Ron Campise's Radio Interview on Alamo Talk Radio with Mike Shinabery.

Ron is Interviewed by Radio Host Mike Shinabery, Ron goes into detail about his life as a Los Angeles Police Dept.  CSI Night Supervisor and what inspired him and lead him to his 20 year career.

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Transcript

Speaker 0:00

The Michael Shinabery Show is being brought to you 54 towing.

Ron 0:07

I'm Ron Campise previously with the Los Angeles Police Department's Crime Scene Investigation Unit. I was a field supervisor there on the night shift. It was my destiny to work as a crime scene investigative documentarian. Then later as a supervisor with the finest police department in the world, the LAPD here at city of Angels. I spent 20 years as a crime scene investigator, specializing a photography. Then after 13 years, I became a supervisor on busy, which is the evening. I had over 3,000 cases personally investigated and documented everything from run-of-the-mill murders to celebrity shootings. I still remember going to the mess houses and seeing drawers full of cash. And money was raining down from the ceiling. As the evening super, I coordinated with a squad and we handled over 10,000 cases. And it takes a toll on your very soul.

Mike 1:16

Good morning to you on this Tuesday morning. Boy, what a career Ron had. Ron is a friend of a very good friend of mine. And I was introduced to Ron, oh, I don't know, five or six weeks ago. He, as you heard on the audio there, had a long career in Los Angeles. He was on the scene of many celebrity incidents, including in the house the night that Michael Jackson passed away. For a time he worked too for the Rand Corporation. It's no surprise because of the guests we've had on here over 25 years. And some of the things that I've discussed about I'm a supporter of law enforcement. That's something I think I got from my dad. He was a supporter. And he loved cop shows. So a lot of those were on in the 1960s and 1970s at my house who served with the hometown police department as well as of the bomb squad, which did not make my aunt very happy at all. So I am pleased this morning to introduce you to Ron Campisi. He is on the telephone. Ron, I don't know whether you heard, but in the first opening of our introduction, we're we're going to talk about issues in your career, and we got an emergency alert from a police officer who's been shot in the Fort Sumner area. How ironic is that?

Ron 2:41

That is uh that is ironic. I want to say I hope the best for him and the situation. I hope you know I hope he uh survives. I've been on many, many officer-involved shootings, uh, the aftermath. And uh in the opening uh statement, I'll say this. Uh the Alamogoro Police Department is also one of the finest police departments in the world. And uh, of course, all police departments, they have their, you know, issues. And uh in other words, it's how they work them out. Anyway, Mike, would you like to ask me anything or you know to talk about any specifics?

Mike 3:19

Yeah, definitely. I'll just since you mentioned that, we had a police officer that I knew here was on the second plane that went into the Twin Towers on 9-11. So that strikes very close to home in our community here. But you mentioned on your introduction that it was your destiny to do this. What what drew you to the field and and why do you say it was your destiny?

Ron 3:42

It was my destiny, but uh you know, I'm actually uh at heart, I'm a poet, I'm a writer, and uh it's just by circumstances I wound up at the LAPD. I never expected to be there. I had, like I said, I worked uh actually at RAND Corporation uh that was at the end of the Cold War preceding the Gulf War and uh what they call Desert Storm, and I found out that that basically was a full-fledged national security organization along with the CIA and NSA, and that actually prepared me for my career at LAPD, that and life in general. I grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee, and my mother decided we're moving to Los Angeles. The area she could afford was called the East Side of Los Angeles or East LA, which is per predominantly Mexican American. Had a really rough go at it at that time, a minority within minority community. When I first got there, first of all, they detected my accent, the uh Mexican American kids, fine people, Mexican Americans. And the first thing they told me, they go, Oh, we know you're not from here. Uh we have a nickname for you, Ron. And I go, Really? You know, I was only about nine years old. We're gonna call you Bendejo. And I go, Oh, Bendejo, that's right, Ben. And they go, Yeah. So they said, When we say Bendejo, you come running. And they'd be out there, and then I they go, hey Bendejo, come over here, and I go, Oh, right here, and I'd run over. And then it was a joke I found out. Bendejo in uh colloquial Spanish means something like stupid fool, I found out, and they they thought it was quite a joke. That that's okay. I I can take a joke. You have to do that in law enforcement, and also when I was in law enforcement and also in life, you gotta be able to take a joke and not take it personally.

