Lessons From the Brink of Death
This is the No Bell podcast where we talk about how to optimize your technology, life, and mind. We're joined by special operations veterans, entrepreneurs, investors, and others who have overcome difficulty to make it to the top of their craft by staying in the fight.
Rob Huberty:Welcome to the No Bell podcast. Today, it is my honor to take a complete total legend from the FBI. Ed Mireles, they write books about you. You've written books. You are taught to new agents.
Rob Huberty:Welcome to the No Bell podcast.
Ed Mireles:Well, thank you. Thank you, Rob. It's a pleasure to be here. And you know what though? I think my reputation is overstated, know, I'm just a regular guy.
Ed Mireles:So
Rob Huberty:my brother is an agent. You know, when I said that I'd have the opportunity to talk to you, he said, you know, I had the honor to shake your hand when he went through Quantico. That Quantico, a lot of the lessons that you learned in real life are now every agent that has gone through subsequently is taught the lessons that you learned and that makes them better agents today. So Right. You can be humble about it, but you you are an absolute FBI legend.
Rob Huberty:So let's get into it.
Ed Mireles:Where did where'd you grow up? Well I was born in Alice, Texas which is somewhere around between San Antonio and Corpus Christi, Texas on the coast. And I lived there for six years and then my dad got a job in another town so we moved to an area called Beeville, B E Eville. And people have always asked me, say hey, do they have a lot of bees there? I mean, that's a logical question.
Ed Mireles:But no, it was named after a war between Texas and Mexico. Colonel Bee, okay, he settled in that area and he was a pretty pretty good legend himself down in Texas. So just became, hey, let's go to B's place. Became B Bill, that's where I grew up. And I had typical life.
Ed Mireles:I was born in the fifties. I'm a product of the fifties. I know that probably seems like ancient history to some of your listeners, know. But I mean, nuclear family, mother, father, I had a brother and two sisters, school, church, hard work, know. And I tell people, I said, hey, I had no idea what air conditioning was until I was 18.
Rob Huberty:In Texas.
Ed Mireles:I mean, we lived in South Texas with no AC. So it makes hardy people to say at least. So I mean, I had a great upbringing, family, everything was family and dedication to work and civic duty. Mean, at the time when I was a young kid, I didn't know what civic duty was, but it was basically do the right thing always. And then Vietnam was going on at the same time and some of my uncles and cousins had been called to serve.
Ed Mireles:As it turned out, I got a draft notice like in 1971, and I'm thinking, geez, you know, I gotta go. Know, and I'm just getting ready to graduate from high school. So I said, you know what? Forget this. You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna follow in my uncles and cousins' footsteps because they were all marines.
Ed Mireles:So I said, well I went down there and enlisted in the marines. And then my tie came up for reporting and I reported in September of 'seventy one and went to boot camp in San Diego. That's the first time I'd ever been out of the little Podunk town. I tell you what, San Diego is like Paris to me. It's like, holy moly, look at this place.
Ed Mireles:So then I went to boot camp, and I had the absolute living crap beat out of me. You know? So that was an awakening.
Rob Huberty:So leading into that, the lifestyle that that led to that, you said you learned civic duty, but you had family members that served. You saw a call to service at that time.
Ed Mireles:Right.
Rob Huberty:Were you were you into sports growing up? Were you a good kid, a bad kid? Did you ever get into trouble?
Ed Mireles:Well, depends on who you ask, know. So I I probably had a checkered background, know. No. But I I mean, when I think about it, our school was I don't wanna say gangs, but groups. You know, you had the jocks.
Ed Mireles:I I was one of the jocks. And then you had the cowboys because we're in Texas. Okay. And then you had the I don't even know what we they weren't hippies back then, but they were like the surfers. That's what it was.
Ed Mireles:The surfer boys. You know? So you had the surfers, the the the cowboys, and the jocks. You know? So, you know, I was part of the jockey because I I I played football, basketball, ran track.
Ed Mireles:I mean, was always a season for something, you know, and then, you know, I found out real quick that I wasn't a basketball player. You know? So
Rob Huberty:Why is that?
Ed Mireles:Because I was just totally uncoordinated, you know. Plus, you know, I wasn't tall. I mean, I'm six feet tall, but, man, I was going up against some six four, six six kids, man. I was like, holy moly, man. I mean, they're they're they're tough to to compete against, you know.
Ed Mireles:So so I I stuck to track and and football.
Rob Huberty:What position did you play at football?
Ed Mireles:I was a defensive man. I tell you what, I love that position, man. It was just great. I mean, I was almost like a linebacker. You know how linebackers can float back and forth.
Ed Mireles:You know? Speaking of linebackers, one of my heroes was Dick Butkus from the Chicago bears. What a bruiser that is.
Rob Huberty:Mean mean as could be.
Ed Mireles:I tell you what though. I mean, I I I fashioned myself after Dick Butkus, but I was just a skinny hundred fifty pound kid.
Rob Huberty:Very cool. The so you like smashing people?
Ed Mireles:Oh, yeah. You know, but I tell you what though, we played some some some teams. I thought I was pretty tough, know. When I graduated from high school, was one sixty five. And I'm telling you, Rob, you know, we we we would go to some of these small towns in in South Texas.
Ed Mireles:Holy moly, man. We ran we ran across some bruisers. I mean, good old farm boys. I mean, I'm talking like, you know, I was about six feet tall, one sixty. I ran across some big, strong, strapping, hard working farm boys that were like six four, weighed two twenty five, they knocked the bejesus out of me.
Ed Mireles:Came from good stock. I think they were German or Polish or something from that part of Texas, know, and they just I mean, we always lost to them, you know, because they we just, you know, they outweighed us like by 30%, you know. So
Rob Huberty:Farm work makes tough people, so that's Oh, yeah. That's tough to compete with. Yeah. So you grew up playing sports. You ended up in the marine corps.
Rob Huberty:Were were you 18 when you went in the marines?
Ed Mireles:Yeah. I was 18. Yeah. Like I said, I got I got a draft notice, you know, back then that, know, I don't know whether people know what the draft is, but but back then, you know, they were they would call you up. Uncle Sam would send you a letter greeting, so all who shall see these presents.
Ed Mireles:We are offering mister Morales a four year paid vacation, you know. If you don't show up, we'll come find you, you know. And I'm like, okay. I better show up.
Rob Huberty:You get on an airplane to fly to San Diego?
Ed Mireles:Yeah. That's my first time ever on an airplane. It was it was just fantastic. And like I said, I mean, it's like a a little little country hick boy, you know, leaving the the small town going to the big city, you know. You know, when I got to San Diego, I thought, man, I got I've been to town and seen the elephant, man.
Ed Mireles:This is pretty cool, you know. Pretty cool.
Rob Huberty:It's interesting. Think for a lot of people going to boot camp, that's their first time on an airplane. Even today, that still occurs when
Ed Mireles:I went to boot camp. Oh, no. You know what? The day in a case today are spoiled. My my kids, I mean, they were they were on an airplane when they were You know?
Ed Mireles:I mean, it's like they they flew all over with us, know? So they're absolutely spoiled rotten kids, know? So
Rob Huberty:So what was your marine experience like?
Ed Mireles:It it was it was tense, know? I had no idea. You know? Everything was geared towards training for the Vietnam War, you know, and and everything, you know, like like good instructors, you know, they were trying to give you all, you know, all their knowledge, the benefit of their experience, and stuff like that to keep you alive, know. I mean, boot camp was boot camp.
Ed Mireles:You know, they they take raw material and and they they like taking a piece of iron ore, and you heat it up and you melt it and then you form it into whatever you wanna form it into. I don't wanna sound cliche ish, but they were forming us into swords. But it was tough. And then after boot camp, I think boot camp was like eight, I forget eight, ten, twelve weeks. It's been so long.
Ed Mireles:It's been like sixty years, you know. After boot camp, went to Camp Pendleton for advanced infantry training. You know, that was another few weeks there, you know, and that that was that was great to me. I mean, we were living in crappy conditions. We were living, I don't know if your listeners know what a Kwanzahn hut is, okay?
Ed Mireles:A Kwanzahn hut is a house that's a little aluminum or wood thing that's built like this. We lived in Kwanzahn huts that were built during World War II. So you can imagine the maintenance, it was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. But I thought it was great because I was from a flat Texas coastal plain, and we were in mountains. I mean I thought that was super, man.
Ed Mireles:I mean some of the mountains in California are you know, they're they're not you know, forest mountains or you know like Alpine, know Switzerland mountains you know. But they're they're just like kinda desert mountains. Either way, I mean I thought it was great. I mean to me the highest thing I ever saw was like a bridge going over a river or something like that. So But I loved it.
Ed Mireles:But you know, mean on the flip side, they did beat the crap out of us with training. We'd be out there twelve, sixteen hours a day. Know so then I got assigned to an MOS, military operational skill. And I couldn't believe that everybody was going to the Marine Corps. There's a 311, 0 3 1 1, 0 3 11, which is a grunt, you you're a basic rifleman.
Ed Mireles:And I got to be a eight forty nine, you know. And I'm thinking, what the hell is a eight forty nine? And I was told that I was going to be a forward observer for naval gunfire. And I'm thinking, I don't know how the heck I got that job, okay? I mean I had no technical experience, no engineering background.
Ed Mireles:I must have done something right on my end. You have to have these tests that you take. Of course you take them at four in the morning with one hour of sleep, you know, being yelled at by a sergeant. Know, you're trying to take a test that's gonna decide your career. I must have done well because I wasn't an infantryman, even though we're all infantrymen.
Ed Mireles:So they sent me to naval gunfire school, which was of all places, it was in San Diego. I spent like eight or twelve weeks in San Diego at a Navy base. I'm telling you, you know what, going from a Marine Corps base to a Navy base, it's like going from the Sahara, you know, to Switzerland, you know. I hated to leave the Navy base because they had they actually had beds, you know, and and that we were two troops to a room. The chow hall was great, know, everybody was polite, you know, it's like wow, you know.
Ed Mireles:Plus, you know, the training was pretty cool too. Learned everything about azimuths, you know, compass readings, you know, true north, grid north, and magnetic north, you know, all kinds of different stuff, know, so. And then, you know, we were on ships and the the best part of it all was we were on the same base that the Navy SEALs trained in. And, you know, I I I I'm telling you, man, I I have nothing but the highest regard for those guys, man. I mean, because they were every time I saw them, they were soaking wet.
Ed Mireles:You know? And I was just glad to be to be sleeping in a in a decent bed. You know? So the best part of that school was the last two or three weeks, took us out to an island off, I think it's off of Los Angeles.
Rob Huberty:San Clemente Island.
Ed Mireles:San Clemente Island. And it's nothing but an island that the Navy and the Air Force used for bombing, you know, and shooting. We used to go out there, we used to call in naval gunfire, you know, on on various targets. It was it was great. It was a hoot.
Ed Mireles:Know, so we we'd go out there for three or four days at a time, know, and then come back and do some paperwork, some book learning. Then we'd go back the next week. That was great. So I I managed to pass that. You know, in all honesty, I don't remember how I was ranked in the class.
Ed Mireles:I mean, I was just so excited, you know, that I was doing it, you know. I don't know whether I was first in the class or last in the class, you know, so but I was was a certified forward observer, you know, so. And then in my career as a forward observer, we went to Twenty Nine Palms, which is a marine corps base in the desert in Southern California. It's like next to the Mojave Desert, guess. And we trained in calling in artillery because that's a little bit different than naval gunfire.
Ed Mireles:Know, artillery, it's know, stationary on land and stuff like that. Navy ships are floating around you know, bobbing and weaving and stuff like that, you know. So it's a little bit different, but again, that was a hoot. You know, we'd be out there in the desert, you know, calling in, you know, explosives, you know.
Rob Huberty:So as you're you're doing all this training, did you use it operationally? Did did you go to Vietnam?
Ed Mireles:You know, that that that's the interesting question and that's I look back on that, know, and I'm thinking, wow. It's almost like a miracle. Because once I had graduated from the naval gunfire school, my unit, I was assigned to the third battalion eleventh marines, first marine division. We got orders like in I think it was January 1972 to go to Vietnam. So we were actually, you know, we were in the process of moving all, you know, all the gear from the from our base at Camp Pendleton, moving into San Diego to put on ships.
