'Kind of a different genre'

MOSES LAKE - A Moses Lake private investigator is planning to write about his experiences as an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Mike McPheters, owner of the Moses Lake-based company Basin Investigations, has already had several articles published in investigative magazines, including the story of how he met FBI founder J. Edgar Hoover in 1970, two years prior to Hoover's death, in P.I. Magazine and an article in The Legal Investigator addressing the importance of ethics in investigative reporting and taking and preserving good notes.

But he thinks he has the makings of a book.

"I'm writing a book, 18 chapters," McPheters said. "That book is probably about a fourth to a third written. I just love writing. I would be writing probably most of the day if I could, if I didn't have other things I have to do. This will be a nonfiction book about my experiences in the Federal Bureau of Investigation and my experiences serving as a bishop in the Mormon church while I was an FBI agent."

McPheters said the book may be entitled "Agent Bishop."

"It's going to be different because I'm not exactly the kind of character you read about in John Grisham's books or Tom Clancy's books," he said. "I'm more kind of a stay-at-home type guy. Rather than knock down a few brews with the boys after work, I'd rather spend some time counseling youth in church service."

McPheters said he served as a Mormon bishop for about 16 years.

"I spend my time counseling couples with their marital problems or trying to help the youth and running a congregation," he said. "This character I guess I will be writing about, which is myself, is kind of a different genre: I'm chasing the bad guys one day and that evening maybe I'm just at home with Mom or I'm doing some youth counseling."

The situation occasionally allowed McPheters some unusual parallels, such as performing a marriage one Saturday, and then several weeks later, arresting another groom during his marriage.

"It's kind of interesting, one day performing a church service and then breaking a marriage up the next day," he said. "In another instance, I'm ordained and set apart as a bishop in Salt Lake on one weekend, and the next weekend or a couple weeks later, I'm attending a Catholic Mass in the Virgin Islands with some of my buddies while we're working a homicide down there where eight American tourists were shot to death."

In one instance, McPheters wound up using a snub-nosed .38-caliber handgun in a shoot-out rather than the shotgun he would normally use, which wound up saving his life.

"I was just inspired not to use (the shotgun) and I couldn't understand it, because I'd been training with that weapon in anticipation of a shoot out," McPheters explained. "I was just inspired and I listened to that still, small voice not to use that weapon. I know my book is going to talk a lot about how the Lord intervenes in protecting law enforcement personnel, how we have angels looking over us in law enforcement. And yet there are going to be stories that are interesting to people."

McPheters' FBI experiences include investigating Cuban and Puerto Rican crime organizations and other mobsters in South Florida, chasing deserters during the Vietnam War, being the first agent to investigate Rashneeshpuram, a commune from India which settled in Central Oregon and arresting the prime suspect in the death of Jimmy Hoffa.

McPheters found that as long as he remained faithful in his church duties, he kept getting high profile cases.

"I guess there's a message in the book saying if you just do your best, if you strive to do your best in your responsibilities with your home and with your church, you're blessed to have absolutely fantastic experiences in your career," McPheters said. "Some people might not go along with that, but that's been my experience. I'm just as sincere about that as I can be. If we try to do as much good as we can, the Lord blesses us with the opportunity to have really neat experiences in whatever career we might be in."

Many people get swept up in trying to make it big and get a nice home and nice cars, putting their commitments to the church and their families, McPheters said.

"The next thing you know, you're looking at homes that are broken up and you're married to your job," he said. "It just doesn't work, especially with law enforcement, because you're already dealing with the dregs of society, you're already being influenced by that … There has to be balance. There has got to be balance between your personal life and your business or your career, or one will take over. So this book is far more than just a book about cases and war stories. The message is we try to keep a balance in our life."

McPheters said Basin Investigations has reduced from eight investigators and three clerical staff people to three investigators, himself, and a couple clerical people.

"We're getting ready to move to Idaho," he explained. "We'll be in Idaho hopefully sometime this summer or early fall. We want to be in the center of all of our grandchildren. We have 21 grandchildren and we want to see them all, so right now it's just a matter of becoming more centralized."

McPheters plans to discorporate Basin Investigations, and eventually start it up again in Idaho. He and his wife also lecture for Norwegian cruise lines, which is taking up more time, he noted.

"I want to try to write a couple of books, maybe more, and I probably will just pare it down to myself and a secretary," he said. "But I want to keep dabbling in it because I really enjoy these cases. I like doing personal injury cases, criminal cases, locating missing people and I do some corporate fraud."