Mike 5:37

Well, you mentioned that you worked for the Rang Corporation. That was a a major chunk out of your career, your working years before you became a police officer. I've done over the years some some reading on the Rand Corporation. On the front, they're a think tank, but there's so much more going on behind the scenes. What did you do with them?

Ron 5:58

You know, I was hired by them because uh before I went to RAND, I had learned a specialty uh called uh three-dimensional computer reconstruction. And this was at a uh believe it or not, a hearing institute called I think it's called the House Research Institute now, but they were working on the cochlear implant. When I decided to leave that organization, Rand Corporation found out that I had that specialty and that I had been using what they call uh aerial techniques to do this, aerial mapping. We were able to do this and went through an animation technique and they put it into computers or sales. They needed that specialty because that's the same specialty for mapping, I found out, terrain mapping. So I was interviewed and out of five hundred and I think sixty applicants they hired me. They waived any educational requirements, higher education requirements. They said, We need you on board. And that's what I mean about fate, Mike. Um, that was preceding the desert storm, the Gulf War when Iraq did the heinous act of invading Kuwait. They needed me for that specialty, but my actual title there was media specialist. And RAND was created to contain and annihilate the Soviet system of government. They were so afraid of the Soviet Union at that time. And that was the underlying thing, that's why the specialists they had there, they had six hundred and sixty PhDs at work there. I was told that I was one of what they call the doers instead of the thinkers. But I had to do plenty of thinking because uh not only the mapping but other things related to photography and video and you know, it was just quite a show to work with six hundred and sixty PhDs. They're not necessarily any smarter than all of us, but they have their specialties, in other words, uh they're highly respected in their fields. In other ways, they're just as dumb as the rest of us in certain other ways.

Mike 8:07

So how long were you with that organization? I I read that just a few years ago they numbered nearly two thousand employees. What years did you call that your workplace?

Ron 8:21

I was there actually about two and a half years. I was there from nineteen eighty-nine to after the Gulf War in nineteen ninety-one. The thing is about the Gulf War and preceding Desert Storm, it was incredible how much the place changed during that time because you see, the Iraqis had set up their system on the Soviet uh model and their system what they call command system. That was their specialty there. They knew how to contain. rand Corporation came up with first of all containment procedures for what was going on to stop the uh Iraqis at the border of Saudi Arabia. They did not know how long the war was gonna last. Uh they figured it the thinkers there figured it may even last four and a half years. It was amazing how much the ch place changed. And in fact, I was told, because of my specialty, that I was going to Saudi Arabia. Uh to rehad, they were opening an office. And you know, as a young dude, I'm going, What what do you mean I'm going there? I go, Can I think about this? And they said, You know, there's a war on. They go, You really can't think about this. You're gonna have to give us an answer by tomorrow. And I said, Well, what if I say no? Just like in the military, my I'm an army brat, so I kinda have that intuitively, they told me, You will be going there one way or another. They go, We will get you there, even if we have to give you a commission and draft you. You will be there. And so I thought about it and I agreed, phone the next day, they were happy about that, and then of course, two weeks into the Gulf War it ended, which uh made me kinda happy.

Mike 10:09

I found a document online the RAND Corporation did just days, or that they released, let me put it that way. That they released just days after the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit uh the Earth. So they had been studying that for quite some time, and I remember learning in school our government acted surprised that uh the Soviets had beat us to this during the uh International Geophysical Year of 1957-1958, three months after Sputnik an astounding science fiction magazine, John Campbell, the editor, wrote a scathing uh review of the government, saying they knew about it all this time. They just didn't want the American public to know that they were caught by surprise. And this document was the RAND Corporation, which was released on November. Let's see, November 3rd of 1957 proved that Campbell was right. And so much goes on behind the scenes with organizations such as this, the American public will never know, or at least if they do, it will be decades down the road.

