heard of the Nigerian scams (Still, it's amazing how many people still fall for them.). They contact you by email claiming to be the wife, husband, son, or daughter of someone who had control of a lot of money. They want you to help them retrieve the money. If you help them, they'll give you, say, a 20% commission.

The other day we had a guy who fell for this. He contacted us because he wanted to know if a certain person was the head of The Bank of Africa. He was already in over his head when he emailed us. He had called a number in Africa and spoke to a "lawyer." The lawyer assured him that he could help him negotiate the red tape to retrieve his money. His only fee would be $850, in advance.

The idiot sent $850 to Africa by Western Union. A week later, the lawyer said that he needed another $5500. That's when the idiot contacted us.

I told him that he'd be had, and not to go to Ghana to try to find the guy and get his money back. People have been murdered while trying to do this.

There are many, many scams on the Internet. Some people list themselves on dating sites or other social places. After weeks or months sending back and forth engaging email or instant messages, they win your heart. Then they ask you if you'd help them out. One potential client sent a guy $6000 for knee surgery.

When our would-be client started to get suspicious, he got an email from someone saying that the guy who had knee surgery died of a blood clot. Without a doubt, it was the same guy who received the money. Time to move on, he thought.

This week alone we received pleas for help concerning three different people who "died" during the course of an Internet relationship. One woman was told, "It was all your fault."

Young men often fall victim to scams because they engage in online chat with young females who are charming and beautiful. Of course, the photos they send are not usually themselves. One person was sending out photos of an Italian porn star. We tracked him down and found a fat kid living with his mother. We even got a surveillance photo of him.

In one case, which was unusual, a guy had been having a relationship with a girl from the Phillipines. He hired Sherlock to check her out. She actually turned out to be who said she was, and he went to the Phillipines and proposed.

A lot of people are greedy, and think that they can get something for nothing. It ain't gonna happen folks. The bottom line: Don't give money to someone you don't really know. Maybe you shouldn't even give money to someone who you do know. You can be the judge of that.

Was Brooke Astor's Office Bugged?

Last fall I received a call for technical surveillance countermeasures at an office on Park Avenue. The office belonged to Brooke Astor, who died on August 13, 2007 at the age of 105.

Of course, Mrs. Astor, 104 at the time, wasn't there when I went to her office. In fact, it looked like she hadn't stepped foot in there for many years. The almost-quaint office had all sorts of Astor memorabilia, photos on the walls of exotic places, and several dusty books that Brooke Astor had written.

I got the call to sweep the office right after Astor's grandson, Philip Marshall, sued his father, Anthony Marshall, for neglecting to care for his mother while allegedly trying to help himself to some of her wealth.

The court put JPMorgan Chase in charge of Brooke Astor's financial affairs. It was through JPMorgan Chase that I was brought in to sweep the office for listening devices or phone taps. That office, apparently, handled some of her financial affairs.

Before Anthony Marshall became a Broadway producer, he was employed by the CIA. I have no idea whether he had the knowledge to bug an office or tap a phone, or whether the financial overseers at JPMorgan Chase were even worried about him. When I do these jobs, I just do my job and don't ask many questions.

The office was clean; I found nothing unusual. Just another routine job.

Criminal Investigations

Some states do have repositories, which are supposed to contain the records of convictions from every county in that state. The truth of the matter is that very few state repositories are accurate or up to date. Why? Because the information on convictions comes, typically, from the court clerk's office. In some states, law enforcement agencies have to specifically request that conviction records be sent to the state repositories. Even at that, only the more serious felony convictions are submitted. Less serious offenses like fraud and battery are seldom, if ever, reported. Even when a request is made, busy clerks may or may not get around to sending the information in a timely manner.

Beyond the state repositories, there is no requirement for any court to report conviction information to any state or federal agency. There is the NCIC (National Crime Information Center) in Washington, which collects information on arrests and convictions. But access to their files is limited essentially to law enforcement agencies and a few other institutions, such as banks, which, by law, have been given access to the information. The average employer does not have access to NCIC information, nor do any agencies that claim they can do nationwide court checks.

No central, up-to-date location exists that provides the average employer with conviction records. A nationwide court check can be done, but it is nationwide only in a very localized sense. Anybody can contact a county clerk in any county, one at a time, to check a candidate's criminal history. But that raises a myriad of other questions. How many counties do you check? How many years do you want to cover? Which court systems -- circuit, county or municipal -- do you want to check? What about neighboring counties? A candidate could be a saint in his county of residence and have a conviction record a mile long in the next county over, but you'd never know it unless you check there also. Do you just conduct the check in the current county of residence, or do you check all the contiguous counties, or all former counties of residence? The list of questions goes on and on.

Why do a criminal court check at all? There are only two legitimate reasons: 1) because the nature of the position for which the candidate is being considered requires it or 2) because there is some doubt or suspicion about the candidate's background. There is a third reason why many companies insist on doing a court check. They believe that by doing so they can demonstrate that some measure of care was exercised in the employment process that will protect them from possible claims of negligent hiring. Conducting a court check, in other words, is a cheap way for them to cover the company's backside in case a charge of negligent hiring is brought against them.

Companies interested in more than "backside covering" should be doing reference checks to evaluate past job performance as it relates to the requirements of the position to be filled. They should be talking to work-related references who are familiar with the candidate's job performance over time. What, afterall, can a court check tell a prospective employer about a candidate's management style or ability to work effectively with others?
A court check falls into that same marginally useful category of cursory checks, such as verifying employment dates or job titles. Just confirming that a candidate really worked at the XYZ Company for three years obviously says nothing about the quality of the job that was done or much of anything else.

