117 Let’s Go For a Ride – with Bill Livezey

For twenty years, Bill Livezey led a double life rubbing shoulders with some of Maine’s worst wildlife offenders; the kinds of people who not only live by the poacher’s mantra “if it’s brown, it’s down,” but many who were dangerously unstable felons, alcoholics, and drug abusers - his success at putting bad guys out of business stemming largely from his early years as one of them. Since retiring in 2020 as the Maine Warden Service’s longest-tenured covert operative, he has co-written Let’s Go For a Ride, a captivating chronicle of both a life undercover, and a life transformed.

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Here’s what we discuss:
·        “Let’s go for a ride” - the universal bad guy code
·        Desire for wealth sent his father down a dark road
·        From successful businessman to meth dealer
·        Hired a hit man to kill his own brother
·        Ultimately died in a confrontation with police
·        Young Bill loved sports and the outdoors, but was using drugs regularly by 15
·        Spiraling out of control: “I was broken.”
·        Positive influences and an invitation from a teammate changed everything
·        Unity college and riding with the game warden
·        An extra-long warden service polygraph
·        Applying as many times as it takes
·        The young game warden who knew all the tricks
·        Experience as a juvenile lent itself to undercover work
·        Befriending, then arresting poachers was a psychological struggle
·        “Pull over! I’m an undercover game warden!”
·        Relationships have to feel real; some were easy, some not so much
·        Undercover work was difficult to step away from
·        Some cases were especially taxing
·        The fear of being discovered
·        The book brings the reader into each case

Credits
Hosts: Wayne Saunders and John Nores
Producer: Jay Ammann
Art & Design: Ashley Hannett
Research / Content Coordinator: Stacey DesRoches
 
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