Ron 11:25

You know, I'm gonna give you an example of that. You know, when I was a when I was a boy, uh someone from the Southwest Desert, I mean a little boy, uh school chum, brought home a ghila monster, and you know, it went up a tree, was starting to go up a tree. You know, I put my hand right over it and stopped it. And people and he said, You don't know how you know the the nature of this thing. And he g he got it back. It's the same way with the public. We are smart, we are we are capable, but did you know s some things you really shouldn't know the full extent of otherwise what's gonna happen is that it's gonna cause such consternation. Yes, RAND more than likely knew about Sputnik. They were anticipating this was gonna happen. RAND Corporation is the one who developed the strategic air command. They're the one who developed all the containment procedures for the uh Soviets. In other words, this was a cold war going on and it doesn't mean there's a cold war, there aren't things happening. And in fact, Rand Corporation was created to have a level of plausible deniability by the US government. And in fact, you know, on certain days when I was not doing my media stuff or doing other things I was able to look through the files and uh because I had a secret clearance. They even have files, extensive files, I don't know where they are now, on what they call unidentified flying objects. Because you see all this was part of national security and they also had a pretty big program going on there at the time called Project Air Force. That does not surprise me because even though you know an adversary adversary government is going to do something, you cannot necessarily stop them. But Rand Corporation later did things through the realm of what they call legality and media to stop things from going on. It would be called disinformation.

Mike 13:41

You mentioned that and during my research, I did find a document that Rand published in 1968 specifically on the UFO phenomenon. So that's online as well if people would would like to find that.

Ron 13:55

Uh yeah, uh you know about that they had extensive files, and that's why I did leave RAND Corporation after the Gulf War. I left because first of all, it uh the whole organization was changing. When the Gulf War ended, RAND immediately laid off ten percent of their staff and they told me this was unprecedented. But about the uh UFO files and what's going on, I think that we things are more extensive than people could ever imagine. I would just say this. I mentioned to you that I did write a book, it's going on twenty five years called Dreams of Ants. And this is actually in a fictional, quote fictional way. It's about someone who is now working for the police department who worked for an intelligence organization and I called it Q that had seen certain things during the Gulf War and in fact he was aboard a C one thirty gunship during Desert Shield that was shot down over Iraq. And it was shot down, but not before, of course, it unloaded onto Iraqis, but this is of course a fiction novel. But in this novel I also talked about how we have certain technologies from UFOs that we have incorporated already and that the Russians or the Soviets at that time, I'm not gonna say Russians, because I think that taints them, had done the same thing and our technology was what they call surveillance technology and we had taken it off of down ships and what they had developed was cloaking technology. So in the novel the premise was that during the Gulf War, uh the Soviets and the Iraqis considered at that time that World War Three was already happening. We were already in World War Three, it has already taken place and that we won. And that's in winning the Gulf War and all the sacrifices made, we actually defeated the Soviet system of government, hence why Rand Corporation decided to change their spots or lay people off and become what they call a completely civilian think tank.

Mike 16:22

We've got to take a break here in a moment and then come back and I want to to really dig into your law enforcement career. No problem. Because uh you were on the night shift, you earned the nickname the Prince of Darkness.

Ron 16:38

That's correct. That was my nickname, the Prince of Darkness, because thirteen and a half years on nights, I'm the one who uh they talk to to get people to the crime scenes, detectives did.

Mike 16:49

So let's go ahead and take a break. That book is available. I I looked it up. You sent me a PDF copy of it. I'm looking forward to reading it, but that book is available. The reviews were tremendous. I didn't find out.

