Francois McKinnon: Welcome back to the Miami PI Chronicles podcast. Yes, it’s episode 23 already. Oscar, how are you this week?
Oscar Santamaria: I’m doing well, Francois, and yourself? Everything is good, buddy. Everything is good. It’s been quite a week of news and exciting jobs and stuff. What about you? What have you been up to?
Francois McKinnon: Yeah, no, I’ve been following the news. You know, last week we spoke about the assassination of Brian Thompson, and how we suspected that an arrest was imminent. And sure enough, a day after we shot our show, the suspect was apprehended. And it just goes to show that you can run, but you can’t hide.
Oscar Santamaria: Totally. I knew because the amount of efforts and money they spent on this, this was not going to go away. Nobody was going to escape from a crime. The technology they were using, everything that they had on their side, they certainly used it to the max. They kind of got lucky between you and I. You know, the guy was at a McDonald’s, they started offering a little bit more money, and then an employee, supposedly, alleged, said, this is the guy, he’s here, and I want the money. So they came up to him. Unfortunately for him, he was in the presence of a ghost gun, which you and I have talked about before, which is the receiver part of the weapon that doesn’t have a serial number and all this. But now we know by now, because it’s been a week, that they’ve run some tests on the weapons, and it’s obviously the same weapon that killed Brian Thompson. And also a three page manifesto. So he’s kind of got a lot of bad things going on for him.
Francois McKinnon: Yeah, you know, from some guy that they thought was like, you know, some expert assassin to a guy that’s made a lot of mistakes. You know, he got caught with, allegedly, the weapon, which I believe they said that was made on a 3D printer. I’m not sure if that’s correct or not, but he was caught with a manifesto. He was just caught with a lot of things that they were able to tie, you know, with what they saw at the scene. But, you know, Francois, what’s really disturbing is, you know, the society that we’ve come to. You know, back in the day, 20 years ago, it’d be a clear cut who the bad guy in this situation was. You know, you have one guy who shoots a guy in the back. That is a cold blooded murderer, for whatever reasons. I’m not an apologist for the healthcare industry, but in a civilized society, we have laws and we have ways to remedy injustice. And by summarily going and shooting just some random CEO that you don’t even have a policy with in the back is very cowardice. And I’m surprised that the country is divided on who the villain is in this case.
Oscar Santamaria: I totally agree with you. I couldn’t agree more, because people are saying, oh, he’s a nice guy, and the insurance companies are screwing everybody. Guess what? There’s no reason to go and take a man’s life because you don’t agree with their policies or their business techniques or whatever. I mean, I’m not a big fan of insurance companies. I pay my insurance like everybody else. There’s always an issue when it comes to for them to cover, but it’s not my place to decide if we should go and take somebody’s life. I would never dream of that.
Francois McKinnon: Nobody should be judge, jury, and executioner. Like I said, in a civilized society, we have ways to remedy issues, and it’s not by going out and shooting somebody in the back. That’s not the way to do it. And that’s not heroic. That’s cowardly. Just let it be known that all those people that think that they have some sort of romantic view of this guy, like he’s some sort of Robin Hood. He’s not. At the end of the day, he’s a guy that in any other time in the world would be considered just a Lola, just somebody who went and killed a man, an accomplished person. Let’s just forget about what he did for a living. This guy came from a small Midwestern town. His mother was a beautician. His father was a grain operator. He was class valedictorian, as was the shooter. He then ended up going to the University of Iowa, where he ended up getting his degree, ended up working as CEO of this UnitedHealthcare, I think, in 2004, somewhere around there. And he rose up the ranks, and he became the CEO. Not only, by the way, was he the valedictorian of his high school, he was also the valedictorian of his college.
Oscar Santamaria: We’re talking about Brian Thompson. Yeah, Brian Thompson. So this is a guy that, you know, and how does society repay him by making him some sort of villain? That’s just disgusting. You know, you’ve got to really question society. Because I’m telling you, Francois, 30 years ago, I mean, 90 percent of the people would say, not even 30 years ago, maybe 20, 10 years ago, people feared distinction of who the hero was and who the villain was. And that line has been severely blurred. And really, that’s a shame.
