Private Eyes Hit the Books, Not Streets

When it came to learning how to be a detective, fictional private eyes like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe got their diplomas from the school of hard knocks.

But many real-life private investigators are learning the tricks of the trade in a more conventional fashion through schools like the Nick Harris Detective Academy.

The academy, a division of the Nick Harris Detective Bureau, is run by Milo Speriglio, a widely known expert on Marilyn Monroe and author of two books on the late sex symbol, whose death he investigated. Speriglio has taught hundreds of would-be gumshoes everything from surveillance techniques to detecting wiretaps.

And according to some graduates, the demanding training could make even a Spade or a Marlowe sweat.

“I really didn’t have any idea of what I was getting involved in,” said Marcus Joseph, 37, a private investigator who completed one of three courses offered by the academy and was eventually hired as a detective by the Harris agency.

The former musician had played in a somewhat successful soft-rock band for about a decade, but he wanted a change of pace. Detective work had always attracted him with its promise of variety and mental challenges.

What he found was a lot of hard work.

The course he took was the most intensive of those offered by the academy, spanning seven weeks with daylong classroom sessions and nightly homework.

The course, which costs $3,870, crams into seven weeks the equivalent of four years of on-the-job training, Speriglio, 50, claims.

The academy also offers an advanced course that meets twice a week at night for 22 weeks and costs $2,575, and a 45-hour course that meets only on Saturdays at a cost of $875.

The courses attract a broad range of students, Speriglio said in an interview in his office, housed in an unpretentious one-story building in Van Nuys.

The building serves as headquarters for the Nick Harris Detective Bureau as well as the one-classroom academy. The academy trains about 180 people a year in its three courses, Speriglio said.

The typical student is between the ages of 25 and 40. Nearly 40% are women, he said. About half have completed at least two years of college.

Most are bored with their current jobs or careers and are seeking more stimulating work. Some want better-paying jobs or are unemployed, he said.

Much of what students learn is how to trace information using a variety of resources, including computer data bases, public records and various directories.

Surveillance, undercover work and forged-document identification are also covered, among myriad topics.

Unlike most fictional detectives, the academy’s students are not trained in firearms, although the advanced courses include instruction in the use of tear gas.

“In real life (being a private investigator) is not quite as glamorous (as it’s portrayed in television and film),” Speriglio said.

Much of private investigating work today involves record searches for a variety of reasons, such as location of missing people, insurance fraud cases and employee or personal background checks. There’s also a demand in industry for undercover investigators who spy for drug transactions or pilfering of company property.

The sleazy image many have of gumshoes making most of their living by spying on cheating spouses is negated by the no-fault divorce laws now in effect in many states, including California. Such laws mean that adultery and other transgressions don’t have to be proved as grounds for divorce. Still, there is a little business from spouses wanting to check out the competition.

Whatever glamour is missing in the life styles of real-life private investigators can be quickly made up in income.

A private investigator just starting out can make a modest living working for an agency that pays him $8.50 to $14 per hour. But after three years and with a state license, a private investigator in Southern California can charge $45 an hour and up. Speriglio charges $250 an hour for his services.

That may be one reason why more people with the required amount of experience are applying for state investigator’s licenses and taking the two-hour test.

As of last May, the state had issued 5,559 private investigator’s licenses, 1,594 of them in Los Angeles County, up from 4,552 statewide and 1,369 in the county five years ago, according to the state Bureau of Collection and Investigative Services.

Licenses are required only for private investigators who want to run their own business and advertise. Those without licenses can work for others who are licensed.

Getting a license is the goal of Derenda Finch, 30, another graduate of the academy who was recruited by the Harris agency.

A psychology major in college who recently moved to Los Angeles from Oklahoma with her husband, Finch carefully researched the available detective schools before choosing Nick Harris.

Finch loves her job with Harris. So does her husband.

“He loves to take me to dinner parties so that I can tell stories” about work, she said.