Dick Gumshoe

"Dick Gumshoe"

- That's Detective Gumshoe to you, pal!

Dick Gumshoe is a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department during the careers of Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth. Coincidentally, he was put in charge of most of Wright's cases before the latter's disbarment. He generally took care of the initial investigation, but would occasionally help Wright depending on the circumstances behind the case at hand. He also usually took the stand first during a trial to testify and give basic facts about a case. He usually helps Edgeworth in his investigations, whether the latter wants him to or not.

Early life
"Dick Gumshoe"

- You know what I think about sometimes? What kind of life would I have if I hadn't joined the Homicide Division. [...] Me as a traffic cop. Me as a detention officer. Me as the Blue Badger...

Little is known of Gumshoe's early life other than that he knew Angel Starr when he was 16; he has mentioned that even then she was known as the "Cough-up Queen" (a nickname derived from her ability to get people to "cough-up" information). He has mentioned vaguely to Wright that only Starr could get him to talk about what had happened "that day". When Gumshoe mentioned this, Ema Skye wondered what the incident was, whilst Wright wondered if Gumshoe wore a trench coat even when he was 16. Gumshoe later stated that he wanted to be a wizard as a kid. When he was a kid he liked spinning around in a field until he got sick. He was also once a part-time mover at some point.

It apparently has always been a dream of his to become a member of the police force. He made a working bug detector when he was young, which would be used in a police investigation years later. As an adult, he fulfilled his dream, joining the police force and then being promoted to the detective division in 2011.

Early career

 * Main articles: Turnabout Reminiscence and Turnabout Beginnings

"Mia Fey"

- I remember him making a show of confidence at first, but after five minutes, he breaks down and... you end up feeling sorry for the poor guy...

Gumshoe had a rough start to his detective career. On his first day on the job, he went to his old post instead of his new post. Prosecutor Byrne Faraday chastised him heavily for this. Nonetheless, he received a $5 paycheck as an annual bonus.

A week later, the Criminal Affairs Department sent him to his first big job at a hallway in the District Court. Detective Tyrell Badd assigned him to guard Defendant Lobby No. 2 while he had a talk with the defense attorney Calisto Yew inside Lobby No. 1. Something had apparently gone wrong during a trial, and Byrne was seen arguing with the defendant Mack Rell during the trial recess. Ten minutes later, Byrne's daughter Kay entered the hallway with $1, wanting to buy a $6 pack of two Swiss rolls from a vending machine in the hallway. Having only his paycheck, Gumshoe pooled his money with Kay's to buy the rolls. Kay kept one to give to her father while she shared the other one with Gumshoe. They sat on a bench right under a window to eat the roll, and at one point, Kay popped a balloon she was carrying on a windowsill cactus plant to startle Gumshoe, who subsequently dropped his half of the roll on the floor. Kay told Gumshoe that she had promised her father that she wouldn't receive anything from strangers, so Gumshoe promised her not to tell anybody about her "crime".

Twenty minutes later, Badd and Yew suddenly ran toward Lobby No. 2, finding Gumshoe alone in the hallway. They told him that they had heard a gunshot and the three burst into Lobby No. 2 to find both the prosecutor and the defendant dead, apparently having killed each other. Gumshoe rushed to Courtroom No. 3, where Rell's trial was supposed to resume, to inform everyone of what had happened.

Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, who was to make his trial debut in Byrne's place (as the latter had been accused by Rell of being the Yatagarasu), was put in charge of the investigation. Gumshoe hadn't heard anything due to the soundproofed door, whereas the window to Lobby No. 1 had been opened. Gumshoe initially dismissed Edgeworth's competence, but the young prosecutor quickly proved to be much better at his job than the greenhorn detective. Gumshoe turned on a TV in the second lobby to find that it had been turned up to its maximum volume, but Badd quickly chastised him for touching the crime scene.

