Uncommon Common Sense: An Anatomy of Peril

By Rudolph Valadez

This book is a primer on unsafe and deviant human behavior, the body language of those that would harm you, and the danger signs of mishap.  It is a must read for those who intend to become more self-reliant in their safety by recognizing accidents and crime before they occur.  With examples and preventive methods, this book will change for the better your awareness and perception that allows you to recognize the risks, threats, and perils in your everyday life.  This book is also a study of sexual lust, negligence, victims, and predators.   The different types of criminals such as burglars, Carjackers, pedophiles, rapists, murderers, mass murderers, workplace violence and serial sexual killers, stalkers, kidnappers, and terrorists are discussed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 24, 2005
• ISBN: 9781463470593

Rudolph Valadez

Mr. Valadez is a 25-year veteran of the FBI, where his duties included protecting the U.S. from criminals, spies, and terrorists, and protecting high-ranking government officials and dignitaries. The study of human behavior and how accidents and crime occur is his passion in life.  His life experience has prepared him well to now serve you.  He has written this book because safety belongs to everyone, not just those that can afford a professional tutor.  He is an expert on personal safety, crime, victims, and victimology.  In the last ten years, he has traveled the globe providing personal safety seminars to executives and personnel of Fortune 100 and 500 companies to provide them safety in their environment.

Book preview

© 2005 Rudolph Valadez. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

This book is written for the mature adult who may in turn selectively teach their young. The author strives to provide accurate, complete, and useful information. However, neither the author nor the publisher makes any warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the usefulness or effectiveness of any information, method, or process disclosed in this material. Nor does the author or publisher assume any liability for the use of, or damage arising from the use of, any information, methods, or process disclosed in this material. No information in this book should be used as a substitute for the medical care and advice of your doctors or other services of competent professionals where that assistance is warranted or deemed necessary. Parents and childcare givers are urged to use caution, supervision, and common sense in protecting children from anyone or anything that could prove hazardous to them.

In respect for the victims and their loved ones, the identities of victims are not mentioned unless extensive publicity or their wishes impose otherwise. Only the fact pattern of the tragedy taken from the reality of the occurrence is laid out for your learning. All incident examples are taken from real life incidents and the fact patterns depicted are taken from actual occurrences. The victims’ identities are locked in my research notes.

Published by AuthorHouse  02/01/2023

ISBN: 978-1-4184-9754-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4184-9755-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4634-7059-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2004097027

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

This book is dedicated to the victims that have gone before us. May the knowledge gained from their tragedy help save one of us. It is also dedicated to their loved ones.

WHAT I WAS THEN*

By

Jo Ann Valadez

The yonder light gleams in my moistening eyes.

The salty taste of tears. My pale lips quiver,

For what I was and ache to be.

The road so long, the climb so cruel.

My nightmares stay, I wish them gone;

The summit’s near, I must go on.

My life’s last mile in peril be.

The night’s chimeras, the end of me.

I fear the threat for down below there’s he

That thrust on me the change I see.

The intense fear that visited me.

The miscreant’s deeds relive in me.

A helpless prisoner in terror be,

I had no choice but to be numb.

The awful things and crushing fear

That he cursed on me.

Yet first born impulse,

The instinct, which arose in me, to warn

Of crimson floods that he brought me;

I failed to see.

I wish to be what I was then, where once

I danced in carefree songs of innocence.

I seek the warmth, the sunshine there,

For what I was and long to be.

I see the sky. I see the light.

The summit’s near.

Awake! All Sweetness! And take me there.

My soul be free that I can be what I was then.

* Printed by permission of the author.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T o all the authorities on the subject that have contributed before me, and to those who will contribute to the safety of others in the future, I thank you. I gratefully acknowledge the help, assistance, professional advice, expertise, and support given to me by the following:

Thank you Marlon Brando for your intuitive recommendations about the scope of this writing; Ernest Fuentes and Ray M. Valadez for our trips to mount Olympus on the structure of this work; and to Michael Marcosa, Stephen McInnes, and Mark Carlton for your friendship and support. Special thanks go to Georgia Lazo-Rodriguez for her special recommendations and support. My sincerest gratitude goes to Joseph Manuel Gomez for his support and assistance in the publishing of this book.