Ed Mireles:Okay? And and and as you can well imagine, you know, any movement of of heavy equipment like that, cannons, you know, artillery, you know, food, you know, ammo, that type of stuff is a real big logistical issue. You know? So so I was driving some vehicles from Camp Pendleton to San Diego, and we had to stay on the Navy base in San Diego. We actually stepped in our Jeeps because they said, hey, guys have to watch the equipment.
Ed Mireles:We can't just leave it here. So we did that for I was there for about three or four or five days, know, and then all of a sudden the sergeant comes back and says, okay. You know, he called us some some kind words, some some nicknames, pet names.
Rob Huberty:The the marine corps is known to be very kind in their nicknames.
Ed Mireles:Yeah you know, it's a we're a very it's a very homey organization. Anyway, he said, stop what you're doing, get it off the ships and put it back. He said, we're we're taking it off and we're going back to Camp Pelletin. And everybody looked at him like like he had two heads. I said, what?
Ed Mireles:We just spent like three or four or five days loading this stuff up. And I said, well it doesn't matter, the president has canceled the war. And I said, what? He said, listen and not go ahead, just do what I tell you to do. But the war for us, he said, the war is over.
Ed Mireles:And I'm thinking, what? And then it wasn't until later that I found out that president Nixon, the honorable president Nixon I know a lot of people hate him, you know, but he is honorable president Nixon to me. And the honorable Henry Kissinger had been at the Paris peace talks with the Vietnamese, you know, and and they had come come to some agreement, some accord to end the war. So they had signed it in in in the beginning of the year or at the end of the previous year, I forget what it was. So they were not sending any troops to Vietnam anymore, they were downsizing, calling everybody back.
Ed Mireles:I had my foot on the step to the ship to leave, know. But they canceled it, so we went back to Camp Pelletin and I'm thinking, I've got three and a half years left in my tour of duty. What the hell is gonna happen? Know? And you know, I don't know whether have you ever been in the service?
Rob Huberty:So I was in the SEAL teams. So I was in the SEAL teams for Okay. Just under ten years, so familiar with a
Ed Mireles:lot of that. You know that idle there are there are no idle hands in the military. No. If you're not doing something man, someone's gonna find some shit for you to So it was not I wasn't looking forward to that. Know, so one morning our CEO comes out to formation, it was like zero eight hundred I think it was.
Ed Mireles:And he made an announcement, he says, okay. He said, the Marine Security Guard Battalion is looking for volunteers to attend their their school, and I'm sitting in formation parade res. I'm like, oh god, what the hell? So he said and after reviewing the files of all the, you know, marines in in in the platoon, he said, there are only two people qualified to apply. And he said, number one, you cannot have an arrest record, you know, and everybody starts snickering.
Ed Mireles:He said and number two, he said, you've gotta have three years or more on on your tour of duty. So he said, there's only two marines here that are qualified. He said, you know, corporal so and so and private Morelos. I said, he says, see me after formation. I'm thinking, what the hell?
Ed Mireles:You know? So I went to see the CEO, you know, and I had no idea. I had, I mean, really had no clue, you know. So the corporal went before me and he went in for like five seconds and came out. You know, he said he wanted nothing to do with it because he was, you know, married or something like that.
Ed Mireles:And you can't be married, you know, you go on that program, know. So I went in and the CO said, okay, he says, what do you think? I said, sir, I have no idea what you're talking about. You know, can you tell me what the hell this is? And goes, okay.
Ed Mireles:Well you it's a security guard battalion or marines that guard the embassies around the world. I'm thinking, well that that piqued my interest. You know, it's like, that sounds pretty cool. Know, because I had seen the movie, I don't know if you remember the old days, fifty five days at Peking, you know, the old movie where the where the marines and and the army guys were were in China, know, and then the boxers rebelled in nineteen nineteen hundred or nineteen o one.
Rob Huberty:I'm aware of it. I've not seen the movie.
Ed Mireles:Yeah. Well, it's like, you know, it's like a 50 five year old movie. But anyway, I saw the fifty five days at in at Peking, you know, it was the name of the movie, you know, and I thought that was pretty cool, man. They had you had the army, you had the the the marines, you had Germans and Brits and everybody else, you know, they were forming a big like an Alamo basically in in the the downtown, now it's Beijing, you know. So it looked pretty cool, they were talking about, hey, we have to protect the embassies, we have to protect everything.
Ed Mireles:And that's the only thing I knew about embassies, you know. So I said, hey, that sounds pretty cool. I said, sir, what do you think? I asked him point blank, I said, do you think? You think it's a good deal?
Ed Mireles:He says, he said, for a young man like you? He said, yeah, think it would be a good deal. I said, okay, sir, sign me up. And like within thirty days, man, I was in Washington DC.
Rob Huberty:Very cool.
Ed Mireles:You know, so that was pretty cool. And I went through the school, know, the school was about, I don't know, two months long, two and a half, three months. We started out with a 20 applicants and by graduation time, we were down to 60. I mean, because they they really cut you out, man. They, you know, they start doing that was my first experience with a background check, you know, like a government, you know, hey.
Ed Mireles:You have to get a secret. And I'm sure you know, you probably had, you know, TS, SEI, you know, x-ray, you know, levels, you know. And I didn't know this, but that's what was being done, know, to my background. And you know, being a little shit kid from South Texas never done anything, I mean, I was pretty, you know, so they said, I passed, know. And then it came time to being assigned a post.
Ed Mireles:Everybody was all excited. And the guys in front of me, you know, they said, oh, you know, Lance Corporal Smith, you're going to, you know, Helsinki, Finland. And I'm thinking, oh my god, I'd love to go to Finland, know. Of course, I had visions of all these blonde, tall beauties, you know. And then, Pirate Smith, you're going to Paris, France, know.
Ed Mireles:And I was like, oh god, you know. And they have all these, you're going to Tokyo, and you're going to, you know, Australia. I figure I figure what the capital of Australia was, you know. And I'm thinking, and there's, you know, Lance Corporal Morelos, you're going to Sofia Bulgaria. I'm thinking, what?
Ed Mireles:I said, sir and and I said, I had no clue. You know? And back then, you didn't have Google. You know? So I had to go to a a a globe, one of those old globes.
Ed Mireles:And I said, where the hell is this place? I had no idea where to look for it. And then the sergeant came over and said, right here, Nuck. Go ahead. You know?
Ed Mireles:So I said, that's in the Eastern block. He said, yep. He said, that's why only the special the old cliche, the best of the best only I'm thinking, yeah, right. They probably ran out of good good good post and I ended up with the crap post, you know. So so we had we had some an extra briefing because it was, you know, it was the height of the the height of the cold war, you know.
Ed Mireles:And and it was kind of exciting. It was also, you know, kinda, you know, scary too because that's like, Jesus, you know, the way they made it sound, know, it's like, man, you know, you're really going into like almost like a, you know, guerrilla warfare, you know, combat, you know, because and it really it really, in all seriousness, it really was. Every time we left the embassy, the marines slept in the embassy, worked in the embassy, ate in the embassy, because we had to be there twenty four seven and we're always on alert. And then they had special security precautions, you know, for people trying to break into the embassy and then also for listening devices, know. I mean, you know, the the typical, you know, counterintelligence, you know, spy versus spy stuff, you know.
Ed Mireles:But I mean it wasn't bad. I mean after a while they got a little bit boring, know. I mean I'd sleep and we'd sleep on the Top Floor, you know, get dressed, you know, work out or whatever, have breakfast, then you walk down two floors and you're on your post, you know. So I mean, you could literally live live there for three hundred and sixty five days and not not never leave the building, you know.
Rob Huberty:So you went from loading a ship and unloading a ship, going to Vietnam, not going to Vietnam, and then going to a part of the world that you didn't even ever imagine in a job that you never thought that existed in in the span of a few months, really. Like, I mean, maybe a year.
Ed Mireles:Probably, like, three or four months, you know, it's like, holy cow. Yeah. But you know what though? Let let me tell you about Bulgaria. You know, I think when I think back because this really was the height of the cold war, you know.
Ed Mireles:The word that comes to mind as to how to describe Sofia Bulgaria, the one word, bleak. It was a bleak place. Okay? The people, there was no color. I mean, everything they wore was like wool and it was like brown or black or gray, you know?
Ed Mireles:And I mean, and I used to look at their clothes in in the summer. They wore everybody was wearing wool pants or I said, dudes, I mean, you're how can you wear wool in in freaking when it's 80 degrees outside? They had they had nothing else. Whenever tourists the few tourists that were there, they were they used to have a lot of Brits, you know, and a lot a lot of east Western European tourists come in. Bulgarians would would go up to you and literally say, hey.
Ed Mireles:I wanna buy your blue jeans. It's like, what? I'll buy your blue jeans, you know, and I don't even know what blue jeans were like back then. You know, I used to I used to wear Levi's all the time, Like eight bucks for a pair of blue jeans at the time. Man, they said, I'll give you a hundred dollars for for your jeans, you know.
Ed Mireles:And we never did it because, you know, you never know when you're being set up, you know, because there were some real people, I mean, some some real Bulgarians that wanted your blue jeans, you know. Or if you wore like a polo shirt, some weird color like like anything but gray, you know. So people would would come up to you and offer to buy your clothes off of you, you know.
Rob Huberty:It's it's interesting from the the Soviet era, like these are all stereotypes that I've heard and I've never experienced that. I don't, you know, I've never seen that place. I've never led that life. It's interesting that you you were there at exactly the time when that was
Ed Mireles:That was 1972. That was in Sofia, you know. And I'm telling you, it was bleak, know. They they had they made no bones about it. The the military, they wore gray.
Ed Mireles:That was their color uniforms with gray, you know, gray and red hats. Practically, everybody you went, they were carrying the old submachine guns. I don't even know what I know they weren't H and Ks back then, know, so but people were just like, you know, they were like sad. Know, it's like it's just like, you know, woe is me, you know. So every time we left the embassy, I mean, literally, I mean, there's a building across the street from the embassy on the Second Floor, there was an open window up there.
Ed Mireles:There was somebody watching in front of the embassy twenty four seven. Okay. You know, they made they were just in your in your face about it. You know, and then every time we left the embassy, anybody left the embassy, they were being followed. I mean, they you'd had a you'd and they weren't discreet.
Ed Mireles:It was like in your face, know, you'd followed by two guys, four guys, depending on where you're going.
Rob Huberty:Like in Rocky four? Yeah. Did you ever see Rocky four where they follow him everywhere when he's training? Yeah. They get their car stuck and it's super Yeah.
Rob Huberty:Overt as he's training.
Ed Mireles:I mean, it's it's just weird. You know, I'm thinking, you know, okay. You know? I mean, that I mean, you you knew no one was gonna mug you, you know, unless unless they mugged you. No.
Ed Mireles:But I spent a year there, and that that was that was really a learning experience. You know what? Let me say this for you audience. I see Americans right now, and I've seen Americans, you know, well over the past forty or fifty years, that will tell you or go on TV or whatever, that communism is the best system, know, yay for communism, you know. And I hear these morons on TV now, they have no freaking idea, no freaking clue how communism worked.
Ed Mireles:I mean people were just bleak, sad people, you know. And you had vegetables and fruits in the summer and when winter came, you had nothing. There was nothing. Okay? And you had to buy and prepare for I mean, was almost like a I guess we call them preppers now.
Ed Mireles:Know, people had to plan how how they were gonna live through the winter. Okay? Because I mean I mean, we were lucky. We we were, you know, the embassy had had we had the the diplomatic store. You could walk in there and buy, you know, caviar and chocolates and champagnes, But the Bulgarians, you know, they would be outside looking in, you know, it's like, hey.
Ed Mireles:You know, they were in diplomatic corps, you know. So they would be out there looking at you like, what the heck, you know. So it it was bleak. So these these morons out there, you have no clue. You wouldn't last a week.
Ed Mireles:You wouldn't last a week in their program. You'd be you'd be in some gulag someplace else.
Rob Huberty:It's tough to to not have lived an experience and then be an advocate for something. And Yeah. You know, I have you know, I've been to a few places in the world, but certainly not everywhere. Yeah. But the the lifestyle in, you know, Iraq and Afghanistan was surprising.
Rob Huberty:They have a different take of how the world is based on places that I've been.
