The job description was unconventional, from selling electronics at the Toronto Eaton Centre, to posing as a wealthy business owner, to just doing what the “bad guy” would do. 

But former OPP officer Bob Deasy was the good guy.

After 23 years of busting some of Ontario’s biggest criminals, the former undercover cop has decided to reflect in a new book, entitled Being Uncle Charlie: A Life Undercover with Killers, Kingpins, Bikers and Druglords.

The memoir looks back at the work that brought Deasy into biker gangs, mobs and organized crime rings in his 20s and 30s, with its ‘Uncle Charlie’ title referencing a nickname taken from the acronym U.C., or undercover.  

But despite the proximity to some of Ontario’s most-wanted, Deasy told CTV’s Canada AM that the job didn’t worry him -- even though he writes in the book that he should’ve been killed more than 100 times.

“I think the time working undercover went by so quickly, and the projects themselves were so fast, that there wasn’t a lot of time to worry,” he said. “We were more worried about doing a good job, actually.”

Deasy said during those years, his home life actually caused more stress.

“We spent so much time on the road and the road became comfortable,” the former OPP officer said.  “Coming home, you were actually more nervous about what was going on in your undercover life –  that something may go wrong when you’re at home and then you wouldn’t know what you’re going back to. So it was tense being at home. It was unfortunately more relaxing being with the bad guys.”

That was especially the case because he couldn’t share his life with family and friends.

“That’s the reason I wrote the book,” Deasy said. “I couldn’t tell them what was going on for those years. So this is an account of where I was and what I was doing.”

After leaving behind his role as an undercover cop, Deasy worked with homicide and developed a method to get suspected murderers to confess through a “Mr. Big”-style scheme. Posing as crime boss, Deasy would interview the suspects, asking for a confession to a major crime in order to build trust. He says he has a 100 per cent conviction rating with the method. 

Deasy has since retired and currently lives north of Toronto. Being Uncle Charlie was co-authored with American investigative journalist Mark Ebner.