Ron 17:02

It did not take off, and what I did find out later, Rand Corporation was not happy I wrote that book. They let me know they were not happy. And so for some reason it didn't take off, but I write for the long term. Twenty-five years in the course of this world is nothing. I do feel that in the long term that the book, Dreams of Ants, will be a classic of the times we live in now.

Mike 17:31

My guess is Ron Campisti, and having some conversations with him, one of those folks with whom I look forward one day to meeting and shaking his hand. He served with the Los Angeles Police Department 10,000 cases that he either was on or supervised. And he has a podcast online called Dying in La La Land, where he talks about law standing for Los Angeles. He talks about the many things that that he witnessed and had to help solve. So Ron, why don't we talk about some of those? What what things stand in your stand out in your mind over the time that you served?

Ron 18:12

You know, in the time that I served, you know what really stands in my mind is the people I served with. And you know, you had a little thing there on uh post-traumatic stress and veterans. People to go out to crime scenes, especially in the evening, these horrendous scenes involving murders, kidnappings, which of course is in the news now, officer involved shootings, near terrorist acts which I consider uh one one incident was called the North Hollywood shootout. That was a near terrorist act that happened. You know, I used to talk with people who came back and the first thing I did, I talked to them because I had already been trained. Tell me about what happened out there and how are you doing. And they would open up to me about what they saw and of course the hardest scenes you could ever go on were scenes involving children. Any life that's lost is tragic. And out of all these, I have actually in the dying in La La Land, right now I've released nine stories. I actually have a total of fifty-two. I'm gonna see how things go. But you know, some one of the things that really stands out in terms of the ones that I released, you know, one of the saddest ones was this uh story called uh Mr. Shamus Light One Candle. He had been dead. He had everybody's gonna die. Mr. Shamus was a veteran of uh World War Two. He even got a he got a silver star. We're all gonna go, Mike, as you know. He died in nineteen eighty-six peacefully, uh heart attack, and they didn't find his body for thirty years. He was not found for thirty years. That's sad enough. When we're gonna go, we're gonna go. And the thing is though, what's important is that when I was there, that I said a prayer over him, that I didn't forget about him. Why was I there? Why are we in our the circumstances we are now? Sometimes you have to ask yourself, and there is a reason why. And you know, out of all the spectacular cases, you know, I was on I didn't write about it, but you know, one of one of the ones was the North Hollywood shootout where the bank robbers who had been robbing all over the southwest, killing guards, disrupting things, you know, and they were heavily armed. They were killed, which is I'm gonna say, they chose their fate. But you know, in that in that case, what people don't realize is that they had caused such a disruption in society at that moment, and that we handled it as people, as law enforcement and as people, and we overcame it. See and I look at the bigger circumstances and of course that's one of the cases where I got uh few times they ever award investigators medals for what they do. I got what they call a unit citation, which is a medal, along with my colleagues. You go out to a scene like that, extensive five, six hundred shots were fired, you got dead in the street, people injured, and you can actually smell in the air it was still there, the nitrate, which is you know, from you know, gunfire, right? And there was a fog. And you see what I'm describing is the same as a war scene. And of course we had people there extensive amount of time, and some of them started to freak out. Some of them they couldn't take it, and we were very understanding. Some cases, because we could, which you couldn't do on a battlefield, we sent them home. So the thing is though, that was one of the the proudest moments when I was there doing that investigation. investigation and we went there hot. Uh you know, the crime scene investigation. I know you see this on TV, there they're in the but usually the crime scene investigators don't go there. We had no idea how many people had been shot who were in apartment houses. When you have that many shots fired with armor piercing rounds. And so we had no idea how many suspects were involved. But I want to say this in my years of investigation there were more than two people involved. Basically for now they got away with it.

