Circle of Six, page 32
The actions of Detective Jurgensen reflect great credit upon himself and the Police Department of the City of New York. Now that he is retired, we shall miss the perseverance and dedication which he brought to each case assigned to him.
Sincerely,
Robert M. Morgenthau
March 16, 1979
Honorable Robert McGuire
Police Commissioner
Police Department
City of New York
One Police Plaza
New York, New York
Dear Commissioner McGuire:
My name is Randy Jurgensen and I am a detective retired from the New York City Police Department.
On February 15, 1979, Personnel Order No. 54 awarded me, and others, departmental recognition at the level of “Commendation” in connection with an incident which occurred on April 14, 1972.
My purpose in writing this letter is to most urgently and respectfully request that my name be removed from Personnel Order No. 54. While I have no problem accepting the sad fact that police officers will be murdered in the performance of duty, I, in good conscience, must disassociate myself from actions which denied Philip Cardillo cution of the persons responsible for his death, caused his family untold misery, and forever blotted the record of our Police Department. Specifically, sir, my reasons are:
1) The violation, on April 14, 1972, of well-established principles of investigation because of political and other pressures. The failure to establish a crime scene and the release of unidentified prisoners because of an order from an unknown source are only two of many improper actions which occurred on April 14, 1972. To demonstrate this I submit that years later I, under the authority of a search warrant, and in the presence of an Assistant District Attorney, New York County, returned to the scene and removed from the ceiling of the premises a bullet fired on April 14, 1972 and other evidence which was required in court as evidence.
2) The order, by high-ranking officers, that white police officers leave the scene and only black police officers remain. I believe this to be unique. Such move may well come back to haunt our department in the future if cited by divisive elements in the community as a panacea for imagined wrongs. If done once, why not again?
3) The refusal of the Police Department to issue a statement that the officer was property performing duty when set upon and assaulted even though over-whelming evidence supporting this was at hand. This silence, combined with the incessant, vicious and totally false verbal attacks on the police by the group in question during the week the officer lay dying in the hospital placed an unbearable burden on the officer's family. Not until he was buried and his commanding officer, because of the Department's silence, issued a statement vindicating the officer and resigned in protest, did the Department support him.
4) The almost unheard of absence of the Mayor and Police Commissioner from the officer's funeral. This, coupled with an “apology” by a Deputy Police Commissioner to the group in question for police action on April 14, 1972 and the later endorsement of this apology by the then Police Commissioner. I find it ironic and totally sad to be commended now for actions which then, in the judgment of a Police Commissioner and Deputy Police Commissioner, required an apology to those responsible for the officer's murder. I can tell you, from personal knowledge, that these actions placed an impossible burden on the prosecution at the trial of the person accused of the killing.
5) The virtual abandonment of the investigation from the occurrence of the homicide until one year later. Until 1973 when, because of the impending publication of former Deputy Commissioner Robert Daley's book, “Target Blue,” a coordinated investigation was begun, literally nothing except the accumulation of news clippings had been accomplished. This is obviously so at variance with past practice in any homicide, not to mention the killing of a police officer, that it needs no further comment.
6) When the investigation resulted in an arrest and indictment, and the trial was in progress, the refusal on the part of the Police Department to respond to repeated requests by the District Attorney's office for Police Department records and files necessary to successfully prosecute the case. Only when the Department learned subpoenas were being prepared for the records did they deliver some of them and state the others had been lost. This absence of cooperation on the part of the Department with the District Attorney's Office continued and intensified until communication between the two offices had broken down completely and a special liaison officer had to be appointed. It seems strange to think that the driving force behind the prosecution of an accused cop-killer had to come from the District Attorney's office and even stranger that actions of the Police Department impeded that prosecution.
7) The convening of a special Grand Jury by the New York State Special Prosecutor's Office to inquire into the overall handling of the case. The apparent necessity of setting up such a Grand Jury in itself speaks volumes.
8) And, finally, with the approaching of the seventh anniversary of the officer's death, “commendations” are awarded for actions which took place on April 14, 1972. I think it best for my own peace of mind to not forget the injustices done Philip Cardillo and his family on April 14th and the days immediately following. This is why I again, urgently and respectfully, request the deletion of my name from Personnel Order No. 54.
I hope Commissioner McGuire that this letter will be accepted in the spirit in which it is offered. What was generated by the events of April 14, 1972 must never happen again. Perhaps this small effort on my part will help see that it never does.
Sincerely yours,
RANDY JURGENSEN
RJvc
AFTERWORD
Since the publication of the hardcover edition of this book there have been some significant new developments.
In July 2006 my friend and partner Jim Harmon, the prosecuting Assistant District Attorney in the trial of Lewis 17X Dupree, wrote a letter to current New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. The letter is reproduced in full on the following pages; in essence, it urged Commissioner Kelly to re-open the case to resolve several unanswered questions.
The letter was articulate, to the point ... and effective!
