Some of the stories are literally ripped from the headlines, as a number of cases Marius Greenspan worked on over his three-decade career with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service generated newspaper headlines across the country. They ranged from a national scheme that profited from having gay men with HIV obtain multiple life insurance policies to a Cajun chef involved in a Ponzi scheme.
Others are amusing tales such as the time Greenspan busted a Wisconsin grandmother selling used stamps or when he recruited his mother to assist in one investigation by going undercover. Greenspan has collected 16 of some of his favorite cases into a memoir he self-published this summer.
He modeled it after one of his favorite TV shows, “Perry Mason.” Each chapter could serve as one episode of the legal drama that aired on CBS from 1957 to 1966.
The book was borne of his boredom in retirement. His federal law enforcement career ended in 2016 when he retired that September to care for his ailing mother in Florida.