Guest Michael Streed talks about SketchCop

by Andrea Campbell 

There is so much involved with being a forensic artist and it is a small community. Today we have an interview with Michael Streed, artist extraordinaire. 

Q.: Michael, thank you for being my interview guest. Can you tell WCI readers something about your background?

M.: I began my career as a ‘street cop’ and retired 31 years later as “The SketchCop.” During that time, I worked several investigative assignments that helped me learn a lot about eyewitnesses. It also helped hone my interviewing skills. Shortly after becoming a police officer, I trained as a police composite artist with the Los Angeles Police Department. My career as a forensic artist paralleled my work as a police officer and took me throughout the country to train with the best forensic artists of that era. I blended my forensic art training with college courses in life drawing and was privileged to become trusted to work on some of the country’s worst cases including the torture murder of a DEA agent in Mexico, The Baton Rouge Serial Killer, The Samantha Runnion Abduction/Murder and the Anthony Martinez Abduction/Murder. In addition, I have logged over 600 hours of forensic art training, 1,300 hours of law enforcement training to supplement the casework I have done. 

Q.: Eyewitness drawings are more difficult than the average person thinks. I was trained for forensic art but never pursued it because I am an alpha type, have a tendency to ask leading questions, and haven’t learned the proper interview techniques. Can you speak to that?

M.: To become a successful forensic artist, you must be an active listener. A successful interviewer guides an eyewitness versus leading them. Most important is that the eyewitness must trust you immediately, from the moment you walk into the room. Interviewing is an art that is often overlooked in favor of an aesthetically pleasing sketch. Luckily, interviewing is a skill that can be taught. Without it, you’ll sketch nothing but a useless, but ‘pretty’ picture. The good news is, you can become a good interviewer as long as you know when to hide the alpha. 

Q.: We’re here today to talk about a software program called SketchCop Facette Design, can you explain what that is?

M.: SketchCop Facette Face Design System is a software program that allows law enforcement personnel the ability to create digital composite images that appear as if they were prepared by a skilled forensic artist.

Q.: Two-part question here: What was your impetus for designing this program?

M.: My motivation for creating the software was to provide a viable tool for law enforcement agencies that did not have access to a qualified forensic artist and if they did, I wanted them to have a reliable backup tool to use when their artist wasn’t available.

And how is yours different or better than what’s out there currently?

M.: SketchCop Facette Face Design System creates an image that appears as if sketched by an artist even though it was created by computer using a software solution. Our program is intuitive, portable and easy to use with modification tools that can create subtle changes similar to those a forensic artist would make. We also support the software and it’s users by offering online training. No other company can boast having software that was developed and supported by an experienced forensic artist still working in the field.

Q.: What are the actual problems inherent with designing a program such as this?

M.: I think the most difficult part of conceiving such a program is not allowing it to get away from you and become too complicated. The software must have a low learning curve and be easy to use; otherwise, you’ll frighten away potential users. As a forensic artist there is a natural tendency to want to the software to be perfect and do everything. I have always had the mindset that like a forensic artist, it is only a tool, albeit a valuable one. With that in mind, we are creating a legion of officers who can turn out high-quality images without the burden of feeling like they have to become artists themselves. Luckily, I found a software company with a strong architecture that we were able to combine with our database and wealth of experience to create SketchCop Facette Face Design System Software. 

Q.: How did you even know where to begin?

M.: From the day I began my career as a forensic artist, I knew there would always be a technology solution looming on the horizon. Several companies had already developed such a program hoping that pencils would soon be replaced by pixels. I had done consulting work for a couple of these companies, hoping that input from an experienced police detective/forensic artist would help advance their products. It didn’t. So, it wasn’t long before I figured out that it would be better to help drive the technology train rather than be left behind at the station. 

Q.: Can you explain briefly how the program works and who it is for?

M.: SketchCop Facette Face Design System Software is for law enforcement/military and select investigative personnel, both sworn and civilian support staff. No artistic skills are required. This allows us to focus on the importance of the interview process. The process for interviewing and building the composite closely mimics that of a forensic artist. During the interview, the eyewitness selects various facial components to create the suspect’s face. With a few clicks of the mouse, the user can complete the composite image and easily make the necessary modifications.

Q.: Would you like to talk about one case you are particularly proud of?

M.: My most challenging case to date and the one that is most personal is the abduction/rape/murder of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion in 2002. My witness in that case was her 5-year-0ld playmate who witnessed the abduction. We worked together to create a composite image of the suspect who was identified in two days. I could not have done it without her.

At the time of the incident, my wife of 25 years had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing treatment. I had one son in the police academy and another at war in Iraq. By the time the suspect was convicted and sentenced to death, my wife had passed away, my son had graduated the police academy, my other son was still at war, and forensic art became my salvation.

Q.: Is there anything else you care to tell WIC readers?