The judge in charge of Rell's trial then accused Gumshoe of the murder. Yew cited Gumshoe's first encounter with Byrne as his motive. Gumshoe insisted that nothing suspicious had occurred, so Badd took him away for further questioning. The judge had been inside a restroom that had a window through which he could look into the hallway, and as Gumshoe had sat down on a bench with Kay to eat the Swiss roll, Gumshoe had slipped from the judge's view. However, Gumshoe refused to talk about what he had done with Kay, owing to his promise to her. Nonetheless, as Edgeworth questioned the judge and then Gumshoe in the courtroom, he figured out what had happened. Kay was also present in the courtroom, and Gumshoe tried to prevent everyone from talking about Byrne's death, but Kay revealed that she already knew about it.

Edgeworth eventually found out that Yew was the real killer as well as the Great Thief Yatagarasu, but she escaped from the courthouse. Badd apologized to Gumshoe for not believing in him. The veteran detective praised the rookie for his loyalty to Kay, and he told him never to lose that detective spirit. Gumshoe thanked Edgeworth for getting him off the hook, and he vowed to stick by his side from then on, much to Edgeworth's annoyance. They met again, five months later, during the investigation into the murder of fellow detective Valerie Hawthorne. The ensuing trial was one full of novices, including the defense attorney, Mia Fey, but it ended in disaster when the defendant committed suicide on the stand.

Gumshoe also saw Jake Marshall as something of a mentor when he started out in the force. Marshall gave him a cactus plant to whom he could voice his problems.

Meeting Phoenix Wright

 * Main article: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

"Maya Fey"

- Aah! It's that confused detective!

After three years on the force, Gumshoe investigated Mia Fey's murder, and arrested her younger sister Maya Fey upon finding a note apparently from Mia implicating her. Mia's student Phoenix Wright took on Maya's defense and won against a previously undefeated Miles Edgeworth.

Gumshoe and Wright met again at Global Studios during an investigation of another murder. Gumshoe told Wright about a camera used to record the accused. Later, Wright found himself in a very dangerous situation with the producer at Global Studios, who controlled a mob and was trying to silence him; Gumshoe rescued Wright from certain danger and drove the mobsters away. The producer was later found to be the real killer.

Gumshoe's next meeting with Wright was during the investigation of the murder of defense attorney Robert Hammond, with Edgeworth being the prime suspect. Gumshoe gave Wright directions to the Criminal Affairs Department, telling him that he would be there to help Wright. Indeed, Gumshoe loaned Wright a metal detector that proved helpful to Wright's investigation. Wright defended Edgeworth in court against the latter's ruthless mentor Manfred von Karma, who gave Gumshoe a hard time for being biased for the defense. The trial was found to have been connected to the DL-6 Incident, and after a grueling struggle in court, Edgeworth was found innocent and von Karma was implicated as the killer in the DL-6 Incident, as well as being behind Hammond's murder. Gumshoe treated Wright and some of those involved in the case to a party and tried to get Edgeworth to express delight, to no avail.

Wright, Edgeworth, and Gumshoe met again in the investigation of the murder of detective Bruce Goodman. Involved in the case was a dancing panel of the Blue Badger, an upcoming police mascot, that Gumshoe had created and left in the police department's evidence room. This served both to obscure and to reveal critical evidence of a related incident that had occurred in that room. Gumshoe assisted Wright in his investigation, as his role in the police investigation was limited to lowly jobs such as serving coffee. Gumshoe told Wright about the SL-9 Incident, which turned out to be the driving force behind everything that had occurred leading up to Goodman's murder. Wright eventually learned that Edgeworth was considering resignation, and he used this to convince Gumshoe to risk his job and open up the office of the chief of police, Damon Gant. Wright found what he needed, but Gant caught them and fired Gumshoe. Nonetheless, the defendant used Gumshoe to pass an evidence law book to Wright, which allowed the defense attorney to come up and successfully implement a plan to prove that Gant was the real killer. To celebrate, Gumshoe treated Wright to another party at a new restaurant. Gumshoe got his job back shortly afterwards, but Edgeworth disappeared soon after the Goodman murder case.

