Chasing Phil

A dramatic story about an FBI investigation involving a notorious and brilliant scam artist.During his tenure at the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover was never big on undercover work, so the agency avoided such operations. However, in the late 1970s, an opportunity arose to take on a significant case and to break new ground by using a hidden wire. Agent Jack Brennan, whose grandfather and father both worked for the FBI, had a "sunny, freewheeling disposition." His partner, James Wedick Jr., was "pure kinetic energy, a vivacious, speed-talking New Yorker." Both were smart and ambitious. In 1977, at the Thunderbird Motel outside Minneapolis, they met Phil Kitzer for the first time thanks to an inside source. For 15 years, shrewd, confident Kitzer had been swindling banks, "real estate developers, entrepreneurs and everyday investors out of countless millions of dollars." How he did it and how he was finally caught by Brennan and Wedick is the subject of journalist Howard's (Lost Rights: The Misadventures of a Stolen American Relic, 2010) true-crime adventure. The agents had to earn Kitzer's trust in order for the sting to work. Gradually, they did, and he took them under his wing. Little by little, over the next two years, he involved them in his numerous scams. The agents were able to create a world surrounding Kitzer's world, and he didn't see it. Howard follows the agents as they zigzag around the world observing Kitzer in action. Besides being constantly in fear and on edge, they also had to deal with the FBI's burdensome bureaucracy, skeptical superiors, and battles to get the financing they needed. An elaborate caper-and-sting story like this, filled with deception, chicanery, and subterfuge, should be a page-turning thrill. Unfortunately, Howard's prose is lackluster and sometimes tepid, resulting in a book that has Ocean's Eleven written all over it but comes out Dragnet lite.An uneven treatment of an intriguing subject.

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October 23, 2017
Howard (Lost Rights) takes readers back to the start of the FBI’s wire-wearing undercover era in 1976, when two eager young Midwestern agents, operating by the seat of their pants, teamed up to take down a charismatic con man considered the world’s greatest swindler. J.J. Wedick and Jack Brennan used their own names—unthinkable today—to befriend Minnesota-born insurance fraudster Phil Kitzer and become his apprentices, observing financial scams all over the world. Whether stealing the assets of a London bank or Elvis Presley’s private jet, Kitzer and members of his crime syndicate ran a seamless operation without ever getting caught. Over time, Kitzer and the agents developed an enviable friendship that survived the FBI’s Operation Fountain Pen sting in 1977, which landed Kitzer in prison. Howard splendidly recreates a bygone era and immerses readers in memorable scenes—including one in a Bahamas restaurant where Kitzer encouraged all diners to join him in a rousing rendition of “Hello, Dolly!” Following his leads across the globe, the author also traces Kitzer’s criminal evolution and explains how many of the FBI’s current undercover policies and procedures are directly influenced by the Kitzer case. The book contains the essential elements of great true crime: larger-than-life characters and almost unbelievable heists.