My sincere thanks also goes to all my relatives and friends that have always been there for me, especially to my mother, Catalina, who instilled a conscience, empathy for others, a sense of duty, and a love of family, God, and country.

I would like to acknowledge my associate, Paul P. Magallanes of Magallanes Associates International, Inc., for his friendship and support throughout the many years both in and out of the FBI. The privilege of being exposed to MIA’s rather exclusive clientele has given me many years of professional growth. To my associates Robert Senseney and Ruben Mena, the knowledgeable and unselfish, hands-on people that make security happen — and taught me a few things — thank you.

Lastly, I would like to acknowledge my lovely patient and supportive wife, Jo Ann, who made recommendations on the scope of this writing and convinced me to include the awareness chapter on terrorism, which I thought was overkill before September 11.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

PART I: SURVIVING IN COMMON PLACES

Chapter One: A STATISTICAL PORTRAIT OF ACCIDENTS AND CRIME

Chapter Two: THE PREDATORS

The Criminal Predator – His Habits, Characteristics and More

Recognizing Criminals –Some Conclusions

Chapter Three: SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

Helpful Insights in Response to Danger: On Accidents

Your Mind as a Weapon – Analysis of Your Environment

The Art of Seeing

Chapter Four: CONCEALED THOUGHTS: Body Language

Chapter Five: THE STREET FOREVER DIFFERENT

The Walk About – Space – Training Scenarios

The Female Jogger – Female Rape – Male Rape

A Dog in Our Path – The Place Where You Park

Shopping Centers – Banking – Elevators – About Crime Scenes

Chapter Six: ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Your Car – Your Conduct

Immediate Action on Entering Your Car – Varying the Route

Vehicle Maintenance – Parking Garages and Parking Lots

Traffic Lights and Driving Strategies – Detecting Surveillance

Car Trouble – Should Your Car Start to Sink in Water – Air Bags

Carjacking and the Assault – Car Theft

When You are Falling Asleep at the Wheel

The Use of Public Transportation – Road Rage

Criminal Driving

Chapter Seven: DWELLING IN SAFETY

Home Security – Burglars – Visitors – Safe Haven

Home Invasions – Weapons in the House – Alarms

Medical Emergencies – Fires – Domestic Violence

Chapter Eight: I JUST WANT TO KEEP THEM SAFE

The Parent – Our Child’s Safety at Home, at Play, and Elsewhere

How They Learn to Be Safe and What They Need to Know

A Child in the Car – Pools – A Word on Poisons – Home Alone

Play Grounds – Halloween – TV – Babysitters

Surviving Bullies – Intervention

Chapter Nine: TEENAGERS

We Judge People by the Company They Keep

Dating Violence – Drug-Free Kids

Safety Through the Internet – Children and Domestic Violence

Adolescent Suicide – A Word on the Future

Chapter Ten: THE DANGER OF GOING TO WORK: Workplace Violence

Why It Happens – How It Happens

Who Commits Violence in the Work Place?

Your Safety in the Work Place

The Stalker Who Commits Violence in the Workplace

Domestic Violence in the Workplace

Chapter Eleven: ANYONE CAN DEFEND THEMSELVES

The Human Body Weakness – Personal Weapons – Sprays

Other Available Weapons – Effective Attacks

Chapter Twelve: ROAMING REPOSE

Things to Consider, Tips, and Precautions – Baggage Theft

Traveling With Baby – Traveling With Pets – Landing in Water

Hotels – Jet Lag – Skyjacking – Driving

Travel Emergency Kit – Other Considerations

PART II: ADVANCED SURVIVAL

Chapter Thirteen: STALKERS, ASTRAY LOVERS

The Why – What is stalking? – What do We Know About It?