Mike 22:30

I lived in LA in fact it was in the latter couple of years before I moved when the Rodney King riots occurred. And of course those went much farther out than was reported in the media at that time. The incident really Sparked how important uh law enforcement is uh to a community. They talk about the thin blue line. Without that line chaos will cross over as we're seeing in many places in our country today. And to me, uh one of the saddest things is people on social media who read about an incident and they instantly solve it. They know everything. They know who's guilty. They're judge, jury, they're the executioner. If social media had been around in the time that you served how do you think that would have affected your investigations?

Ron 23:32

You know if it was around then we would have been told don't listen to anything. And in fact investigations in major police departments, you actually have to take a position of not deciding based on the surface of what you see. You have to really look into it. And so I make no I want to tell you right now certain incidents that have happened in this country with all law enforcement federal and local I make no judgment until I know the facts until I know what actually happened there. And then I make a judgment on it. And it's the same way right now and I know I'm doing a crime podcast it's easy for you to be what they call an armchair critic or quarterback. Oh they shouldn't have done that oh I wouldn't but you see this the thing they have never been under the gun. They have never been in a situation where they have had to draw a firearm on somebody or tell people not to enter your house because if you do you will not live to see another day if you enter my house. I'm talking about a home invasion mic. Yes you will not live another day if you enter my house and I want to tell you quickly a story when I was sixteen years old gangs in the neighborhood targeted us. I was severely beaten one night. Coming home from high school, coming home from a ban practice they wanted us out of the neighborhood this gang. And I was going to know what kind of gang or what because gangs are the same. They had beat me severely to the point of they nearly killed me. They came back the next day and because of I'm gonna say this divine circumstances, whatever you want to say, protection they did not enter my house. I was inside loading someone had given this to me, a twenty two caliber pistol. I was slowly loading it and I was waiting for them to enter. They never entered that night. Well later I did give them a warning. They decided not to mess with us anymore, not for that reason but for others and I told them I gave them a warning if they enter my house and they're gonna do harm to my family, I will shoot every one of them and I told them I will shoot them in the face as they enter my door. And so after that they never really bothered me anymore although they did they did help me with bottles once in a while walking home. But they never ever approached me again and the reason why they didn't know who they were dealing with. But then again I was not gonna let anyone disrupt my home. They'd already done that. I was not gonna let anyone chase me out of my neighborhood until we were ready to leave. Years later my mom did leave after I got out of the house. But then again I'm just saying I've been under those circumstances and again about shootings and this and that yes there is a thin blue line everywhere and in fact before you start criticizing anyone, not you Mike, anyone you think about if they weren't there what would you do? What would you do? And you're talking about the LA riots? My sister who now lives in Wisconsin she was pregnant at the time. They were breaking into homes over in what they call the South Bay area. I still remember she was there pregnant washing dishes and she had a it was kind of unusual but her you know someone gave it to her actually my father in law transferred her a pistol. She was there with a with a Luger pistol tuck in her back uh robe and I just thought that was quite a sight. So s so Mike I I've been there personally I've seen it and then again I withhold I don't make a judgment. I I do not later I'll have my personal opinion but then again you have to be you have to realize we are not experts. Uh many of us aren't we are what they call we hear the media thing this and that and what's going on. You have to really check the facts before you you know start condemning others.

Mike 27:58

Sure. I've got to take another break here I'm just I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that what you experienced as a younger person probably laid a foundation for the compassion that you showed to those under your command when you were on the the streets and solving crime. Absolutely all right let's take a break we'll come back with more we come back let's talk a little bit about your podcast where people can find that you tell some incredibly good stories on that podcast. So we'll return shortly we just talked about bank robbers with my guest Ron Campisi. Ron I'll tell you we've since found out the state police officer was shot at not injured but they are looking for suspects.

Ron 28:44

That's great. That is really great great news I celebrate that news along with your listeners.

Mike 28:50

Your podcast dying in La La Land you Yeah I we'll get back to you know the thing is I'll talk about two episodes in this podcast. Okay.

