 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Welcome and Aloha. My name is Mark Schlaufe. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea program. And today we're going to talk about a private investigator who came across the sea. My program today is titled Hawaii PI and my guest is Steve Goodenow. Steve is the founder and principal investigator of the Hawaii investigative group LLC. Steve has been a private investigator in Hawaii for over 50 years. And today we're going to find out how Steve got into this business, what a Hawaii private investigator does, and how real life differs or not from fictional private investigators. So Steve, welcome. It's good to see you. Thanks for being here. Thanks Mark. Nice to be here also. Okay. First mystery that I want you to solve, okay, how did you get to Hawaii and how did you get into the business of private investigating? But first, how did you get to Hawaii? What was one of those foggy days in San Francisco? I boarded the SS Matt Sonia and took a ship ride and ended up in the docks in Honolulu. Okay. That's how I got here. Okay. And... But the interesting story is why I came. Please. And how I got into the business. Please. Please. Yes. And my father was with the FBI, the real FBI. And he... In the old days. In the old days. And he was a field agent in Los Angeles. I always revered my father because for a major part of his career he was a spy. Now if you saw the movie Spy on a Bridge starring Tom Hanks where they captured Rudolph Abel then traded him for the U-2 pilot Gary Powers, that was my dad's case. And he served for years being the shadow of the actual counter spy which took him to Europe and all kinds of exotic places. So when dad, when the case was finally over, dad settled doing regular FBI work in Los Angeles and J. Edgar Hoover who at that time was the director of the FBI told my father that when he wanted to retire he could go anywhere he wanted. And so my dad and mom with no consultation with myself and my siblings decided on Hawaii. Why not? It sounded like a pretty good deal to me. I was 17 years old, just graduated from high school. And that summer we took the Metsonia to Hawaii. Now I left immediately to go back to college. Started it with college in Spokane, did a year there. But I really felt there was something about Hawaii that was special. I liked the people that I had met. I liked of course the scenery, the beaches. I was young. And so I decided to come back to the University of Hawaii for a year, at least a year. So my sophomore year of college, I spent it at the University of Hawaii. You'll notice my hat. I'm a big booster of the University of Hawaii and its sports programs. In any event I came back to Hawaii, spent a great year, but I missed that small college atmosphere and a certain lady that used to live there. And so I decided to go back to Whitworth where I graduated. Well, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I was good in speech. I was good in political science. I like politics. So I decided I'd become a teacher. And so I taught school for three years. But after three years, I knew my calling was Hawaii. Jumped on an airplane. Now we had airplanes with jets and flew back to Hawaii with my wife. Seated to have a couple of children and needed something to do for the summer. So that was, I think, June of 1967. So Dad said, well, I've got some work. You want to work for me? Well, I said, sure. And your dad was, he's now out of the FBI. And your dad's Barry. Barry, good now. And he'd be tired and started really the first legal investigative company for private investigation in Hawaii. So I jumped at the chance. And as the summer went by, I started interviewing for teaching jobs. Had a pretty good line on one. My father came to me one day towards the end of summer and said, you know, Steve, would you like to stay on? You can always teach next year. Well, that was 50 years ago. And here I am today as a private investigator. Eventually, I started my own company and competition to my dad's company, Barry, good now, and associates, called it Lawyer's Aid. Because I wanted to work with lawyers. And then I decided I wanted to go to law school. So I applied. And I knew I could probably get in Gonzaga, which was back in Spokane, where Whitworth was, because they had a night school and I had no money. So I was going to have to pay for it. Got accepted to Gonzaga and was preparing to go. So my father replaced me. I had a couple of months kind of to cruise a little bit. And one day I got a call from an attorney who's still practicing law here by the name of Bert Kobayashi, Bert Kobayashi, Jr. And Bert said, I have a case for you. I said, well, Bert, I've just resigned from my dad's company. But Bert is, I called Bert the bulldog of Hawaii attorneys. He's very insistent. He could convince you. He said, no, I want you to work this case. So I went to my dad and I said, dad, Bert wants me to work this case. He had to do with an accident on a bus where the bus driver hadn't filled out the accident report with all the passengers. And he had a plaintiff's case. And so dad said, my dad was very wise and I just adored him. And he said, I think you should really start your own business. So he became my partner in Lawyer's Aid. We have to go through licensing because the state of Hawaii requires licensing for private investigators. So I went through and my dad was my principal. Yet I was, in fact, competing with him. Well, I took the case from Bert, was very successful, found the witnesses. Bert was able to put his case together. And then one day I got a call from Wally Fujiyama. Now, Wally's- And so you didn't go to law school, I guess. Well, I said, well, no, I was getting ready to go to law school. But Wally called. Now, those that are in the legal profession in Hawaii and have been here for a while, know Wally Fujiyama. Wally was the epitome of a local attorney. He was