Early Warning Signs – The Road to Violence

Some Warning Signals of Violence – Your Immediate Actions

State Laws – Federal Laws – When Do Stalkers Stop

Chapter Fourteen: KIDNAPPING

How A Victim Is Selected – Detection and Prevention

Attack, Assault and Kidnapping-Hostage Survival

Place of Captivity

Chapter Fifteen: TERRORISM AND BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM

Our Weakness – What is a Terrorist and Why is He Born

How do Terrorists Organize and Operate

Biological Terrorism – What Can You Do in Your Protection

Terrorist Organizations and Groups

A FINAL WORD

PART III: THE SUPPLEMENTAL PROCESS

A.   SECURITY SURVEY FOR YOUR HOME

B.   FIRE PREVENTION SURVEY AND PLAN

C.   STOLEN IDENTITY

D.   SENIOR CITIZEN’S SAFETY TIPS

E.   TEN MINUTE FIRST AID and THE FIRST AID KIT

F.   STATE CRIMINAL CODES FOR STALKING LAWS

G.   PRIVACY LAWS IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA,

H.   SECURITY OF LAPTOP COMPUTERS

I.   EARLY WARNING AND TIMELY RESPONSE TO SCHOOL VIOLENCE

ENDNOTES

REFERENCES

PREFACE

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

Maricus Annius Aurelius

G iven today’s victim statistics, Abraham H. Maslow, considered the father of humanistic psychology and famous for his hierarchy of human needs, would agree that personal safety is a priority concern. ¹ Safety is the second level in his hierarchy of human needs. As he so rightly put it, the human being needs security after the first basic survival level of air, water, hunger, and thirst.

We live in a dangerous world. Danger is not easily seen. Your everyday notions on safety obtained simply by being awake (fully conscious), will not keep you safe. The tragedy of an accident or crime can touch any one of you at any time. When it happens, you will never again be the same.

If you could prevent or avoid trauma, injury, and death by an accident or a crime, would you do it? Of course, you would! But to be safe is to be preventive and react correctly if you cannot prevent mishap.

Can you see the miscreant before he gets to you and the accident before it happens? Can you see the evil in the one that will harm you? Can you discover surveillance, the continuous observation of a person or area to detect developments, movements, or activities?

Once a cute baby, the bad guy looks just like the guy next door. Nature and evolution are wonderful things; nevertheless, you worry about and are afraid of snakes but not about its distant cousin, the criminal. This is because when you see a snake, you recognize it, but you cannot see the criminal because he looks like you and me. You cannot recognize him unless you have trained yourself to do so. You also need to learn what criminals are looking for in a victim so that you can avoid the traits that flag you for him.

You need knowledge and awareness to see danger. You need special experiences and notions brought about by thinking philosophically about safety to keep you safe. You must learn anything and everything about those things that could harm you and your loved ones. With knowledge and awareness, you can see danger.

The beginning of all learning starts when the answer to any of your questions is, I don’t know. Good answers come from a rational consideration. Think philosophically. Ask the kind of searching question that help you understand the thoughts that you already know but do not really understand, and see the things you look at but do not really observe. Make yourself able to see the warning signs of accidents about to happen and the face of evil on the one that will harm you. Create a special awareness about your environment to prevent mishap before it becomes harmful. Once you can see danger, you must learn to deal with it effectively if you cannot avoid the peril.

I have written this book to help you by providing a special knowledge that broadens your awareness, and lets you develop a sense of safety that is uncommon. Your new uncommon common sense will help you avoid harm’s way and to survive when you cannot avoid peril.

Armed with the knowledge in this book, your improved protective instincts will always be ready to go into action to take you and your loved ones out of ever-present danger. The knowledge and experiences that is found in this tome will give you a special learning designed to make you aware of circumstances and people that cause accidents and crime. They allow you to gain insights and understandings that at once pair up with your instincts to make them more effective.

The knowledge of how accidents and crime occurs yields the information needed to teach you how to expose, prevent, and deal with perils. This work is an anatomy of perils that dissects and breaks down into parts those common places, things, and people around you that are harmful and dangerous. It will help you look at perils by investigating their parts, their surroundings, appearance, and the factors that cause them. When you augment your instincts in this manner, your mind will understand and recognize risks, threats, and hazards that cause perils, and this will become your strengthened survival-skills.

The potential for danger and mishap exists everywhere. Accidents and crime are mishaps or calamities that require our awareness of them in order to uncover, avoid, and prevent them. The conscious and unconscious mental processes that create this awareness are the same. I treat accidents and crime in this work as the common enemy. I deal with this enemy within the common situational places in which we find ourselves rather than discuss them separately. Further, there is a supplement for your learning process on safety.