Under Franziska von Karma

 * Main article: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All

"Dick Gumshoe"

- No way, pal. You're not gonna get me to backbite a woman with a whip. No way. [...]  Prosecutor von Karma's always got her eyes on us. And every time you definitely don't want her to show up... *poof*  There she is!! Don't show up... Don't show up... Don't show up... Don't show up... Don't show up...



When Maya Fey was accused of murdering Dr. Turner Grey, Gumshoe was the detective who arrived on the scene to question the witnesses. According to him, the reason he was so quick to arrive was that he was already in the area. Gumshoe told Wright about Franziska von Karma, a prosecuting prodigy and daughter of Manfred von Karma, and provided valuable information about the malpractice incident that was behind the situation. He was also in charge of questioning Maya about the murder, although he was apparently far from pleased with the situation, looking at Maya with "really sad eyes". When Morgan Fey told the police that she wished to testify against Maya in court, it was Gumshoe who went to pick her up. Unfortunately, after the detective tried to show his police-issued pistol to Pearl Fey in an attempt to cheer her up, he was subsequently dragged away by the ear by an angry Morgan. Throughout the case, Franziska abused Gumshoe - and just about everyone else she met - with her whip. This did not help to prevent her first-ever loss in court, however.

Gumshoe next met Wright when Maggey Byrde was put on trial for the murder of Dustin Prince. Gumshoe had developed a crush on Byrde ever since she joined the force, and so was reluctant to testify against her. Whilst being cross-examined by Wright, he would happily agree with him when a point was made that could help clear Byrde of the crime, although he was quickly chastised for this by Winston Payne. When the judge pointed out the obvious crush Gumshoe had on Byrde, the detective quickly and embarrassedly denied it. Eventually Wright was able to clear Byrde and to uncover the true murderer.

During Wright's next investigation, he once again met Gumshoe, who by this point was no longer surprised to find them investigating the same crime. Wright was surprised to find that Gumshoe was less enthused than normal, and even complained about how his work always seemed to revolve around death. Gumshoe also told them that he had won an air conditioner as a door prize at the Annual Police Christmas Party, although Maya felt this just showed how little the police were paid. Despite being told to keep Wright away from an eyewitness, he accidentally let slip of their existence and location. Franziska was once again Gumshoe's superior and Wright noticed that, after a strange beeping noise, she always seemed to find Gumshoe and whip him to make sure he didn't aid her "enemy". Gumshoe also, as usual, provided initial testimony for the trial and, as usual, Wright quickly poked holes in it. During the investigation, Gumshoe got in contact with Edgeworth, who was in another country, and was told to conduct a surprise search of a witness's room. This allowed Wright to implicate said witness as the real killer. Edgeworth later told Gumshoe that he would be returning soon.

Gumshoe met Wright again during an annual "Hero of Heroes Grand Prix" event being held at the Gatewater Imperial Hotel. Maya had been kidnapped, and actor Juan Corrida killed. The kidnapper, assassin Shelly de Killer, demanded that Wright get an acquittal for the accused; Corrida's rival Matt Engarde. Gumshoe assisted Wright in his investigation, but Franziska showed up again; she was the prosecutor for the case. Franziska revealed that she had planted a tracking device on Gumshoe to track his movements. Wright returned to the precinct for Gumshoe's assistance, but the detective was once again caught by Franziska and subsequently tried to fire him for being a "traitor". At that moment, Edgeworth returned to the precinct to greet Wright and Franziska, both of whom were unhappy to see the man who had abandoned them.

