Chapter 3

New Agents class 7-74 graduated from the academy in January 1975. We had all been given our assigments prior to graduation and mine was the narcotics unit in the Chicago office. I reported to my supervisor with trepidation because these were the same people who had run the undercover portion of our academy training. As it turned out the incident was never mentioned but I'm not so sure it was forgotten. It was now time to "prove" myself. My first assignment was to read an old case and prepare a summary of that case in the format we had learned in the academy. I understood this was a crappy job but I still had to do it. So, without a word I proceeded to write the summary.
My field training agent was an old timer named John Stevens. He took me out and showed me all the neighborhoods where drug traffic was high and where we would be working. He was a great guy and made me feel comfortable right away. I remember wondering if I would ever be considered an old timer and how anyone could stay at the same job for all those years..............I would eventually find out.
My narcotics days were numbered, however. I was soon assigned to the Diversion Investigative Unit which investigated members of the medical field who were allegedly doing illegal activities. I really didn't want to go there but of course it was not my choice.
My first assigment was to go into a doctors office cold (with introduction by an informant) and purchase several prescriptions for controlled substances. When I got to the doctor's office on the Northwest side of Chicago I was amazed at how packed the waiting room was. But even druggies have manners. Noone tried to cut in line. We all patiently waited our turn to see the good doctor.
A couple of hours later I had my turn. I asked the doctor for a prescription for amphetamines and depressants, Preludin and Valium. I concocted some story about getting high and then having to come down from that high. Without a word the doc took out his prescription pad and wrote me the prescription. I left his office with my own type of high because I had succeeded on my first assignment. This would be the first of many visits to see this doctor.
The first part of making a case against the doctor was buying the prescription. The second was getting the prescription filled. This was no easy fete. The doctor was well known and most pharmacies wouldn't fill the prescriptions. It took me hours to find one who would.
I visited the doctor many times over the following months. I brought in other agents with me to buy prescriptions. One time I brought in a pregnant agent to see the doctor. He gave her what she requested but told her if he got caught they would go to prison and share a small cell......just the two of them. They doc was a flirt as well as a crook.
As the months went buy it was getting harder and harder to fill our prescriptions. One day my partner, Steve and I decided to go out to the suburbs to fill the prescriptions. Little did we know that the good doc's reputation had travelled to the suburbs, too. When Steve and I left the pharmacy with our filled prescription, being pretty proud of ourselves, we got into Steve's car and drove away. That's when the local police pulled us over. We got arrested for filling a fraudulent prescription and were handcuffed, car searched and transported to the police department. The local police didn't want to hear that we were the police. They
didn't believe our credentials. We managed to get a phone call and called our office. The agent who answered the phone didn't know us and said we didn't work for the IBI. Now, we were in a mess. Eventually, it was all straightened out and we were "released" and headed back to the office with our treasure trove of pills.
One Saturday we headed back to the doctors office for another "buy" After finishing the buy we noticed a woman in the street acting crazy. My surveillance team stopped her and tried to calm her down. Once she was calmer they had me search her. I started my search in a more secluded location while my fellow agents stood away. As I searched her I felt something that felt more like him than her. I looked over at the other agents and they were cracking up. This person was a transvestite and they new it. They just wanted to mess with the new guy on the team. I took it in stride and I passed my first test.