I have known two truly great private investigators in my life. They were my sources, friends and from time to time, I did some digging for them myself. The first is
The two could not be more different in nature—
About six weeks ago, I called Bobby just to check in, and asked him how he was doing?
“I’m dying” he told me. He said he would tell me more soon, but I could tell he really did not want to talk about it…and he never did. I just learned that Bobby passed away last week.
I first met Bobby, in an unusual way for a reporter; I was his source.
It was while I was working for WWL TV on the cops, courts and corruption beat in
We met over a fine meal, with more than a few drinks, and talked about a number of members of the New Orleans Police Department who had been accused of misconduct. I could see from the very start that Bobby had done his homework. I had been covering the force for about 15 years when we met, and he had only touched down in New Orleans for a couple of days... but he had quickly sized up who the players were, what they were suspected of doing, and why it mattered.
That last point is something both Gary and Bobby shared...the WHY. They really understood why it mattered when a police officer steps over the line. They were passionate about wanting to protect the public from that kind of misconduct. It is a passion that they and I shared, along with a handful of attorneys like Mary Howell and reporters like Allen Johnston.
Like all great investigators Bobby knew how to make you feel like you were his most important source. When the truth was, I was but one of many.
Just as he was talking to reporters who knew the bad apples in the NOPD from the outside, he was also talking to cops, even some top brass…taking a little bit of what he learned from one side and figuring out a way to loosen up tidbit from the other side.
Bobby had this nervous sort of laugh, whenever you were really getting down to the nitty-gritty.
And so, there would be the good food, the drinks, and this big gangly guy with his grey curly hair, coming to the point and asking something like, “are you saying this officer ordered a 'hit' on somebody? I mean is that what we are saying here?” And then, the nervous laugh to remind you that this was both: hard to believe, and yes, dead serious.
After a couple of lunches, my phone rang in the newsroom and it was Bobby---he said, “I need you to get us a reservation at Galatoire's… Mike wants to eat there, but he can’t stand in line.” Mike was of course, Mike Wallace from 60 minutes.
In those days, Galatoire’s did not take reservations, and I told Bobby that, but he was unmoved by my explanation, so I called the restaurant and explained the situation.
It was then, I learned what I guess was a pretty closely held secret, “just say your party wants the Bouillabaisse, that takes 24 hours to prepare.” They asked me when I needed the table for and using the Bouillabaisse trick, which is typical New Orleans Black Magic, Bobby and I sat down to dinner with Mike Wallace, his producer Lowell Bergman and New Orleans print reporter Allen Johnson.
It was an evening I will never forget.
These were the days when the networks really dug deep, when they were willing to invest weeks and even months into a series, or single story. I got the chance to watch two great minds in action. To sit at the other end of a question from Mike Wallace and to watch how he and Bergman sized up your answer.
And, of course with all these outsized personalities at the table it was a night of great laughs and tall stories.
60 Minutes would eventually produce not one, but three stories on the NOPD. And, Bobby would develop a love for
Some quick memorable moments…Bobby worked with Bergman on a number of 60 minutes stories including, I believe, the story on Big Tobacco that was the basis for the Movie “The Insider” where the roll of Bergman is played by Al Pacino and Christopher Plummer plays Mike Wallace. Bobby got a speaking part in the movie (I think he played a private eye) and of course he played it up to the hilt.
That was 1999.
As the years moved on, I would check in with Bobby and ask how he was doing. He really loved working in depth projects for “Sixty,” as he called it. But there was a problem. “The dinosaurs” he told me, “they are starting to die off.” It went further, “the producers each have their own dinosaur and they are clinging to them for dear life.” By that he meant the old guard, the Ed Bradleys, Mike Wallaces and Morely Safers were doing fewer stories and that meant less work for Bobby on “Sixty.”
But, just as with his sources, Bobby never put all his eggs in one basket.
Bobby also had producers at the Nightly News desk at CBS who liked his work. He had his pitch down to a science; it came from the private investigator’s art of writing a pithy summation of the case. They were usually just a single page—a who, what, where, why and how that teased the network’s interest to the point that they would send him dashing off to some new place on their dime to figure out if there really was a story there, and whether it was time to assign a correspondent.
The news of Bobby’s passing comes to me, the very same week that one of the best News Directors I ever worked for announced that he is moving on from CBS News. Joe Duke was there in the great days of television, and he was the kind of news director that inspired fearlessness in his reporters (at least the good ones). You knew, if you went out and did the legwork and came back with a solid story, that Joe would back you both before and after the story aired.
It was after a story aired, that Bobby got a call from a particularly “green” producer at Nightly News. It turns out that there was some issue about some aspect of the story. Well, the green in this case did not refer to the environment, but instead the slight amount of experience this young lady had on the job.
She called Bobby in, and told him, “I am going to do more stories with you, but next time…next time the bar will be higher”
I would give a million dollars to have seen the expression on Bobby’s face. “The Bar” he about hollered back, “I don’t need you to tell me where the ‘f…ing bar is!” And, you can be certain Bobby’s closing argument went on through a good many more “f’s” before he was done.
Needless to say, he did not get a lot more work from that producer, but the news business has a way of knowing who has the goods and who doesn't. It wasn't long before she no longer produced for the Nightly News and Bobby was back in the saddle.
I mentioned he was a doer of good deeds…not the least of which was working hard for the compassionate release of Deborah Peagler, a victim of domestic violence who Bobby argued, had been wrongfully incarcerated since 1983.
Debbie was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer and Bobby was instrumental in winning her a most rare release from prison. Bobby worked the entire case Pro bono and helped raise money for a documentary on Debbie's fight.
It was only last week that I learned, from a reliable source, that it was the very same form of cancer, that for the final time, managed to silence my boisterous, generous, resourceful friend…Bobby Buechler.
