 the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea program. Today we are going to talk with Steve Goodenow. He came across the Sea to Hawaii and eventually settled into a life as a private investigator in Hawaii. Steve has just written a memoir titled Hawaii and I. He talks about his 50 year career as a PI in Hawaii. As detailed in his book, Steve has often traveled on the seamy side of paradise. He has always come up smiling and with unique insights into human nature. Welcome Steve. Thanks, Mark. I appreciate the introduction. You know, before we get into talking about your book, 50 years is a long time. Your book highlights a lot of interesting and notorious cases that you've handled and your travels around the world handling cases. But I'd like to ask you a little bit. What does the book, the timing of the book signify? Is this perhaps signaling a change in your life? Is this a retirement or if I had a case for you right now today, would you take it or would you refer it out? Where are you at in your life? Well, let me tell you the reason I wrote the book. There are actually two reasons I wrote the book, Mark. The first was about five years ago, my son, who lives in the state of Washington, Chris sent me a Christmas present and it was a blank book. You know, and he asked me, he said, Dad, what I'd really like for Christmas is for you to write a story about your life. Well, you know, that was very nice and the time passes quickly and I never did it, but I always thought about it. And then going back in time to when my father was still alive and we worked together, Dad and I discussed writing a book really about his life because he lived really an exciting life as a spy. And I wanted to do that. So those two things kind of hit me one day. And I said, if I don't do it, I never will. Here I've done 50 years, actually 52. And it's time to do it. And I worked a big case for a friend of mine by the name of Dwayne Carisu. And Dwayne runs AIO, which is a conglomerate company and amongst the companies they own is a publishing company. I really didn't know it at the time. Well, after I did the case, Dwayne and his CFO, Bonnie Amamia, who was a good friend of mine who I've known for years, kept telling me, well, you ought to write a book. You ought to write a book. And finally one day, they said, go see the publisher, George. And I went up to see George. And he said, well, what would you write a book about? Well, I had kind of done a rough outline years ago, which I brought, and it was about the eight deadly sins, seven deadly sins. And I thought I've had so many cases, I've covered all those sins on the part of others, I might add, that I thought it would be interesting to write cases that I've had about those particular sins. Okay, but let me come in here a little bit. Okay, so I hear your motivation. And your son and your dad were part of it. And Dwayne kind of said you should put this down. But are you still an investigator? Are you still? I mean, if I had a case for you right now, would you take it? Yeah, I would say I'm a little more selective now. I want to make sure I've always been selective about cases, although I've usually taken most of them, no matter who called me. But I want to make sure that what I do for you can provide, because it'll be for your client, can provide a service to your client is just not a waste of money, and a waste of your time and a waste of my time. I want to make sure it's relevant. So I'm a little more selective, although. Alright, so you're still in business as a PI, and you're still taking cases. And you wrote this book and what, how would you describe your book with the Hawaiian eye? What's it about? Well, I was at somewhat of a disadvantage because my former firm that I had been associated with years ago had destroyed all my files. So I had to do everything from memory. So since I'm getting a little up there in age, I decided I better write things down before I forget it all. So with that in mind, I knew I needed a little help. And so I decided I would stick to my basic thesis of the seven deadly sins. And I would write stories about people who I encountered. And I also wanted because of my relationship with my father to tell a little about him because he was my mentor. Let me let me ask you a little bit more about that. In your book, you do talk about how you became a private investigator, and you talk a lot about your dad. And how did he influence that? What, what, how was he involved in that ultimate choice that you made to become a private investigator? Well, I was a school teacher. And when I graduated from Whitworth College with a degree in education and did my student teaching, Hawaii had no jobs. I wanted to come back to Hawaii, but they had no jobs, at least for me. So I got a job up in the state of Washington as a teacher. But after three years, which I did a lot of things, I became head of the teacher association. I negotiated contracts for our teachers with the board of education. I did all those things. I thought it was I wanted to get back to Hawaii. And so I just basically resigned and came to Hawaii and looked for a job. And I worked for my dad for the summer. And what was he up? What was he doing? He had retired from the FBI and had set up the first real legal investigation company in Hawaii. And so I had a knack and the knack I had was for surveillance and photography. We didn't have video in those days, we had photography and movies. And so I had a real knack for it. And dad had always taught us kids, you know, how to take pictures and understand about light. And I'd taken some courses in photography, because I kind of thought I'd one day I might like to be a professional photographer. But in any