De Killer shot Franziska in the shoulder before the trial, and a newly returned Edgeworth took her place. Gumshoe took the stand, though he glumly admitted that he was set to be fired after he gave his cross-examination. True enough, he soon found himself out of a job, and so he hired himself as Wright's personal assistant, aiding where he could in his investigation and giving him the bug detector he had made in his youth. Using the detector, Wright soon discovered surveillance equipment hidden in one of Corrida's gifts, and a subsequent investigation led Wright to realize that Engarde really was guilty; he had hired de Killer to kill Corrida and recorded the killing to get leverage on the assassin for later. De Killer eventually accidentally gave away his location, and a police chase ensued with a returned Gumshoe at the helm while Wright and Edgeworth stalled for time in court. Gumshoe managed to find some evidence, but unfortunately crashed his car on the way to the courtroom, so it fell upon a recovered Franziska to deliver it herself. Wright was able to use said evidence to inform de Killer of Engarde's recording of the murder, which caused the assassin to target Engarde as his next victim as punishment for the betrayal. Engarde, to protect himself from the wrathful assassin, quickly confessed his crimes and was found guilty. Gumshoe treated Wright and friends to a party to celebrate, where he put the defense attorney's name on the bill. Edgeworth later interceded with the Chief of Police on Gumshoe's behalf and got him reinstated as a detective.

Wright's ally

 * Main article: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations

A mysterious thief calling himself Mask☆DeMasque began to appear, stealing valuable artifacts and foiling Gumshoe's efforts to catch him. The fifth heist was of the Kurain Sacred Urn, a relic from Maya's home village. This got Phoenix Wright involved in the case. Gumshoe then brought Ron DeLite, who claimed to be the thief. In the ensuing case, Wright acquitted DeLite of the heist as well as a murder.

Some months later, Wright defended Maggey Byrde again in a murder trial, but he did such a shoddy job that Byrde was convicted. An angry Gumshoe confronted Wright, but it turned out that Wright had never even heard of the case; the Wright that had taken the case was an imposter! Wright appealed the case, but Gumshoe was obligated by his position to testify for the prosecution. It turned out that this time, Gumshoe's testimony was quite solid, and Wright couldn't tear through it as he did on a normal basis. This upset Byrde, who called Gumshoe a traitor. When Wright informed the detective of this, he broke into tears and banged his head against a nearby wall. Wanting to make it up to her, Gumshoe later made a lunch box of sausage weenies for Wright to deliver to Byrde, but Byrde refused it.



Wright tracked down his fake, Furio Tigre, a loan shark who was desperate to pay a huge debt to a powerful mob boss. Wright was caught in a potential fight with his fake, but Gumshoe came to his rescue again. In court, Wright gave Gumshoe a medicine bottle to test for fingerprints, but by the time Gumshoe had verified Tigre's fingerprints, the evidence was no longer relevant. Nevertheless, through a bluff, Wright got Tigre to implicate himself as the real killer. Byrde forgave Gumshoe after her acquittal, and accepted a second box of weenies he gave her.

In February of 2019, Wright was caught up in a plot to murder Maya Fey at Hazakura Temple, which resulted in the murder of Elise Deauxnim. Wright tried to cross a burning Dusky Bridge to save Maya, but fell into a river and was hospitalized, so he called Edgeworth to defend the accused, Iris, in his stead. Gumshoe accompanied Edgeworth in his investigation, much to the latter's dismay. However, the detective gave Edgeworth plenty of information about the murder and noted before Edgeworth did that a witness was lying.

When Wright took over the investigation again, Gumshoe took to repairing Dusky Bridge in order to attempt to rescue Maya. Once that was done, he immediately informed Wright and was about to escort him, but was whipped by Franziska von Karma, and curled up in the corner of the room. Unfortunately, when Wright and Franziska reached the other side of the bridge, Maya was nowhere to be found. When Franziska and Wright exited the Inner Temple, Gumshoe entered the nearby garden and found bloody writing on the lantern there that simply read: "Maya". He muttered to himself as to whether he should wash "that" off. Curious, Franziska and Wright entered the garden, and Gumshoe gave them useful information about the garden being the true crime scene. Later, on Edgeworth's command, Gumshoe was found by Wright searching for the murder weapon in the temple's courtyard. He gave Wright a metal detector to use, which revealed that Deauxnim's staff concealed a sword.

Iris was eventually found not guilty of the crime, and Gumshoe threw another party for Wright and company at Trés Bien. After those events, Byrde bought Gumshoe a brand new coat, and commented on how his old coat made him look more "detective-like".

