Agent Bishop: True Stories from an FBI Agent Moonlighting as a Mormon Bishop

By Mike McPheters

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 Agent Bishop: True Stories of an FBI Agent Moonlighting as a Mormon Bishop

When I was a kid, I liked to read mystery and detective stories, and thought it would be fun to be an FBI agent. I even wrote to the FBI for information, and received some informative pamphlets which I treasured. I ended up choosing a completely different career, but when I happened to see the author doing a signing of this book at Costco, I knew I wanted to do a review of it.

Mike McPheters is a first time writer, telling the story of his life in the FBI from 1973 until his retirement in 2001, during which time he also served as a bishop in the LDS Church several times. Both of these roles are played up in the advertising for the book, but the main focus within its pages is on the FBI agent. However, a Mormon FBI agent that is living his religion, as McPheters does very actively, is going to have stories to tell that have a spiritual dimension to them, and this book is full of them.

Each chapter contains a story, with accompanying photographs in many cases, as well as some letters and a couple of poems. It is stated at the beginning of the book that real names are used with only a few exceptions.

McPheters was involved in many different assignments throughout his career, starting with catching draft dodgers, then on to stolen car rings, bank robberies, the Jimmy Hoffa case, a kidnapping, the investigation of the shooting of missionaries in Bolivia in 1989, and even the Montana Freemen. He helped catch timber thieves and shut down a meth lab in Oregon, worked with law enforcement on an Indian reservation in Utah, and helped shut down a multi-state telemarketing scam that was targeting senior citizens. Just days after his retirement, he happened to be on a tour in the White House on September 11, 2001 when it was evacuated, and he took the opportunity to go volunteer with relief efforts at the Pentagon.

The most significant religious experience that is mentioned in the book happened in 1983, when he was involved in a shoot-out with some drug smugglers. He writes, “I felt a keen prompting, a still small voice, telling me to put down the shotgun and draw the .38 caliber snub-nosed revolver I packed on my hip.” Since this was against his training, he then holstered the revolver and picked up the shotgun again. “The promptings came again, clear and crisp, like the wind rolling off the branches of pine in the nearby forests.” They were familiar from his time as a missionary, as a bishop, and as a father. “I knew I must follow them... I began to realize I was on the brink of a decision that would determine whether I lived or died.” He then switched back to the revolver. “It was a decision that saved my life.” It turned out that he was able to move the revolver and fire it faster than he would have been able to with the shotgun, which enabled him to shoot his attacker quickly enough to avoid being lethally shot himself.

According to the “About the Author” page at the end of the book, McPheters is currently a lecturer for a couple of cruise lines. This may be why the book reads more as a collection of stories that probably flow better spoken than read in a book. There is also repetition in some of the explanations (such as the SWAT stories), and there are some confusing switches back and forth in time in some of the chapters. The placement of the explanation of the church comes a little late in the book as well.