Francois McKinnon: Yeah, but thanks to what, Oscar? Thanks to social media. Because, you know, a lot of young women got involved in this and saw a partial picture of the man. And they romanticized the whole thing. And then they’re saying, oh, he was at my house. They should never tell that on TikTok or Instagram, that he was at my house the whole time. Because they don’t know they’re going to get in trouble for that. The whole thing blew up. And now we pretty much know what’s coming. There’ll be a trial state set. And the government has nothing but a lot of good evidence to go on. So we shall see, my friend. Something else that came up that’s been crazy, something that bothers me, you know, how much I like to fly my drones and stuff. And now we see all of these drones all over military bases. These are our U.S. military installation bases. And you have drones flying over there. And the Pentagon on Friday made a statement. And they said, and they were asked several questions by reporters. And they said, well, we just don’t know what it is. And people said, are they foreign actors? Are they the Russians, China? What is it? And also they asked the question, are they ours? Is all of this stuff ours? Director of the Pentagon turned and he said, we don’t know and we can’t talk about. What do you think about that?
Oscar Santamaria: First of all, I doubt very much that the Pentagon doesn’t know what these things are. And to give a response like that, I mean, thank God this administration is out because that is completely, completely irresponsible behavior. You better figure out what it is, you know, just not to say you have no idea what it is. Our Department of Defense does not know what’s flying over Air Force bases. Are you kidding me, bro? It better be ours. I don’t know if we have the technology, though. That’s what it’s kind of bothering me a little bit. I mean, there’s been a lot of chatter that there’s some sort of like dirty bomb device out there. And this is what these things are. They’re trying to find out where this thing is. But, you know, again, you let 20 million unvetted people to this country. I mean, of course, there’s going to be some terrorism coming in. So, you know, I don’t want to speculate. Whatever it is, you know, they need to figure it out, not just wait, you know, and see what they do. You got to figure this thing out. This is this is this is part of what our government is supposed to do. They’re supposed to protect the citizens from all enemies, foreign and domestic. And if you don’t know if they’re enemies or not, you better figure it out because that’s your job. Yeah. Coming up with the answer. We have no clue what it is. That’s just that’s just not right. Completely irresponsible. Yeah, I totally agree with you, my friend. And I mean, I love my drones, but now I’m wondering, should I even fly them? They’re not as cool as the ones I saw on social media and on the news. Those were pretty cool. Forget it.
Francois McKinnon: All neighbors, all neighbors in rural areas will be shooting things down that they see in the sky. Well, people started shooting at them. I don’t blame them. I mean, obviously, our military is supposed to defend us as, you know, no concern whatsoever. We don’t know what it is. Yeah, well, that’s not what you’re supposed to what you’re supposed to say to, you know, to assure the citizens of this country. We don’t know what it is. Yeah. Listen, I’m sure it’s not aliens. That’s what I’m 100 percent sure about. Imagine if aliens were down on earth and looking at the way our society is working right now. They’d be going, okay, they screwed up. They need help. They need guidance. They should do something. Anyways, we’re done with the little green man and the Pentagon not knowing what they’re doing. Let’s get back to the private investigative business. You have told me last week that you’ve been, well, I know that you’ve been working on your Google page, professional page, and tell me what you’ve done to increase visibility and if it worked, and then tell me how you did it and where you’re at with this project.
Oscar Santamaria: Well, listen, I don’t want to sound like, you know, like a parrot here, but it really is important. And I just want to get that across to the audience that getting a Google business page, if you don’t have one, you really do need to get one. Coincidentally, I got a message from somebody through LinkedIn that does digital marketing. They told me a bunch of services that they provided and one of them was Google business optimization. And so I figured, you know, tell me more about what you guys offer with this. And they responded. They said, thank you for your message. I appreciate your interest in my Google business optimization services. I’ve outlined two options for you. Okay. So the first option was a basic package. It was $200. That package, you get a profile set up and optimization. They put your business name, address, and contact details. They upload photos, your logo, and other essential images. And then they describe your business and service optimization. And then there’s another one, which is the standard package, which is $350, which is everything in the basic package. But they also add an optimized product services section, create an optimized question and answer section, optimize sections with helpful information to engage customers, link social media accounts to GMB for better visibility and engagement. When that’s $350, this is all stuff, folks, that is just so easy for you to do. When you get your Google business page, if you don’t have one, or even if you already have one, this is just stuff that you should just do yourself. You’re going to save yourself $350. So just consider taking a look at it, going on your dashboard, checking your performance, and doing this, because it really is going to help you. And, you know, I’m not going to keep repeating myself over this and sounding like a broken record, but, you know, in my experience, and I kick myself every day that I need to do this sooner and, you know, be concerned about it and optimize it. I just kind of let it there, let it stagnate. Again, this is not a one and done deal. This is something that you got to continue to update, you know, at least once a month, better if you can do it a couple of times a month, and you’re going to see results. So, you know, my suggestion is that you do that.