On October 8, 2006, the New York Post's Philip Messing revealed that the NYPD was re-opening its investigation of the case. The Post quoted Commissioner Kelly as saying, “There is a feeling in certain quarters that there are a lot of unanswered questions and if we can answer those questions, we have an obligation to do that.” Kelly also told Messing that he had assigned members of the NYPD's Major Case Squad to the case.
With Phil Cardillo's murder and the circumstances surrounding the mosque incident once again part of an active investigation, I am constrained in what I can say about the matter, even though I am naturally more than interested in following its progress. But I can mention that both Jim Harmon and I have been interviewed multiple times by the detectives assigned to the case and we both have high hopes for a final, satisfactory closure to the longest-running unsolved murder of a New York City patrolman.
My other hope is that the closure of the case and justice for Phil Cardillo will make it to the silver screen. I've been in and around the movie business for long enough to know how long it can take for any story to make it through the moviemaking process, but rights to the book have been acquired by a successful, passionate Hollywood writer and producer. I wish him every success in bringing this haunting story to the cinematic foreground. I continue to look forward to keeping the life and memory of Patrolman Phil Cardillo alive and well.
–Randy Jurgensen, Summer 2007
VIA FEDEX
THE HARMON FIRM LLC
Honorable Raymond W. Kelly
Police Commissioner
City of New York
One Police Plaza
New York, NY 10038-1403
July 28, 2006
Re: The Mosque Case
Dear Commissioner Kelly:
I write to you at the suggestion of retired Detective Randy Jurgensen, who met with you recently about the Mosque case.
Detective Jurgensen is the only reason we had the remotest chance of a successful prosecution. Thank you for meeting with him.
Some cases never end...nor should they end without justice. This is one of them. In my opinion, the case remains unsolved in important respects over 30 years later.
It remains unsolved because we had no crime scene investigation, forensic or otherwise, even though a police officers had been shot and was close to death. The political will to solve the case was nonexistent. In its place, political expediency ruled the day, and actually obstructed the investigation.
These things are still hard to say, let alone to believe, so long after the murder of Police Officer Cardillo. Everyone knows (and knew then) that the NYPD will commit all of its resources to solve the murder of a police officer. That never happened in the Mosque case.
These are the main questions which I think remain unanswered, and which deserve to be answered, today:
1) Was there a conspiracy to lure police officers into the Mosque as part of a planned ambush, the purpose of which was to kill them?
2) If so, who were the participants in that conspiracy?
3) Why did the then-Mayor and then-Police Commissioner turn their backs on the homicide of a police officer, as if it had never happened?
THE HARMON FIRM LLC
cc: Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne
(Via e-mail & FEDEX)
The FBI may be able to help answer at least the first two of these questions.
The case was assigned to me about four years after the shooting had occurred. By then, the die had been more or less cast. I reviewed reports of interviews of well over 100 police officers. Officers reported contact with unidentified FBI agents in the hours immediately following the shooting of Officer Cardillo at the following locations:
1) at the hospital where the later-indicted principal suspect, i.e., Lewis 17X Dupree, had been taken for treatment of minor injuries;
2) in the backseat of the police car transporting Dupree from the hospital to the precinct; and
3) in the precinct, where an FBI agent was seen speaking with Dupree.
In my long experience in law enforcement, this FBI presence was highly unusual and remains unexplained. It was then important to see whether the FBI had any information which could help the case, which had significant evidentiary problems. In particular, Detective Jurgensen and I tried to determine the particulars of the conversation between Dupree and the FBI agent in the precinct. We met resistance. It was only through Detective Jurgensen's efforts that we were able to identify the FBI agent who spoke with Dupree. When I finally spoke with the agent, he said that he could not remember the conversation, nor did he have any notes or reports which could help him remember.
Commissioner Kelly, I think justice would be well served, if you would think it appropriate, to inquire of the FBI as to the details of its actions on April 14,1972, and any other information or sources of information which might help answer the remaining questions about the Mosque case.
One thing is certain. During your tenure as Police Commissioner, a repetition of the Mosque case would be impossible. Thank you for your leadership.
Very truly yours,
James D. Harmon, Jr.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
A decorated veteran of the Korean War, Randy Jurgensen joined the New York Police Department at 20 years of age. Among other highlights of his career, he arrested Lenny Bruce and broke what became known as the Bag Murders, later to become a movie called Cruising. He has earned over 40 citations, medals, and numerous plaques. He has appeared in over thirty films and television shows, and has produced several movies. Although he has been the subject of hundreds of publications, this is his first book.
Robert Cea retired in his early thirties as a highly decorated police officer. He now splits his time between the East and West Coasts, developing projects in film and television. He is the author of No Lights, No Sirens: The Corruption and Redemption of an Inner City Cop.