Edgeworth's partner

 * Main article: Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

Edgeworth went on a month-long overseas trip after the events at Eagle Mountain, but the return trip landed him in a murder investigation on his flight. The Criminal Affairs Department was immediately on the case as soon as the plane landed. Gumshoe met Edgeworth and Franziska von Karma and at Hope Springs Airport, finding out from the latter that the murder victim had been an Interpol agent, explaining the quick response. Gumshoe then aided Edgeworth in his investigation, with the latter soon revealing the agent's murderer.

Following the resolution of that case, Ernest Amano, an old family friend of Edgeworth's, called to say that his son Lance had been kidnapped for ransom. Gumshoe spotted for Edgeworth as he entered Gatewater Land to deliver Ernest's ransom money. However, Edgeworth was forced into the haunted house attraction, and Gumshoe lost sight of him. Edgeworth was subsequently captured himself, although he managed to escape. Gumshoe called the police for backup, but an Interpol agent, Shi-Long Lang, arrived on the scene with an "army" of 101 subordinates and took over the kidnapping investigation. The Criminal Affairs Department was obliged to cooperate with Interpol, so Gumshoe could not be at Edgeworth's side when he started his own investigation. Kay Faraday, who had tracked Edgeworth down after seven years to help her find Calisto Yew, filled Gumshoe's role. Nonetheless, Gumshoe was able to sneak over to Edgeworth periodically to tell him about Interpol's investigation, leading Edgeworth to a witness at the stadium and a discarded Bad Badger suit at the main gate ahead of Lang, eventually leading to the resolution of the case. Although neither Edgeworth nor Gumshoe recognized Kay at first, they soon remembered her after she reminded them of their previous meeting.

That night, detective Buddy Faith was murdered in Edgeworth's office. Gumshoe arrived on the scene to assist Edgeworth, who had been threatened by a gunman as he was entering the office, in the ensuing investigation. Another prosecutor, Faith's investigative partner Jacques Portsman, briefly accused both Edgeworth and Gumshoe of the murder, and then accused Maggey Byrde, who was working as a security guard in the Prosecutor's Building and had the master key. Edgeworth eventually concluded that Portsman was the killer. Portsman claimed that he had been at the Criminal Affairs Department when Edgeworth had had his encounter with the gunman, and Gumshoe confirmed this alibi. Edgeworth responded that the gunman was a different person. He then had Gumshoe search Portsman for evidence that he was attempting to steal, and Gumshoe found a videotape on him, which was stained with Faith's blood. Portsman was subsequently arrested for the murder.

The next day, the Yatagarasu sent a calling card to the joint Allebahstian and Babahlese embassy building, threatening to steal "dirty secrets" from them. In response, Interpol and the Criminal Affairs Department sent some officers, including Gumshoe, to the building for security purposes during a goodwill event. The Yatagarasu started two fires in the Babahlese Embassy, and Gumshoe helped with the firefighting effort. He then found himself lost in the building, until he heard Kay Faraday scream. He quickly tracked her down to the secretariat's office, while Shi-Long Lang's assistant Shih-na exited a room next door to enter the office to apprehend Kay. Inside the room was the body of the secretariat, Manny Coachen, with Kay accused of the murder. Gumshoe suspected that Edgeworth was nearby and stalled for time until the prosecutor arrived on the scene.