Ed Mireles:Well, you know what though, I spent four years in Iraq, you know, as a contract employee. I tell you what, there's another happy place. Know, I did a year in Fallujah with the marines, know. Happy, happy, joy, joy. You know, it's like holy Jesus.
Rob Huberty:It's different.
Ed Mireles:I did three years with tenth Mountain and a couple other units in Baghdad and then with the US embassy.
Rob Huberty:What years were those?
Ed Mireles:I was there between 02/2008, '2 thousand '12. Oh, wow. What do they say? Hearts and minds.
Rob Huberty:They did say that. They did say that. It's a it's a different value of life. It's a different value of a lot of different things that Yeah. I I think if you were to see it face to face, you wouldn't understand it.
Rob Huberty:Certainly in Afghanistan to me more than Iraq that I saw, human life was not valued Yeah. Remotely in the same way.
Ed Mireles:Well, know, I don't know whether I was lucky or unlucky. My when I was originally got my the job in o eight, I said, hey, I don't wanna go to Iraq, I wanna go to Afghanistan because I knew Iraq was in my mind, Iraq was winding down. Okay? I mean, okay, they'll be out of there in a year and a half, two years. And I'm thinking Afghanistan is just kicking up, know, so I wanted to go there.
Ed Mireles:And they said, nah, we don't need you in Afghanistan, we need you in Iraq. I'm thinking, okay. So as it turned out, I ended up doing four years there. But you're right though, the value systems here, you know, people here is like, I have I have freedoms. You know, you I have you know, you can't do that to me.
Ed Mireles:It's like, dude, you have no idea. It's like in Bulgaria and and and and Fallujah, you're lucky you're you're breathing. You know?
Rob Huberty:So it's it's interesting that you went to go chase more action later in your life. Let's move on now. So, like, you had your like, a a very interesting experience in the Marine Corps. What led you to the next? What led you to go to the agency or to the bureau rather?
Ed Mireles:That that's an interesting story in itself, know, Rob, you know, because when I when I as a reward, that that's the way the the marine corps did it, you know, and I'm surprised they were even thinking that far ahead, you know. But as a reward for you doing a a one year hardship in a in a an Eastern Bloc country, you you're second post. You you would only do a year. They wouldn't they wouldn't let you do two years because you're isolated. I mean, you I mean, the only people you saw were your fellow marines and the embassy staff, you know.
Ed Mireles:You weren't allowed to fraternize. You couldn't fraternize with any any Bulgarians, girls. I mean, it's like forget about, you know. And the the Bulgarians were always throwing girls at us, you know. It's like and we knew it was a setup, you know.
Ed Mireles:It's like, you know what? Fine. Thank you. So after a year, you know, the the marines got get transferred out. I was rewarded by being sent to this god awful place called Madrid, Spain.
Ed Mireles:Oh man, it's like don't throw me in the briar patch, you know. I did two years of service in Madrid and then I I met my my first wife in Madrid, so I ended up living in Madrid for five years. Man, if there's one country in the world besides The US that I would move to, it would be Spain you know so.
Rob Huberty:When I was in college, did a study abroad just outside of of Madrid so I you know I lived there for six months and I'm hammered with Spain, I love it.
Ed Mireles:Oh yeah, imagine me five years man, I went all every city and in Madrid, I can guarantee you, I don't think there is one single bar that I missed in Madrid after five years. And you know what, it was my mission to reconnoiter every single bar in Madrid.
Rob Huberty:That's good work if you can get it. Know, the best tapas are, know the wine is better here.
Ed Mireles:Yeah. I'll tell you what. So anyway, after I met my first wife, got out of the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps, I asked for an overseas discharge. So I was discharged overseas because I was married to the American lady that I married.
Ed Mireles:And at the embassy, in certain embassies, they have a position called legal attaches. And I had no idea what a legal attache was, I thought it would be an attorney but it ends up being that the legal attache is an FBI agent. So the FBI, there was one FBI agent assigned to the embassy, he covered Madrid, Portugal, and Morocco. That was his road trip, okay. So I got to know him, know, it's like, yes sir, know that, when I was in uniform.
Ed Mireles:And his name was Jerry. We got to be kind of friends, know. I was I was always intimidated by him because I'm thinking, man. He's he's the he's the big g, you know. But we got to be friends, know.
Ed Mireles:And when I was in my junior year, I started going to school there at the University of Maryland, you know, their overseas campus and stuff. So I was in my junior year, he pulls me aside and says, hey, how far are you from graduating? I said, I've got one more year. He says, hey, what are you gonna do when you graduate? I said, well, know, I thought when get back to the station, I wanna be a police officer.
Ed Mireles:He said, really? I said, yeah. And he said, well have you ever considered a career in the FBI? And I looked at him and I said, FBI? I said, Jerry, I said, I don't think I'd qualify.
Ed Mireles:He said, I thought you had to be an attorney or an accountant. I mean, that really was my mindset. You know, attorney or an accountant. You know, the old Efraim Zemblis Jr, you know, days, you know, from TV and stuff. So he said, no, no, it's definitely those are two big programs that the FBI hires.
Ed Mireles:They hire attorneys, they hire accountants. But he said, we hire engineers, we hire scientists, we hire linguists, we hire all different kinds of people. Said, so I looked at him and said, so where would I fit in? He said, you would fit in two categories, actually three categories. He said, you would fit in under the linguist because I know you've been living in Spain, your Spanish should be perfect.
Ed Mireles:He said, second category is you fit under a minority program. I said, okay. So he said the third category would be diversified. I said, we hire former military and former police officers. I said, really?
Ed Mireles:He said, yep. He said, I think that you would be a great candidate to go to the FBI Academy. He said, what you do there is on you. Said, I can get you an application. He said, I think you'd be a good candidate.
Ed Mireles:He said, as a matter of fact, said, I'm gonna order, I'm gonna request an application to be sent to me from headquarters to hear it to the embassy and when I get it, I'll look you up and hand you the application. He said, this is what I suggest, make three or four or five different copies, photocopies of the application and then start rough drafting the answers because if you screw up the originals, you're gonna have to wait for me to get you a second one. I said, okay. He said, here's his last words. He said, and he said, use me as a reference.
Ed Mireles:You know, I said, wow, I mean that's pretty good. So basically, don't know whether that's recruiting in place or what, know, I mean, but he, you know, I never would have thought, Rob, know, I I would have gone back to The States and been a cop someplace, know, like in Arlington, Virginia or because my wife worked worked for the for the DIA, Defense Intelligence Agency at the time. So we we would we would have been living in Washington, you know, so. But that's how I got turned on to the FBI. I graduated, turned in my bail my application like six months ahead of time.
Ed Mireles:We transferred back to Washington in 1979. Seventy '70 yeah. Seventy eight, seventy nine. And as soon as I got settled, you know, I called FBI headquarters and I said, hey. My name is Ed I said, hey.
Ed Mireles:I I'm following up on my application. And they go, okay. Hold on. Let me transfer you to the applicant squad, applicant unit. They transfer you over and say, Ed Morales, know, the date of birth, said social security number.
Ed Mireles:He said, Mr. Morales, we have no record of your application. And I'm thinking, I had no idea about it. Welcome to the government. We lost your application.
Ed Mireles:Think, God dang, you know. So they said besides that, they said where do you live? I said I live in Arlington, Virginia. I said well you can't apply through us, have to apply through the Alexandria office. I said okay.
Ed Mireles:So is it okay, I have a good, back then we called it a Xerox copy, I have a good Xerox copy of my application, is that sufficient? They go, yeah, if it's clear it should be. So I went to the Alexandria office, handed in my application and they said, thank you, we'll call you later if you meet the qualifications. And that started the process, it took about nine months from the time I got back from overseas to get picked up. Typical background, you know, where where have you lived, you know, we need references, you know, banking information, that I mean, again, know, I was as as we say in the Marika, I don't know whether they'd say it in the navy, but I was just a snuffy, you know.
Ed Mireles:I had I had no no nothing. I mean, my bank account finally had $58 in it. Know? So I mean, I I wasn't moving hundreds of thousands of dollars into my account or anything. You know?
Ed Mireles:So so my background went pretty fast. Know? So next thing I know, on September 1979, I'm at the FBI Academy.
Rob Huberty:How was the academy for you?
Ed Mireles:You know what? It was great on an academic level. Was a I mean, it was like college. It really was when I had just graduated from college, you know, the previous nine months. But from a an an operational side, you know, being in the marine corps, it was like candy.
Ed Mireles:I mean, it's like little it was like little sissy, you know. I mean, you know, I could do the push ups, I could do the pull ups, you know, I I could do in the Marine Corps, we had to run three miles every morning. So the FBI test was two miles and I could run that backwards. So physically, it wasn't a challenge, but academically, was really Not that I'm a dumb person, but I mean I just had never had experience in legal matters. Okay, and three of the eight tests that you have to pass at the academy, three of them were legal exams.
Ed Mireles:Okay. And that was terrifying to me because I'm thinking, my god, know, what if I screw this up? Luckily for me, my roommate was an attorney. Okay. I liked him as long as we were at the academy, but since he was an attorney, I said, hey, Paul, after we guys rate, you're dead to me.
Ed Mireles:You're an attorney, I can't associate. You're best friends of course. But he helped me, he gave me the finer points of legal issues, stuff like that. So which helped me pass the legal classes. And I helped him with PT because he was needless to say, I don't know what he had a stout body belt.
Ed Mireles:But I'll tell you what though, he was a whip when it came to law man. He was you know, real real good lawyer you know so.
Rob Huberty:Very nice. I do have one question about going through. Did you also go through training with Tommy Norris? So my brother said something to that regards, and Tommy Norris was a seal in Vietnam, a medal of honor recipient, a total legend. I've met him, wonderful, he's an idol.
Ed Mireles:Talk about a small world. You know, it's just one of the luck luck of the draw. Know, Tommy Norris was my roommate. You we had you had two rooms next to each other that shared a bathroom. Tommy Norris was in the other room so we shared a bathroom and stuff like that.
Ed Mireles:So I didn't know Tommy Norris from you know, the man in the moon you know, but once I got to know him, you know, I found out he was an a b c o, middle of honor recipient and stuff like that. He was so freaking funny. He and no I didn't mean I tried to be polite, know, I I would look I looked at Tommy, you know, kind of from the side and I could see he had a he had a disfigured face and I'm thinking, well I'm not gonna be rude and stare at. I mean that's that's not polite, know. But then I found out that that was a war injury from from Vietnam, you know, and and I found out he was very lucky to be alive, you know.
Ed Mireles:Because if you know the story, he got hit with an AK round, you know, from the side, you know, and blew this part of his face off, including his eye. So I got to talk to him. He said he spent like seven years in hospitals. You know, they were reconstructing his skull and stuff like that. And Tommy was he was a he was an evil man.
Ed Mireles:And, you know, trying to be polite, you know, so we'd be we would share a bathroom, you know. There's four men sharing a bathroom, you know. So I'd be in the shower, and you had two sinks, you get two guys who'd be shaving, somebody be taking a dump, you know, and somebody's showering, you know. Everything was being used. Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency.
Ed Mireles:So I'd be I'd be taking a shower head, the shower curtain up like this, and then I would hear Tommy Norris going, I see you. And I think I think you're on like this. And you look over the shower curtain and he would have his prosthetic eye like this over the shower curtain looking down at me. He said, I see you. He did that so many times, it was hilarious, man.
Ed Mireles:And a lot of people didn't know that he had a prosthetic eye. There was one event that happened in the gym. We were resting, you know, ground fighting, that type of stuff, know, and Tommy, he's a wiry little rascal, man. But he's slender and he's about five foot ten, something like that. And he came up against this Oakland, California Cop.
Ed Mireles:Imagine Oakland, okay. So he was a rough guy, man. And he muscular. So he, know, kinda like, if you know what I'm I know you know a bull in the ring, you you have somebody in the middle and he's attacked different places, know, whenever there's you, you know. So we kinda had a similar process in the gym.
Ed Mireles:And they would say, okay, switch. You know, you you switch partners, you know, and and you wrestle women, and you wrestle women will wrestle big guys, women will wrestle small guys. And then Tommy Norris switched over to to to the Oakland Cop, and they're resting. And the Oakland Cop, you know, he's musk. So he grabs Tommy by the shoulders and he goes, boom.