INDEX
ABC archives, 154
Acevedo, José, 127–128
A-felony, 142
Ali, Khalid, 250 also see Lewis 17X Dupree
Ali, Muhammad, 225, 242
Allahtowon, Samson 3XX, 141
Ambrose, Elwood “Amby,” 42, 59–60, 89
Amsterdam News, The, xix
Andre, Rudy, 6–10, 10, 26, 34, 117, 231, 242, 244–245, 247
Apollo Theatre, xvi
Ardsley, NY, 165
Army, US, xvi–xix, 1, 11, 18, 37
Arthur's disco, 41
Astoria, NY, 45, 122, 222
Audubon Ballroom, 149
Audubon Bar shootout, 65, 74
Aurichio, Jimmy, 41–42, 50, 165–168, 170, 212, 244
Baden, Michael, 113–114
Bag Murders, the, xv
Bartley, Cyrus, 42
Battle For Algiers, The, 82
Bay of Pigs, the, 39
Bedford Stuyvesant, NY, 224
Bellevue Hospital, 114, 153
Big Bertha, 12–13, 22, 28, 37, 68, 96, 209
Big Blue Sanitation, 12 also see Emergency Service Unit (ESU)
Big Blue security team, 73
Black Liberation Army (BLA), xvii–xix, 18
Black Panther, The, 81
Blackstone, Clint “Candy Man,” 63, 64, 66
Blair, Billy, 64–65, 159
Blue Book the, 73, 79, 93–94, 123
Bonanno crime family, 133
Bornholdt, Robert, 41, 54, 136
Boston Police Department, 141–142
Brawley, Tawana, 220
Bronx, NY, 37, 66–68, 86, 96, 140, 171, 181, 191
Brooklyn Bridge, 187
Brooklyn Heights, NY, 134
Brutalism, 97
Bucci, Lynn, 38–39, 41, 74, 94–96, 100 also see Lynn Jurgensen
Bugliosi, Vincent, 221
Bullets in the Mosque, 44, 193, 228–229, 231
Bunch, Benjamin, 84–87, 242
Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), 180
“Burglary” of documents, 145, 186
Butler, Billy, 81, 83–84, 95
California, 51
Canada, 81, 221
Capone, Al, 135
Cardillo, Frank, 49, 121–122, 161, 242, 245
Cardillo, Joy, 15, 47, 49–50, 52, 78, 121–122, 161, 222, 225, 235, 237, 242, 250
Cardillo, Phillip, xx, 4–15, 17, 20, 23, 25–26, 33–34, 38, 41, 44, 48–54, 57–58, 61–62, 74–75, 77–80, 91–94, 98–99, 102–106, 109–115, 117, 119, 121–123, 130, 132, 135, 144, 151, 161–162, 168–170, 173, 176, 188, 192–195, 201, 203, 207, 218–220, 222, 227, 230–231, 234–238, 241–242, 244–245, 248–250
Cardillo, Tessie, 49, 121–122, 161, 242, 245
Cardillo, Todd, 49
Carey, Hugh, 236
Carmichael, Stokely, 225
Carroll Gardens, NY, 139
Cawley, Michael, 43
CBS archives, 153
Central Dispatch, 2–3
Charges and Specs, NYPD, 153
Chesimard, Joanne, xviii, 2, 65–66
Chicago, IL, 19, 216, 250
Chinatown, 241
Circle of Six, the, xx, 41, 46, 78, 103, 198
Cirillo, Nick, 172, 175, 189, 205, 219, 245
CIs (confidential informants), xviii, 132, 141–142, 175
City Hall, NYC, xvi, 21, 129, 151
Civil Rights Movement, xvi
Clint's Candies, 63, 65
Codd, Michael, xx, 34–36, 40, 43, 45–46
Collar, 9, 84, 97, 105, 128–129, 137, 146, 164, 175, 191, 207, 209, 215, 218–219, 225, 242
Columbia Movie House, 63
Combs, Honey, xvi
Communist Party, 71
Concerned Cops for Cardillo, (CCC), 118, 122
Connecticut, 37, 155
Cordite, 96, 244
Corpus Christi grammar school, 134
Daily News, The, 39, 41, 43, 191
D'Alessio, Louie, 30–31, 36
Daley, Robert, xi, 19, 43, 62, 90–92
Davis, Angela, 225
Davis Sammy, Jr., xvi
DeMilia, Sam, 129–130, 136, 151, 161, 167, 170, 199, 219–220, 236, 238–239, 244–245
Department of Buildings, NYC, 111
Department of Sanitation, NYC, 224
Depp, Johnny, 133
Deputy Commissioner of Public Information (DCPI), NYPD, 19–20, 62, 91–92
Detective Bureau, the, 59, 62, 93, 99, 106, 249
Detective Endowment Association, 59
Detective Squad, 54, 57–58, 66, 76, 192
Detroit, MI, 18
D-felony, 142
Disputes with NYPD, 199, 208, 227, 241, 246–247, 250
Dixon, Tashana, 75–76, 81
Drugs, xv, 110, 178
DT. Kid, xvii, 49, 75–76, 89–90, 127–128