event, I got into that. And dad then began to train me in the art of investigations. And of course, he was FBI. And, you know, had gone through a lot of training had done a lot of things. And he was a really good teacher. And I just I've been, you know, during his life, he had made trips to Europe for months at a time. So when I grew up in my formative years, I kind of always missed my dad because he was gone a lot. So this was a chance for me to realize that reestablish the connection with my dad. So he was a great he's you're kind of like a second generation. Oh, I API is what you're telling. Yeah. Yeah, he started his business in 66. I joined him in 67. And what type of cases were you handling in those days? Or what type of cases did you get started on? Well, we had some really exciting cases, because if you go back to that period of time, it was the time when organized crime was really heavily present in the islands. And so we had some great cases involving thefts. We had cases, you know, we had to go down to letter as bar and Hotel Street one really was not quite what it is today. And, you know, meet with guys and had to meet with the heavies and, you know, I always felt comfortable with my dad and his presence. And he introduced me to that particular life. But what I excelled in was photography and surveillance. And so I developed with my father's firm, the surveillance aspect of investigation. And I worked on countless personal injury, and workman compensation cases taking movies of claimants. Right. And your book talks about that, how you would follow people that were making claims and saying things that you discovered were not quite accurate. You know, what I never could figure out, Mark, about people was, I guess it's just greed. I guess it's one of my seven deadly sins, you know, a lot of people have accidents and have injuries. And, you know, I guess they're out for the money aspect of it. And so they tried to exaggerate it. You know, almost every case I had, there had been a legitimate accident of some kind or another. But the people were always trying to exaggerate it. I guess to get more money. Well, in reality, they shouldn't have done that because, you know, if you if you have injuries, you've got doctor reports, etc, etc. Just say what it is that's really bothering you, you usually get the same amount, you know, unless you want to now try to inflate it. Well, I would catch the inflators. I would catch them doing things they said they couldn't do. And so I was good at it. I will say this, bragging yes, but I was good at it. And you sort of took over from your dad and started doing a lot of investigative work. And in your book, you also talk a little you kind of make a comparison between being a real private investigator and a TV private investigator like Magnum. Now, are there similarities and differences? What what did you find? Well, you know, the Magnum comparison is kind of interesting because a Brooks Bear who I think he's with the city prosecutor's office now as a spokesman, but he was a reporter. And he knew Barack Obama when Obama was here one time watching some basketball games, which my wife and I go to all the games. He saw me and introduced me to the to the future president. He introduced me as Barack I'd like you to meet the future. I'd like you to meet the real Magnum PI. But there's a difference in what we do. I mean, you know, there's a lot of shootings. There's a lot of fights. You know, I try to avoid fights and guns whenever I can. I think it's a more healthy way to live. I've been licensed to carry a concealed weapon on three occasions. Right, you mentioned that in your book. Yeah. Yeah. And I've carried them on more occasions when the police knew I was carrying because they told me you better carry a firearm because you're dealing with some pretty bad people. But I wish you could throw all the guns in the world in the ocean. And we wouldn't have to deal with that problem. But you know, the privatize on television. I mean, they got an hour to show a show. I do like Magnum PI on TV though. I like the I like some of the things they do because you know, they basically say, you know, you're not a policeman. So you can do different kinds of things. Now you might get sued in civil court, but you can still do them. For example, I had a case once where I had to bust into a back of a guy's trunk because I knew he had stolen guns, goods in there. And I wanted to see him for myself and photography them, and which I did. And we were able to catch him. He didn't bother to sue me because he had stolen so much stuff. He had bigger problems than me. But police couldn't do that. They'd have to get a warrant. Well, I don't have to do that. And if you look at Magnum PI on TV, you see him doing that all the time. So there is a there is a little similarity between you and Magnum PI is what I hear you saying. Right, right. And he has a beautiful woman that he works with. Well, I have my wife and she's a beautiful woman too. So there's that similarity. Okay, well, I and I do want to talk a little bit about that in the next part of our program, you know, in your book, you talk a lot about friendship, relationships, and you use the word love a lot. And I found that interesting because to me, I'd like to understand what your relationship is. And there's a photo of your lovely wife up there. And I want to talk a little bit after we come back from the break, we're going to take a one minute break, a little bit about those things and how you find them important as a private investigator and why you put them in your book. So we'll take a little break and be right back. Aloha, I'm Wendy Lo and I'm coming to you every other Tuesday at two o'clock live from Think