Mayor Daley has them. So does Gov. Edgar. Certainly Oprah. Jerry Springer keeps a bodyguard or two around his studio, depending on the nature of that day’s show, and Michael Jordan usually has one nearby.
And certainly, as the whole world knows, Tonya Harding has-or at least had-one.
We’ve had many images of bodyguards recently. On the big screen, there was Clint Eastwood, putting his life and aging body on the line to guard a president. And Kevin Costner bedding down with the singer he was protecting. In real life, there’s Shawn Eckardt, who apparently interpreted his duties for Harding as including allegedly helping with arrangements to put rival skater Nancy Kerrigan out of commission.
That incident sent shudders through real bodyguards.
“It’s real disconcerting to me and others in the business when something like this business with Tonya Harding’s bodyguard happens,” says Raymond Mirabile, special training consultant and director of the regional branch of the Executive Protection Institute in Chicago. “That fellow is the antithesis of what we do and what we’re all about.”
Some bodyguards even flinch at the term. “It’s a word that carries a lot of baggage, like you’ve got to be a big wrestler-type,” Mirabile says. “I prefer `personal protection specialist.’ “
In Chicago, the job description covers a gamut of needs depending on the client’s requirements. That can range from protecting political figures and business executives to getting celebrities and sports figures through autograph-hungry crowds.
“One word that never applies is `normal,’ ” says one bodyguard. “You’ve always got to expect the unexpected and you’ve usually got to have your suitcase packed.”
Richard Ward, a former New York City detective-turned-scholar, who is associate chancellor for special programs at University of Illinois at Chicago and has a doctorate in criminology, ranks Chicago as fourth in the nation when it comes to using-and needing-bodyguards.
“The biggest place obviously is New York City. Los Angeles has a big group (of bodyguards), and then Washington (D.C.). We would be fourth. You’ve got sports figures in Chicago, entertainment people, organized crime figures who require (protection), and business people with money who feel they need someone around them.”
Private investigator Adam Campbell Jr., head of Heritage Investigations in Chicago, found himself practically at the altar recently as he protected a bride whose former boyfriend had vowed that he would kill her and anyone around her if she tried to get married.
“So, with all the other financial pressures from the wedding-these were not wealthy people-her father put up the money to hire me for 48 hours. Weddings are very public, no way around that. Two of us stayed with her, we checked out the church and reception hall to make sure (there were) no bombing devices and then rode with her in the limo. We stayed with them (the bride and groom) until they got on the plane for their honeymoon.”
Mirabile once ended up in a Puerto Rican beauty parlor while protecting a Chicago executive’s family.
“These Chicago executives were in Puerto Rico with their families on a convention. It was a bad time (politically), and we had told them not to leave the compound. We were staying as close as we could. In 96 hours, we only got 10 hours’ sleep.
“But they wanted to do what they wanted to do. . . the daughter of the chairman of the board went to town to get her hair done (without notice). We had been frantic (finding her). I asked her, `Why didn’t you check with us?’ and she said, `Oh.’
“It was one time when I felt we were definitely not appreciated,” Mirabile says, “but we got a personal letter of thanks afterwards.”
Sticking close
For a client, a bodyguard may be a necessary second shadow. Susan Murphy-Milano, who helps battered women, says, “I would feel absolutely naked without them. There’s always someone right with me, to the point of telling me when I need orange juice. If I’m buying cosmetics at Carsons, there’s a bodyguard standing over at the purse counter. It will be like this as long as I do what I’m doing. I accept that.”
Last year Milano founded a domestic violence organization for battered women, called On Our Own/Hear Our Cries. International Service Associates, a Downers Grove-based security firm, provides protection free of charge to Milano and the women she helps.
“I stand there in court with these women and try to make sure these guys do time. Time in jail,” she said. “We have a case now. . . the woman was relocated, and (her husband) doesn’t know where she’s living. Each time she comes to court, she has two bodyguards. I’m the one (the husband) yells at.”
Bodyguards come from all walks of life: retired or moonlighting cops, former Secret Service agents, ex-Marines, martial arts instructors and private investigators. Most are men, but there are a number of women in the field.
While some guards are big and burly, brawn isn’t the main requisite. “The most effective bodyguard is someone who’s low-keyed, unobtrusive and meshes with the environment,” says Branch Walton, a Secret Service agent for 21 years and former head of the Springfield Secret Service office.
“You try not to cause a scene, like Kevin (Costner, in the movie “The Bodyguard”) did when he was elbowing and punching people,” he adds.
It can get expensive
Training may be provided by police departments or schools, such as the Executive Protection Institute, which is headquartered in Virginia and has branches throughout the country, including Chicago. Some even have Secret Service training.
“You’ve got guys who are just hired for their brawn, and then you’ve got highly trained ones, like those who have come out of the Secret Service,” says Ward. “Basically, anyone can hang out their shingle and say they’re a bodyguard.
“A mug off the street will probably make from $20,000 to $30,000 a year. Generally, a professional is going to make between $50,000 to $100,000,” Ward says.
“Then there are security people, they can be self-proclaimed experts on protection and not, in my mind, professionally trained. That can be troublesome. Some can handle situations where people are trying to get autographs, like from a sports figure or movie star, but wouldn’t be able to handle it if someone was trying to hurt (the person being protected).”
Jim Fruin, whose 35-year career with the Chicago police department included heading the Career Criminal Unit and serving as Detective Division Commander, started County Line Security Systems Inc. in Chicago in 1980 on a part-time basis. The security company, which now has offices in Tampa and New York, became his full-time job when he retired 2 1/2 years ago.
“Bodyguarding is part of our (overall) business. . . it’s usually a driver-guard,” he says. “In some cases, it becomes a driver-guard-slave. You end up doing things like picking up the laundry, stuff you shouldn’t do but you do.
“And a lot of times, you become the person’s best friend, for that period of time anyway. We did a whole family for six weeks. They had been the victims of a crime and there was a possibility of another attack. We ate with them, lived with them. You become part of the family. You care.”
Preventing workplace violence
In an era of economic hardship, the need for bodyguards has become deadly serious.
“The problem of the future is going to be workplace violence,” Ward says. “Fire someone and they might come back and shoot you. People are going off the deep end, and this is going to be where we need the security plus a better understanding of how to deal with people.”
Ed Scheu, former chief deputy in the U.S. Marshal’s office in Chicago, and now with Thompson Professional Services in the city, recently guarded an executive whose company had laid off several hundred employees.
“He was the No. 2 man with the company. He had gotten mutiple threats, letters, phone calls to his house. One of them (callers) said to his wife, `We’re going to get that son of a bitch you’re married to,’ ” Scheu said.
“This sort of thing is going to escalate. A lot of paranoia prevails in these upper (economic) echelons; these CEOs and corporate presidents have a network. Once one has been threatened, he lets the others know and it heightens the paranoia.”
Mirabile agrees. “It’s corporate heads who need the protection. We had a threat recently against a Fortune 500 company. There were disgruntled employees involved. We set up protection for two of the execs and their families for two weeks. People don’t have much of a social life (when they’re receiving protection).”
Chicago bodyguards go about their jobs in myriad ways. There are no rules, they say, no stereotype. It’s a job that offers both excitement and boredom.
“It can be a very lonely job,” Scheu says. “Psychologically, it can be very draining. But I wouldn’t do anything different.”