Francois McKinnon: Moving on, I want to talk a little bit about recorded statements. You know, this is an issue that I just really want to bring out there, okay? When you get a person on the phone for a recorded statement, and, you know, you identify yourself and the reason you’re calling, you really want to get that statement done right then and there, because chances are that if you don’t do it at that time, you’re going to have difficulty getting a hold of them again. They’re either going to duck you, or they’re not going to call you back, or they’re going to block you. And so my advice is if you actually have somebody on the phone— this happened to me twice last week, and I tried to explain to them, look, this is going to be five minutes of your time. Just, you know, we don’t have to make a schedule. You can do this as you’re driving right now, because one of the people were driving, and, you know, she said, no, no, I promise you I’ll call me tomorrow, and I’ll let you take my statement. Well, just as I figured, I called back, and she didn’t answer. So I’m still waiting for a call back. So my advice to anybody who has a recorded statement, and they actually get the person on the phone, try to get that statement right then and there, because that’s going to be your best chance. I usually do mine sitting in my car, because I have a good audio with the speaker and surround sound, and I do it—there’s a microphone built in, and I do my statements there. But like you said, the hardest part is to pin people down, because people keep telling, okay, well, let’s do it at this time. Then you call, you go to voice, then you text them, and then they don’t reply. So it’s really hard to secure people to talk about something they witnessed.
Oscar Santamaria: Yeah, I’m telling you, about 75 percent of the time, they tell you to call back, and they’re not going to answer. So you have them on the line. Just try to set the hook and have them do it right then and there, and just be persistent, because— Instead of postponing it. Yeah, instead of postponing it, because I’m telling you, you’re going to have issues. So just try to do it once you have them on the phone. Do you have a special technique when you do statements, audio statements? Well, I do it the same way that you do it. I actually go in my car, and I do it through my Bluetooth, and I have a little recorder, and I record it that way. It’s a nice, crisp recording. There’s no background noise, and the recorder picks it up, because it’s going through the speakers of your vehicle. So I do it just like that, and I’ve never had any issues whatsoever. All the issues I have are actually pinpointing these people down to give you a statement. I mean, some are very cooperative, but just some, man, it’s just like pulling teeth. Thank God they’re not homicide cases, you know, to try to get them down to give you a statement, because you’d never see these people.
Francois McKinnon: Man, it’s really— That’s one of the most frustrating things about doing statement work is just getting people to cooperate with you. So, you know, we’ll see what happens with these two. I don’t have very high expectations of getting through to them, but we’ll try, you know, and I don’t give up. So I do the phone calls. I do the text messages, and, you know, I run some data, and if I can get an email, I’ll email them, you know, just to show them that we’re very interested in getting a hold of you. So sometimes when you go to all those efforts, they will respond, but you really got to jump through a lot of hoops in order for them to do that. So, again, if you get them on the phone, just do everything you can to have them— Be persistent to get them that time, like right there on the spot, right? That’s it.
Oscar Santamaria: Something else I wanted to mention, Francois. You know, a few—like a week ago or so, I read something that said that New York has officially turned the page on a 117 year chapter in its legal history by decriminalizing adultery. The governor, Hochul, signed a bill repealing an old law that treated infidelity as a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 90 days in jail. First of all, I never knew that was a law. I had no idea. I had no idea it was either. Do you actually think that that actually stopped people from being unfaithful? Absolutely. The thought that they could possibly be charged with a crime? At first I hear of it, but the point with all of this, I don’t think that this is a huge deterrent to do 90 days in jail. And I’ve never heard of anyone going to jail for infidelity in the state of New York. I’m just wondering if somebody said, nah, you know what, this is against the law, I’m not going to cheat. And if not, if people were actually there, do any PIs in New York, have they seen an uptick in infidelity surveillances since this law has been reversed? I’m curious about that.
