Greg Stejskal served as an FBI agent for 31 years and retired as resident agent in charge of the Ann Arbor office.
Robin Hood in Reverse — A $1.1 Million Scam
By Greg Stejskal ticklethewire.com In 2005 Female Jones (not her real name), an indigent woman living in public housing in Ann Arbor, Mich., discovered she wasn’t eligible for federal housing assistance. The reason she wasn’t eligible was because it appeared she was already receiving “Section 8” voucher payments. Jones wasn’t aware of receiving any assistance….
How U-M Football Coach Bo Schembechler Inspired FBI’s First Probe Into Steroids in Sports
This column first appeared in the Ann Arbor Observer. It’s being republished with his permission. By Greg Stejskal ticklethewire.com The late Bo Schembechler (left) and Greg Stejskal. In reading recent accounts of state-sponsored use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), primarily by Russia, I was struck by how quickly it was decided that the FBI would…
A Cold Murder Case in Detroit Dating Back to 1857
By Gregory Stejskal There is an apocryphal story – Ernest Hemingway was having lunch with some writer friends when he proposed a wager. He bet $10 that he could write a story in six words. With no doubt some curiosity, everyone at the table put $10 in the pot. Hemingway wrote on a napkin, “For…
An Intriguing Tale of a GM Worker Who Got Busted Selling Test Cars from Proving Grounds
By Greg Stejskal ticklethewire.com Jack Clingingsmith had what any car guy would consider a dream job. He was the executive in charge of testing for Buick at the General Motors proving grounds. GM’s Milford, Michigan proving ground, when it opened in 1924, was the auto industry’s first dedicated testing facility. Today the sprawling 400 acre…
The Tale of the Stolen Meteorite
By Greg Stejskal ticklethewire.com I was assigned to the FBI’s Ann Arbor, Michigan office for most of my career (referred to as a resident agency or RA in the Bureau) We were primarily responsible for investigating violations of federal law in five counties which had a total population of about a million people. Ann Arbor…
The Double Steal — The Right and Wrong Way to Steal Trade Secrets
By Greg Stejskal ticklethewire.com It took about 5,000 years from the discovery of glass until a process was developed to economically mass produce flat glass, and only a few years before the technology was stolen. Glass is one of the great fundamental inventions – not at the level of the wheel or fire, but up…
The FBI and Drugs in the Beginning
By Greg Stejskal ticklethewire.com Webster Bivens may have been a drug dealer, but his place in law enforcement history is not proportional to his status as an alleged dealer. In the fall of 1965, Federal Bureau of Narcotics agents raided Bivens’ Brooklyn apartment. The FBN agents had neither an arrest warrant nor a search warrant….
A Book Review About Baseball, A-Rod and the Steroid Era
Blood Sport: Alex Rodriguez, Biogenesis, and the Quest to End baseball’s Steroid Era , By Tim Elfrink and Gus Garcia-Roberts By Greg Stejskal ticklethewire.com__ This is not a traditional book review as those are usually done about the time a book is published and first available for sale. Also in the interest of full disclosure, another…
Despite All the Hype, The PBS Show on The Jimmy Hoffa Disappearance Didn’t Crack the Case
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com DETROIT — As we thought would be the case, the PBS show Tuesday night on Jimmy Hoffa — “Who Killed Jimmy Hoffa?” — didn’t crack the case as the pre-show hype suggested it might. And it certainly didn’t leave you feeling as if you knew what really happened to the Teamster boss….
Omaha Columnist Interviews Retired FBI Agent Greg Stejskal About the Hoffa Disappearance
Editors Note from ticklethewire.com: Greg Stejskal served as an FBI agent for 31 years and retired as resident agent in charge of the Ann Arbor office. He is also a columnist for ticklethewire.com By Michael Kelly World-Herald columnist Omaha native and retired FBI agent Greg Stejskal recently returned to the scene of a famous crime:…