Frank Serpico
Encyclopedia
Francesco Vincent Serpico (born April 14, 1936) is a retired American New York City Police Department
(NYPD) officer
who is most famous for testifying against police corruption
in 1971. The majority of Serpico's fame came after the release of the 1973 film Serpico
which starred Al Pacino
in the lead role.
, in the province of Naples
, Campania
. At age 18, he enlisted in the United States Army
and spent two years in Korea
. Later, he worked as a part-time
private investigator
and as a youth counselor while attending Brooklyn College
.
. He then worked for the Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) for two years doing jobs such as filing fingerprints. Serpico was later assigned to work plainclothes where he encountered widespread corruption
.
Serpico's career as a plainclothes police officer working in Brooklyn and the Bronx
to expose vice racketeering was short-lived because he consistently avoided taking part in the corruption. To expose those who did, Serpico risked his own life and safety. In 1967 he reported credible evidence of widespread systematic police corruption. However, bureaucracy slowed down his efforts, until he connected with another officer, David Durk, who helped him in his anti-corruption efforts. Serpico believed that his fellow partners knew about secret meetings that took place with police investigators. With no place left to go, Serpico contributed to an April 25, 1970, New York Times front-page story on widespread corruption in the New York City Police Department. This forced Mayor John V. Lindsay to take action by appointing a five-member panel to investigate police corruption. This panel ultimately became the Knapp Commission
, named for its chairman Whitman Knapp
.
bust on February 3, 1971, at 10:42 p.m., during a stakeout at 778 Driggs Avenue, in the Williamsburg
section of Brooklyn
. Four officers from Brooklyn North had received a tip that a drug deal was going down.
Two of the officers, Gary Roteman and Arthur Cesare, stayed in a car out front; the third, Paul Halley, was standing in front of the apartment building. Serpico got out of the car, climbed up the fire escape, watched from the roof, went in the fire escape door, walked down the steps, watched the heroin sale, listened to the password and then followed the two youths out.
The police jumped out at the two youths, one of whom had two bags of heroin. Halley stayed in the car with the two kids with the heroin after Roteman told Serpico, because he spoke Spanish, to make a fake drug buy to get the door open for the rest of them. The three officers went up the steps to the third-floor landing. Serpico knocked on the door, keeping his other hand inside his jacket on his 9mm Browning Hi-Power
. The door opened a few inches, the chain still on. Serpico pushed and the chain snapped. It was enough for him to wedge part of his body in but the dealers on the other side were trying to close it. Serpico called out to his partners who did not come to help him.
Serpico was shot in the face at point blank range with a .22 LR handgun. The bullet penetrated his cheek just below the eye and lodged at the top of his jaw; he lost balance, fell to the floor, and began to bleed profusely. Serpico's colleagues failed to place a "10-13", a dispatch to police headquarters indicating that an officer has been shot. Instead, Serpico was saved by an elderly man who lived in an apartment adjacent to the one being used by the suspects; the man called emergency services and reported that a man had been shot, and then stayed with Serpico to help keep him alive until an ambulance arrived. A police squad car arrived prior to the ambulance, however, and the officers, unaware of the bloodied Serpico's identity, took him to Greenpoint Hospital.
Serpico was deafened in his left ear by the gunshot, which severed an auditory nerve, and has suffered chronic pain from fragments lodged in his brain. Although he was visited the day after the shooting by Mayor John V. Lindsay and Police Commissioner Patrick V. Murphy, while he lay recovering in bed from his wounds, the police department harassed him with hourly bed checks. He survived, and ultimately testified in front of the Knapp Commission.
The circumstances surrounding Serpico's shooting quickly came into question. Serpico, who was armed during the drug raid, had only been shot after briefly turning away from the suspect when he realized that the two officers who had accompanied him to the scene were not following him into the apartment, raising the question whether Serpico had actually been brought to the apartment by his colleagues to be executed.
On May 3, 1971, New York Metro Magazine published an article about Serpico titled "Portrait of an Honest Cop". On May 10, 1971, Serpico testified at the departmental trial of an NYPD lieutenant who was accused of taking bribes from gamblers. On May 14, 1971, Serpico was awarded a gold shield by the police commissioner and promoted to detective.
:
Frank Serpico was the first police officer in the history of the New York Police Department to step forward to report and subsequently testify openly about widespread, systemic corruption
payoffs amounting to millions of dollars.
