Those are only a few of the crimes pursued by “private eyes.” Three leading licensed investigators join us with tales of murder, arson, fraud, infidelity and abused innocence. They are Paul Ciolino, Steve Kirby and Mike Carlson, each of whom runs his own investigative firm and, no surprise, they have some great and chilling tales to tell.

By the year 2005 the Chicago Mafia had experienced – and performed – some 1,500 murders. A great investigation in that year disclosed much about who killed whom…and why and how.  Also illuminated in that investigation was how the Mafia was coordinated into the rule and function of a great American city. Here, in rich narrative detail, is the full story as reported by three of the city’s foremost crime experts.

…named Ed Conlon joined us one night back in 2004. Of the many beat cops who have written about “the life,”  he is the only one we have met who is also a graduate of Harvard. What he has to say about his adventures, misadventures and the eternal problem of crime-control is strikingly relevant to the current national “crisis” about violence in front of and behind the badge. One inevitably remembers the Gilbert and Sullivan lines: “a policeman’s life is not an ‘appy one.”

That’s the title John Drummond held in Chicago and among knowing journalists everywhere. For detailed knowledge of organized and street-crime, for perfect memory and compelling narrative style he has and had no match. Here he is in a conversation five years ago.

A detective who spent his whole career befriending and arresting “confidence men” (and women) tells all, in 1998.