Ed Mireles:Slams him on the ground on the mat. Okay? What happened? When he hit when Tommy's head or body hit the mat, his eye, the shock popped the eye out of his head and it goes rolling across the floor, okay, of the gym and it was hilarious. It was funny.
Ed Mireles:The women in the class go, my god. You killed him. There's a gym instructor who had no idea. The the instructors were just about to pass out. They go, oh my god.
Ed Mireles:How am I gonna write this off? How am I gonna explain this guy's eyeball? And, of course, we were his we were his roommates so we knew. So Tommy gets up, know, he he closes his eyelid like this so you wouldn't have to look at his empty hole, you know. So he walks over, picks up picks up the eyeball, looks at it, puts it in his mouth, lubricates it, and then sticks it back in his eye sock and turns around like it's nothing.
Ed Mireles:Oh my god, there were so many times like that. It was just hilarious. Getting back to the academy, I mean, the physical side of it was it's like, I I could do it in my sleep. But the academic side, oh my God, I mean, I used to sleep on pins and needles worried that I was gonna fail academically. But I managed to get through.
Ed Mireles:We graduated in December of nineteen seventy nine. It was myself, Tommy Norris, Michael, G, Rogers, and Tim. We were sent to WFO together. So I served it with Tommy at WFO for about three or four years, you know. Then I then I got transferred out and then Tommy eventually ended up working undercover and going to Idaho or something like that, you know.
Ed Mireles:So and I lost track. Once I left WFO, you know, I lost track everybody.
Rob Huberty:What's WFO?
Ed Mireles:Washington field Yeah.
Rob Huberty:Okay. You started in 1979. Tommy also actually had to get the president to allow him to go. So he Yeah.
Ed Mireles:You know,
Rob Huberty:in order to get because it's medically clear, they're like, you don't qualify for that. So I think I think Gerald Ford actually wrote him a letter to be like, you're allowed to go.
Ed Mireles:He had to get an exemption on two levels. Okay? The first was a physical exemption because he only had he only had one eye. Okay? And and I mean, think about it.
Ed Mireles:I mean, life is tough with two eyes. Imagine just being, you know, being a being a gunfighter, being a cop with one eye. I mean, it's like, it's tough. The second exemption he had to get was the maximum hiring age for the FBI at the time was 35 back then. So if you were over 35, you could not apply to be an FBI agent because of And people say, well that's discrimination, the ace is No.
Ed Mireles:It has to do with retirement. Okay? If if you have to be 35 when you're hired, that way you, because mandatory retirement age for ages was 55. Okay? So because of the physical requirements, you know, it's like it's kinda like pilots.
Ed Mireles:You know? You don't want an old pilot that can't see, you know, landing you Jeff. Right? You know? So it's same thing with ages.
Ed Mireles:You don't want old guys, you know, having to chase down and fight young guys. Okay? So Tommy when Tommy came in, he was 37. Okay? So he he had to get an exemption for his age and for his for his physical disability, you know, so.
Rob Huberty:So so you were in the Washington field office for that. And, I mean, ultimately, you ended up in a a historic thing in 1986. Right?
Ed Mireles:Correct.
Rob Huberty:Yeah. So what what what was the lead into that? So was that how long were you in the Washington field office for?
Ed Mireles:Oh, I was there I was there we got there in '79, '80 1980, and I was transferred to Miami in 1985. Okay. A lot of stuff happened, you know. I mean, Tommy and I were involved so much, you know, mayhem, and and we're we're lucky we weren't fired. I mean, you know, we seriously, we you know, some of the stuff we did out of naivete and some of the stuff we did, we say, hey.
Ed Mireles:You know what? The hell with this. Let's just do it. You know? So, you know, I go, hey.
Ed Mireles:Screw this. You know? So I ended up working undercover operation in Miami in '82 and then I came back to Washington field office in '83, about eighteen months later. When I was down working undercovers when I met somewhere in the interim there, I I got divorced. My first wife, you know, she had we had a parting of the ways, you know, as they say.
Ed Mireles:So I I met a young lady in Miami and she happened to be an FBI agent. So we got married and then the bureau was obligated to to, you know, give us a common household. You know, she was in Miami. I was in Washington. I wanted her to to be transferred to Miami.
Ed Mireles:The bureau said, no. We're gonna transfer transfer you to Miami. So so they said, I was in the process of of being transferred, know, and that that's how I ended up in Miami because my wife was living down there. So I got transferred to Miami in 1985, April of '19 '80 '5, you know, And I ended up being assigned to the bank robbery squad there. And I'll you what, that was one of the luckiest things in the world.
Ed Mireles:I mean, know, I know, I I should probably be called rabbit foot the way I have luck, you know. So that that's when I met the the bank robbery squad. You know? It's a bunch of you know, it's kinda like the Navy SEALs, man. You know?
Ed Mireles:You you go into a new squad, a new unit, you know? You say, hey. The the kinda like Obi Wan Kenobi, you will never meet a more vicious group of scum and villainy. You know? So Navy SEALs, FBI agents, it's the same.
Ed Mireles:Those guys, I mean, you play rough, man. You you you work you work hard. You you play hard. You know? So and I I was lucky, you know, that that to be a sign of that squad.
Ed Mireles:Now as far as the shooting incident goes, I got there in April of eighty five. And like in that summer, August or September of eighty five, we started having a series of armored truck and bank robberies. Now let me take a step back now. Miami armored trucks and bank robberies aren't unusual. But and we had what we called two separate gangs.
Ed Mireles:Okay? We had the Hispanic gang and we had the black gang. And because we didn't know who they were, I mean, that's what we call them is, hey, you know, the Hispanic gang hit again or yeah, the black guys hit again. You know? So we were working that case, I mean those cases.
Ed Mireles:And then all of a sudden out of the blue, we we started getting a third group of players come in, you know. And we didn't know who they were or what, but they their MO, their modus operandi, you know, their style was way different than the other two gangs. Okay? It was almost either they were very vicious or very amateurish, I don't know how to describe it. Initially they were amateurish I think.
Ed Mireles:Because the first robbery was in like, I forget September 1985. It was at a steak and nail restaurant in South Miami. It was an armored truck delivery and two guys attacked the the guard and from behind, one of them hit him on the head, knocked him down, took his gun, took his little money bag. They walked him up to the front of the armored truck, I think it was a Wells Fargo truck. And put yourself in his shoes, okay?
Ed Mireles:You've got a masked man totally covered in a face mask, gloves, wearing dark clothing, almost like black utilities, like a utility, the old 1980s utilities. So they've got you by the throat, march you up to the driver's side of the armored truck. You've got a big honking revolver stuck in your ear like this and they tell you, hey, tell the driver to open the door, okay? Well what do you think standing orders are for drivers? The policy of the company, if you're faced with that situation.
Ed Mireles:What do you think the policy is?
Rob Huberty:I mean at this point I think is do what they say, but I don't know if that was the policy then.
Ed Mireles:No. No. The policy then was drive away. So you're you're here and your partner drives away. I'm sorry.
Ed Mireles:I'm I'm an evil man. I have to laugh every time I hear that. I say that because imagine you there and he said, no, no, no, don't kill me please. He's stupid. Should've left the door open.
Ed Mireles:He should've opened the door. So they hit him on the head again, knocked him to the ground. The guy with the with the assault rifle, we we didn't know what it was. We it was two to three caliber. Everybody said it was an m 16.
Ed Mireles:Nobody knew. So anyway, he opens up on the back of the truck. He fired like 12 or 15 rounds up two to three rounds at the armored truck, know. It didn't do any good, know. And they walked away.
Ed Mireles:They probably got like $2,000 in that little money bag, you know. Here's the kicker, they jumped in their getaway car and even for Miami, that was really odd when they when they left the when they sped out of the parking lot. They took two smoke grenades. For some reason, you know the old saying pop smoke? These guys pop smoke as they're escaping out of the parking lot, and they they the smoke grenades, you know, filled the the the parking lot with smoke and stuff.
Ed Mireles:Was like, dudes, you drove out of the smoke like a second after you tossed the grenade. I mean, I don't know. That was just weird. Like I said, even by Miami's by Miami standards, that was odd. So we knew we had some some new players in tussle.
Ed Mireles:Smoke grenades, you know, assault rifles, and then they shoot with a with an assault rifle at a at an armored truck, you know. So we said, hey. You know, there there's there's some new people in town. And then you know what? The following week, about two or three miles away, there's a Winn Dixie restaurant down there.
Ed Mireles:In the middle of the day, twelve noon, a delivery truck was making a delivery at the Winn Dixie store. The guard goes in, he comes out with the money bag, okay? So he's walking to the truck and there was three guards assigned to that to that particular truck. The driver, the courier, and the shotgun, the guy with the shotgun. Okay?
Ed Mireles:As soon as the courier walks out with a money bag, somebody yelled, freeze. You know, and then immediately after the word freeze, they start shooting. Okay? So in a middle, in front of a grocery store, a big grocery store in a shopping center. Okay?
Ed Mireles:And they fired between the guards and the band guys. There were 30 shots fired in that area and the only person that was hit was the initial guard, the initial the first shot. When the guard walked out of the store, somebody shot him with a a 12 gauge shotgun in the legs and knocked knocked him down, you know. They wanted to to disable him so they could get the bag. And like I said, there were about 30 shots fired in that in that shopping center.
Ed Mireles:And you know what? I I am just amazed that nobody else was shot and killed. Know? Again, we we figured, hey. The the it's gotta be the same guys because they had the same description, dark clothing, assault rifle, you know, that type of stuff.
Ed Mireles:But, you know, you know as well as that, the people under stress sometimes see or don't see stuff, you know. I had a description of the guys, there was three guys, there was two guys. Okay. They were Hispanic, they were white, they were black. I said, the car they were in was green, it was yellow, it was brown.
Ed Mireles:Somebody even said it was a red car. It was a two door car. It was a four door car. One person said it was like a SUV. Okay?
Ed Mireles:And I said, well thanks thanks for helping out. Know?
Rob Huberty:There were people and a vehicle and guns.
Ed Mireles:Yeah. You know, that's it. Know, it's like, okay. We had no idea what what the hell that, you know, they were looking at. Know?
Ed Mireles:So we show up there and it's like, I mean, it's like mayhem down there. There's a big crime scene and stuff like that. And then we went another week and we had another incident. This is the funny part. I'm sorry for being evil.
Ed Mireles:There was a Dolch restaurant in the same area that an armored truck was making a delivery at the restaurant or pickup at the restaurant. Could not find parking space in front of the restaurant. So the driver had to drive around the side of the restaurant into an alleyway or a little side street there. Parked, the courier got out of the truck and goes to the restaurant and then picks up the money. Courier's coming back to where the truck should be.
Ed Mireles:And when the courier is coming back, he said he looked at the next to the truck there was a dumpster, a big one of those big industrial dumpsters. He said he saw two individuals that were waiting behind the dumpster. He said he saw them and it said, again they were wearing masks, ski masks, dark clothing and and it looked like they had a rifle or something. He said, as soon as I saw them, I love this guy, he made a preemptive stop, he made a preemptive strike. Okay, he drew his revolver and he comes up and starts shooting at these guys behind the dumpster.
Ed Mireles:Okay. Pow pow pow pow. And that spooked them and they ran away. The the courier the driver didn't even know he had fired shots because the engine is so loud, know. So he goes in and pounds pounce on the door and say, hey, call the police, know, somebody just tried to rob us.
Ed Mireles:So we respond and we hear the story, I said, this guy made a preemptive strike and so it could have been some homeless guy, you know, for crying. But anyway, he was here's the kicker. And and I have to I have to say, well, you know, I don't blame him. Remember the guy at the steak and ale who was left like this? That was the same guy that saw these people behind the dumpsters.
Ed Mireles:Hey, fool me once, shame on shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on
Rob Huberty:me. Right.
Ed Mireles:I saw these guys, pow pow pow.
Rob Huberty:I was just getting to work there.
Ed Mireles:I had to laugh, it was so funny, man. But anyway, we you know, this is all unusual stuff you know. And I I forget the the dates for the for the next robbers but we we started getting they started getting more and more violent because after that you know, it stopped being you know, grins and giggles after that, okay. They said, we're not gonna go out to the banks because the money is in the courier, the bags, okay. And I don't know if you know anything about Wells Fargo and money movements and stuff like that, but some of these bags at the time carried $50,000 you know, in cash, okay, or in other negotiable paper you know.