Edgeworth showed that the murder weapon had come from the Allebahstian Embassy, and so the investigation moved there. Gumshoe and Kay stayed behind to investigate Babahl, though they made no progress. Ambassador Colias Palaeno gave Gumshoe a lantern fueled by whitcrystal oil, which he gave to Edgeworth when he returned. Edgeworth had obtained some old woman's garments, which he handed to Gumshoe to give back to their owner. It then transpired that another individual had apparently been killed in the Allebahst side, with a note on his person that were instructions for stealing the Primidux Statue from the Allebahstian ambassador, Quercus Alba. Edgeworth had Gumshoe run a handwriting analysis on the other murder victim's note, which confirmed that Coachen had written it. Edgeworth then told Gumshoe to gather all the information that he could about the secretariat's office as it had been before the fire, which helped with his complete investigation of the office. Edgeworth found that the fireplace in the office had a revolving back wall, and he told Gumshoe to crawl through it to see what would happen to someone trying to escape through the fireplace. The soot that Gumshoe was covered in when he exited was a vital clue that allowed him to show that "Shih-na" and "Calisto Yew" were one and the same, as Gumshoe soon found the coat that she had discarded. A subsequent confrontation between "Yew", Kay, and Tyrell Badd (who had been looking for "Yew" himself) revealed that "Yew", Badd, and Byrne Faraday had all been the Yatagarasu. Gumshoe was devastated to have to arrest his former superior and inspirational figure.

The investigation then led to Quercus Alba as the killer in both cases. Edgeworth claimed that Alba had hidden Coachen's body inside a cart, which had gone to Allebahst, and then he had smuggled the cart to Babahl through a reservoir connected to both embassies. Gumshoe investigated Babahl to find said cart in Babahl, confirming Edgeworth's theory. As Lang had Alba's ambassadorship removed, and after a long argument in which Edgeworth confirmed the motive and the real crime scene, Alba was arrested and brought to court. Gumshoe participated in the festivities after Alba's trial, with Kay Faraday telling him that she wouldn't steal his supporting role from him.

A constant ally for Edgeworth

 * Main article: Gyakuten Kenji 2

"Kay Faraday"

- Wow. Gummy's so cool! He's just like a detective!

"Miles Edgeworth"

- (...But that's what he is...)

The presidential assassination attempt at Gourd Lake

 * Main article: Turnabout Target

Prison investigation

 * Main article: The Imprisoned Turnabout

Solving the past

 * Main article: The Inherited Turnabout

Prosecutor no more?

 * Main article: The Forgotten Turnabout

Rejoining Edgeworth

 * Main article: The Grand Turnabout

After being reprimanded by Edgeworth, Gumshoe had started to avoid him. However, Edgeworth eventually found him and apologized for his earlier behaviour.

Wright defeated?

 * Main article: Turnabout Succession

"Phoenix Wright"

- (You fail to grasp the concept of "questioning", detective. [...] You fail to grasp the concept of "shooting people is bad", detective.)

Gumshoe's last known meeting with Wright was on April of 2019, when he testified against Zak Gramarye. He seemed determined to best Wright this time, but the defense attorney blew through his testimony as usual. However, Wright was found to have presented forged evidence during the trial, and was soon disbarred. Said disbarment was eventually overturned, and Wright returned to practice law eight years after the Gramarye trial.

Personality
"Miles Edgeworth"

- (...Gumshoe indeed! Like gum on your shoe, he's impossible to get rid of!)



Dick Gumshoe has a strong, childlike loyalty to his closest friends, especially Miles Edgeworth. From the day they met, Edgeworth has cut his pay and threatened to fire him, but this ultimately has had no visible effect on their working relationship. Gumshoe does all that he can to assist Edgeworth in his field investigations; this loyalty sometimes extends to Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey, largely because they opposed the von Karmas. He has helped them solve cases, and even temporarily joined the Wright & Co. Law Offices as resident cook. Gumshoe also tends to befriend children, such as Pearl Fey and Kay Faraday, quite easily, most likely due to his own somewhat childlike personality.

Gumshoe is very sensitive, often leading to his feelings getting easily hurt, but he is also a very optimistic and hard-working person. He has a habit of jumping to conclusions and doing things a more sensible person wouldn't. Gumshoe has been known to act on a whim, such as buying a fishing rod that he has never used. Despite this, he has been shown to be courageous and dependable, saving Wright and Fey from gangsters on one occasion and tirelessly trying to save Maya from a kidnapper on another.

