Author and Philadelphia native, Bob Friel, brings you the Barefoot Bandit, The True Tale of Colton Harris-Moore, New American Outlaw, a riveting true story of a young man on the run, committing unbelievable acts of crime along the way in the spirit of survival, including teaching himself to fly and crash landing.
We recently sat down with this once local author to find out more about the boy they call the Barefoot Bandit and what we can expect next from author Bob Friel.
Bob was born in raised in Philadelphia, a graduate of Archbishop Ryan High School who became inspired by Jacques Cousteau to study marine science which lead him to the University of Miami. Well known for his photogrpahy of underwater adventures and features in world-wide travel magazines, made us wonder how different of an experience was it for Bob writing a true life crime story.
BF: I did do some previous writing about crime, criminals, police work, homeland security, etc, but again I usually prefer adventure writing. Writing about crime you always find yourself dealing with people who have screwed up their lives, hurt people, and rarely seem to get their shit together. It’s depressing on that end, then you go to the victims’ side and there’s often a lot of pain there. I think to be a good writer you have to be able to empathize with people, so with crime stories you wind up in some pretty dark places. You can also wind up dealing with people — as I did in researching The Barefoot Bandit — that are much more dangerous than the sharks and other things you deal with doing adventure stories.
PH: Was there a certain point in your interest of Colin and following of his adventures that you stopped and said, I have to write a book about this boy?
BF: I started following this story simply as a resident of Orcas Island. One of the things I liked best about the island was that none of us ever locked our doors. When local deputies did courtesy checks in our one little town, they often even found that business owners had left their doors and windows open. Car keys always lived in the cup holders, and after I moved here full-time, the only time I ever locked the cabin was when I went back to Philly for ten days over Christmas. So when suddenly 18 months after I moved to this (relatively) crime-free place there was a bizarre crime wave happening, it got my attention. It took our little police force a full year to figure out it was this kid from another island just downstream. Before that, all we knew was nearly every business and a lot of homes had been hit. We all figured it was a gang of methheads or something like that. Once we tied Colton Harris-Moore to everything and I learned it was just one kid AND that he stole an airplane off the island, then I got interested as a writer. I still didn’t see it as a book because if he was just a punk ripping off my friends and neighbors for drug money, then I didn’t care if he taught himself how to fly, I wasn’t going to dedicate a year or two of my life to the story. Then I went down to his home county and dug through court records. I was the first one to pull the forensic psychological evaluation of Colt from the last time he’d been arrested. That’s when I discovered he didn’t do drugs and had never been involved in any violent crimes except fighting with his mother. I also learned all about his mother and childhood. Ten year old kid diagnosed with Depression and telling a counselor all he wanted was for mom to stop drinking, get a job and have food in the house. That’s when I said This could be a book.
Orcas Island copyright: Bob Friel
PH: Is life always this exciting in Orcas Island?
BF: Usually when we’re looking up into the sky, it’s to spot bald eagles. Colt had us standing outside our secluded cabins looking up at Homeland Security Black Hawk helicopters hovering over our heads. Our normal excitement is seeing our resident pods of killer whales swim by, other than that, it’s very quiet, very rural. The lifestyle is all about hiking, kayaking, boating, diving, potlucks and backyard parties. Not even any nightlife except for one bar.
PH: Do you see second book or movie in the future as a result of the Barefoot Bandit?
BF: I’ll continue writing books… whether they get optioned for films will be up to Hollywood. I’ve just finished a feature for Outside magazine on a remote part of British Columbia where there are dozens of unsolved disappearances and murders of women. My agent, naturally, thinks that would be a great book, but I’m not sure I want to do such a dark story right now. My writing style is always to include as much humor as possible. Fortunately with The Barefoot Bandit, no one got physically hurt despite all the plane crashes and midnight boat runs and I was able to write in my normal style. The next book I do may be the story of the time I spent in the Maldives, feeding sharks and running a dive operation alongside David Friedland, a former NJ state senator who faked his death to avoid prosecution for fraud and eventually became the number one most-wanted US fugitive. That’s got humor, sharks, diving, tropical paradise, sex, drugs, crime, and everything else you could want in a book.
Famous self portrait of Colton Harris-Moore
PH: Coming from a family with a law enforcement background, did you experience conflicts while researching and writing the Barefoot Bandit, or did this background prove to be helpful?
BF: Having a famous former Philly cop as an uncle, a cousin on the job in Philly now, even a former FBI agent on the other side of the family all helped in writing the story. No conflicts. I understand law enforcement pretty well, and use the cops in my family as resources. I called on them several times throughout my research on this story to talk surveillance methods and correct police procedures.
PH: Why did you use the blog to communicate with Colt?
BF: I communicated with Colt through my blog for two reasons: first was to try to get him to turn himself in, which is something everyone including law enforcement hoped would happen before Colt or someone else got killed. Second was after the FBI told Colt’s mother that he was probably dead, and she asked me to see if I could find out if he was still alive. I asked him to give a sign and the next day found a 13-foot-long bare footprint spray painted on a small bridge less than a mile from my house.
PH: We have to know, what do you miss most about Philly?
BF: I miss almost EVERYTHING about Philly. I’ve had the opportunity to live all around the world, from tropical islands to big cities, but Philly is always “home.” When I was back just a couple of weeks ago I went to a Flyers game, ate cheesesteaks and saw old friends. There’s nothing in the world like Philly sports fans, so I miss that energy a lot. I bleed green, and have gone to great lengths to see Eagles games. When I lived in the Maldives in the pre-internet days, my dad taped the games and would mail them to me — it took up to three weeks to get the tapes. In the old days I also had them mail Tastykakes to me all over the world, even soft pretzels, though the pretzels didn’t travel as well. I miss walking South Street and Independence Mall area, the nightlife, local bands, springtime in Philly when it seems like all the pretty girls came out of hibernation… heading down The Shore… I miss being around people who understand what “wooder” is… I miss just about everything except 95 rush hour traffic… and I guess I don’t miss the days I spent working as a Philly roofer in August.
Bob Friel with an abandoned harbor seal pup as part of his work with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network in the San Juan Islands
PH: What kind of projects can we expect from Bob Friel next?
BF: The July issue of Outside has my feature about the missing women in British Columbia. That’s called “The Vanishing.” That same month I have a feature in Islands magazine that’s a behind the scenes look at a writer who moves to a small island in order to find a quiet place to write books and suddenly finds himself in the middle of one of the biggest stories in the nation — that, of course, is about the making of The Barefoot Bandit. If the movie of my book moves forward, it will probably begin production late this summer and I’ll be consulting on that. And in a few months I hope to be under contract for my next book… My goal is to always have a long-term book project going while still doing a selection of meaty magazine stories each year to keep things interesting and keep me traveling. I’ve been traveling and getting into interesting trouble for 25 years, so I’ve got a lot of stories stocked up to tell. I’m also hoping to start writing fiction, though it will be based on what I’ve seen and done.
Bob feeding sharks in the Maldives in the 80s