Ed Mireles:Some of them, you know, some of those bags carry, you know, some of those bags would carry at the time up to a hundred thousand, you know. So they say, that's where the money is. You go into a bank, you might get $2,000 from a teller drawer, you know, or 3,000 whatever. But their big money is in those bags, okay. So they started hitting the armored trucks more, okay.
Ed Mireles:And then they hit one armored truck and they got like $50,000 and then they hit a second armored truck and got $42,000 But see here's the kicker, every time they hit an armored truck, they would shoot shoot the courier, okay. We found this out post incident. At the end at the end of their episodes, they had killed four people, guards and people that they stole cars from. Okay. And then neighbors, just weird people, man.
Ed Mireles:Mean, these guys are pretty bad guys. But one particular guard, he was shot twice again, they shot him shot him with a throwaway shotgun in the legs and then his partner goes up behind him, the guy was down on the ground, they shoots him twice in the back. He's like, man, talk about cold blooded man. I was like, wow. You know, the guy's dialing me.
Ed Mireles:You know? So so anyway, so we got a lucky break at one of the robberies when they get their getaway car. Somebody around the bank saw them, followed the car to a Burger King that was near the area. And they parked the car at the Burger King and then they got out, switched vehicles, took their money bag, took their weapons and threw them into a white pickup truck. Okay.
Ed Mireles:So the guy that was following them got too close and then they noticed him in the mirror and they jumped out of the truck and they came out at the rear of the truck and aimed their weapons at him. And the guy goes, hey, he backed away and left. That's how we recovered the original getaway car. It was used like three or four times. And then I understand why people say, well it was a gold brand, it ended up being a gold Monte Carlo you know, that was recovered.
Ed Mireles:Now the owner was a mister Brielle who lived in Central Miami, know. So we didn't know anything about mister Brielle. So I was tasked to go interview the Brielle family and I took my friends with me, eight cops you know. So I didn't know what the deal was you know. And then I find out, it was sad, it really was sad.
Ed Mireles:Know, I knocked on the door you know, and the older woman answered the door and she immediately says, are you here about my son? Are you here about my son? And I'm thinking, man, what are you saying? He said, my son is missing. Do you have news about my son?
Ed Mireles:And I think, oh, as soon as she said that, I think, oh god, this is gonna be so bad. You know, so I said, might we come in? You know, I said, hey, we we recovered a car that's registered to your husband, you know, mister Biel. He said, but my son, she said, Emilio Biel, do you I said, oh, can you tell me what happened? He had gone target shooting at in the Everglades that's just West of Miami, you know, on the Tamiami Trail.
Ed Mireles:I think it's Calle Ocho. You know, Calle Ocho goes out to Naples, know, really, it turns into the Tamiami Trail. She said, my son went target shooting out there in September or August, September of last year and he disappeared. And she said, we filed a missing person report, we filed a stolen car report. Now I didn't know that the car had had been registered as stolen.
Ed Mireles:So the cops found the paperwork, know, yeah, it was reported stolen. I said, ma'am, said, I have no information about your son. I'm sorry, you know. But you know, she's, oh my god, you know, but you you recovered the car. And I'm thinking, man, dude, I knew in my heart there was not gonna be a happy day for them you know.
Ed Mireles:So I said, well thank you so much. She called her husband, her husband came over and he starts telling me the same thing you know. I even went back you know to talk to the husband and I said, hey, let's go out to the Everglades and show me where he was shooting you know or that you know of. So I I get him the courtesy of, you know, going out there and looking for a missing kid that's been missing eight months, know. It's like so anyway, I did that a couple of days, you know, and then went back and I said, sir, you know, I'm sorry.
Ed Mireles:I have I have other tasks to do, you know. 03/01/1986, they found Emilio Brill, you know, in the Everglades, right at the area of where he had gone shooting. Some hikers were were hiking in the area, and they they saw some sneakers or something underneath the bush. And they went over and looked at it, it was a skeleton, you know, and they called the cops, you know. And anyway, he was positively identified as Brielle, know, he had a bullet hole in his face, you know, in his head, you know.
Ed Mireles:So I mean, it's it's a sad chapter, know, but that was March 1. March twelfth, there's another gentleman by the name of Jose Collazo. He just happened to be target shooting at the same place where Emilio Bareill was. You know, it's just you know, weird. And on the day it happened, he said he was shooting in a certain direction.
Ed Mireles:He looked over, he heard somebody coming in, saw a white pickup truck pull up next to him. Two guys got out with guns, know, and he says, hey, you know, kinda like saying, cause there's no range master there. Everybody's every man for himself, you know. So he looks like this is I'm shooting that way, and the other guy says, hey. Okay.
Ed Mireles:You know, we're gonna shoot that way. He ignores him. He's clinking away with his I think he had a 22 or something like that. He said after about ten, fifteen minutes, you know, he he said he felt something behind him or just sensed something behind him. He turns around and there's the two guys from the pickup truck.
Ed Mireles:One of them had an assault rifle and the other one had a revolver. Okay? And they're behind him. They they were at a at a at a typical, you know, tactical position. One on one on the left, one on the right.
Ed Mireles:In other words, they weren't next to each other. They were they formed a triangle, you know. So he said, oh, man. They they had me. The guy with the assault rifle, the guy with the gun.
Ed Mireles:So they said, okay, okay my friend, know, put the guns down, we're gonna take your wallet, give us your wallet, give us the keys to your car, we're gonna take your guns. He says, hey, no problems, comply, comply, comply. You know, take it, take it, take it, you know. Take the car, here's the keys. You might wanna check the rear tire, knees are.
Ed Mireles:So he said they took everything, and then the guy with the gun gets close to him, not too close, but close enough. He says, turn around and walk towards that lake. You know what, I think any one of us would probably come to the same conclusion that he came from. He said, oh shit. You know, he knew, he said, if I go to that lake man, that's my last walk man.
Ed Mireles:And he didn't briskly walk towards the lake, he was like dragging his feet he said. He was like to the point where the guy with the revolver behind him kept sticking it in his back. Said hurry up, come on get moving. And he said, at that point in time, he said, hey, I got nothing to lose man, because they're gonna kill me. You're highly trained, you know, I know.
Ed Mireles:And you know the sweet move, know, when someone's got a gun on your back, know, this guy, he must have since seen some kung fu movies or something, because he said, man, I got nothing to lose. So he swings, don't know whether he swung to the left or swung to the right, he swung and he got the gun off the center mass, kicked the gun over to the side and then he grabs the gun and then he and the band guy are fighting over this gun revolver. And the revolver goes off and at some point in time during this exchange, he shot through the left hand and then somewhere during the exchange, shot in the upper chest and the shoulder area and that kinda knocked him back a little bit. And then the third hit that he got, it was a hit right to the face right here, okay? And when I do my training classes, say, hey listen, do you guys believe in luck?
Ed Mireles:Or you know, and the bible says, Ecclesiastes nine and eleven, time and chance, you know, the race is not always to the strong or to the swift nor battle to the strong, but time and chance happen to us all. Time and chance. If that round had gone straight back, it would have gone right straight into his brain stem, okay. But time and chance, the round went at an angle like this, okay, as opposed to this. Okay, that round went through his upper jaw like this and it came out on the side of his jaw, the back of his jaw, right below his ear.
Ed Mireles:Okay, kinda like a Tommy Norris hip, except there's a guy involved, okay? And if you're gonna get shot, mean, the the best course of action is don't get shot. Okay. But if you're gonna get shot, I mean, that's a lucky hit. I mean, you think about, you know, think about what how much stuff is up here.
Ed Mireles:I mean, your eyes, your you know, your nasal passages, and your brain and stuff, you know. And he got hit perfectly. I mean, it's like this. So he said, I don't know whether he planned it, I don't think so. He he was probably knocked unconscious, from the hit and he went fell down on the ground.
Ed Mireles:And I've been asked this question in training classes in my presentations, why didn't he shoot him again? I mean these guys were vicious bastards. Okay? And my theory is bang bang bang, bang, this was the sixth round. Okay, so he had a sixth shot, okay.
Ed Mireles:So the reason he didn't get shot again is because the shooter had expended all six rounds. I guarantee you that if he had had more rounds, probably would have popped him a couple of times in the back. Okay. But think about it, I mean If
Rob Huberty:you shot a guy in the face, think you'd think they're dead.
Ed Mireles:I mean I would think, yeah, the guy's dead. Shoot somebody in the face, especially like close range you know. You know he's dead but he wasn't you know. So anyway, he kinda like wakes up a few seconds or minutes later, he looks around and he's all alone. These guys took his car, took everything and they picked their white pickup truck and left.
Ed Mireles:Okay. And this is what I tell people, I said, you know, in my training classes, mister Corey also had had a choice to make. He said, what do I do now? I'm like a mile from from the highway in this dirt trail. Okay, what do I do?
Ed Mireles:I mean and people don't go there very often. I mean people go there but I mean it's like one person a day, two people a day. Do you wait for help or do you try to do something to help yourself? Know? And I tell people, I said, hey, it's important for you guys to understand Koyaso had a strong will to live.
Ed Mireles:And I said, you need to take lessons from here. He had a strong will to live. And guess what mister Koyaso, what his profession was, he wasn't a highly trained professional like you and me. I mean, we're I was trained at Quantico. You know?
Ed Mireles:You were trained at at at Coronado Island, you know? It's like we're professionals and we're highly trained. Koyaso was a salesman. He sold mattresses. He was that's it.
Ed Mireles:Okay, but this guy had a spark in his heart and a spark in his head, I want to live, okay? And he jumped, not jumped, but he kinda started crawling back to the highway and he said he tried to stand up and he said he staggered and he fell and he kept going. It's because he knew he had to get to the highway to survive. And when he got to the highway, know, that's when you know, it's a pretty pretty active highway, lots of traffic. When he got to the highway, somebody people saw him, you know.
Ed Mireles:I can just imagine what he looked like. He probably looked like a swamp monster coming out of the Everglades, all covered in mud and dirt and blood. It's like, oh jeez. But somebody stopped to help him and they threw him in his car and drove him to a nearby convenience store about a mile away and then they called the cops from there. And then the ambulance came over to rescue him.
Ed Mireles:And he ended up in Central Miami Hospital, I forget what it's called. I think it was Baptist Hospital. So anyway, so we had our first live witness. Because up until then we had no idea who these guys were. And he told us, okay, was two white males, they were about six feet, six one, two hundred pounds slender.
Ed Mireles:He said they were fit, not muscular fit, but fit. Like they did a lot of aerobics or running, so much weight lifting. And he said, in his opinion, they had a military bearing. So they looked like they had prior military service or something. And he said, they were pretty vicious.
Ed Mireles:Mean they just shot him in cold blood. And described the pickup, the white pickup truck, but he didn't get the license plate on the on the truck, but we got the license plate from his car. So we we found out about this and you know, we the FBI, in addition to the police, interviewed him, you know. The police at the time didn't put two and two together with the bank robbers. The FBI, because of Emilio Brielle being shot out in the Everglades, this guy was shot exactly like Brielle.
Ed Mireles:So we said, hey, you know what? This is probably the robbers, the bank robbers. They're out there shopping for another car. So we went out and interviewed him and we got a lot of information from him. Know, the PD, you know, did the old police sketch.
Ed Mireles:We got some workable sketches, know. That happened on March 12, like within seven days, mister mister Koyas' car was used in a robbery. Okay? And we know 100% with 100% certainty that his car was used in a robbery because the car was seen at a was part of a bank robbery at a bank that had been robbed once before by these guys. And there was a US customs inspector going to work, he stopped at the bank to cash his check.
Ed Mireles:So he said, hey, he's looking for a parking space. He sees two guys wearing camouflage clothing, running out of a bank with port arms with long weapons. He said, you know, maybe I should wait a little bit before I cash my check, you know. So he said he hunkered down watching these guys and they backed the black car up and the rear license plate was right to him into his space. So he wrote it down and he verified that it was Koyasos tag.
Ed Mireles:So we knew we were on the right track for the bank robbers. So that linked the stolen car and the bank robbing activity. That was on March, I think it was March 18, think it was. So that takes us up to the springboard, I guess you'd call it. Shooting happened on April 11, so it happened about two, I don't know, two, three weeks later.
Ed Mireles:It's called intuitive policing. Okay? Our supervisor said, hey. He talked to the case agent, you know, Ben Grogan. He said, Ben, they were actually at the range on Thursday.
