‘Jeopardy!’ appearance is no trivial matter for retired county detective
He kept a little notebook listing categories. He tried to schedule his work dinner break at 7 p.m. He soaked up arcane knowledge through the day-to-day — metalworking is a hobby of his — and through study.
Dave Leffler, a former Allegheny County Police detective, didn’t think appearing on “Jeopardy!” was really going to happen. But it did. He will appear Monday on the television game show.
Mr. Leffler, of Ross, joined the county police force in 1984 and was a patrol officer, then a detective on general as well as sex crimes and child abuse investigations, and finally a detective on the Fugitive Task Force.
Retired since 2011, the detective of 27 years and veteran of the Army now spends his time cooking meals for veterans with his wife Cassandra Leffler’s grassroots organization Working Warrior Foundation.
Former colleagues say they’re not surprised that Mr. Leffler finally made it onto “Jeopardy!”
“I’m surprised it took so long,” said Allegheny County Detective Dennis Kozlowski, one of Mr. Leffler’s former partners. “That was a running joke from the time I met him, ‘he should be on “Jeopardy!.”’ He is brilliant. You could ask him who won the Seven Years’ War, he would spit it out. He would tell you the composition of steel in Russian tanks. Every one of Mozart’s symphonies, he would rattle them off.”
Last week, Mr. Leffler sat with his wife of 28 years, whom he calls
Cassie, and answered questions for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about his career and about making it to “Jeopardy!”
Your colleagues say you were known to talk about esoteric information and that you know a lot about various subject areas.
I guess I always loved trivia. I used to like to play Trivial Pursuit. Just any type of general knowledge-type game, was something I just took pleasure in. And I was an avid reader from childhood on. I liked some fiction things, but I liked a lot of technical things. Math and science were my favorite subjects in school, and after that, art and literature. Those are all things that serve one well in any type of trivial, general knowledge-type competition.
Did you always dream of going on “Jeopardy!”?
It was like one of those things that yes, it was a dream, but a dream you never thought was really going to come true. Some of the people on the job would say “You really oughta go on there.” When I was working the afternoons, I’d usually try to take my dinner break, when it was possible, at 7 p.m. so that I could watch “Jeopardy!” Cassie’s mom, who’s been gone 20 years now, put it in Cassie’s head that this was something I should pursue. I think this was only the second time I took the online [”Jeopardy!”] test. It wasn’t too long after the test that they sent me a notice to be in Philadelphia on Sept. 12. At that audition interview, you go in and do a written test, very similar to the one you do online, general knowledge, you know. The next part is you do a short mock game, a simulation of their set against opponents, and then they do a personal interview. When I came out, I said to Cassie, “I feel I did really well.”
Do any of the audition questions stand out in your memory?
So much has happened since, I really can’t pick out any. I can remember some categories, one was chemical elements.
What are your strengths?
I like technical things, classical music. I remember records being in the house [when I was a child], Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, but I don’t remember my parents playing them. I think I put them on. [I like] military history, I think partly because my grandfather was a World War II veteran. It has been one of my big interests. When one studies military history, it’s so interwoven with the whole rest of history . ... One time very early in my career, I was in a bad car wreck, so I was off the job. I took the opportunity then to read a volume of all the collected works of Shakespeare. It’s hard to say any category comes up really often [on “Jeopardy!”] because they have so many categories, but [Shakespeare] comes up often enough to be worthwhile.
How many years have you watched “Jeopardy!”?
I’ve been watching it since I was a child, when it was the old black-and-white version with Art Fleming. I think the categories at that time started at $5, that was in the ‘60s when that was worth playing for.
What is the process for taping the show?
I didn’t really know what to expect, but the people were wonderful. When we first got to the studio [in Los Angeles], a contestant coordinator came out to meet us, and she not only remembered me from Philadelphia, but she remembered Cassie, too. They do such a wonderful job. They calm you down, but at the same time have almost a mini pep rally before you go on set to keep the excitement level up. They refer to a “Jeopardy!” family. I mean, anybody can say that, but they really do make you feel that way.
One part that was kind of funny, I mean they have to be so careful, they told me “Your wife will be in the audience, but don’t even make eye contact with her” because they don’t want anybody to say there was collusion, or anybody giving signals or anything like that. I said, “Please, can somebody tell my wife that I’m not allowed to acknowledge her, that that’s the rules of the game?” And they started to laugh. I said, “What’s funny about that?” and they said “She just said to us, ‘Oh, I hope my husband knows that I’m not allowed to look at him because otherwise his feelings might be hurt.’”
Did they make you change clothes in between episodes?
I can’t comment on that. Has there ever been a time in your detective career where knowing a random piece of information has been useful in a case?
All the time. Actually working on that job, if there was something that I didn’t know or wasn’t sure of, I thought of the person who was the expert — whether that be someone in the crime lab, DA’s office, or medical examiner’s office — and would talk to them. Often, I would need to talk to doctors [about cases], one time it was the chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital. I would learn a lot of out-of-the-way knowledge. I would also learn a lot of things about ballistics that they don’t teach the average police or detective.
So you think being on the job has helped you learn more?
I would say because once one reaches a certain age and has accumulated a certain amount of knowledge, you start to make so many connections in your head between seemingly disparate elements.
What do you think is the most random subject you know about?
Maybe an unexpected thing is that I do a lot of machining and metalworking as a hobby on the side, so I know all kinds of forms and statistics about hardware, fasteners, screws, bolts, things that like, that most people would think was unusual.
Do you follow a daily routine that has helped you accumulate knowledge? Do you read certain newspapers or watch certain television programs, besides “Jeopardy!”?
I don’t think I do a daily routine in that respect. One of the things I did [to prepare for “Jeopardy!”] was I started a little notebook with headings that could be categories on “Jeopardy!” and I wrote down things I already knew. When I’d see a gap, I’d fill it in. One of the things you realize when you get to “Jeopardy!” is that most of the people there know most of the answers most of the time. So being fast on that button is very important. So I wrote what I knew on these subjects so I’d be familiar with them. Another thing is I would record the show, and instead of just watching it, I’d play a little mock game, where I’d use a clicking pen as a signaling device and then I’d phrase my answer in the form of a question. Sometimes people on the show falter when they have to answer in the form of a question.
What topics did you study?
A lot about colleges and universities, and I did a lot about the Constitution and the government. For example, I would write down all of the Ivy League schools and the dates they were formed. I reviewed the first two or three rows on the Periodic Table of Elements because when chemistry questions come up on “Jeopardy!” it’s usually about elements somewhere in that range. And, I reviewed certain characters in the Bible.
I also did a review of classical music.
There’s jokes about the dreaded opera category on “Jeopardy!”, so I made subheadings for Wagner, Puccini and other big names in opera.
And I made notes about some of the principal compositions and what years they were composed.
Is there anything you would like to add?
Just if anybody ever thought about doing this, just had an inkling in their mind, I would 100 percent say absolutely do it because this was a wonderful experience, and these were wonderful people. I didn’t really know what to expect from people in television production. Absolutely take the test . ... Also, Alex Trebek is every bit as nice as you’d expect.