. He went to Switzerland
to recuperate and spent almost a decade living there and on a farm in Holland
, as well as travelling and studying. When it was decided to make the movie about his life called Serpico
, Al Pacino
invited Serpico to stay with him at a house that Pacino had rented in Montauk
, New York
. When Pacino asked why he had stepped forward, Serpico replied:
He returned to New York City quietly in 1980 and now resides in the mountains of Upstate New York, studying and lecturing on occasion to students at universities and police academies and sharing experiences with police officers who are currently in similar situations. While living in upstate New York, Serpico was introduced to Officer Joseph Trimboli by New York Post reporter Mike McAlary. Trimboli himself was a police officer who had a very hard time after he witnessed and tried to stop widespread police corruption in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Serpico still speaks out against police corruption and brutality
. He continues to speak out against both the weakening of civil liberties
and corrupt practices in law enforcement, such as the alleged cover-ups following Abner Louima
's torture in 1997 and Amadou Diallo
shooting in 1999.
He provides support for "individuals who seek truth and justice even in the face of great personal risk". He calls them "lamp lighters
", a term he prefers to the more common "whistleblower
s", which refers to alerting the public to danger, just as Paul Revere
was responsible for having lamps lit in the Old North Church
to warn the public in Charlestown, Massachusetts, of the British Regulars' movements during the American Revolutionary War
.
, sold over 3 million copies. It was adapted for the screenplay of the 1973 film titled Serpico
, which was directed by Sidney Lumet
and starred Al Pacino
in the title role. In 1976 David Birney
starred as Serpico in a TV-movie called "Serpico: The Deadly Game" (also known as "The Deadly Game"), broadcast on NBC
. This led to a short-lived Serpico TV series the following fall on the same network.
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
(NYPD) officer
Police officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
who is most famous for testifying against police corruption
Police corruption
Police corruption is a specific form of police misconduct designed to obtain financial benefits, other personal gain, or career advancement for a police officer or officers in exchange for not pursuing, or selectively pursuing, an investigation or arrest....
in 1971. The majority of Serpico's fame came after the release of the 1973 film Serpico
Serpico
Serpico is a 1973 American crime film directed by Sidney Lumet. It is based on the true story of New York City policeman Frank Serpico, who went undercover to expose the corruption of his fellow officers, after being pushed to the brink at first by their distrust and later by the threats and...
which starred Al Pacino
Al Pacino
Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared...
in the lead role.
Early years
Serpico was born in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest child of Vincenzo and Maria Giovanna Serpico, Italian immigrants from MariglianoMarigliano
Marigliano is a town and comune of the province of Naples, Campania in southern Italy. It is part of the Agro Nolano plain.-Geography:The town lies 19 km from Naples...
, in the province of Naples
Province of Naples
The Province of Naples is a province in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital city is Naples, within the province there are 92 Comuni of the Province of Naples.-Demographics:...
, Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...
. At age 18, he enlisted in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and spent two years in Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
. Later, he worked as a part-time
Part time
A part-time job is a form of employment that carries fewer hours per week than a full-time job. Workers are considered to be part time if they commonly work fewer than 30 or 35 hours per week...
private investigator
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
and as a youth counselor while attending Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
.
NYPD career
In 1959, Frank Serpico joined the NYPD. He was sworn in as a probationary patrolman on September 11 of that year. Serpico was commissioned as a patrolman for the New York City Police Department on March 5, 1960, a job he would have for twelve years. He was first assigned to patrol in the 81st precinctPrecinct
A precinct is a space enclosed by the walls or other boundaries of a particular place or building, or by an arbitrary and imaginary line drawn around it. The term has several different uses...
. He then worked for the Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) for two years doing jobs such as filing fingerprints. Serpico was later assigned to work plainclothes where he encountered widespread corruption
Police corruption
Police corruption is a specific form of police misconduct designed to obtain financial benefits, other personal gain, or career advancement for a police officer or officers in exchange for not pursuing, or selectively pursuing, an investigation or arrest....
.
Serpico's career as a plainclothes police officer working in Brooklyn and the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
to expose vice racketeering was short-lived because he consistently avoided taking part in the corruption. To expose those who did, Serpico risked his own life and safety. In 1967 he reported credible evidence of widespread systematic police corruption. However, bureaucracy slowed down his efforts, until he connected with another officer, David Durk, who helped him in his anti-corruption efforts. Serpico believed that his fellow partners knew about secret meetings that took place with police investigators. With no place left to go, Serpico contributed to an April 25, 1970, New York Times front-page story on widespread corruption in the New York City Police Department. This forced Mayor John V. Lindsay to take action by appointing a five-member panel to investigate police corruption. This panel ultimately became the Knapp Commission
Knapp Commission
The Knapp Commission stemmed from a five-member panel initially formed in April 1970 by Mayor John V. Lindsay to investigate corruption within the New York City Police Department...