M.: I am happy to say that my career has come full circle, yet it is far from being complete. I am currently a forensic artist with the Los Angeles Police Department, right back where my forensic art career began. My services are also in demand from many other police agencies throughout the Southern California area. SketchCop Facette Face Design System is gaining traction in law enforcement circles and the feedback has been fantastic. Many police officers have commented that it is the best digital composite imaging software they’ve experienced.

Over the years I have been blessed with many opportunities to help victims overcome their experiences while trying to figure out new ways to help cops catch crooks. I have a fascinating career, balanced by a loving, supportive family, that should keep me going for years to come.

Note: To contact Michael or try out a demo, click here.

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Who Killed Mob Daughter Susan Berman?

by Cathy Scott

An empty shell casing. That was the hardest evidence police found in the murder of mob daughter Susan Berman.

This is a story that begins in old Las Vegas with gangsters and the boys from the Jewish mob. It moves to San Francisco with the movers and shakers, to New York City and the literati, ending in Beverly Hills with the glitterati. It is a story about a path to murder.

Just before Christmas 2000, Susan, a screenwriter and author, was murdered, shot once in the back of the head with a 9-millimeter handgun. Her body was found a day and a half later, face down in her rundown, rented Benedict Canyon home, after neighbors reported Susan's dogs loose in the wooded area. During Susan’s lifetime, she had amassed a small fortune, only to lose it. She died penniless, a world apart from the one she’d grown up in.

She was the daughter of Davie Berman, Bugsy Siegal’s partner at the Flamingo Hotel. She was reared in the lap of luxury and Las Vegas royalty as the daughter of a notorious casino mogul and mob leader. It wasn't until college that Susan learned what her father really did for a living. The murder of Davie Berman’s only child had all the earmarks of a professional hit aimed at a person borne into the criminal underworld. That theory, however, was one of the first to be ruled out by investigators.

Recently, MSNBC took a close look at Susan’s case, interviewing friends, family and investigators. I, too, was interviewed, first in Las Vegas, then at a studio in Los Angeles. The producer said he based MSNBC's piece upon my book, Murder of a Mafia Daughter.

Los Angeles Police Department lead Detective Paul Coulter, whom I interviewed at length for the book and who chimed in for MSNBC, had a hunch. Whoever shot Susan in cold blood, he said, had done so by going through her front door. If she’d let someone in, that person was no stranger to her. Everyone knew Susan was careful.

Coulter began investigating everyone she had been dealing with. In the process, he discovered that Susan had rubbed some people the wrong way, including her elderly landlord, Dee Schiffer. Coulter also learned that Schiffer had been in the process of evicting Susan, which Susan had been legally fighting, for not paying her rent.

Susan also had a not-so-perfect relationship with her personal manager, Nyle Brenner, whom police also questioned, going so far as to search his house and office. But they stopped just short of calling him a suspect.

And, of course, there was Bobby Durst, Susan’s lifelong friend, who in the months before Susan’s murder had been living in Texas disguised as, of all things, a mute woman. Susan is believed to be the one who provided an alibi years earlier for Bobby after his wife Kathleen disappeared (that case remains unsolved). Susan loved Bobby like a sibling and would have done anything for him. A few months before her own death, Susan had asked Bobby for money to buy a used SUV and to catch her up on her rent. She sent the letter to his family’s business when she couldn’t locate him. Bobby sent Susan two checks, for $25,000 each, and told her the money was a gift. Susan had been unable to find him because Durst had been traveling, including in Texas.

A few months after Susan’s murder, in 2001, after arguing with Morris Black, an older neighbor in Galveston, Durst shot Black, then chopped up his body, wrapped the pieces in plastic bags, and dumped the remains in Galveston Bay. Durts, released on bail, fled the area. When he was later arrested, found in the trunk of Bobby’s car were two guns, one a 9 millimeter, the same caliber Susan was killed with. But, according to Detective Coulter, “The ballistics test was inconclusive.”

Durst pleaded self-defense in the Black case and his powerhouse attorney DeGuerin ultimately landed an acquittal for his client. Today, Bobby Durst is a free man.

As the lead detective on the case, Coulter, a veteran officer, said he would have done things differently in the Susan Berman investigation had homicide investigators been brought in early to handle the case. His office, in the Homicide-Robbery unit at LAPD’s Parker Center, however, was not given the case until 11 long days after Susan’s death.

In December of this year, a decade will have passed, with police no closer to solving the murder than they were in the winter of 2000.

In my research, I've gotten to know Susan. I walked through the English tudor home on South Sixth Street in downtown Vegas where she'd lived her first 12 years. It was a bright, cheerful house. I imagined her as a child, running down the long hallway into the welcome arms of the father she adored. I drove the route from her Las Vegas home to her Benedict Canyon house in Beverly Hills. I visited the restaurants she frequented in the town she loved and called home during the final 17 years of her life.

I went to the University of California, Berkeley campus where Susan earned her master's degree in journalism and where protests against the war in Vietnam were rampant. Susan made lifelong friends while attending Berkeley--friends in the writing world who later tossed work her way.

I visited her home in Benedict Canyon where she was murdered and found it gloomy and dark. Someone else lives there now.