Ed Mireles:He said, hey, Ben, know, I said, hey. What do you think about setting up surveillance tomorrow? Tomorrow being Friday. He said, sure Gordon. What's up, what do you know?
Ed Mireles:He said, man, said I don't know, I really don't know anything Ben. But he said, I just have a hunch. He said, the last time these guys hit was three weeks ago. The last time they hit they only got $8,000 He said their previous hits were $4,550,000 and then they would wait several weeks before they hit again. He said, number one, he said, they a small stash, tomorrow is payday Friday, it's been three weeks.
Ed Mireles:He said, I think they're due. I think they're due to hit. So he said, I think we should set up a surveillance in the Southwest part of town, you know, be in the area to respond in case anything happens. Because our office from where these guys were robbing was like 30 miles away. If I'm sitting at my desk and we get a bank robbery call, it's gonna take me, I mean even with lights and sirens, a 30 mile drive through downtown traffic, man.
Ed Mireles:It's like twenty, thirty minutes if I'm lucky. So he said, hey, we'll be in the area in case something happens and then we'll just go from there. And he said, Gordon, he said, man, I'll take any help you can get me. So we set up a surveillance. I was in the office on the squad when they called, hey, let's plan on having a surveillance, anybody who's available come out to help tomorrow blah blah blah.
Ed Mireles:So we set it up. Ended up being 11 guys from the squad and three guys from the homestead little satellite office there. So it was 14 agents. And we got all the information we had. We had a white pickup truck, no tag, had Koyasos, black Monte Carlo with the tag, NTJ891, and we had the composite photos of the guys.
Ed Mireles:So the idea was to spread out in the South Miami area where they had hit banks before. And we would be, if not lucky, we would be at least close. You know, we'd be two blocks away or five blocks away if a robbery call came in. I mean, being five blocks away as opposed to 30 miles away is a big big difference.
Rob Huberty:Big difference.
Ed Mireles:You know, it's an old saying, hey, when seconds count, you know, the police are always minutes away. Know? We were set up, know, and and it was just I mean, I gotta be I gotta be honest with you. You know, I I mean, I showed up for the game, but I I say, hey, you know what though? We're gonna waste a day.
Ed Mireles:But it's Friday, you know, it's a good day, you know, it's sunny and and stuff. Thinking about what I'm gonna do on the weekend and so I was a bit complacent, I'll be honest with you. But I mean I was set. I mean I had my shotgun, had my body armor, had my rage jacket, had my sidearm, extra ammo, I mean everything was good. But I said, okay, we're gonna sit here between nine and two.
Ed Mireles:So there goes my day. My partner and I, John Hanlon, were assigned to a spot in the northernmost area of the surveillance area. So we take our position and everybody's joking around and there's a total of 14 guys and we had like four spots that we set in the little centers. And the idea was to surveil those banks and then do like roving patrols in your area for other banks or like Home Depot. I mean, armored trucks make stops at Home Depots and stuff like that too.
Ed Mireles:So we were just at, I had my shotgun, we're ready to go. And three things happened. Number one, one of the agents at my location went in to talk to the bank and they said, no, we don't we don't wanna talk to you, you don't look like an FBI agent. So he said, okay, fine. So he leaves.
Ed Mireles:They call the office verifying that there was an FBI agent by that name and they said, yes. So they call on the radio and said, hey, the manager wants to talk to you now. So he goes to the bank and he goes off the air. And one the one of the spots at 130 Sixth Street, an agent by the name of Terry said, hey, Gordon, he said, I need to go make a head call. Know, so I'm gonna be out of I'm gonna be what we call out of pocket.
Ed Mireles:So he leaves to go to find a best restroom. And then the spot south of him, Hundred 40 Eighth, another agent by the name of Bob said, hey, guys, I gotta go find a boys' room because I gotta go. Three agents, legitimate reasons. As soon as Steve goes, hey, I'm ten seven at the bank, like within five seconds, Ben Grogan calls on the radio and says, attention all units, we're behind a black Monte Carlo, Florida tag, NTJ891. We're headed northbound on US 1.
Ed Mireles:Imagine my surprise. I was like, it's beyond surprise, it's like holy Jesus, you gotta be kidding me. These guys are blatant. I mean, they're in a stolen car, the tag has been blasted all over Bolo, be on the lookout, and they're in that same car. I mean, they're just like, hey, in your face, you know.
Ed Mireles:So we started a real short surveillance, we followed them, they going northbound on US 1, they made a right turn on the 100 And Seventeenth, started going back southbound. And at some point in time, we were trying to get them in the right spot and we didn't wanna do a car stop like in the middle of a three lane highway. You know, that would be that would be crazy. So they they did us a favor. They went on off off the highway and they were back in the residential areas, which is where we when we decided to do the car stop.
Ed Mireles:From the time Ben Grogan, agent Ben Grogan said, attention all units, I'll draw, he said, felony car stop, let's do it, was three minutes. So we had three minutes to formulate a plan and to try to bring the policy together into one spot, okay. So some of our units were we had an area about five miles long that we were surveilling. I was at the northern most part and then the other units were the southern most location was five miles from me. So we were trying to rally all the troops to come to the center.
Ed Mireles:Okay, and that took time. Even with license sirens, takes time. So three minutes, formulated a plan and decided to do car stop. Now people say, well you know you have poor planning, know this, you know, whatever, you know. Life.
Ed Mireles:People don't understand there's two types of car stops, know. And people say, high risk, low risk, no. I said, no, forget that crap, you know. There's a compliant car stop, and then there's a non compliant car stop. That's it.
Ed Mireles:I mean there's nothing else. All car stops are high risk. I don't give a crap if you're stopping an old lady, You don't know whether she's got a derringer in her hand or something, know. Those old ladies are mean, know. So compliant, non compliant.
Ed Mireles:As soon as Ben hit the lights and the siren, these guys jumped up and looked behind them and then Ben starts to try to pass them to block them. It turned into a non compliant stop. We started having bumper cars going southbound on 80 Second Avenue. We're about two blocks. Literally ramming cars, ramming each other like this until we lost control of our car.
Ed Mireles:John hit hit a cement wall. They lost control of their car because Manausi had rammed them and and they kinda spun up with their nose.
Rob Huberty:So they pulled over, you got called on the radio, how far out you when they became non compliant? They because you didn't do the stop. You were there Yeah.
Ed Mireles:Was I was Oh, you
Rob Huberty:were there at the stop. Okay.
Ed Mireles:Yeah. I I was I was the second when? Yeah. I was the second car on the stop. Okay.
Ed Mireles:Okay. And John John Hanlon, you know. It was Ben Grosven was first, I was we were second, and then Manaus. So when Ben pulls off to the left to try to block him, we we were right behind him at that point. So we were involved in bumper cars crashing and crashing and crashing.
Ed Mireles:And something happened, I don't know what we lost control somehow and John hits us a brick wall, know, a cement wall on the right side of the street.
Rob Huberty:So you're in the passenger seat?
Ed Mireles:I'm in the passenger seat.
Rob Huberty:And he's driving.
Ed Mireles:So John's driving, okay. And I didn't see this but I was told later but from the crime scene, the car spun around, the bad guy car spun around to their left and Manausi had already ran and he said, hey, if they make a full u-turn, they're gonna be free and clear to go back north. So he decided to random a second time and he random hard and he pushes them into a civilian car in a driveway, up against a civilian car, up against a tree. And then Manausi the third side of the box. So they were pinned in between two cars and a tree.
Ed Mireles:And that was the car stop. Okay? And it was set. I mean, you know, it was set to go. They you know, Gordon McNeil arrives like a few seconds later and Ben Grogan had had been right behind them.
Ed Mireles:They jump out. I'm shaking off the effects of the crash you know, and I'm you know, trying to figure out which way is up, you know. And I looked and I saw saw where the cars were and I start coming out of the car. I saw Ben Grugin and and Gordon McNeil jump out of their cars and I hear, FBI, police put your hands up. And they you know, remember the movie Gladiator where the first scene in the movie when when they're looking at the at the what how the German Germanis are gonna respond and then their courier comes back without a head?
Ed Mireles:They say no. Well, when when we told when we told the bank robbers to come out with their hands up, they said no because they responded with rifle fire. I mean, right then. I mean, it wasn't even like, hey, you know, who are you? Hey, don't hurt us.
Ed Mireles:No. Automatic you know, automatically went to gunfire. Okay? And what started there was like a three to four minute gun gunfight between a total of 10 men in an area about the size of a half court basketball court. Okay.
Rob Huberty:So as you're explaining this, me just say on on the side, I I have imagery of this just because a lot has been done with it. So I have like a a model of where the cars are parked and the trees and where your car is parked. So I'm I'm looking at this in real time and maybe you can attach some of this to the videos just to have a better understanding of
Ed Mireles:Yeah.
Rob Huberty:Yeah. Well, I'm looking at images that you Okay.
Ed Mireles:Were so so you you have you have you have an overhead view, a diagram of the shooting. Okay? Yeah. Right. There you know how the bad guy car is pinned between all these vehicles, you know.
Ed Mireles:So my my thought was to run across the street to to reinforce the the the troops, you know, guy, because I had a 12 gauge shotgun. And I was at I I actually paced it off, you know, after the incident. I I was 55 yards away from a jumble of cars, you know, plus there were agents and band guys in the same area. I wasn't gonna use a shotgun at fifty five 50 yards when you got friendlies on both sides, you know. So I figured I had to get close, you know, close and personal I guess.
Ed Mireles:And I ran across the street. It's funny how training kicks in and everything starts going. I was in total, I was perfectly calm, I was in control and things slowed down. They call that tachypsychic, tachypsychia. It's slowing down of time, your mental processes.
Ed Mireles:Some people experience a speeding up of time. I didn't know that, but for me, it's always been slowing down. But it was slow, almost like slow motion and I could see things. Literally I saw Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove bring their guns up like this, that's about how fast it looked. Time had slowed down, I mean, at least in my perception.
Ed Mireles:And I'm running across and I'm, you know, I'm calm. But there was this thing going around, you know, and I'm sure you've experienced it. When bullets go flying by you, they make a certain noise.
Rob Huberty:The cracks. The cracks are scary.
Ed Mireles:Yeah. So I you know, that that was that was a little bit concerning. Know? Because
Rob Huberty:I guess they're probably subsonic, it's not cracks, but it's different.
Ed Mireles:Well, no. I mean, the assault rifle was Oh, yeah.
Rob Huberty:Assault. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So those are cracks.
Ed Mireles:Okay. You were shooting two two three rounds.
Rob Huberty:Yeah. So those are cracks. Those are terrible.
Ed Mireles:Yeah. It's like
Rob Huberty:I'm more familiar with that than than subsonic.
Ed Mireles:You know, I knew what they were, you know, but I'm thinking That's your bad. You need to get the cover, you know.
Rob Huberty:It's a bad sound.
Ed Mireles:So I come around the side of Gordon McNeil's car like this because I saw him by himself on the left side of this of the the line. So there were edge there were gonna be three edges on the right side, I figured the weakest spot would be the one agent by himself. So I decided to go help reinforce Gordon McNeil on the left and I was trying to get to his left side and then something very unusual happened to me. I'm looking forward like this and the next thing I know, I'm looking straight up at the sky, I'm looking at the blue sky. And I think, mean, at that point I stopped being calm and it was just totally not It's not like the TV just went You didn't see any picture.
Ed Mireles:I mean, I could still see and hear a little bit, but I just couldn't figure out what happened. So I'm thinking, how the hell did I get on ground? And I'm looking I'm still looking to Gordon McNeil and I see Gordon McNeil. He's still doing he's still doing this like bang bang. Well, I mean, everything's still slow.
Ed Mireles:So but and my hearing was totally shot. I mean not to put it up, my hearing was totally screwed up.
Rob Huberty:Was it your hearing that was shot? Yeah. And I couldn't hear.
Ed Mireles:So I got the shotgun in my right hand like this, okay. And I remember when I came around the back of the car, Gordon McNeil's car, I had the shotgun at a ready position, not port arms but in a ready. And I came around the side of the car and I had my the muzzle of my weapon pointed at Gordon McNeil's back. And I had a round of the chamber, safety was off, and I had my finger on the trigger and I thought, oh shoot. You know, safety, safety, safety.