The first four chapters begin your mental process for safety by laying mental footings. It is necessary information for the lay of the land, to begin the process of learning to see and to observe and of becoming aware of your environment. All the chapters taken by themselves or together will further your safety experience.

I discuss criminals including rapists, serial sexual killers, and stalkers to further your understanding of your surroundings. I consider unsafe conditions and your behavior. In situational places, I explain your safety at home and on the road. Your self-protection training continues with discussions on domestic violence, workplace violence, and physical self-defense.

This book exposes the most common places in life where events and circumstances can cause harm or injury. Emphasis is put on the most common of these places, which include the home, the children’s environment, the car, the street, the shopping center, the parking lot, and the workplace; but of necessity, other places and situations are also discussed.

I consider your child’s safety throughout their environment that includes their school and parental responses to media violence. I also discuss the dreaded kidnapping of children. I will make suggestions to help you teach your children to avoid a predator.

A criminal will kidnap anyone for any criminal reason. As a trained and experienced FBI investigator with specialization in criminology, victimology, counterintelligence, counter-terrorism, defensive tactics, and hostage negotiation, I discuss the criminal’s operating methods and tactics, their own method of surveillance, and your detection of it.

I also separately discuss kidnapping and its prevention. It would be a mistake to think that you are not subject to kidnapping because you are not wealthy. The mere suspicion that you have an ATM card can make you attractive for kidnapping. I conclude with stalking, the survival of an attack or kidnapping by criminals, and an awareness of terrorism.

Since anyone and anything can cause you harm, it would be naive and negligent not to cover the harm that someone who you know can cause you. After all, more than half the reported crimes on persons fall into this area. Yes, besides matricide and fratricide, there is infanticide, filicide, parricide (killing of a close relative), siblicide, uxoricide (wife killing), familicide, and several other kinds of kin killing.

Concerning emergency care, CPR and first aid are also considered. For example, Dr. Henry Heimlich’s maneuver that save lives cannot only be used on choking victims, but must be used initially on drowning or near-drowning victims. This would clear the lungs of water, so that oxygenating the victim can begin with CPR. Unless you first force the water out of the victim’s lungs, the initial application of CPR can force water deeper into the lungs, congesting them further. Another example is CPR on a heart attack victim that does not require blowing air into the victim’s lungs. I mention this only because many persons refrain from applying CPR on a heart attack victim for fear of HIV. These victims need blood circulation. Applying only the blood circulatory procedure of CPR until medical assistance arrives would save lives.

I have studied the martial arts of Judo, Karate, Gung Fu (Kung Fu), Jujitsu, and Aikido all of my adult life. As a martial artist and defensive tactics instructor, I discuss your readily available weapons such as your hands and fists, the most vulnerable area of your assailant to attack, and a hierarchy of human vulnerable areas. What is a criminal’s most vulnerable body part? No, Grasshopper, it is not his groin. The latter is his fourth vulnerable spot! You must always first consider attacking and leading your opponent’s mind.

Since the topics of our discussion are quite serious, I will make light of things here and there. I will make safety points as needed education without frightening you into nightmares. Helping you prevent and survive a mishap is the important issue in this book. I will note throughout options for your consideration and use.

By design, this work seeks to implement in you one basic objective: To make you as self-sufficient as possible in all matters concerning your safety. To do this, you need the whole book and not just parts of it. If you read selective parts, you will lose essential elements needed for your development of a continuous safety program.

This book is your mental danger awareness kit for everyday safety. It is a foundation upon which your developing mind, in this regard, will serve you well. What you will find in this book is organized and meaningful information on your safety. Until now, you did not have a viable safety program. By the final word in this book, you will be the empowered teacher of a safety program that will help protect you, your loved ones, and your property.

In this regard, it is not a technical how-to manual, but a primer to guide and train you to see the warning signs of danger. Thus, allowing you to prevent and avoid crime and accidents. It is, therefore, not only a primer, but also a way of life.

At every opportunity, consider specific criminal traits and safety issues. Self-defense in your environment, like any martial arts, must be a subconscious effort. It must become second nature to you. This takes daily practice of mental exercises. Start this process by putting yourself in the written scenes and by examining your reactions as you read.