Tech Hawaii. And on our show, we talk about taking your health back. And what does that mean? It means mind, body, and soul. Anything you can do that makes your body healthier and happier is what we're going to be talking about, whether it's spiritual health, mental health, fascia health, beautiful smile health, whatever it means. Let's take healthy back. Aloha. Aloha, I'm Dave Stevens host of the Cyber Underground. This is where we discuss everything that relates to computers that's just kind of scare you out of your mind. So come join us every week here on ThinkTechHawaii.com 1pm on Friday afternoons. And then you can go see all our episodes on YouTube, just look up the cyber underground on YouTube. All our shows will show up and please follow us. We're always giving you current relevant information to protect you. Keeping you safe. Aloha. We are back with Steve Goodenow, private investigator, Hawaii private investigator who just published a memoir called Hawaii and I. And Steve, I have a question for you. Follow up to what I was talking before the break. In your book, I kind of found this interesting. You talk a lot about friendship, personal relationships, and love. I mean, you even say you love some lawyers. I found that interesting. How does that all work in with being a private investigator? Those concepts? What does what does personal relationships and friendships have to do? First of all, with being a private investigator? Well, Mark, remember, private investigators are just really, although we have some specific training and there's requirement to get a license. But we're just like everybody else. So we don't have a badge. I can't come up and show you my badge and ask you to talk to me. And if you don't take you downtown. So I have to get people to tell me things they won't tell their own mother. And so I've developed the sense of having a good relationship with people, treating them honestly, treating them fairly and giving them credit when credit is due. You have to have relationships with people. And you know, Hawaii is such a small place, you never know when you're going to run into somebody that is related to somebody or who knows someone or has worked with someone. And you may need that person more than once. So you better not burn your bridges. So it's kind of like a strategy of being a private investigator, but also works in life is kind of what I'm hearing you say. Yeah, you know, I'm fortunate to have been raised by parents that basically came out of the Midwest out of Iowa. I was born in Iowa. And, you know, they were hardworking people, all my relatives, you know, are farmers or hardworking people. When there's a disaster or something, all the farmers will get together. You don't even think twice about it. So building good relationships was was important to my family. And it translated down to me. I think my brother and sister are exactly like that also. So, you know, you have to treat people. We learned that, you know, just because a person's skin is different or religion is different, or they look different, they have long hair, whatever it is, it doesn't matter. It's what's in their mind and how they treat you and how they treat others that is important. So relationships are important in Hawaii, probably everywhere, I think, but really so in Hawaii. And you use the word love a lot. You know, let's get back to that. Now, how can anybody love a lawyer? Come on, really? Hey, lawyers are my best clients. I better love them. They give me the business. You know, after all, no, I mean, I have found that, you know, I mean, lawyers, lawyers go through a specific amount of training. And, you know, sometimes they can seem to have a personality that that maybe doesn't cut it with a wide segment of people. But those that I think are very good have that kind of personality. And I enjoy dealing with lawyers. You know, I was set to go to law school at one point, but decided not to after I got a big case and decided it was more important to work the case and go to law school. I can do it tomorrow. Hey, maybe that's what I'll do in the next 50 years. But lawyers do a lot of good things. I mean, you know, people say they charge too much or, you know, they tend to complicate matters. I don't think so. I think life is complicated. And I think they tend to sort it out overall. Lawyers that I've met lawyers that I've dealt with. So I like lawyers. What have you what have you learned about lawyers and the law in Hawaii, the legal system in your career? Well, there's a couple, couple, couple types of lawyers. I mean, I'll make it real simple. There are those that try to tell you what to do. And there are those that treat you as a professional and say go do it. I like those, of course, the second group, right? Because, you know, lawyers, I'll give you an example. Lawyers, when they go out and have to get information from people, they serve them a subpoena, right? They take a deposition. I mean, how many times have I been told that people don't want to talk to lawyers because hey, they have to take time off for work, they don't get paid for it. Who's going to take care of their kids? And I'm the guy that goes out and talks to them. I'm the guy that goes out and sees them. I'm the guy that sometimes makes arrangements for them so that the kids are taken care of. So, you know, I have to be the guy on the street. There's a hell of a lot different between doing a courtroom deposition, and there is going out on the street and interviewing witnesses. So there are lawyers that I work with. In fact, I pretty well limited it to those kind of lawyers that seem to understand that. And they allow me the flexibility and freedom to conduct the investigation as I see fit. Well, in