Francois McKinnon: Well, now you’re saying that, now you’re thinking that if they cheat, they’re not going to go to jail. So now you think that it’s going to be an uprising. I think who’s going to be really pissed off is going to be divorced lawyers. I mean, usually when you decriminalize something, and then people start engaging more in that behavior because it’s been decriminalized. So I’m just wondering if this is going to cause some sort of uptick in infidelity. I don’t think so. But I’m just curious if PIs in New York have seen a rise in infidelity investigations since this law has been decriminalized. I just can’t believe they even existed. I mean, I’ve seen it all. I know that New York has some strict laws, but to go to get a misdemeanor for having cheating on your spouse, I don’t, I’ve never heard of it. I mean, you know what, of all the laws I’ve seen that they’ve enacted recently, this one makes the most sense. Yeah. If you play, you get caught, you get punished. Now it’s like, who cares? I wonder how many other states have that type of law.
Oscar Santamaria: I have no idea, but I’m certainly going to ask our friend Jonathan Friedman to reach out to a criminal, not a criminal, but to a divorce lawyer friend of his in New York State or New York and ask him the same question you asked. Because if it gets the lawyers busier, the divorce attorney lawyers busier, it’s definitely going to get the private investigators busier. And I have plenty of friends, as you do, that are private investigators in New York, and we can also ask and catch up our audience on that. I mean, I don’t know if you think that it may have rose because they removed the penalty. I don’t know. It’s a good question. I don’t know if that moved the needle or not. I mean, I just never knew about that law. Now, listen, I have heard about people being sued civilly for adultery. They call that, I believe, alienation of affection, and people have been sued civilly for that. I just never knew that that’s something that could be, in this century anyways, a criminal matter. I can imagine maybe in the 18th century that that’s something. But after 1950, I can’t imagine something like that being on the books anymore. But you learn something every day, Francois. That’s true. Every single day, something new. So everybody in New York, you now have a license to cheat. Exactly. Well, that’s not the best thing in the world, but what are you going to do? We don’t make the rules. We just follow them as much as we can.
Francois McKinnon: Yes. Right? Right, Oscar? Of course. Of course you’ve got to follow the rules. We’re rule followers here at the Miami P.I. Chronicles. If not us, who? If not now, when? Who’s going to do it but us? We’re going to have to do it. We have to be shining examples. Yeah, so last week, I also had my latest book signing. We went out at the, when was it? It was on a Wednesday, last Wednesday, at the Scotsman Public House. It’s a restaurant tavern, Scottish, in Waynesville, North Carolina. So we had a lot of people show up. It was very nice and a lot of fun. I got to meet a bunch of people who had purchased the book on Amazon, and they asked me to sign it, and they talked about the books and the characters. It was really cool. Actually, I’m starting to like this stuff. I was going to ask you, does it get easier the more you do these things? I mean, do you know more what to expect? Are you able to answer the questions that they have more?
Oscar Santamaria: Well, you know, regarding the characters, I mean, these characters, they become like your children. You created them, and you know what they’re good at and what they’re not, and how smart they are and how smart they should be. Because the fun part about writing is that you just make these people the way you want them to be for a reason, because there’s a second and third and fourth book coming out. So that’s kind of the complicated part, where I take a real investigative board, and I put my characters’ photos on the board, and then I foresee where the second book is going to start. So everything that you’re planning in the first book has to be planned properly for the second book. I’ve been reading so much about it that I’ve learned how to do it, and how to, when you start the second novel, you know, because I see my books as being like a series of about five novels, and then after that, something else will happen from the Peter Gray’s adventures. I do like an investigative board, and I pre plan what’s going to happen for the next book, and the next book is going to do the same. So it’s fun. It kind of makes you crazy, though. You know when they talk about writers being crazy and stuff? Now I know why. Because you just keep eating brick wall. Some days, you’re looking at your laptop, and nothing is working. It’s just not working. You’re going, what the hell?