, named for its chairman Whitman Knapp
Whitman Knapp
Percy Whitman Knapp was a federal judge who led a far-reaching investigation into corruption in the New York City Police Department from 1970 to 1972.-Childhood and education:...
.
Questionable shooting and public interest
Serpico was shot during a drugIllegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...
bust on February 3, 1971, at 10:42 p.m., during a stakeout at 778 Driggs Avenue, in the Williamsburg
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...
section of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. Four officers from Brooklyn North had received a tip that a drug deal was going down.
Two of the officers, Gary Roteman and Arthur Cesare, stayed in a car out front; the third, Paul Halley, was standing in front of the apartment building. Serpico got out of the car, climbed up the fire escape, watched from the roof, went in the fire escape door, walked down the steps, watched the heroin sale, listened to the password and then followed the two youths out.
The police jumped out at the two youths, one of whom had two bags of heroin. Halley stayed in the car with the two kids with the heroin after Roteman told Serpico, because he spoke Spanish, to make a fake drug buy to get the door open for the rest of them. The three officers went up the steps to the third-floor landing. Serpico knocked on the door, keeping his other hand inside his jacket on his 9mm Browning Hi-Power
Browning Hi-Power
The Browning Hi-Power is a single-action, 9 mm semi-automatic handgun. It is based on a design by American firearms inventor John Browning, and completed by Dieudonné Saive at Fabrique Nationale of Herstal, Belgium. Browning died in 1926, several years before the design was finalized...
. The door opened a few inches, the chain still on. Serpico pushed and the chain snapped. It was enough for him to wedge part of his body in but the dealers on the other side were trying to close it. Serpico called out to his partners who did not come to help him.
Serpico was shot in the face at point blank range with a .22 LR handgun. The bullet penetrated his cheek just below the eye and lodged at the top of his jaw; he lost balance, fell to the floor, and began to bleed profusely. Serpico's colleagues failed to place a "10-13", a dispatch to police headquarters indicating that an officer has been shot. Instead, Serpico was saved by an elderly man who lived in an apartment adjacent to the one being used by the suspects; the man called emergency services and reported that a man had been shot, and then stayed with Serpico to help keep him alive until an ambulance arrived. A police squad car arrived prior to the ambulance, however, and the officers, unaware of the bloodied Serpico's identity, took him to Greenpoint Hospital.
Serpico was deafened in his left ear by the gunshot, which severed an auditory nerve, and has suffered chronic pain from fragments lodged in his brain. Although he was visited the day after the shooting by Mayor John V. Lindsay and Police Commissioner Patrick V. Murphy, while he lay recovering in bed from his wounds, the police department harassed him with hourly bed checks. He survived, and ultimately testified in front of the Knapp Commission.
The circumstances surrounding Serpico's shooting quickly came into question. Serpico, who was armed during the drug raid, had only been shot after briefly turning away from the suspect when he realized that the two officers who had accompanied him to the scene were not following him into the apartment, raising the question whether Serpico had actually been brought to the apartment by his colleagues to be executed.
On May 3, 1971, New York Metro Magazine published an article about Serpico titled "Portrait of an Honest Cop". On May 10, 1971, Serpico testified at the departmental trial of an NYPD lieutenant who was accused of taking bribes from gamblers. On May 14, 1971, Serpico was awarded a gold shield by the police commissioner and promoted to detective.
Testimony in front of the Knapp Commission
In October, and again in December 1971, Serpico testified before the Knapp CommissionKnapp Commission
The Knapp Commission stemmed from a five-member panel initially formed in April 1970 by Mayor John V. Lindsay to investigate corruption within the New York City Police Department...
:
Frank Serpico was the first police officer in the history of the New York Police Department to step forward to report and subsequently testify openly about widespread, systemic corruption
Systemic corruption
Systemic corruption is corruption which is primarily due to a weaknesses of an organisation or process.It can be contrasted with individual officials or agents who act corruptly within the system....
payoffs amounting to millions of dollars.
Retirement
Frank Serpico retired on June 15, 1972, one month after receiving the New York City Police Department's highest honor, the Medal of HonorNew York City Police Department Medal of Honor
The New York City Police Department Medal of Honor is the highest law enforcement medal of the New York City Police Department. The Medal of Honor is awarded for individual acts of extraordinary bravery performed in the line of duty at extreme risk and danger to life.The present NYPD Medal of...
