Say It Ain’t So, GI Joe

Here in northern Illinois, we have been witness to an amazing story of deception. As the local news story of a murdered hero cop, “GI Joe”, unfolded this fall, many of us were impacted. Beyond the media coverage, our daily lives were touched: from traffic congestion to several local schools being on lock down, the region was thrown into a quasi-military scene of catch the cop-killers. For all we knew, the killers were at large and we should lock our windows and doors at night. This week, we found that what we thought happened wasn’t true.
Say it ain’t so, Joe.
Now it is clear that as an inquiry was being made into Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewcz’ mishandling of public funds, he decided it was better to fake his own murder than to deal with the embarrassment of what he had done. Stealing money from the Fox Lake Police Explorer Post, an organization structured to support children’s interest in police work, the Lt. and his family used the money for personal uses ranging from mortgage payments to adult websites. As reported on the Chicago Public Television station WTTW’s news show Chicago Tonight:
The scene afterwards became fodder for wall-to-wall coverage on local and cable news networks: a massive manhunt that went on for hours; an investigation that ultimately cost $300,000.
Why did he do this? What was his tipping point? Why did he decide to feign his murder on his off day and send the region into frenzy and create a national media frenzy? As we’ve now learned, it was because he was about to be caught as a fraudster. In fact, it appears that as he turned from hero to goat, another important person in the story, a relatively unknown administrator, turned from petty bureaucrat to heroine.
As the FBI uncovered text messages between GI Joe and his family, the Bureau shared these details with the task force in charge of investigating. This task force had been assuming they were investigating a murder scene. Over the last few weeks, the facts related to the murder being faked became more clear. And the facts also revealed the “why now”.
The Pesky Bureaucrat
We now know Lt. Gliniewcz was very anxious about inquiries into how he used the control he had over the funds of the Fox Lake Explorer Police Post group. This fear of being discovered, were directly tied to financial accounting questions initiated by Anne Marrin, the Fox Lake Village Administrator. It is now clear the questions she asked were the root cause leading to the international story of a staged event. The same forensic accounting investigation that revealed where he had been spending the money also highlighted why he decided to act when he did.
In fact, he was so concerned, he considered framing her with a DUI, and even made reference to murdering her. An excessive response for a simple inquiry into finances, right? Actually, perhaps not as excessive as one might think, given the emotional and character dynamics. So who is this Administrator?
The Village Administrator (also known as a City Manager) is not a glamorous role. The story of the profession of the City Manager is however a very noble one. City Management is designed to keep a city working for the citizens. Begun in the early 1900s, the guiding principles of a City Manager are his or her ethics. The profession began as a reaction to corrupt local politics that left citizens without basic services: fire protection, safe water services, clean streets, and effective policing of citizens and of those who provide the services. Like the quiet and reserved accountant in the movie The Untouchables, however, the Village Administrator’s diligent attention to detail and to ethics play an important role in rooting out real dangers to our social fabric. And as Lt. Gliniewicz’ case shows, when rooted out, actions intended to stop the looking clearly are at times capable of placing the administration under real threat.
Making sense and moving on
As a co-author on fraud, we wrote our text (see below) targeting motivations and rationalizations of the person who commits fraud. This case highlights the false pride (arrogance) and the profound shame that comes with the actions of a fraudster. What are the feelings for the larger community? For us? Here are some for the larger community to reflect on:
• Anger: at Lt. Gliniewicz for his dishonesty – from the theft of public funds to the deception of his murder;
• Contempt: for the investigators because they did not figure it out sooner;
• Embarrassment: for being fooled;
• Relief: that the Village Manager is safe, and the story is resolved (we can stop fearing that there are cop-killing murderers running loose in our neighborhoods).
Our task is to put the feelings into perspective. As we do so, they can be understood, discussed, digested and we can move on. Two of them are generally harder to “stomach:” contempt and embarrassment.
Contempt in many ways is easier to feel but harder to release. Contempt ties to feelings of dismissal and hatred. It can actually feel good to feel contemptuous toward bad people. We can use our contempt toward the task force to keep from looking at our own embarrassment. In this case, it would be justified to feel contempt to the Lt. and those involved in the theft and the deception. This reinforces our values of justice and social cohesion with the police as guardians of our need for a safe community. It is not legitimate to feel contempt toward the task force, in my opinion.
As someone who works not only with City Managers, but also Police Departments, I find it actually quite unreasonable to be contemptuous of the task force. “GI Joe” was good at what he did. He was trained in teaching others how to investigate a crime scene – including murders. They, as a task force, were under significant scrutiny to do their work well and be objective. Not only did they need to investigate a crime but they also needed to find the criminals: For all they knew, the murderers were still at large. And, in the end, using the available relevant data and condensing it down into an integrated and accurate story, they did the right thing. Watching the team led by Lt. George Filenko stand up to the criticism in the media, fueled by the strong feelings mentioned above, we can appreciate the importance of a justice system that is fair and objective.
Lastly, consider Anne Marrin. How hard must life have been for her? It’s not easy to stand up and ask for a proper accounting. In particular, not someone like GI Joe. Imagine the challenge it must have been to stay true to her concern when the entire region was turned upside down to find his killers and most of the nation turned and looked at Fox Lake to celebrate his life’s story. How many of us would have had the courage to have stood up to the hero worship that was manufactured for this thief? In many ways, we are very fortunate to have her. In general, I find this quite common in the professional City Managers with whom I’ve worked.
Suicide because of the profound shame around fraud is not unheard of; in fact, it played a role in Enron and other stories. (Please see the open to our book, The A.B.C.s of Behavioral Forensics). And just as suicide to avoid the shame of exposure is not new, neither is the importance of a city manager in halting financial fraud. Also, in our text we highlight the absence of the city manager in the story of Rita Crundwell and Dixon, Illinois. A local “hometown kid”, Rita ended up stealing over $56 million dollars from a town with fewer resources than Fox Lake.
In the end, the story of Fox Lake ought not to be remembered for the goat, GI Joe, but rather the heroine, Anne Marrin: an ethical and steady City Administrator.

Join us for more insights into behavioral forensics (behind fraud and similar white collar crimes) from the authors of A.B.C.s of Behavioral Forensics (Wiley, 2013): Sri Ramamoorti, Ph. D., Daven Morrison, M.D., and Joe Koletar, D.P.A., along with Vic Hartman, J.D. These distinguished experts come from the disciplines of psychology, medicine, accounting, law, and law enforcement to explain and prevent fraud. Because we are inspired to bring to light and address the fraud problems in today’s headlines, we encourage our readers to come back and revisit us regularly at BringingFreudtoFraud.com.