And, finally, I visited the Home of Peace cemetery in East Los Angeles where Susan’s body is entombed in a marble wall alongside her mother, father, and uncle. A recent visitor had left flowers in bud vases for her mother Gladys, father Davie and her uncle Chickie. Susan's vases, one on either side of her shiny-brass headstone, were empty. I stood there looking at her grave, regretting I had not brought her a flower.

I only wish I could have met Susan face to face. She wanted so much to be famous, to be recognized for her work. Today, long after her death, her work has become well known. There's a long waiting list at public libraries to check out her writings. And her books fetch high prices, in the hundred range, on Internet auction sites. Had she lived to see it, Susan would have been pleased. She no doubt would have chuckled at the irony of it all. She also would have pondered the intrigue of her own murder investigation as it unfolded. That was her forte.

All evidence points to Susan being cut down by someone she not only knew, but who was a trusted friend she welcomed into her home. That irony, too, however tragic, would have piqued Susan's interest. It’s a sad case, and sadder still that Susan’s killer has not been brought to justice. Who, indeed, killed Susan Berman?

Cathy Scott is currently working on a 2nd edition of Murder of a Mafia Daughter, digging deep, seeking answers, to questions still raised in the case.

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Scene of the Crime: LAPD's Most Famous Exhibit

by Cathy Scott

Los Angeles Police Department authorities recently put on a show--the LAPD's Homicide Exhibit at the California Homicide Investigators Association conference in Las Vegas. And the community came out in droves to view the two-day "Famous Crime Scenes Exhibit."

It offered a unique behind-the-scenes look at the evidence police gather at crime scenes. Police cases ran the gamut from robberies, murders, serial killings, bank hold-ups, high-speed pursuits and hostage situations.

LAPD Homicide Detective Dennis Kilcoyne explained the reasoning behind making an exhibit and taking it on the road.

"Homicide investigators very rarely invite people under the crime scene tape and into the murder scene; this may be as close as some will ever get," he said, to seeing the scene as a detective would.

And so it was for the thousands who stood in line for up to an hour and a half to get in. The evidence of L.A.’s gritty past was more than sobering.

A respectful silence fell over the room as viewers quietly filed in, one by one, during the tour. They looked at evidence, photos, videos, get-away cars, weapons, documents, and autopsy photos. Included was evidence from the Black Dahlia case and Hollywood mob-era contract hits, all on loan from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office and LAPD’s evidence vaults.

It showed evidence from the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, who in 1994 was killed after she was repeatedly and brutally stabbed, along with Ron Goldman, in the courtyard of her Brentwood townhouse courtyard. It was almost chilling to see the bloody leather gloves, displayed behind glass, that were made infamous when suspect O.J. Simpson tried on the gloves in court and struggled to get them over his hands.

There were a bullet-riddled police car and similarly ventilated

suspect get-away auto from the notorious North Hollywood bank robbery and shootout.

But perhaps most grisly were evidence and photos from the ritualistic killing at a Benedict Canyon mansion where Charles Manson’s followers murdered five people, included pregnant including pregnant actress Sharon Tate, in the summer of 1969.

Still, it was the Robert F. Kennedy assassination display that seemed to stop people in their tracks. On display was the revolver used to cut down Kennedy in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel on a June night in 1968.

I toured the site of the killing not long before the historic Ambassador Hotel was razed in 2005 so a public school could be built in its place.

Linda Deutsch, longtime special court correspondent for The Associated Press, led the media tour to some of Los Angeles's more notorious crime scenes. We were taken inside the hotel to the upstairs ballroom where the presidential candidate gave a short speech. We walked the path Kennedy took from the ballroom to the kitchen’s pantry area, where he was gunned down at point-blank range.

The Kennedy evidence exhibit led to controversy. Robert Kennedy’s son protested when he learned it included the torn and bloody shirt, tie and jacket his father was wearing when he was assassinated. Maxwell Taylor Kennedy expressed outrage that his father’s clothing was transported across state lines, from California to Nevada, to be publicly exhibited in Las Vegas.

Maxwell Kennedy said he was particularly bothered that his family was denied possession of those items when they requested them. The younger Kennedy's protests made national news that night, after the first day the public was allowed to see it. The next morning, people waited in a line that wrapped around the interior of the Palms casino, where the exhibit was set up in a conference room.

"My request was refused by the district attorney's office," Maxwell Taylor Kennedy told the media. "The District Attorney promised, though, to keep the personal items with care and out of public view."

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck issued a public statement and an apology: "The last thing we want to do is to traumatize a victim's family, and I am very sensitive to that. But at the same time, we want to preserve the history of the city of Los Angeles and improve the quality and understanding about our homicide investigations."

The LAPD pulled the shirt, tie and jacket from the exhibit after the first day.

Based on the response from a member of the Kennedy clan, it is doubtful the displays will go on tour again anytime soon, making the exhibit in Las Vegas a one-time-only viewing.

Photos by Cathy Scott

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