Ed Mireles:I brought the muzzle of the weapon up like this, port arms and seek where my arm is. I hit with a two two three round right here. Okay, I mean you could do that a million times and not have the same result. And it was just, I mean, talk about a miracle of miracles. Okay?
Ed Mireles:But see, I found that out after the fact. At that point in time, I had no clue what the hell was going on. Okay. And I got the shotgun here, and I'm looking, I'm scanning, and I'm trying to use my left arm to push myself up off the ground. Another thing that happened, was just all suddenly tired.
Ed Mireles:Know, and all of a sudden like, you know, god, what the hell? I mean, it's like I ran five miles, know, and all of a sudden I was you know, I guess there's all the energy seeping out of you. So and I can see Gordon McNeil shooting and I'm thinking, get up you son of a bitch. Gotta help Gordon. And I just couldn't do it.
Ed Mireles:I mean, just wasn't working. And then I see Gordon do a very peculiar movement. Gordon's got his gun up on the car, he's got it he's cupped his revolver in his hand like this. And then I see Gordon do this, he looks back at his hand and I'm on the ground behind him thinking, what the hell is Gordon doing? You know, as I said, was one of those movies, follow me.
Ed Mireles:No. And then I realized when he brought it back, he was like, he's actually looking at his hand, examining his hand. I just brings it back, cups it back down, brings it back on the hood of the car, and fires two more shots. And then it dawned on me. I said, holy cow, Gordon got shot.
Ed Mireles:He got shot in the hand, know, and it was really he he was hit with a two two three round right right between the fingers like this. Okay? When he was aiming the gun, you know. I mean, talk about luck. If that round hit had not hit his hand, it probably would have hit him in the shoulder or in the side of the face.
Ed Mireles:But anyway, he fires his last two rounds and he circles around to the left and he goes over behind cover to reload. Okay. And I'm still there by myself, I have no idea what's going on. Okay and I'm pushing and pushing and gunfire is still going over my head and stuff. So I won't, I'll try to keep this short.
Ed Mireles:It's a funny thing No
Rob Huberty:I mean this is
Ed Mireles:joke. This is funny because you know, this goes back to training and I don't know whether it was Marine Corps training or FBI training, I don't know. I honestly don't know. But I stuck the stock of the shotgun underneath my armpit like this for support. And I had my finger on the trigger.
Ed Mireles:And you know how tanks work? You have a tank, the barrel of the tank, it's like this. When the turret turns, the muzzle turns. Right. So you're looking and if you're gonna make this work, gotta The muzzle goes this way, tank commander goes wherever the gun's pointing.
Ed Mireles:And that's what I was doing. I mean, if the muzzle of my shotgun was here, my eyes were here. And I started scanning for threats and scanned in a methodical pattern underneath, over the hoods and trucks of the cars like this. And I'm scanning, just constantly scanning. The old saying, keep your head on a swivel.
Ed Mireles:I was scanning, but I wasn't aiming my gun this way and looking the opposite way. Everything was connected. And I'm thinking what? Where the hell is everybody? I really thought that.
Ed Mireles:And then as I'm scanning to the right, I see movement to my left and I'm thinking, what the hell was that? And I go like this. Thought it was a threat. And then I see nothing and I say, okay. So I started scanning back to the left, I'm back to the right and then all of a sudden I see movement again.
Ed Mireles:I'm like, what the hell was that? And then I said, God, it scary, it was freaking me out. So I said, I'm gonna stop and I'm gonna stay looking like this and kinda looking to the left. And sure enough, there was something weird going on. I see this spray and I saw it's red liquid, skirting from this part of my body, skirting past my shoes.
Ed Mireles:Okay. And it took me a couple of seconds to realize, holy shit, that's that's blood. I said, is there arterial bleeding? My my every time my heart pops, know, and I'm and I'm thinking, oh, shit. You know who I thought of?
Ed Mireles:You'll love this. Guess who who I thought of? Tommy Norris. I swear to god, I thought that Tommy was went off the I said, oh my God, I've been shot in the head. I'm gonna look like Tommy.
Ed Mireles:See you. That thought came to me because, you know, and I'm thinking, oh my God, I've been shot in the head. You know? And then I actually I actually put I mean, my left arm wasn't working for some reason. I still don't know well.
Rob Huberty:I wonder why. I
Ed Mireles:put my shotgun across my chest like this and it took a lot of willpower to let go of the pistol grip. You know. And it's like, ugh, gotta put the gun down, you know. And then I I took my hand like this and I went I expected to feel a bunch of mush up here. Okay.
Ed Mireles:But when I felt my skull or something, that's just intact blood. I went like this blood. I did this a couple of times and you know unbeknownst to me and you know, God has mercy on drunks and babies. I guess I was somewhere around drunk you know. Unbeknownst to me when I did this, I was actually compressing the flap of skin that was flopping around.
Ed Mireles:I actually compressed it over the wound. So it stopped spraying but it was still bleeding. But the spray scared the crap out of me. So I said, okay. I said, my head's intact.
Ed Mireles:I said, it's no big deal. Then I said, man, gotta look at my arm. When I looked down at my arm, that's the first time I realized I'd been shot. And you know this from training, a lot of people and and the the uninitiated or the inexperienced don't realize, hey, you know, when people are shot or injured, a lot of times they don't know they've been hurt hurt. Okay?
Rob Huberty:Not right away. Not right away.
Ed Mireles:Not right away, no. Eventually it'll hit you.
Rob Huberty:You'll figure it out.
Ed Mireles:Yeah. But I was like stunned. I said, holy cow. Because my arm had been, my left arm had been almost completely ripped off my body, Okay, I mean it was totally shattered. I mean it looked like roadkill, it was just like meat and shit was everywhere.
Ed Mireles:I actually reached down with my good hand and I picked up my left hand and I put it in front of me like And I shook it. And I said, holy shit, it's attached to me. I said, that's my arm. Then I said, okay. So I said, that's my arm.
Ed Mireles:I said, intrusive thought. I said, you're gonna have to have your arm amputated today. Like Tommy Norris, oh my god, I'm gonna look like Tommy Norris. I'm gonna you're gonna have to have your arm amputated today. And I threw my arm back on the ground and grabbed the shotgun and started scanning for threats.
Ed Mireles:It's just bizarre, you know? But the thing went on so long, you know, that and my hearing started coming back because initially, when I took the head up here, it just the the I guess the the supersonic crack or something, it just ruined my hearing, you know?
Rob Huberty:Or getting shot in the head either way. You know?
Ed Mireles:Yeah. You know, I mean, that has a that has a something some
Rob Huberty:Might have an effect. So
Ed Mireles:but eventually, I I heard the shooting went from from my my 12 to my one to my two to my three. And I'm thinking, I don't know what the nothing's going on here. I said stuff's happening over to my right. So I started calling on my on my back, know, and trying to get around Gordon McNeil's car so to where I could see on the other side of the car. I didn't wanna get up, number one.
Ed Mireles:Number two, I couldn't get up because I was disoriented and stuff. So when I went around the back of the car, that absolutely devastating because I saw Ben Groggen and Jerry Dubber on the ground. And I looked behind me, I mean, behind Gordon McNeil's guard, Gordon was on the ground.
Rob Huberty:Did that fully hit you at the time or were you still in such a state? Did like did that you were going through a slow motion thing. You just realized that you were shot. You realized like it was bad. Realized that you know, all these things were like, did did them being down, did you understand what that meant?
Ed Mireles:Oh no. I I I did understand. Know, but you know what though, I still held held out hope because they weren't moving. But I'm thinking, okay, know, I'm hoping that they're still alive. Know?
Ed Mireles:And that was the motivating factor, okay. I need to do something so that we can get aid, okay.
Rob Huberty:You said get up you son of a bitch.
Ed Mireles:Yeah, And then you got up. Pretty good. When I finally got a full view of their car and it hit me, I'm thinking, oh, shit. I said, who the hell is in the car? And I'm thinking, the bad guys are in the car.
Ed Mireles:And and I again, I assessed the situation and, you know, it became obvious to me that they were trying to escape in the FBI car. Okay. Now here's the problem. If they if they the only way to move that car was back. Okay.
Ed Mireles:If they moved that car back, they would run over Jerry Dove, Ben Grosven, and John Hanlon. I said there's no freaking way they're gonna move that car. Okay. So I said, you know what, I gotta do something. I've got the heavy weapon.
Ed Mireles:I mean for us it's a heavy weapon, know. I said, I've gotta do something, know. And I'm trying to figure out how to use this shotgun with one hand, you know. And it just kinda came to me, was like what they say, it's an epiphany. I looked at the bumper of the car and I'm thinking, okay, it's got a lip on here.
Ed Mireles:I said, I can't use my left arm. So I said, I'll just put the fore end, the stock, lip and I've got the stock back here, I'll say, will be my left arm. It wasn't perfect, okay. The bumper was here but my eyes were up here, okay. So when I put the shotgun on the bumper, the sights were here.
Ed Mireles:So I had to squash down, I had to put my head down to where the sights were to be able to use the bumper as my second arm. In other words, it wasn't perfectly lined up, the bumper's up here at my eyesight, it would have been perfect. Life isn't perfect. I had scrunched down like this, because you know what, a weapon is a tool. You're trying to make the tool work, you gotta make it work properly.
Ed Mireles:And to make that weapon work properly, you gotta work the sights, front sight, rear sight, you know what I'm saying. And I think, okay, I had to squash down and I had to find the right sight. And that's when I started using the I mean, it's just basically firing rounds into the passenger compartment of the car to keep them from moving the car. Okay. And people say, well, how did you wreck?
Ed Mireles:It was just one of those miracles. Just kinda came to me. When I fired the shotgun, the recoil just automatically set me back. And I was like on the side of the car, when it pushed me back, was in a sitting position. I had to go back.
Ed Mireles:In other words, just kind of naturally rolled back with my back against the bumper, had the shotgun in my hand, let it slide through my hand between my legs and I pinched it with my legs. Then I put my hand up in the foregrip, racked the gun, came back down to the pistol grip, brought it up and then turned around, put the weapon on the bumper again. And I fired four rounds in that configuration. And that was enough to stop them from moving the car. Okay?
Ed Mireles:So mission accomplished. Okay? When I fired my all my rounds that was empty, I turned around and I looked to my right across the street, Ben Grogan, Gil Arantia and Ron Reisner. I took my hand out. I said I said, it's okay.
Ed Mireles:Come on over. You know? And they're yelling, stay down. Stay down. You know?
Ed Mireles:And I'm thinking, stay down? What are you talking about? The gunfight's over, guys. You know? And then it hit me.
Ed Mireles:I think, oh, shit. They don't know it's over. Because they don't know where the bad guys are. I mean, this is still a hot zone. And you know what?
Ed Mireles:I looked north and I looked south and I was thinking, oh, you know what? As thrilling as it was, I said, we are going to die. Because I looked north and there's like twenty, thirty fire engines and ambulances. I looked south, there's another twenty, ten, 20, 15 fire engine and ambulances and they were all stopped about a hundred yards from my position. And I'm thinking, nobody is They're not gonna come to you right now.
Ed Mireles:Everybody's coming in, cavalry is stopped, yes? Because they think it's a hot zone. They think it's still an active zone. And unbeknownst to me, when I took my attention off the threat, that's when one of the witnesses across the street said that the driver of the in Ben Grogan's car gets out of the car and walks to within eight feet of my position and fires with his left hand, fires down at my position like this. I didn't hear the gunshots because my hearing was toast.
Ed Mireles:The witness saw it, Gordon McNeil who behind his car but kind of in a little bit in the middle of the street said, he couldn't see but he heard the gunshots and he saw the street, the mecanum, the, you know, the the tara on the street sprinkled up like with the gun where the bullets hit and and threw up, you know, fragments of the road. But I never saw it. The guys across the street never saw it, you know, but, you know, it's just an interesting little sidebar. So and according to the witness, the driver who ended up being Platt goes back to the driver's seat in Ben's car and jumps in and they're proceeding again to try to do something with the steering column and stuff like that. And I'm going through a whole, and I won't belabor the point, but I went through a whole thought process.
Ed Mireles:I'm thinking, oh, there's denial, anger, bargaining, acceptance. I went through all of those steps in like a second. I mean I bargained, I talked to God and God said, hey you know what, I don't think you're a good bet, man. Because sometimes God says no.