Beware of anybody who claims to do nationwide court checks. What they're offering to do is call the candidate's current county of residence and talk to somebody in one local courthouse. And as author and critic John Ruskin once said, "There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse or sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey."

First published by Tracersinfo.com. Used by permission.

Myspace.com Promoted on Fox

Sherlock Investigation's Sherry Hart appeared on Fox's "The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet" on Monday, July 30th, to discuss locating people on myspace.com.

Billed as "Myspace Reunions: Finding loved ones online," the program was clearly formulated to promote myspace.com, a Murdoch company. Amid much laughter, the hosts, Mike and Juliet, said, "Myspace.com is owned by our company Newscorp." Indeed, myspace.com and Fox TV are owned by Newscorp, Rupert Murdoch's conglomerate.

The program featured a father-daughter, who were reunited after being separated years ago, and a brother-sister who were split up when they were kids. All had found each other through myspace.com. Most of the segment was spent on the lifeless brother and sister, who looked like zombies. Mike tried valiantly to add some life to their testimonies.

Sherry was introduced as "an expert on online investigations." The hosts asked Sherry, "Is myspace.com and these other sites putting you out of business?"

"People are pretty savvy these days," Sherry said, "about trying to find people on their own before they hire an investigator." She added that the process is so time-consuming and laborious that people often turn to a private investigator.

She warned about the fake entries on myspace.com, and that you have to be careful about what you believe when you read on myspace.com. She also mentioned the pedophiles in the news on myspace.com, to which Mike interjected, "But they've really cleaned up their act!"

Sherry also warned that after you go to myspace.com "you'd better run your Ad-aware and keep your Norton up to date," because of the junk that infects your computer. She said that going to myspace.com is "like walking barefoot in a Port Authority rest room."

Normally, Fox puts the segments from The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet on their website later that day. In this case, they failed to add this segment. Hmmm, wonder why?

D.B. Cooper Update

You may have ended up here by googling D.B. Cooper. If not, google the name to learn more about this famous case. Now, we believe that this 36 year-old case is about to be broken by Sherlock Investigations.

D.B. Cooper is a name erroneously attached to a man who hijacked a Northwest 727 in 1971. He said that he had a bomb in a cheap plastic suitcase he carried. The man bought his plane ticket under the name Dan Cooper. The media later interviewed a D.B. Cooper. The name stuck forever to the case.

"Cooper" had the plane land, unload the 36 passengers, and picked up $200,000 in $20 bills, plus four parachutes. Soon after taking off again, he bailed out, never to be seen again. Even the yellow and red parachute was never found.

Many articles, some books, and even a movie, starring Treat Williams and Robert Duvall, have been inspired by the D.B. Cooper case.

Working on a lead we received, we've been on the case for several months. All the evidence we have fits the clues gleaned from the various articles and FBI press releases. We have photos, a fingerprint, and DNA evidence.

We believe that "D.B. Cooper" worked for Northwest Airlines (Northwest Orient at the time), was an experienced parachutist, lived in a Seattle suburb, grew up in the midwest, and was single. He even bought a house for cash two years after the famous hijacking.

Stayed tuned for more!

D.B. Cooper

On November 24, Thanksgiving eve, 1971, a unknown man hijacked a Northwest Orient Boeing 727 in Portland, Oregon, said he had a bomb in his briefcase, and demanded $200,000 in cash and four parachutes. He had the plane land, unload the 36 passengers, and picked up the cash and parachutes.

A little while after taking off with only the crew members, he lowered the backstairs and bailed out with the money. He's never been found since, dead or alive. However, some $5800 in cash was found along the Columbia River some years later.

The purpose of this telling is not to reiterate the story, but to announce that we think we know who D.B. Cooper was, and to solicite some help. Anyone who googles D.B. Cooper will find many accounts of the episode.

Our suspect was 45 years old at the time of the hijacking, an employee of Northwest Orient, and an experienced parachutist. He was a bourbon drinker, and a heavy smoker, as was Cooper, who ordered a bourbon on the plane and chain-smoked.

Our suspect lived in the Seattle area, but was originally from the Midwest. Although he retired from Northwest, he never had a bank account. Two years after the hijacking he purchased a house in the Seattle area, for cash, in $20 bills.

We have photographs of our suspect, one in a Northwest Orient flight attendant's uniform, and a mugshot that closely matches the FBI's composite drawing. We also have a thumbprint from his Army discharge papers (where he learned parachuting) and some DNA evidence.

There were two stewardesses on D.B. Cooper's (a fictitious name given to the hijacker by the media). They were Florence Schaffner and Tina Mucklow. We understand that Ms. Mucklow became a nun and is now sequestered in a convent.

First Officer Bob Rataczak, and the flight engineer H.E. Anderson also got a look at Cooper, as well as at least two passengers, Richard Simmons and his wife Barbara Simmons. The pilot is deceased.

If you're following this case, and know the whereabouts of any of the individuals listed above, we'd love to hear from you. Better still, if you're any of the people we listed, call today. We'd like to send these people copies of the photos we have and see if they recognize our suspect as being the man known as D.B. Cooper.

The FBI is also interested in this, but we're not ready to give up the information we have.

Gotham Private Eye Experience

Private investigator wannabes regularly contact Sherlock Investigations for employment or interships. We encourage people not to bother sending resumes because we don't read them. Instead, ema