An 'Exciting Career' Yields a Detective's Story

By Mitch Traphagen
mitch@observernews.net

SUN CITY CENTER - He has been a police detective, a bodyguard, an elected mayor, a newspaper reporter, a song-writer and the owner of a private investigation business.

Today, Elmer Snow of Sun City Center can also add author to his list of careers.

Snow's first novel, Overkill - a Detective's Story, will soon be released nationwide.

"I wrote my first book about two years ago and I didn't know anything about publishing," said Snow. "Since I had written what I considered to be a masterpiece, I wanted to find a publisher but everyone had their hands out for money. A friend of mine who is a fairly well-known true crime author suggested a Web site that allows authors to showcase a few chapters of their work."

Snow did that but heard nothing for six months. "One day I got an e-mail from a publisher and she said that she had read the 16 chapters and wanted to read more," he said.

The company sent a contract and Snow's book is about to become reality.

"In the meantime I've written a second book," he said. "I'm holding on to see what happens with this one. If it doesn't meet with success, I'm sure this publisher won't want to throw good money after bad."

Snow has had an exciting career and an interesting life. All of which he makes use of in his new book.

"I was the bodyguard for the chairman of the board for Dupont," he said. "The town that I lived in had a city council that got into a fight during a meeting - they went across the table at each other. I decided to run for mayor and thought the training that I had could help. For one thing a bodyguard is trained to see problems and to avoid them - to be proactive. I was elected."

Things were not always easy for the small town mayor who still worked as a bodyguard for Dupont. "It was a little awkward at one time because a chemical company in an industrial complex blew carcinogens into the environment. I asked the Attorney General to investigate this company. The next day I was with my boss at Dupont while he was reading the story in the newspaper." Although Dupont was not the company responsible, it is one of the world's largest chemical companies.

"I left Dupont because I was getting older and was wondering what an older bodyguard would do. I knew that they'd stick me in a nice security job but I'd probably be drinking a half bottle of bourbon a day going nuts in an office so I started my own security business."

Early in his career, Snow was also a police officer with a big city police department. "I was involved in several shootings and was even shot myself," he said. "You can take so many things that have happened in your life and use them for a story."

He told of an event that happened shortly after he made detective. A young man involved in a drug operation pointed a gun at him. Snow shot him. The man asked that Snow visit him in the hospital but Snow decided that a visit might not be a good idea. "I was worried that if I met him, I might come to like him," he said. "If I liked him, I might hesitate the next time I was in a situation like that." That moment of hesitation could be deadly for a police officer.

That was 35 years ago and Snow has worried about the man ever since. Recently he used his private investigation resources to contact him. "He got his engineering degree and eventually became a disc jockey," Snow said. Snow is hoping that the two will someday write a book together to tell of their experiences, about the brief moment their lives explosively came together and about the aftermath. "It may be a good message for people who may be thinking about experimenting with drugs," he said. "It would tell what can happen."

In 1994 Snow and his wife Donna vacationed in Florida. "When we got back to Baltimore it was about 20 below zero," he said. The couple moved to Florida shortly after.

Since that time Snow leveraged his career as a police officer writing up criminal investigations to become a reporter for a newspaper with the Lake Worth Herald. He was also able to use his experience as a mayor to develop lines of communication with city officials as well as with police officers.

His careers in writing and investigative work have intertwined and his new book is the result. His company, Protective Resources International, is located in Tampa and provides all aspects of executive services including protection and preventing work place violence to regular investigative work.

His passion, however, has become writing. His book will be published by PublishAmerica and should be available in February. PublishAmerica sells to bookstores nationwide and also has a Web site at www.publishamerica.com.

Snow has a lot on his plate but that is nothing new for him. When the comment was made that he was awfully busy considering he was living in a so-called retirement community, Snow replied, "I just want to be known as one of the youngest senior citizens around. There aren't many places that I can be the youngest anymore!"