. He went to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
to recuperate and spent almost a decade living there and on a farm in Holland
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, as well as travelling and studying. When it was decided to make the movie about his life called Serpico
Serpico
Serpico is a 1973 American crime film directed by Sidney Lumet. It is based on the true story of New York City policeman Frank Serpico, who went undercover to expose the corruption of his fellow officers, after being pushed to the brink at first by their distrust and later by the threats and...
, Al Pacino
Al Pacino
Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared...
invited Serpico to stay with him at a house that Pacino had rented in Montauk
Montauk, New York
Montauk [ˈmɒntɒk] is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet with the same name located in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 3,851 as of 2000...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. When Pacino asked why he had stepped forward, Serpico replied:
He returned to New York City quietly in 1980 and now resides in the mountains of Upstate New York, studying and lecturing on occasion to students at universities and police academies and sharing experiences with police officers who are currently in similar situations. While living in upstate New York, Serpico was introduced to Officer Joseph Trimboli by New York Post reporter Mike McAlary. Trimboli himself was a police officer who had a very hard time after he witnessed and tried to stop widespread police corruption in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Serpico still speaks out against police corruption and brutality
Police brutality
Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....
. He continues to speak out against both the weakening of civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
and corrupt practices in law enforcement, such as the alleged cover-ups following Abner Louima
Abner Louima
Abner Louima is a Haitian who was assaulted, brutalized and forcibly sodomized with the handle of a bathroom plunger by New York City police officers after being arrested outside a Brooklyn nightclub in 1997....
's torture in 1997 and Amadou Diallo
Amadou Diallo
Amadou Diallo was a 23-year-old Guinean immigrant in New York City who was shot and killed on February 4, 1999 by four New York City Police Department plain-clothed officers: Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon and Kenneth Boss. The four officers fired a total of 41 shots...
shooting in 1999.
He provides support for "individuals who seek truth and justice even in the face of great personal risk". He calls them "lamp lighters
Lamplighter
A lamplighter, historically, was an employee of a town who lit street lights, generally by means of a wick on a long pole. At dawn, they would return and extinguish them using a small hook on the same pole. Early street lights were generally candles, oil, and similar consumable liquid or solid...
", a term he prefers to the more common "whistleblower
Whistleblower
A whistleblower is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company...
s", which refers to alerting the public to danger, just as Paul Revere
Paul Revere
Paul Revere was an American silversmith and a patriot in the American Revolution. He is most famous for alerting Colonial militia of approaching British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's Ride...
was responsible for having lamps lit in the Old North Church
Old North Church
Old North Church , at 193 Salem Street, in the North End of Boston, is the location from which the famous "One if by land, and two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent...
to warn the public in Charlestown, Massachusetts, of the British Regulars' movements during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
.
Personal life
Serpico has been married four times. In 1957, he married Mary Ann Wheeler, but divorced her in 1962. In 1963, he married Leslie Lane, a fellow college student, and they divorced in 1965. In 1966, he married Laurie Young, but they divorced in 1969. On June 15, 1972, Frank left the police department to move to Europe. In 1973, he married a woman named Marianne from Holland, who was his final wife; she died from cancer in 1980. He decided to return to the United States afterwards. His only child, son Alexander, was born March 15, 1980.In books, film, and television
Serpico, a biography by Peter MaasPeter Maas
Peter Maas was an American journalist and author. He was born in New York City and attended Duke University. Maas had Dutch and Irish heritage....
, sold over 3 million copies. It was adapted for the screenplay of the 1973 film titled Serpico
Serpico
Serpico is a 1973 American crime film directed by Sidney Lumet. It is based on the true story of New York City policeman Frank Serpico, who went undercover to expose the corruption of his fellow officers, after being pushed to the brink at first by their distrust and later by the threats and...
, which was directed by Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...
and starred Al Pacino
Al Pacino
Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared...
in the title role. In 1976 David Birney
David Birney
David Edwin Birney is an American actor/director whose career has performances in both contemporary and classical roles in theatre, film and television. He has three children, a daughter Kate, and twins, Peter and Mollie....
starred as Serpico in a TV-movie called "Serpico: The Deadly Game" (also known as "The Deadly Game"), broadcast on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. This led to a short-lived Serpico TV series the following fall on the same network.
Filmography
- A&E Biography "Frank Serpico" (2000) (TV) .... Himself
- American Justice "Cops on Trial" (2000) (TV) .... Himself
External links
- Frank Serpico's website
- Frank Serpico's blog
- Audio documentary and interview with Frank Serpico
- Frank Serpico Keynote Address (mp3 audio) to Civil Liberties Conference - Protecting Our Civil Liberties - the Core of Democracy - July 25, 2003
- Frank Serpico answers questions (mp3 audio) at Civil Liberties Conference - July 26, 2003