267: Part 1: How a Chicago Detective Survived 25 Years in Homicide

So Michelle, if you would tell us a little bit about your background.

And I know you cover this in your book, but tell us about where you grew up, your family dynamics.

Did you play sports in school, going to college, that kind of thing?

So I grew up in Chicago, born and raised.

I lived in the Logan Square area, which is actually a really nice area now.

It wasn't that It wasn't nice back then.

It was pretty gang infested, lots of crime.

My mom was super strict.

So basically the only thing that I was allowed to do was go to gymnastics.

I was on the gymnastics team.

I started, I mean, I went to preschool at the park that I did gymnastics at.

So I started gymnastics at like And I stayed as a competitive gymnast until I graduated high school.

Every summer, my mom and my three sisters would take the Amtrak train to visit my grandfather in Montana.

And my grandfather was in law enforcement.

He was actually a chief of police in a small town in Montana, Terry, Montana.

So it was funny because I have no freedom at all in Chicago with, um, my mom because she was so strict and she was strict for good reason.

Um, nothing good happened outside and there were still a lot of problems in the two different neighborhoods that I lived in.

Um, both of them, not the best.

So, um, In Montana, I was able to do whatever I want.

My uncle, who was younger than me, so I call him my cousin, and I would go dirt bike riding.

And, I mean, we would leave at 8 o'clock in the morning and then come back after it was dark outside.

So it was a stark contrast to my life in Chicago.

But it also gave me perspective of how other people live.

I'm like, wow, kids can go outside and stay outside and don't have to worry about – basically anything.

So it was great.