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The magazine of professional investigators

Summer Series: Origin Stories

01 Jun 2020
Kim Green
Off
private investigation, private investigators

We’ve gathered all our origin stories in one place: podcasts, webinars, profiles, and history articles about pioneering PIs and ancient justice. Enjoy!

This summer of 2020, we are diving into origin stories — essays by investigators about discovering their calling. Interviews with professionals about what moved them to become truth seekers. Articles about pioneering detectives and entrepreneurs, early legal codes, and groundbreaking artists who created the crime fiction and films that inspired us to be who we are.

This series is all about beginnings. How things came to be. The process of becoming. Below are some favorites from our archive. As we publish more origin stories this summer, we’ll add to this list.

First, here’s a new video we made of our editor Hal Humphreys’ PI origin story:

Got an origin story to share? Email your story or pitch to the editor: kim [at] storyoardemp [dot] com.

Private Investigator Essays:

Angelica Brooks, Silent Voices Project
Origin Stories: From CSI to New PI, by Angelica Brooks
Origin Stories: Labor of Love, by Colleen Collins
From Fiction to Reality: My Path to Becoming a PI-Entrepreneur, by Mark Murnan
Origin Stories: For Love of the Game, by Brian Willingham
On Persistence: A Defense Investigator’s Manifesto, by Oliver Mackson
Reflections and Realizations: How I Became a Private Investigator, by Hal Humphreys (2016)
Chasing Easy: A Private Investigator Finds Inspiration in Fiction, by Steve Morrow
Diving Headfirst into the World of Cloaks and Daggers, by Talia Cohen
Father’s Day Briefing: Hal’s Origin Story, by Hal Humphreys (2020)
Panty Raid, by Mike Spencer
Why Defense Investigation Matters, by Sean Duffy
Investigator’s Notebook: Lessons From A Rookie Year, by Brandon Hovey
An Ex-Cop Turns Defense Investigator, by Michael McKenna
Investigator’s Notebook: I Don’t Always Wear a Trench Coat, by Amy Lynn Burch
How I Became a Private Investigator, by Rachele’ Davis
Rachele’ Davis of New Hope Investigations

Interviews & Profiles:

Q&A: Mike Spencer, Bay Area Private Investigator, by Kim Green

Who We Are: Renee Waters, Deadbeat Parent Finder, by Kim Green

Who We Are: Joe Stiles, Tennessee Bail Bondsman, by Claire Gibson

Q&A w/ Lindsay Moran—A Former CIA Operative Reveals Why She Became a Spy, by Kevin Goodman

Q&A w/ Amber Kaset: An Investigator for the Defense, by Kim Green

Q&A: Joe Carrillo—The Orphan Who Finds Lost Kids, by Kim Green

Q&A w/ Nicole Van Toorn—How to Become a Mitigation Specialist, by Kim Green

Q&A w/ Nicole Van Toorn, pt 2—Why to Be a Mitigation Specialist, by Kim Green

Who We Are: Ana Carolina Lanuza, Miami PI, by Claire Gibson

Q&A: Norma Tillman—People Finder & Accidental PI, by Kim Green

Norma Tillman, Tennessee investigator

Sound of Pursuit Podcast

Spencer for Hire


Pursuit Magazine · Sound of Pursuit: Spencer for Hire

Right and Wrong


Pursuit Magazine · Sound of Pursuit: Right and Wrong

Book Reviews / Memoirs:

City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris, by Chapter 16

Book Review & Excerpt: Confessions of a Private Eye, by Scott Fulmer

Cover image from Scott Fulmer’s Confessions of a Private Eye

History:

Origin Stories: Ancient Justice, by Kim Green

How Dashiell Hammett Invented The Modern Detective Novel, by Bill DeMain

The Pinkertons and the Rise of the Private Eye, by Kim Green

“Just the Sax, Ma’am”—Crime Jazz, by Bill DeMain

Vidocq: The First Private Investigator?, by Kim Green

Eugène François Vidocq

 

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About the Author
Kim Green is a writer, public radio producer, and occasional flight instructor. She’s produced stories for NPR and Marketplace, and was editor & translator of Red Sky, Black Death, a Soviet combat airwoman’s memoir of WWII. Follow her on Twitter: @aviatrixkim
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