Here are twelve things this book will do for you to help you live a safer and longer life:

1. Heighten your awareness, perception, and understanding of all things around you that affect your safety, including Terrorism.

2. Get safety back into your hierarchy of needs.

3. Make you think about safety. We do not think about safety. This is why we get into trouble.

4. Develop your confidences.

5. Advance your self-defense.

6. Better your ability to see danger.

7. Amplify your ability to listen to the way you are feeling. Learn to listen to your instincts.

8. Improve your ability to predict the actions and behavior of others.

9. Evolve your ability to read the silent body language of those around you.

10. Avoid the tragedy of an accident or a crime.

11. Develop your ability to protect your loved ones.

12. Help you survive mishap and criminal assault.

A professional criminal near your home is going out on the street to find a victim. He plans to accomplish his mission, and he has rehearsed his plan. He will succeed until the authorities catch him. A criminal does not feel empathy for his victim. He does not have a conscience to restrain his impulses, greed, and lust. Someone will become his victim.

Likewise, someone will become the victim of an unsafe condition that will result in an unintentional injury. This is the reality and the sad state of affairs, not only in America but also around the world.

One premise must be clear to you. No law, government, agency, or police organization can protect you in the moment of your physical need. Only you can be the first-line protector of yourself and your loved ones. Only you can see danger and make yourself and loved ones safe.

A war should exist in our environment toward wining our safety. Our foes are disease, accidents, criminals and terrorists. You should look to the necessity to fight them.

Do not let the world around you distract you from the obvious because you are simply complacent, and do not know and cannot recognize danger. You have to learn to recognize dangerous situations that are in plain sight, and criminals trained in recognizing an easy and vulnerable victim.

This is not the first or last word on safety, but it is an excellent primer for most of you, who are serious about a safer environment. If the decade of the nineties was the decade for discovering the brain, then the first decade of the new millennium is the time to discover how to make your world more personally safe. The knowledge and tools in this book can help you to be safer.

INTRODUCTION

Everything you do, everyone you meet, rubs off in someway. Some of everything you experience stays with everyone you’ve ever known, and nothing is lost.²

Harriet Doeer

I was born in the summer of 1942 in the darkest days of World War II. Yet today, the world is just as dangerous if not more so. Some of everything that I know and have experienced, I want to rub off and stay with you. My friends call me Rudy. I know something about safety that saves lives.

The skills learned in life, in private practice and the FBI, which included protecting executives, high-ranking government officials, dignitaries, and heads of state including the President and Vice President of the United States, have prepared me well to serve you.

I served my country for most of my adulthood, sworn to protect the United States and our Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. After twenty-five years in the FBI, where I served as a Special Agent and manager, President George Bush appointed me to head the Western Region of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. This awesome duty included the administration of eight thousand employees with a budget of half-a-billion dollars. I retired from government service as a Senior Executive.

In private practice, I give clients a full range of security and investigative services including personal security lectures. In the last eight years, I have traveled the globe to provide my knowledge and protective skills to the wealthy, to make them safer from accidents and crime. I take great satisfaction in providing seminars on personal safety to the personnel of Fortune 100 and 500 companies operating in third world countries. I provide security consulting, crisis management, executive and employee protection, hostage negotiations, and investigations. However, safety belongs to everyone, not just to those that can afford an expert to come privately to them to secure their environment, and awaken their protector instinct with added knowledge and experience.

My life’s hobby and passion has been the study of human behavior, especially unsafe and deviant behavior. It is rare that I miss an opportunity to talk and discuss safety, crime, victims, and victimology³ (the study of the victim’s background and how she or he acted prior to the tragedy) with anyone that is knowledgeable.

Times were very different when I was very young. As soon as I could reason, my parents taught me to be responsible for others and myself. Failure to learn and apply what I was taught brought dire consequences. At five-and-a-half years of age, I started my training in the safety and care of my newborn brother. By the age of six, my seven-year-old sister and I were taking my younger brother to the cinema without adult supervision. She carried and cared for him. I carried the diapers and milk and assisted her. The world around us did not blink an eye in our direction.