Rob Huberty:You got some work to do.
Ed Mireles:Yeah. You know what? And I'm thinking to myself, you you know Ecclesiastes nine eleven?
Rob Huberty:You said it earlier. Yeah.
Ed Mireles:Okay. Now do you know what Ecclesiastes nine twelve says? If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna take those fuckers with me. Know? It's in the bible, I swear to god.
Ed Mireles:Look at that. Look at that. So I'm thinking that as, you know what though? If if I'm gonna die and I thought I was gonna die and I because I could feel the strength. You know, I was I was trying to stay awake and it was harder and harder for me to stay awake and concentrate.
Ed Mireles:Because I would be doing this, would like, I'm looking, I'm scanning and then I would jerk out, know, kinda like when you're driving drunk. And I was just trying to shaking my head, trying to stay awake and I knew right then that I was dying. Okay. Said, hey, this is it, man. I said, if I'm gonna die, I'm gonna take those two guys with me.
Ed Mireles:There was still hope of survival. I said, hey, if I stand up in this middle, in the middle of this gunfight, everybody north and south of me, all those firing just are going to know, hey, this guy's standing up and must be okay. So that was part of the motivation. I mean, still wanted to survive and I wanted everybody else to survive. So I kind of rolled over on my side, on my knees and when I stood up, I drew my revolver and I came up and I started moving towards the car.
Ed Mireles:And as I'm moving, I'm firing. And I wasn't like firing, like walking. I would take two steps, set my position, find the front and rear sides and fire. And then I'd take two steps forward, find the sides, fire, two steps forward. My thought is that it was a very methodical process.
Ed Mireles:Two steps fire, two steps fire, two steps fire, know. But every time I stopped, would set my position, okay. The witnesses said that he, the individual with the red jacket, I was wearing a windbreaker, like a wine colored windbreaker. They said, hey, he he actually people say he charged the subject. The other the other witnesses said he kinda like fast walked, shuffled towards the back.
Ed Mireles:You know, to me it was very slow and methodical. Anyway, I closed I closed the distance, know how it is, you close with the enemy and and you know, and take care of it you know. I got as close to the car door and I had fired all six shots and five of the shots hit the bad guys, one of the shots missed. And I had the last shot and I was right at the window and I shot the driver, you know, shot him in the upper chest you know. Hit him in the spinal cord up here on his neck you know, so he was paralyzed from there.
Ed Mireles:And at that point in time, the two agents across the street came up to reinforce me. Okay, because they said, hey, you know, we know where the bad guys are now. So one to my left and one to my right. Know, Ron was to my right, he said, hey Ed, it's okay. Put your gun away, it's over.
Ed Mireles:And I tell people, I said, how many times do you go through training, training, training? Took my revolver and I one handed went like this, put the revolver in my holster and I snapped my holster. And then I stumbled back and almost to the same spot where I started behind the car and I collapsed. I was just I was done. I mean I had no more, I couldn't stay awake anymore.
Ed Mireles:Just blood loss. And that's where the medics came in. It's like pretty much over. Unfortunately Ben Grogan and Jerry Dub didn't make it. Out of 10 participants, two bad guys ate ages.
Ed Mireles:Two bad guys died, two ages died, that leaves six participants. Out of those six participants, five of us were wounded. Okay, so only one agent, one person out of 10 was not injured. Okay, so it was pretty intense, pretty intense gut fight. Then the rest is history.
Ed Mireles:It took me two weeks in the hospital, intensive care. They said the initiative, we're gonna have to amputate your arm. I was like, I kind of was having a thought process about that, you know, kind of accept it. You know, and then they came back and said, hey, you know, we may be able to save it, but don't count on it. Know, we don't wanna give you false hope if you have to amputate.
Ed Mireles:But they said, we're gonna make an effort to try to to save your ark. And I said, okay. It works for me, man. Otherwise, you'd be calling me lefty. And and that's pretty much it.
Ed Mireles:Know, the rest of it was just recovery, you know, recuperating. It took me I was on light duty for twenty seven months. I was on hard recuperating duty for like fourteen months at home. My arm was totally shattered. It was in a big balloon cast and stuff like that.
Ed Mireles:I had five or six major surgeries and I had like five minor surgeries for the arm to get it to where it isn't today, you know. And I have about 50% usage of the arm, you know. Which is better than nothing, you know, so. It's better than nothing. Yeah.
Ed Mireles:I'm kidding. And that's it.
Rob Huberty:A lot has been written about this. You've wrote a lot about this. Based on your lessons, there's a bunch of lessons learned that the bureau gets taught, you know, kind of forever that law enforcement get taught that a lot of people use this as a use case for a lot of different things. All of that being said, what are really the the learning points for you as a person rather rather than the tactical ones? Like, the tactical ones, like, oh, we should use these, like, you know, the types of firearms you use, the types of tactics that go going on that.
Rob Huberty:But you as a person, what did you learn from this?
Ed Mireles:Okay. That that's a very good question. That's the first time I've ever ever been asked that question clearly and directly. This is what I would tell people. I said, number one, be a good person.
Ed Mireles:Okay? And I don't mean you have to be Superman or Batman, just be a good decent person. Okay? Have your affairs in order. I mean and I know, I mean And I don't mean affairs like romantic affairs, but I mean, have your life in order.
Ed Mireles:If you have a wife and kids or if you have parents and stuff, have your affairs in order, okay? I mean, don't leave stuff to chance, okay? The other part of it is, you you should prepare to make every day your last day. I mean, that's my thought. Okay, if I die today, am I gonna die happy?
Ed Mireles:Not that I wanna die, but am I gonna say, okay, everything is in order. My life is in order. I tell my loved ones I love them, I show them love. Try to be a good provider, I try to love and care for the people I love And my friends, try to be a good friend to people. And to strangers, be courteous, okay?
Ed Mireles:Because you never know. I've always been told, say, Ed, you never know when that person that you meet, that person needs help or you turn your back on them or you ignore them or you call them names, you never know when you're being tested. You never know if that's an angel, okay? Coming down here to see how you'll react to this need or a person asking for assistance or a handicapped person looking for some help. So I always try to live life in the light, in the positive and good, okay?
Ed Mireles:And if I was to go today, I think I would go with a clear conscience. It's like, and please don't get it wrong, I'm not a saint by any stretch of the imagination, okay? I've led a checkered life. But at least I can say, hey listen, I did the best I could. I loved my family, loved my friends.
Ed Mireles:I did the best I could and my affairs are relatively in order, okay? And I don't mind going. Now, if you have unfinished business somewhere like a family member or a friend or a relationship or something like that, then I hope you understand what I'm saying, kinda the negative side. But on the positive side, you know, if you have everything in order, you know, it's like you're you're positive with people, you know, I mean, you could go anytime, know. So I'd say, no no problem, you know.
Ed Mireles:I don't wanna preach to the choir, but you know, it's always you need some spiritual food, okay. You gotta have something you believe in, you know. I mean, it's gotta be more than just you, okay. It's your family and you know. And again, I'm not a priest or a preacher or a rabbi or anything else, but you know, you just have to live life in the positive.
Ed Mireles:Know, I mean that's the best I can do for you.
Rob Huberty:So everything that you said there was full of humility, was full of like great answers. Did you ever have dark moments from this?
Ed Mireles:You know, the hardest part for me was the first six, seven, eight years on the anniversary, it was tough for me because I've always it was PTSD and I found that out. I think it was the seventh year, seven year anniversary. I always kept asking myself, what could I have done better or what could I have done differently to save Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove? Okay? And that ate my soul, ate my heart, ate my mind.
Ed Mireles:And it wasn't until everybody kept saying, Ed, you did everything you could. Okay? Everybody said that except one person, me. It wasn't until the seventh year that I said, you know what, I think Ben and Jerry who are looking down on me from heaven, I think they would agree that I did everything humanly possible to try to help them. And I think if they agree, then I'm happy.
Ed Mireles:Okay. And you know what? It was it was like a poof. The PTSD disappeared. It was like, holy cow, you know.
Ed Mireles:Because I I kept nagging this question and it's like, I could have done something better. I could have done something different. And when I when I answered my own question, no Ed, you did everything humanly possible and the results are the results. It was like I was cured. I mean the PTSD disappeared.
Ed Mireles:Know?
Rob Huberty:Was there any particular catalyst in that seventh year why you came to that conclusion? Did you do anything or it was just a moment of clarity?
Ed Mireles:It was just I had to decide I guess mentally I had to decide that what I did was acceptable. You know, Because everybody kept saying, hey Ed, you're a legend. Hey, you know what? That doesn't mean crap to me. What could I have done better for Ben and Jerry?
Ed Mireles:Okay. That's always been my thought. And always, it nagged me. And not to diminish their memory, I mean, but it doesn't bother me the way it did the first five, six, seven years. Because I had to answer that question and I had to accept it.
Ed Mireles:Everybody else accepted it and said, hey, they always said positive things and so on and so forth. But I was the one that had to finally accept it and to leave it myself. And it was just I don't know. Maybe it was just time, know. So I know.
Rob Huberty:So I I have been on missions where my friends I lost my friends. Never something where I got hurt. Like I was never hurt and I never got shot or anything like that. But I lost my friends, and I think some of, like, our tackled tactical decisions and my tactical decisions may have led to that. So these are things that I have also contemplated of, like, what I could have done.
Rob Huberty:And at this point, like, the answer is, like, it doesn't matter. Like, I can't take that back. I can only live my life in a different way
Ed Mireles:now. Exactly.
Rob Huberty:But all of that being said, you sound like Batman, basically. Was like, what you described, and it's with humility. It's just like, I didn't know that I was shot. And I kept going, get up, you son of a bitch. And I did that, and then I started emptying my gun.
Rob Huberty:I thought I was doing this, and then I did this. And then it like, it it's to hear your story, it sounds impossible. And it sounds it sounds like something that books and movies are written about.
Ed Mireles:You know, what's Otto saying? God is my copilot or something like that. Know, mean, again, don't wanna get all, you know, mushy. But you know what? I've I've always my whole family, you know, has always been, you know, religious.
Ed Mireles:My mom took us to church every Sunday until I was 18. And then I joined the Marine Corps and I never went to church again. I'm joking. Talk about going to the dark side. Know you've joined the military, it's like oh my God.
Ed Mireles:But I've always tried to live my life, like I said, a positive manner, in a good manner. But the thought process there is always, if you try to do good, God can call any one of us at any time. You just have to hope that the balance, the ledger is, you've got a lot going for you as opposed to a deficit. So it's just an upbringing. Mean, were taught to family, church, God country, family.
Ed Mireles:God country family. That's the way it's always been. Something else that I was told when this was going on, know, I said, hey, listen, you to take life for what it is. You were spared for a reason, okay? Ben Grogan and Jerry Dub were killed.
Ed Mireles:They said, you cannot let your life be negative because they died, Okay? And there's no doubt in my mind that their actions helped me recoup, regroup, and helped me flank. I did a pull the flanking maneuver on the band guys. Their actions gave me time to regroup. Okay?
Ed Mireles:And they said, hey, the best way that you can honor Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove is to live your life to the fullest, okay? Live life for them, okay? And I'm thinking, that is so correct. You know, I I don't take any credit, you know, because Ben Grogan and Jerry Dobb are the real heroes. You know?
Ed Mireles:I was told, hey. Listen. You know, the best way to honor them is to live your life to the fullest. And I'm I'm thinking that's what I've tried to do, you know, since then.
Rob Huberty:I mean, I think that that's a good enough spot to end it for us. The the only thing I will will say is that you have you finished that and continue to chase later on. So the fact that you went to Afghanistan after that, you know, that's you know, twenty years later, you're like, I wanna get back in the fight is only a testament to your to your character and who you are.
Ed Mireles:Rob, I've been so blessed and and I'll be the first one to admit it, I've I've been so blessed and and I thank God for that, you know, so
Rob Huberty:Thank you so much for your time. This has been incredible. My
Ed Mireles:pleasure. Success on your on your program. Okay?
Rob Huberty:Thank you.
Ed Mireles:Take care. Bye bye.
Sam Alaimo:That's it for this episode. If you wanna check out more from the podcast, head to 0eyes.com/nobell where you can see show notes, read more about our guests, and suggest guests or topics of your own. Until next time, stay in the fight. Don't ring the bell.