brilliant. He was smart. And he could talk to everybody. And he could talk to everyone, juries, clerks. It didn't matter who. And so Wally called me and he had a domestic case. And the investigator he used didn't do surveillance. Well, I had cut my teeth on surveillance, mostly insurance surveillance, and workman comp and personal liability cases. Because in those days, there was a lot of that. And so I said, sure, I'll do it. Went up to see Wally, Mr. Fujiyama, gave me the assignment. And I won't say who the client was, but it was a very notable Hawaii personality. Well, one day I'm following his wife. And his wife goes out and meets this third party. And they go to the royal, was it royal driving out there? By the airport used to be out there by a gas station, a Chevron gas station. And they order their lunches and they go to a table and they begin to passionately make out. I slide under a car that's being worked on. I'm totally dirty. I'm always have my camera ready and start clicking pictures. So I get the pictures, get them developed in those days we didn't have video. Or cell phones or cell phones or any of that stuff. I get the pictures delivered and I call Mr. Fujiyama. Now his secretary, who's still my friend, Harriet Suhako, called her, set up an appointment. I go into the office, Mr. Fujiyama, we'll see you now. Now Wally Fujiyama was a fascinating attorney. I don't know if he ever wore his shoes in his office. There he is with his feet up on his desk, a scowl on his face, working with this Caucasian or Holly investigator. He's a very local guy. And so I have to make a decision how I'm gonna present what I've found to him. So I have this package of photographs. Remember how the photographs came with a little package, I guess. I decide, and he's got these papers laid out in front of him. And I decide, I toss him. I just toss him. Right glance, right on his lap. And he looks at me with a scowl that would, you know, start World War III. He gets the pictures, he starts looking at them one by one and you just see that scowl turn to a pig. Come on. And from that moment on, I was Wally Fujiyama's investigator. Oh, okay. Just to carry it on just a little bit, he was associated with Walter Chuck. And the two were probably the most prominent local firm. They had been rejected by many of the big attorney firms in Hawaii, so they set their own up. And they showed them. They had all these local guys who all ended up to be judges, by the way, including Jim Duffy, who started with that firm as a rookie and who went onto the Supreme Court and became my best friend. In any event, I was his investigator. Shortly after that case, I got a call from Walter Chuck and he represented, at that time, called Kamehameha Schools, Bishop of State. Right. They believed there was an embezzler that worked in their physical department and he asked if I could handle that case. He was getting ready to go on the mission to China, that first big mission to China that President Nixon had set up. So he's gone for 30 days. He gives me the case. And Walter was a very serious person. And I get the case. And in the 30 days, hire a guy to help me, get an administrative assistant to help me. We have an office, $75 a month down on Alakaya and Queen Street. And I put the case together and by gosh, I was able to prove that he had stolen $1.3 million. He had no idea. I won't go into all the details, but I'll never forget sending that first bill. Now I was charging like $10 an hour or something. But when the bill goes out, it's for like 24 hours a day, right? Times 30. So Walter gets the bill and he has his secretary, Mrs. Chang, a force to be dealt with, calls me up. Mr. Chang would like, I mean, Mr. Chuck would like to see. Right, yes. So I go over there and sit out in the waiting area. And finally, Mrs. Chang says, Mr. Good down, Mr. Chuck, we'll see you. And as I walk through the office, the mood of the office, you can just tell, oh, he's gonna get his O'Coley reamed. You know, I go into Mr. Chuck's office, I explain to him what I did, why the bill was the amount it was and the evidence I had gathered. At the end of that meeting, big smile on his face and he says, I want you to run with this case and take it wherever it takes you. And we come out of his office, his arm is around me. We're laughing or smiling or something. And we come out of there and you should have seen the faces in that office. You know, what happened? And from then on, I was the investigator for both Walter Chuck and Mr. Fujama, who I considered my friends till they both passed. In any event, that's how I really got into the investigative profession. By this time, law school, I just had to call him and say, I'll go next year. Well, that was another next year thing. You're still waiting, I guess. No, I'm not waiting anymore. Look, they tell jokes about lawyers, right? I've heard a few. I'm not gonna repeat any for your audience, right? Yeah. But you know what kind of jokes they are. But when they talk about a private investigator, it never ceases to amaze me. People come up to me, oh, that must be a very interesting profession. And then I can tell stories. And I wanna talk a little bit more about that. And also I wanna talk a little bit more about how you differ from Sam Spade. Oh. In a minute, we're gonna take a break right now. Okay? All right. So hold that thought. And then I wanna talk a little bit more about the stuff that dreams are made of, okay? All right, thank you. What big eyes you have. She said, what are you doing? Research says reading from birth accelerates our baby's brain development. Push! Ah! Read aloud 15 minutes. Every child, every parent, every day. I like it. They said I can play, so I ain't chance to play at all. You know, that's my life. I love music. So we're doing it. Watch my show. It's on Tuesdays at one o'clock and it's out of the comfort zone. And I'll be your host, R.E. Kelly. See you