By the age of fifteen, I had seen more than my share of victims and death caused by accidents and crime. However, aside from minor scrapes and bruises, I had not been a real victim of mishap. On a spring afternoon when I was fifteen, I became a victim. My cousin and I were walking home from Jefferson High School in San Antonio, Texas. The neighborhood around this school was an affluent one, and it was a good three plus miles to our home. I was proudly dressed in my junior ROTC uniform.

I was living with my aunt. My mother had moved to California with my younger siblings, and had left my younger brother and me behind until she was settled. The walk home took us through Woodlawn Lake Park. I had played there as a child, and it was far from the gang-infested government housing projects where I had previously lived. San Antonio was a very small town then, and the youth gangs had stepped out of their neighborhoods, and were everywhere by that spring.

The path we took was a direct route. We could have taken a longer way around the park, but we did not. Deep inside the park, we came across a group of young men that were milling around a park bench. I felt the apprehension and a little fear when I saw them, but we kept on. As we neared them, they gathered around us. I could smell the marijuana smoke and alcohol. The leader asked me for a quarter. I had no money, and told him so. He asked me again as he got very close, and his followers closed our escape. I started to tell him again that I had no money. He slapped me, and grabbed me by the collar. With the other hand, he punched me in the stomach. I instinctively cringed to his blow, and watched this criminal, as he got ready to hit me again. He had a knife with a three-inch blade in the hand that had punched me. He really did not want any money. He wanted to take a life, and he had chosen mine.

One of the gang members stopped him, and announced that I was OK. He recognized me from the old neighborhood. I quickly recognized him as he glanced at me while he distracted the leader. He signaled for me to run. I ran as hard and as fast as I could and my cousin followed. We did not stop until we got home. By then, the blood was all over the front of my shirt and pants. I was afraid to scare my aunt, so we went to the back yard where I could wash myself with the water hose. My cousin helped me get the blood off the uniform. Scared, I felt no pain. The knife made a surface puncture wound a little over a half-inch long. I put some iodine and a bandage over the wound. It hurt for a few days, but after a while, I did not feel it any more. My aunt never knew. I was very lucky. The knife missed the organs, and the wound healed by itself without infection. I will carry the scar to remind me forever. This was the first time that I cheated death.

I was streetwise and aware of some of the warning signs, and I felt the fear and apprehension as we approached these young men. Yet I had overruled my instincts. As I washed my wound, I asked myself, Why? Why did I not listen to my instincts? I must have seen the danger because I felt the fear? The danger that I had sensed came from the warning signs that surrounded the peril. The analysis began to teach me that the conditions that result in an injury from an accident, or the victimization by crime, were visibly in plain sight, but unrecognizable to untrained eyes. If I could learn to see and heed these warning signs, I could prevent my mishap.

The lessons were also teaching me that some people are animals without empathy for others and without consciences. As I washed my wound, I swore that I would never let harm get that close to me again, and that I would learn how to protect myself. I believe that the reasons for my survival are due to a conscious awareness and an attempt to see negligence, crime, and injustice, and to fight against them.

At fifteen, I felt that I only had three choices in life: Becoming a priest, a cop, or a hoodlum. My mother did not suffer hooliganism well. Hooliganism repulsed me because I saw no humanity in it, and the priesthood had become unattractive since I had discovered girls. My course steadily led me to the FBI.

I recall a movie that I saw as a teenager in Los Angeles that had a great influence on my life. It was the 1959 movie film, The FBI Story, with James Stewart as Chip Hardesty. In fact, the movie started me on the road to my career in the FBI. Becoming a member of the FBI team was only a dream then. The film has an early scene, which startled me because of the statements on crime. Up until then, I thought that crime only happened in my neighborhood. (We moved often, and lived in low-income, gang-infested neighborhoods.) The scene has Chip’s partner, Murray Hamilton as Sam Crandall, trying to convince Chip that there were many reasons for Chip to stay in the Bureau. The main reason was crime and criminals. Sam tells him:

There are all kinds of crime. There’s theft, armed robbery, forgery, perjury, treason. In Texas, a man stole a drawbridge. A whole drawbridge! They’ll steal homes, wives, flashlights, pants, watches, your good reputation. You name it. They’ll steal it. Forty-nine pairs of overshoes, an old lady stole them in Arizona! Solid, rock, diamonds, beer caps, and wet paint signs. They’ll steal morning and night, sunshine, and rain. They’ll take anything you’ve got, large, small, or medium. Then there is murder. There’s homicide, genocide, patricide, matricide, fratricide, suicide, and murder for side bets. They’ll use poison, gunshot, rocks, knives, and scissors.⁴

Wow! I said to myself. He had just put it all together for me. I had never thought of it that way.

