In one case a suspect had killed six people. His defense attorney asked me if when his confession was given, had I taken notes. I told him, no, that I had just been babysitting while the other detectives took a break.

He asked, ‘Do you mean to tell me that you’re relying on your memory of what my client said?”

Boom! I sucked him right in. “Well, in my twenty-five years as a detective I have never interviewed a mass murderer before.”

“Your honor, I object!” snapped the lawyer.

But things don’t always go smoothly for Otto. One day he was playing to a street crowd with a puppet on his arm when a drugged person came up to him and started talking roughly to the puppet.

“Otto was just unable to resist the opportunity. ‘Come on! Come on! You got a problem, tough guy? Come on!’

“‘Oh, yeah? How do you like this?’ The guy pulls a knife.

“Otto thinks he’s playing along. ‘Oh, yeah? What are you going to do with that? Oh, a pussy with a knife! You don’t have the balls to use it!’