Gumshoe has a penchant for getting involved in complicated murder cases, which he uses his powers of persuasion and determination to get assigned to. Unfortunately for him, he is often bumbling and incompetent, and he has had his pay cut many times by several of his superiors. This has forced him to live in a "not [...] great" apartment complex called "Compton Castles" and subsist on instant noodles and off-brand products, though he tries to diversify his diet when he can. Gumshoe has a particular liking for steak lunches and sausage weenies, commenting at one point that he could live on the latter. He still maintains a good working relationship with most of the police force, which he uses to prevent himself from losing his job altogether.

Despite his bumbling detective work, Gumshoe has occasionally shows signs of above-average intelligence and competence. For example, he was easily able to identify Charley's species and constructed a usable bug detector from scratch while still in elementary school. He has also claimed to be good at checkers and chess, being able to identify an error on Edgeworth's chessboard, much to the latter's surprise. Upon being insulted by Richard Wellington (who referred to him as looking like a "dropout from a no-name high school"), Gumshoe claimed to have "graduated from a pretty good, I mean, top-ranked college!"

On some occasions, Gumshoe has been somewhat competitive with Wright. On their last known meeting, during the trial of Zak Gramarye, he boasted that there was no way Wright could win the case since Gumshoe's evidence was too strong.

Gumshoe apparently takes care of the police dog, a Shiba Inu breed named Missile. Despite Franziska von Karma's doubts about the dog's abilities, Missile has shown himself to be quite useful by finding overlooked evidence in a fireplace. Missile appears to have a great liking for Samurai Dogs and therefore, it may not be a coincidence that the aforementioned evidence was also in the same place as some of these meat-based foodstuffs.

Gumshoe is known to always keep a red pencil behind his ear, which is apparently because, at the start of his career, his superior Tyrell Badd told him to mark everything he owned with his name, which Miles Edgeworth took to be a reference to Gumshoe's forgetfulness. It would appear that he simply failed to grow out of the habit once no longer working under Badd.

Relationship with Maggey Byrde
"Dick Gumshoe"

- Don't worry about it! In the name of love, a man will soil himself silly!

Gumshoe has had a major crush on Maggey Byrde ever since she joined the force. She, in turn, was grateful for his teaching during her training, but remained unaware of his feelings. She was fired after a murder incident in which she was the accused; she became a waitress soon afterward, but Gumshoe kept in contact. When Byrde was accused of murder a second time, he stood by her even though she believed he had betrayed her. Through his efforts, he managed to help to turn the case around, and she soon forgave him and bought him a new trench coat.

During the investigation into the murder of Buddy Faith, Byrde and Gumshoe's relationship was brought up again as Gumshoe fiercely attempted to prove Byrde's innocence. By this point, Byrde would occasionally ended her sentences with "pal" in a similar way to Gumshoe's speech habits, hinting on the effect he has had on her. Miles Edgeworth also remarked on the undeniable similarities between Byrde and Gumshoe. However, it would seem that Gumshoe had still not confessed his feelings for her.

Name

 * His Japanese surname "Itonokogiri" (糸鋸) roughly means "a fretsaw", while "Keisuke" (圭介), his given name, is a reference to Keisuke Kuwata, a Japanese rock musician.


 * "Dick" and "Gumshoe" are slang terms for a private detective. "Dick" is usually used in a negative sense for a detective, but it is also a nickname for "Richard", possibly suggesting that his real name is "Richard Gumshoe". Richard, if one can assume it to be his real name, could be a reference to Richard Diamond, Private Detective, who shares many traits with Gumshoe. It is also possible that his name is a reference to Dick Tracy, a famous detective character in American cinema, although the two are quite different in terms of personality. "Gumshoe" is often used to denote very new and inexperienced private detectives. In Bridge to the Turnabout, Edgeworth says that Gumshoe is "like gum on your shoe" in the sense that he annoyingly sticks around and is difficult to get rid of, although this is more of a play on his name than a likely name origin.


 * His full French name, "Dick Tektiv", is a play on "detective" (which has the same typography and meaning in both French and English).