The idea of negligence, crime, and injustice created a loathing for them in me. However, none of the hundreds of criminals that I had apprehended ever saw hate emanating from me, for by then a clinical and efficient law enforcement approach removed any hate. I left judgment to someone else. I gave no quarter to criminals in the first few minutes of confrontation, but once we were safe, I treated them fairly. This approach and fair treatment put them at ease to talk to me once they saw no escape.

Little did I know that my career in the Bureau would parallel that of the main character Chip Hardesty in a remarkable way? I started my career investigating crimes, and chasing down fugitives; lost good friends who died defending their country and upholding their sworn duty, and had marriage problems. Later I worked in counterintelligence catching spies and counter-terrorists to prevent acts of terrorism, and lecturing at the FBI Academy. Along the way, I worked undercover against criminals and spies. The Bureau also trained me as a police and defensive tactics instructor, media spokesperson, hostage negotiator, and manager. I would conclude my U.S. Government civil service career as a Senior Executive.

In later years when Jimmy Stewart would come to visit the Los Angeles office of the FBI, I talked to him briefly, but I never told him that he had influenced my life, nor did I get his autograph or have a photograph taken with him. I did not want to bother him with such trivia. I do regret this.

What I know, I want to teach and pass on to you, but what you bring to this book is as essential as what is in it. You must have a continuously developing mind. Remember always that words convey only part of the meaning. As you proceed, walk softly through the pages, inviting the meaning, and constructing your mental safety program.

George Bernard Shaw once remarked that teaching does not create learning. This is so true. Learning comes from actively doing, for only the knowledge that you use will stay with you.

The learning process also requires patience. This is difficult because we live in a world of diminishing patience. Patience is a capacity for calm endurance in moments that are void of a set time or deadline. It is an essential good quality of any mortal. Perhaps a little anecdote will convey what I am trying to tell you. It is a short story told to me by my friend and Sensei of Aikido and Judo, Karl E. Geis of Houston, Texas, during one of our mental trips to mount Olympus:

Once a young man was seeking the best martial art’s school, and traveled the width of Japan in his search. He sought out a famous school, and began to talk to the master. He told the master that he wanted to become the best martial artist in the land. The master asked him, What do you want from me? I want you to teach me, but tell me, how long do I have to study? answered the young man. Ten years, responded the master. Still, what if I study twice as long and as hard as any other student? countered the young man. Twenty years, the master told him. But, what if I study and practice very hard night and day with much effort and dedication? replied the young man. Thirty years, said the master. Why do you keep increasing the time, each time that I say that I will work harder? gasped the young man. Because when you have only one eye fixed on your destination, you only have one eye left with which to find the Way. The master admonished him.

A Zen anecdote

The information in this book could save your life, and help you protect the life of a loved one. After this book, you will never again see, or hear the world around you as you do now. Your awareness and perception are about to change.

Rudolph Valadez

Studio City, California

March 2002

PART I

SURVIVING IN

COMMON PLACES

Chapter One

A STATISTICAL PORTRAIT

OF

ACCIDENTS AND CRIME

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong,

as when you find a trout in the milk.⁵

Henry David Thoreau

C rime and accidents are part of the panorama of humanity. Our environment is fraught with danger from the presence of a sharp edge to a brown recluse or black widow spider.

Historical accounts including the bible are replete with examples and incidents that show us that the earth has always been a dangerous place to live. From Cain to the latest front-page killer and the persons that cause accidents, man brings his negligent, evil, or greedy side with him through the ages. In our midst as always, we find every type of criminal from the petty thief to the murderer, pedophile, and serial killer. We are also saddled with white and blue-collar criminals, kidnappers, carjackers, stalkers, and terrorists.

