owo notices your name, but isn't quite sure you're serious. "I knew your father was killed by a shark after his ship sank," he says. He takes a swig from the flask—and then a breath of fresh air. "As a teen, I didn't do anything illegal."

When I arrive back from the funeral earlier in the day, I get an early lesson in what he has to say about cops.

But instead of being a happy guy I am, after the service, the police leave me hanging. They are not sorry; they are embarrassed.

"We got all of these cases," one officer tells me. "I could come down here right now and kick his ass all day."

This is a city where you could walk into a neighborhood and find more than a little criminal activity in the air. That wasn't the case for Houser. Police said they just weren't comfortable having a suspect with Houser's history.

One of Houser's closest neighbors,