your book, you talk about a lot of cases and working for various lawyers. Is there one particular case that you kind of like to talk about in your book? Well, I mean, I've got so many of them. In fact, I heard I could write another book because, you know, that that's something I wanted to ask is there a story out there that without telling names or identifying items, you can say you might include in a second book. Well, I'm not sure about that I think about, but I can tell you this, that my friendships with lawyers got to the point of where they trusted me. And so there were always lawyers that would call that had needed personal favors. And I chose not to have a bad mouth book. You know, I chose not to highlight some of the follies of some of our lawyer friends. And right about those, I wrote about their cases, perhaps, but not about the favors I had to do for lawyers, lawyers problems with their kids, lawyers problems with their spouses or girlfriends, you name it. Relatives that had problems that I've helped out Monawahi. And I've done that. And I just think that's the nature of my business. That is perhaps a book that will never be written. I hear you saying. Well, it'd be interesting to write the book. You know, when I was a kid, I thought sacred were ministers, lawyers, doctors, you know, those kinds of people right out there were sacred. As I went through life, I found they all have problems. They're no better or worse than me. Well, is that is that what you've learned? I mean, from being a private investigator? Is that what you've learned about life and human nature? Is what what what have you learned? If you don't learn anything, you better learn, you better not get into the problems your clients get into. You know, people drink too much, people use drugs, people steal money. You know, it's best to avoid those problems. And if I've learned anything, it's I'd rather be investigating you than you investigating me. Well, let's say you have a young lawyer or a young person, not a lawyer, but a young person in front of you. And they're asking you, Uncle Steve, I'm thinking about becoming a private investigator. What is your advice to that young person? Well, I said, I guess I would tell them, you know, don't do it for the money. If you if you do it for the money, you'll never be successful. Do it because you have an inquisitive nature. Do it because you like people do it because you want to solve a puzzle. I used to have an advertisement, which was a puzzle. Because I think that's what we do. We put puzzles, pieces together to come up with a picture. And so do it for those reasons. You could stay in the law. I think a lawyer would make actually a good investigator. But you have to learn to use different tools. You don't have the tool, the subpoena. You have only the tool of your own mind and your wit and your ability to talk to people and convince them to communicate with you. Personal relationships. Personal relationships. Yeah, right, right. I remember I've had a, I've had a lot of theft cases. And I, you know, maybe there's a couple exceptions. Maybe I tend to forget them. But almost every case when I've finally gone through and I've got that person to convince to confess their theft, you know, I always tell them this, you know, today is going to be the best day of the rest of your life. Sounds kind of trite, doesn't it? But I mean it. Because you've been carrying this burden of this theft for so long. And now you don't need to carry it anymore. You've confessed your sins. And it is time to move on. There may be consequences. But yet you will now live a life where you don't have to worry that you're going to be caught, you know, doing the theft. And I've had, I've had so many people shake my hands, give me a hug and tell me thank you, you know, for finding out that they were the thieves. You know, I mean, that always amazed me. You do cover that in your book too about several incidents that that occurred and it actually helped change their lives by being investigated by you finding out the bad things they did and the sort of the see me side of their lives. And they were given an opportunity to change. And that's kind of what I hear you saying. I don't want to give the book away, but read the I think the last chapter, I think there's a chapter in there about my favorite cases. Right. The last last chapter it made me cry. And I had a fellow read the book. And he told me, you know, he said I read that last chapter and I cried too. Because it's a story of relationships. It's a story of love and how love triumphs all. But anyway, I won't give it away. Okay, well, look, we have we have about one minute left. Where can people get your book? Are you doing a book signing or anything else? Yeah, yeah, I'm going to be at Barnes and Noble at one o'clock on this Saturday, the 11th and signing books. There was a problem with the cover of the book. So they had to send it back. And I don't know, it was supposed to be in a matte finish or something. So they'll deal with it. And eventually to be on Amazon and, you know, you'll be able to get it there, hopefully in a Kindle because I'm a Kindle guy, hopefully it's there. And you can contact Watermark Publishing and Watermark Pub, Watermark Mark Publishing will send you the book. So they have it there too. Okay, well, that's great. And, you know, Steve, thank you for being my guest today. Very happy. I read your book. I enjoyed it. Saw, heard a lot of names I knew. And I don't want to give anything away either. And look forward to seeing you on the street, but not being investigated by you. So a lot. Well, Mark, we've had a couple of cases together that could be in the next book. All right. Thank you, Mark. Thank you.