there. Welcome back. I'm Mark Shklav, host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea and I am with Steve Goodenow, who is the principal of Hawaii Investigative Group, LLC. And we're talking about private investigators, Steve. And you've told us how you got involved in the business. And you know, I love private investigator movies. I love Sam Spade. I love the Maltese Falcon. Okay? I love it. I wanna know, is there any difference? And I don't, you know, you're gonna kid me, I know. But you watch these movies and what's real life like? What is the difference? And have you ever found a Maltese Falcon? Actually, I did. Well, I like the Malta. I bought one in this tourist shop. Let me tell you this story. The future president of the United States, Barack Obama's in town. I like basketball. I go to all the basketball games. He likes basketball. He was at a basketball game I was at. And I went up during half time to get a Pepsi for my wife. And standing up, talking to the president or the future president was Brooks Bear, the reporter here in Hawaii. I know Brooks, known for years. I don't wanna bother Barack Obama. You know, I tend to stay away from that kind of stuff. So I'm walking up the steps and get out to the mezzanine. Brooks says, Steve, come over here. I want you to meet Barack. So I'm introduced to Barack Obama. And here's what Brooks Bear says. Barack, I want you to meet Steve Goodman, the real magnum PI. What I liked about the future president, he asked me, what do you do? So for about five or 10 minutes, I was telling him the kind of work I did. He asked very intelligent questions and I had a very favorable impression of him. So what is the difference? I mean, what is the difference between you and magnum PI or not? Well, you know, time has changed the investigative field. When you first start out, just like any business, you're trying to take any kind of case so you can develop some income, right? Get employees, establish yourself in the community, especially for me, because I'd called myself lawyer's aide. I wasn't gonna call myself good now or anything else because I didn't wanna really conflict with my dad. We maintained a very good relationship. We talked at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but we talked about nice things, grandkids, all those things. We stayed away from cases. Every once in a while, I'd have to refer a case to dad. Dad would refer a case to me if there was conflict. But the work that I began to develop was related to the legal profession and their needs. And the thing I really love about my job, the thing, if it wasn't this way, I probably would have retired a long time ago, was that you wait in anticipation of the phone call. Someone like yourself, because you've called me a number of times in the past, or Kobayashi still calls me. Could be Woody Solner for a plaintiff's case, a business case, I get calls, and it's that call. It's getting the case. And each one is different. Each one is different, right? And I'm not the smartest investigator in the world. I readily admit that, but I hire the smartest people in the world. And secondly, what I'm good at is managing and figuring out a solution. What is the problem? How do you solve it? How do you give the attorney factual, objective information so they can represent their client? And that's what I do. I don't mince the facts. Facts say this, this is what they are, and I do that. And I think that reputation is kind of carried over to today. Now the difference between what you see in TV was there's always beautiful women. Well, there's beautiful women in my life too. In fact, the story of how I met my wife, Wendy, who's your classmate is kind of an example of that. I had to travel to the mainland. On a case? On a case. So my mother, who was a teacher, worked part-time at a travel agency run by Wendy's mother, Marnie Guy. And so I was dealing with actually somebody else in the firm. But I'd always noticed this attractive woman who was always busy putting trips together. And so I needed some tickets, so I called and the person I normally worked with was out of the office, so they referred me to Wendy. So she made the reservations for me. Now on those days you needed an actual ticket to get on. It wasn't the email kind of stuff. So, of course I forgot to pick up the ticket. And now it's Saturday and I'm leaving Sunday. What in the heck am I gonna do? Wendy, here's her name, but who in the heck is Wendy? Is it Guy? I wasn't quite sure. So I pull out the old pokes directory. You remember that before computers? You pull out the old directory. I go down to H&L with something else. Total travel was in those days. Pull it up and I look for the officers in the company and there's a Wendy Griffin. A little investigative work. It's what I hear you're telling me. That's right. So I pull that up. I run what little I can and I find an address for and a phone number. So I call this young lady up and I says, I'm really sorry. I forgot my ticket. She says, no problem. I'll go down to the office and deliver them to you. I says, I can't let you do that. I mean, let me pick you up and take you to the office. I can at least do that on Saturday, right? So she looked over at Royal Court, which was close to where I live. So I pick her up. We go down. I'm single. I wanna put that in, make sure everyone understands that. Go down, pick her up, pick her down. She gets my tickets. I didn't know she had a boyfriend if she had children. I didn't get married. I knew she wasn't married. No ring, I saw that right away. Very good investigative technique also, yeah. I started to check it out a little bit. And so I said, can I at least take you to dinner to show my appreciation? Well, we never ended up at dinner. I'm not saying we did anything. I wouldn't wanna publish. But we went out, walked around, had a really nice time. And I liked this girl. And so one thing led to another, and I