Ron 29:00

Uh one is you know you hear about what's going on in Mexico now with uh you know all the upheaval because cartel leaders got killed right uh one story I have is called the dogs of Sinaloa rule the night you know they send couriers up here Sinaloa cartel and uh you know frequently and on this one the uh car the two cars involved one's carrying the product the other one is carrying what they call the dog soldiers LAPD encounters them an officer winds up getting shot he was actually shot in the face blew the eyeball right out of his head sorry if it's kind of graphic that was a very long investigation and his partner lit the car up and killed the suspect. The suspect was honor among thieves was unceremoniously dumped at a local emergency room parking lot. They basically just kicked him out of the car you know like whatever you however you want to think. This officer lived the thing is though after he was shot severely wounded the uh Sinaloa dog soldier got out shot him again in the chest his badge deflected the shot and saved his life and then after that he was persuaded to leave by the training officer at the time this was a rookie uh firing two full clips at him from a nine millimeter pistol they took their hits that's the thing about law enforcement never underestimate them they know how to shoot the guy like I said he died but that was a very dramatic uh investigation and the picture I a picture is available online on the uh what they call the uh YouTube podcast of course on audio it's not the thing is though you could see the actual badge that was hit by a 45 round high powered 45 round and another one here to illustrate how I took care of people you know before COVID happened a plane came into Los Angeles this is actually I'm going back to two weeks before COVID hit in this country a plane came into LAX unfortunately two people had died on that plane it was a mother and young daughter they died and uh they were actually in in each other's arms and so we went out there as part of the investigation along with uh federal authorities and I actually sent two people and they told me Ron we've never seen anything like this we don't even want to go on the plane and I told them okay because of my RAN training because I was extensively trained there I said I want you in full hazmat gear. I want you complete bunny suits with respirators before you enter that plane and they came on that plane and it nearly caused an international incident. They were going what the heck are you people doing? Do you see what kind of disruption you're causing by doing this? And I knew that was going to happen. And so I said you tell them you were ordered to do so by my s by your supervisor and of course that was me the Prince of darkness because I was always going to protect my people and after that incident within March uh we were in a full blown COVID situation. You put two to two together but the thing is though those are just two stories you know there are basically incorporated there are eight additional stories there are a couple more in the introduction I think people will find these fascinating I've got a few more that I'm gonna be releasing I'm actually writing them now and they have such titles as uh Batman vs the Mercedes and Crazy Cats and kimonos versus the spooky kabuki and another one another Hollywood story is War Dog of Hollywood Boulevard.

Mike 32:58

I look forward to those and and you can go to YouTube and other platforms and find Dying in La La Land there I tell you Ron my hat's off to you you're a man of honor and one of the reasons I enjoyed watching those podcasts I grew up the good guy won and in this society in this day and age in this era with defund the police and people walking free who've done heinous crimes I think the majority of people are just tired of it. And they want to know that when it comes down to the battle the good guy is going to walk away. And you were one of those and you led a a group of people who did the right thing. I was very impressed where you talked early on about money raining down from the ceiling and cash in drug dens and no one who wore the uniform walked away with that cash.

Ron 33:55

There was honor among your guys there was honor and uh we knew you see there was an unwritten code I'm not talking about any of the departments I don't know for a fact but I'll tell you LAPD could you imagine going into a house this was actually a house in a housing project and they were built at that time like uh fortresses all the kitchen drawers are stacked full of money stacked I'm talking about hundreds fifties twenties you know in other words neatly stacked and also ceiling if they're looking for a suspect and you've got money basically just raining down on you. Raining down to be sure you absolutely make sure you don't walk away with anything you know inadvertent clothing or something usually the only thing that fall in my clothing mic was roaches. That was that was the thing when you got out of a you got the most pristine places to go to recline scene sometimes.

Mike 34:54

Yeah.

Ron 34:54

It was the whole thing you walk out of there you shake out your jacket you stomp your feet because you gotta send those kukachas on their way because otherwise you're gonna bring them back to the office.

Mike 35:15

Okay folks can watch dying lala land on YouTube and other platforms. We go out with