A Harris poll in the late 1990’s concluded that an overwhelming majority of Americans consider crime and personal safety to be their greatest perils. A Gallup poll also reflected Americans’ concerns. The latter poll showed that 64 percent of those responding reported a belief that more crime was occurring than the prior year.⁶

This chapter puts numbers to accidents and crime. We know from statistics and the news media that crime and accidental harm occurs very frequently, or so it seems. The statistics may go up, or down, or remain steady. Nevertheless, the truth is that there will always be victims, and to these victims, crime statistics will not matter. If statistics are boring to you, skip this short chapter. But if you do, you are going to miss a bit of your needed awareness on mishap and danger.

While crime statistics may show that crime overall has decreased, the reality within them is that the victims are human beings. Any one of us can be their next victim, and most of us realize it. As victims, we are not concerned with statistics, and we realize that what we thought would keep us safe may not.

Criminals may no longer be robbing trains, but are following a victim home to rob and harm. If the human mind can conceive a crime, the criminal will commit it. Researcher Herbert Koppel estimated for the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 1997 that five out of six people will be victims of either completed or attempted violent crimes at least once in their lives.⁷

If you are not apprehensive about your environment, you should be. In our American homes, the National Safety Council (NSC) states that unintentional injuries result in one death every 19 minutes and a disabling injury every six seconds. The NSC reports that from the total injuries from homes, cars, boats, skis, and bicycles, they can estimate that these accidents result in one death every 5 minutes and one injury every 1.5 seconds. Conservative estimates show that 25 percent, or one in four of us, will be a victim of an injury. Accidents will injure sixty-and-one-half-million of us in the coming year.⁸ The NSC also estimates that Americans have a one in 23-lifetime odds of dying from injuries.

Unintentional injury, caused by accidents, reports the National Safety Council, is the leading cause of death for people ages one through 40 years. Injuries hospitalize approximately 2.6 million people each year. Hospital emergency rooms treat 37.2 million injured persons, and 1.4 million of them visited these emergency rooms for violence-related injuries. Of the latter, intimates were responsible for 17 percent of the injuries. One in four people or 60.5 million will seek medical attention, or suffer at least one day of activity restriction from an injury.⁹ In the year 2000, the economical impact of these fatal and nonfatal accidents amounted to $512.4 billion, reported the NSC.¹⁰ That is about $5,000 per American household.

The National Safety Council listed categories and number of injuries resulting from various tools, appliances, and other apparatuses that caused them. The following partial listing will give you a flavor of the annual enormity of injuries that required medical attention:¹¹

Even staying in bed is not safe. John F. Ross, author of a book regarding home accidents concluded that every year beds, mattresses, and pillows injure 400,000 people at home. Further, appliances electrocute 60 Americans; showers hurt 170,000 persons; falls account for 8,500 deaths and sinks and toilets injure 60,000. John is telling you that you are not safe in your own home.¹²

Dr. Sheldon Blau, a medical doctor, teamed up with Elaine Shimberg to write a book regarding accidents in hospitals. Elaine Shimberg, a patient’s rights educator, is a lay member of the Florida Medical Associations Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs. Dr. Blau was motivated to write his book by his own brush with death at the hands of his hospital while in treatment for a heart problem. He almost died of an unrelated infection. According to the latter’s research, 180,000 Americans die in hospitals of preventable medical mistakes each year and hundreds of thousands more suffer injuries. They say that five to 10 percent will get an infection they did not have before and 6.5 percent will have an adverse reaction to administered medication/drugs.¹³

Reading Blau and Shimberg’s book will impress upon you the need to be more careful of your personal safety when hospitalized. It is very simple to protect against some of the things that could go wrong. For example, you should ensure that people wash their hand before they touch you; that you do not eat or drink anything before surgery; and that you tell your anesthesiologist if you are on mediation. The more serious things to avoid are surgery on the wrong area of your body, given the wrong medication or mismatching your chart and bed.¹⁴

Perhaps marking the right body part with a felt-tip pen or writing your name in big letters over your bed would help. This might annoy the staff, but while you do not want to upset them, you do not want them to bully you either. A