Call Me Commander: A Former Intelligence Officer and the Journalists Who Uncovered His Scheme to Fleece America

by Jeff Testerman, Daniel M. Freed

When Lt. Commander Bobby Thompson surfaced in Tampa in 1998, it was as if he had fallen from the sky, providing no hint of his past life. Eleven years later, St. Petersburg Times investigative reporter Jeff Testerman visited the rundown duplex Thompson used as his home and the epicenter of his sixty-thousand-member charity, the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. But something was amiss. Thompson’s charity’s addresses were just maildrops, his members nonexistent, and his past a black hole. Yet, somehow, the Commander had stood for photos with President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain, and other political luminaries. The USNVA, it turned out, was a phony charity where Thompson used pricey telemarketers, savvy lawyers, and political allies to swindle tens of millions from well-meaning donors. After Testerman’s story revealed that the nonprofit was a sham, the Commander went on the run. U.S. Marshals took up the hunt in 2011 and found themselves searching for an unnamed identity thief who they likened to a real-life Jason Bourne. When finally captured in 2012, Thompson was carrying multiple IDs and a key to a locker that held nearly $1 million in cash. But, who was he? Eventually, investigators discovered he was John Donald Cody, a Harvard Law School graduate and former U.S. Army intelligence officer who had been wanted since the 1980s on theft charges and for questioning in an espionage probe. As Cody’s decades as a fugitive came to an end, he claimed his charity was run at the behest of the Central Intelligence Agency. After reporting on the story for CNBC’s American Greed in 2014, Daniel M. Freed dug into Cody’s backstory—uncovering new information about his intelligence background and the evolution of his con. Watch a book trailer at callmecommander.net.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

459 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2021

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don’t let the heft and thickness of this book deter you. It is an incredible story about the unraveling of a con man. The lengths that the journalists and authorities went to bringing down Bobby Thompson are astounding. Did they ever sleep!?! It’s sad to think these detailed, important investigations are at risk due to declining newspapers.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the story of con artist John David Cody were labeled as fiction, readers would say it was unbelievable. Instead, it's an amazing tale of a Harvard-educated lawyer who ran one fraud after another and was able to escape justice for decades thanks to a raft of fake IDs. In the Tampa Bay area, he called himself Lt. Commander Bobby Thompson, running a fake charity, the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. It turns out that people feel very generous toward veterans and don't bother checking before they write a check.

It was in Tampa that Cody's scheme began to unravel after a seemingly innocuous encounter with reporter Jeff Testerman, my former colleague at the St. Petersburg Times, now Tampa Bay Times. Jeff, thinking that something was off, began looking into Cody/Thompson with the help of researcher John Martin. Later in the process, journalist Daniel M. Freed and U.S. marshalls tracked Cody across the country. Although I read the original stories Testerman wrote for the Times, there was so much back story here that I never knew, making it highly enjoyable for me.

Call me Commander is a fast-paced true crime story that would be instructive reading for anyone who wants to be an investigator of any sort, be it a journalist, law enforcement officer, private detective or corporate security agent.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down from the first few pages. One of the most interesting books I have read in years on a serial scammer. It saddened me as I kept reading due to the realization that newspaper investigative journalists like the author are truly a dying breed as newspapers fade away.

[Sami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lieutenant Commander Bobby Thompson moved to Tampa, Florida in 1998 and quickly became one of the city's most prominent members, establishing the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, a charity organization to support Navy troops overseas and domestically with thousands of purported members and chapters all over the country. Bringing in millions of dollars, the charity gained national attention, and Bobby Thompson was welcomed for photo opportunities several conservative political stars, including President George W. Bush.

When the Connecticut chapter of the nonprofit gets caught up in an audit scandal in 2009, St. Petersburg Times reporter Jeff Testerman makes a visit to Thompson's home, hoping to get a quote on both the audit and his suspicion that local politician Kevin White might have exaggerated his own military career in order to receive an endorsement by the USNVA. To Testerman's surprise, Thompson is more than a little disturbed by the reporter's arrival and denies the premise of all of Testerman's questions. This unexpected reaction prompts Testerman to dig a little further into both USNVA and Thompson himself, ultimately to discover that the man running the Navy nonprofit in Tampa, Florida appeared to have stolen his identity from another Bobby Thompson in the southwestern United States, who had never heard of the charity nor even been to Florida. This discovery set the stage for a years-long, country-wide fugitive chase undertaken by the U.S. Marshals.

This true crime tale, written by Testerman himself and another journalist, Daniel M. Freed, who continued to look into the details of the case after the suspect was finally captured and taken into custody, is told with such high stakes and drama--appropriate for the reality--that it was easy to become completely engrossed in the story. It took a few chapters for me to fully understand what was going on; aside from the similarity in Testerman and Thompson's names that had me flipping back and forth for a bit, the details of the audit, the evidence, and the political involvements were all thrown together a bit confusingly, and I had to spend some extra time getting my bearings That said, once I got there, it was hard to put this book down. I was equal parts fascinated and terrified by "Bobby Thompson's" long history as a military fugitive and eager to discover what would happen next in the hunt to find him. I loved that this book, while acknowledging "Thompson's" disturbing skill at evading his captors, did not celebrate his intelligence; there was no doubt that the authors understood "Thompson" to be a criminal and deserving of no admiration, a unfortunately common trope of the genre. Rather, this book was a celebration of investigative journalists and criminal investigators who work tirelessly to expose fraud and protect the legitimacy of the United States.


To watch the book trailer: https://vimeo.com/436820039

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley through Potomac Books and authors Daniel M. Freed and Jeff Testerman. Opinions stated in this review are honest and my own.
Release Date: 1 February 2021

[Justin Bentley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, fast paced story of an almost unbelievable fraudster. Like the best non-fiction it read like a novel and I learned quite a bit along the way. It’s a great story, with a view into the inner workings of both a decade long charity scam as well as the block-and-tackle reporting that brought it to light. Really well done, really enjoyable.

[Teddy Kidd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend. A real page turner.

[Sallie Sydnor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this to be a really captivating story. I was sorry when I finished it because it was so engaging. Take it with you to the beach—you’ll be glad you did!

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at how a delusional criminal bilked people out of millions of dollars for years. It is amazing how such a person could remain under the radar for so many years. Worth the read