married her, but my investigation founder, and then I did a little background. I said, she's perfect for me. And the rest is history. Our first date was a muscular dystrophy, 5,000 at table dinner, which I brought my firm chair and she was my date. Wow. And it was a tuxedo type of affair. So that was my first date. And we were married subsequently. And I lived 25, 26 years very happily. Okay, so your investigative techniques helped you win your wife? And how have things changed in the profession since you started? Well, the real big change has been the computer, the internet databases. That's the real change. It was at one time, I did buy my father's firm out when he reached 65, called it Good Now Associates. And when I purchased the company, I set up three divisions. By that time, I had started a security company called Safeguard. We had about 400 and some employees. Did most of downtown. Set that up, found good people to manage it. That's the key. I set up a company called Enshirco, which was doing insurance related business. Had good people to manage it. And then the Good Now operation handled general investigations. So I had these entities. And then I knew I was getting so many cases because California people intersect with Hawaii so often. I'm California people. So I decided that I would set up two offices in the mainland in California. One in San Jose for Northern California. And one in LA for Southern California. And I had people in line to do that. People I had worked with, people I knew. In fact, the guy that handled the LA office was Major Crimes Detail from LAPD, who handled some very famous cases. They had the Hillside Strangler case and all that. He did all those cases. But anyway, it was great. And so they were able to access their contacts and associates and provide information for me to give to my Hawaii clients that had stuff going on in California. So kind of like a nationwide network. Yeah, it was starting. Invisions. I had people approach me about buying the company and doing all these things. But no, I didn't want to sell the company because I felt responsible to my employees. Keep them going. Well, AOL came out after the internet's kind of created. AOL really was the first one to utilize the internet and databases. And they started with certain programs. It was very costly because you paid by the minute. But I jumped on that. I had computers before a lot of people, probably even lawyers had computers. They're still using the IBM's electrics. And I first computerized my databases that I had, and then I began to access through AOL, the main one. Well, as you know, that's all changed. Now there are Lexus Nexus for lawyers. There's all kinds of databases. And I've always tried to stay ahead of the game by finding out what databases are useful for people like me. And it became apparent I really didn't need a California office or two. Not anymore. No. And so the guy in Southern California retired. And the guy in Northern California also retired. So it was perfect. I closed them down. If you go to the DCCA here, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, you can probably find them. But in any event, I closed them down and we started. I got a guy that was really good with databases. And he began to expand what we could do. And of course, now there's so much. Social media has been the big change in the last several years, right? The Twitters, look at our president and his use of Twitter. By the way, I was interviewed for a television program in Washington DC. And they asked me the question of the day, what do you think of the president's Twitter? And I said, well, I think it's great that the politicians and the president are using social media. I think that's the life of the future. But I think you need to be responsible when you use it. And I don't think he's very responsible. Anyway, that's another story. Let me ask you. OK, so we've got computers and all that nowadays. I understand it. But let's say you're on the ground here. And in the couple minutes we have left, tell me, you're on the ground. You're doing surveillance. It's just you. What do you need as a private investigator to be successful? I have people that do surveillance now. I'm getting older. So I'm a little careful about my driving from my wife's discussion with me. But the key thing for an investigator, it was when I started, it is today, and it will be in the future, is that you have to be able to get along with people. You have to be able to talk to people. Give them a level of trust so that they will trust you. And as I like to say, they will tell you things. They won't tell their own mother. And then you have to get them convinced that that story needs to be told to a lawyer. And in many cases, they'll have to go to court to tell that story. So if I have any ability, I think it's working with people. When I taught school, I taught the eighth grade. If you could deal with eighth graders, you can deal with anybody. So I have that skill. That's your feel, what that's gave you the ability to be a good private investigator. I think you have it. My father was like that. I want to ask you one last question about your dad. What advice did your dad give you about being a private investigator? Let's close off with that. What would you say? I always tell people my father taught me the basics about investigation. But he really gave me the opportunity. And he allowed me to develop on my own. And when he was comfortable that I had been able to make that jump, he was willing to basically sell his company or merge with mine. And the best advice that he ever gave me is he said to tell the truth. The truth is your objective. And never sprain from it one bit. And that's the life I live. Well, Steve, thanks very much for being my guest today. I appreciate it. And we'll look forward to more cases going after the stuff that dreams are made of, OK? Thank you very much. You're welcome.