PITTSBURGH — For a man who never really thought about becoming a police officer, Jimmy McGee had a remarkable career as a homicide detective for the majority of his nearly four decades with the Pittsburgh Police Bureau.
McGee, who was recently forced to retire after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70, recently sat down with Chief Investigator, Rick Earle, to talk about the cases he’s solved and life as a homicide detective.
McGee started as a patrolman in Zone Five in East Liberty, but he knew then he wanted to work homicides.
In 1994, Commander Ron Freeman gave him a shot and he began working at Major Crimes as a detective.
During the past several decades, he investigated many of the high-profile cases in the city of Pittsburgh.
McGee said he learned from some of the best.
“Every arrest I’ve ever made on a case, I was 100 percent sure I had the right person,” said McGee.
At any big crime scene in the city of Pittsburgh during the past three decades, chances are Jimmy McGee was there.
He clearly stood out with his neatly coifed white hair.
His long and successful career is quite an accomplishment for a man who never really thought about being a police officer until later in life.
He grew up in Arlington Heights and graduated from Carrick High School.
After high school, he served on submarines in the Navy and then returned to Pittsburgh and worked at Heinz on the North Side, packaging soup and ketchup.
He knew he didn’t want to do that for the rest of his life, so he decided to take the police and fire tests for the city of Pittsburgh.
He scored well enough on the police test that he decided to give it a shot.
That launched a remarkable career with Pittsburgh Police that spanned nearly 40 years, the majority as a homicide detective.
Earle: What was the most satisfying part of your job?
McGee: Of course, solving the cases, but I always felt, for me, was getting a confession.
McGee has worked on some of the biggest cases in the city, including the doctor convicted of poisoning his wife with cyanide.
“I always told myself I outsmarted this brilliant doctor. He made some mistakes along the way, and we caught them,” said McGee.
And there was the case of the man who shot and killed two sisters who lived next door to him in East Liberty, and stole their credit cards.
“Start digging into the case and found out that they had some missing debit cards and bank cards and then we did some search warrants to get information and follow that up and it led right to him,” said McGee.
And the shooting during a robbery at a parking garage downtown that left a man paralyzed.
McGee solved the case after tracking down a man leaving the scene wearing a Springdale football jacket.
“I went out to Springdale and started talking to the football coach and the principals, asked if anyone [they] knew fit this description, they said, ‘Yeah, you got this guy Marty Armstrong,’” said McGee, who got a conviction in the case.
16 years after that crime, the victim passed away.,
The District Attorney’s office then filed homicide charges and the defendants who had already served time, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and were sent back to prison.
A skilled interviewer, McGee relied on a calm, friendly demeanor while questioning a suspect.
“I’ve had people, you know, after I got a statement, they confessed to killing someone, they said,’ You know, hey, you gonna come back tomorrow and pull me out and talk to me again,’” said McGee.
McGee, whose license plate appropriately reads case closed, said he never let his emotions get in the way, but admits meeting with a victim’s family was the toughest part of the job.
“But my emotions always seem to rise to the surface when I talk to the families and that’s when it tugged at my heartstrings. Like I said, you know, I meet these people on the worst days of their lives,” said McGee.
McGgee told Earle that he didn’t want to leave the force but had no choice after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.
Earle: So, it was bittersweet when you left?
McGee: I tell everyone it was more bitter than sweet, but I adjusted and I moved on.
McGee didn’t take any time off.
He started a new job as a tipstaff for an Allegheny County judge, working back at the courthouse where he spent so much time as a detective.
“I did the law and now I’m doing the order,” said McGee.
McGee is very soft-spoken and humble.
He said he had a lot of help along the way and couldn’t have done it without support and guidance from his family and his co-workers in the police department and the district attorney’s office.
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