Development

 * While most recurring characters gained new sprite animations throughout the Phoenix Wright trilogy, Gumshoe temporarily "lost" one. In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Gumshoe would occasionally scratch the back of his head and look embarrassed. This animation did not appear in any subsequent game until Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, albeit done in the style of that game's sprites. Larry Butz also "lost" an animation, in which he would tilt his head to the side and display a cocky smile. Unlike Gumshoe's animation, this did not make a reappearance.


 * Gumshoe's detective ID, shown briefly in Rise from the Ashes, is the same as Detective Bruce Goodman's: 5842189. One way to explain this is that, as mentioned in the game, Goodman's ID data was deleted after his death. Gumshoe is known to lose his ID card frequently, so he might have been given a new one after the incident, which happened to have Goodman's former number. Alternatively, it may just have been an oversight on the developer's part.


 * After Bridge to the Turnabout, Gumshoe is shown wearing a brand-new coat. However, in Turnabout Succession and Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, the detective is seen wearing his usual coat. In Turnabout Ablaze, Gumshoe mentions that the coat he is wearing is his non-important coat when Edgeworth offers to clean it after he goes through the chimney's revolving wall. It's possible that he keeps the new jacket for special occasions, and still wears his older one for work.


 * Gumshoe has appeared in all Ace Attorney games to date, aside from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies and the crossover game Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, with Winston Payne also sharing that honor and Phoenix Wright appearing in every game. However, unlike the aforementioned two, only Gumshoe has dialogue lines and a profile picture in the court record/organizer in each game. He also testifies in all of these games except Gyakuten Kenji 2.


 * With 23 episodes, Gumshoe has the third highest number of appearances behind the judge (24) and Phoenix Wright (26).


 * In Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and Gyakuten Kenji 2, the adhesive bandage strip on Gumshoe's face is visible despite whichever way he is facing. This is simply due to the sprites when he is facing left being flipped to make the same poses and actions facing right, presumably to save time and memory. The same is true of a number of most characters in the game (Kay Faraday's key, Tyrell Badd's wristwatch, Franziksa von Karma's mole, etc).


 * As a running joke throughout the Ace Attorney series, Gumshoe has had his monthly salary packet threatened with reductions by a number of his superiors, mainly Miles Edgeworth. However, uniquely in Gyakuten Kenji 2, he is instead told that he will receive a pay raise.


 * Gumshoe briefly becomes a playable character in the The Imprisoned Turnabout, where Edgeworth has him use a metal detector.


 * In Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Wright has a number of alternative costumes he can wear, the color schemes of which are all references to other characters. One of these choices is based on the color scheme of Gumshoe's standard clothing.

Style of speech
"Maya Fey"

- We're on this case too, pal!

"Dick Gumshoe"

- Huh!? Hey! You can't just go saying "pal" like that! That's MY endearing character trait!

"Maya Fey"

- I'd say he's a character alright...

Gumshoe has a distinct style of speech that varies depending on the games' regional version. In the English version, Gumshoe ends a lot of his sentences with "pal". In the Japanese version, he uses slang in which he slurs the ends of his sentences (i.e. "nan desu ka?" becomes "nansska?"). In the German version of the game, Gumshoe calls Wright "junge" (the German word for "boy") instead of "pal", and in the French version, he uses "mon gars" (literally "my dude"); however, the meaning of these is roughly the same. In the Italian and Spanish translations, he is extremely informal and refers to everyone as "amigo/amiga" (in Spanish) or "amico/amica" (in Italian), which literally means "friend".

However, during Gumshoe's first meeting with Wright (namely while arresting Maya in Turnabout Sisters) he never ends his sentences with "pal" like he does throughout the rest of the series (including the next time Wright meets him while looking for Maya's cell phone). In fact, he actually uses "see" in a similar way instead (e.g., "Alright, I'm Detective Dick Gumshoe, see?" and "We received a report from the building across the way, see."). This may be a leftover from an earlier attempt to keep the detective's distinct style of speech from the Japanese version (where he slurs the end of his sentences), and is reminiscent of the way that actors like Edward G. Robinson would pepper their dialogue with heavily accented "yeah!" and "see?" for emphasis while playing gangsters.