Francois McKinnon: What am I going to do? Can you imagine having to do this on a typewriter? For a living? On a typewriter? Not even on electric ones. It’s the way they used to do it. Oh, my God. My grandfather used to have one of those old royal typewriters when he came, and I mean, you really had to use your fingers for those. It wasn’t like you can just… No, you had to wait, push down. You really had to push down. Like I use my laptop, my finger is going to go through it one day. I guarantee you, because when I get aggressive, it’ll go choo choo choo. It’s hard enough to write a book. It’s gotten a lot easier with computers, I’m sure. Absolutely. But you know what? A lot of people told me, if I used AI in my first novel, first of all, that’s actually a thing. You can write a book by just putting an outline of a book. Well, I can attest that Francois didn’t even know about AI until a couple of months ago, so… Oh, be quiet. I know that you didn’t. I knew about it, but I just didn’t know how quickly it could help me to do certain things. You know, you and I had… You said, put that in a report and then just make sure that it’s accurate. But it was extremely well written, I must tell you. So I really appreciated that. But I’m talking about people who write an 80,000 word book. To write an 80,000 word book is complicated. And you have so much work to do, and now they can do it by the push of a button. And a lot of people don’t even read their own novel. So there’s a difference when you sell a novel on Amazon, let’s say. If it’s AI created, you have to disclose that it’s AI created on the cover. Or I’m told, anyways. I wonder if folks are going to really replace actual authors. I don’t think so, because everything is in the little tiny details. And I think that’s what people like, specifically what we do. You don’t think AI can just recreate details based on all the data that they have compiled over all the years?
Oscar Santamaria: If you look at social media, to give you an idea, I think that, yes, they will be able to do it. They, the AI people, will be able to accomplish that. But not yet. If you look at any of these commercials or spots or shorts that are on social media, whether it’s on TikTok or Instagram or whatever, YouTube, you’re going to see that their AI is just, as soon as it starts, you see it, and the imagery is wrong. It’s just not a real story. It’s a bullshit story. Little tiny facts are put together, and you call that a story? I mean, I hear these stories. I don’t want to hear them. I know they’re made up, and they’re stupid. Well, I have not really read too many AI stories, but I just don’t know. Listen, it’s going to take over a lot of stuff. Hopefully it doesn’t take over, you know, the creative aspects of what a human can do. I hope not, but it’s going to take over everything else. It also advances, you know. It advances a lot. Like quantum leaps, and it just, it’s supposed to. Listen, the reason it was invented is because it’s supposed to surpass human capability. So don’t worry about it. I think it’s the future, so what can you do? But I think it’s going to affect a lot of industries. I just don’t know if it’ll affect the, it’s going to affect copywriters for sure. I just don’t know. Absolutely. People in the movie industry will be put out of business if they use it. I think people like to watch a movie that’s made by people, but you never know one day what’s going to happen. Let me ask you, are you worried about AI? Because if they become super ultra intelligent, they’ll do away with humans. That’s a thought. Well, you know, I’m okay with doing away with humans. I just don’t want to do it with PIs. Those humans can stay because, you know, I’m one of them. But what I worry more about is, what if you just, you know, write in somewhere, you know, tell me everything I need to know about Francois McKinnon. Just say you’re one of my subjects. Go on Google. Well, I mean, no, but I wonder if AI can just, you know, get all that data and compile it into just a report right then and there just by asking. I want everything. I want all the information you can give me on this individual. And I’m wondering, you know, if AI is going to get to the point where it’s going to be able to do that. And who knows, it might replace us one day. But don’t you, oh, you mean to replace us. Okay. I don’t want to be replaced. No, me neither. I don’t like it. I like what I do. But yeah, it’s a good point, I guess. So I ask whoever’s dealing with AI just to hold off. Listen, I have another, what, 15, 20 years in the business maybe. So just hold off until then before you do any drastic changes. You think you have another 15 years in the business? Okay. Well, we’ll see. How many? Probably 14. 14 plus. Not 15. Is it the heavy breathing? 16. The heavy breathing, the heart murmur? I can’t talk about that. With my nose breathing and my mouth breathing. Have you listened to some of the past episodes? It’s like we’re doing it from an iron lung. The last episode we did, I swear to God, we sound like we’re both dying. Somebody’s choking us. But we had some audio issues that time, and I had a cold, so. My pulmonologist called, and he goes, Oscar, are you okay? Your breathing sounds horrible. I heard you at the show, and you don’t sound so good. And what’s up with that McKinnon guy? He doesn’t sound so well. Did you hear him? He sounded like Darth Vader’s son, all the breathing. Hopefully we’ll get that addressed on the next show. Well, thank you for listening, and we’ll be back again next week. Thank you, guys. We’ll see you next week.
Thank you for listening to the Miami PI Chronicles podcast. For all of your homicide investigation needs in Miami, please contact McKinnon Investigative Group at 954-513-7414. That’s 954-513-7414 or visit us at www.miginvestigations.com. Thanks again for listening and please remember to share, follow and like our licensed surveillance updates.
SHARE:
