If you want to learn more about the history of your city, explore the history of corruption within the city’s police department. Police corruption, which can include kickbacks, shakedowns, and protection of or even direct participation in illegal activities, has been around since the creation of the country’s first police force. Initially, the police were not asked to “serve and protect,” but to mediate between criminal and political kingpins as they fought each other for power. Some may say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. But perhaps understanding the history of city and police corruption can help to provide the vision and leadership for a better future. Here are nine police departments with well-documented corrupt pasts.

1. New York Police Department

   Since its establishment in 1844, corruption has been a fact of police life in New York City. From the very beginning, New York’s underpaid and overworked police officers were expected to serve the needs of the city’s political leaders while collecting money from gang leaders, gamblers, and pimps for the privilege of operating relatively unmolested. Back in 1895, officer Alexander S. Williams, took advantage of his appointment as captain of the city’s 21st Precinct, which included the Tenderloin and Gas House districts, to collect money from criminals, including the madams of several brothels, and make a fortune as a result. Williams, who earned his nickname “Clubber,” once said, “There is more law in the end of a policeman’s nightstick than in a decision of the Supreme Court.” After investigation by two committees, Williams resigned, went into the insurance business, and died a multimillionaire. Who says crime doesn’t pay?

2. New Orleans Police Department

   New Orleans Mayor Landrieu released a hopeful, conciliatory statement in the wake of the sentencing of five New Orleans police officers to several years in prison for their roles in shooting unarmed citizens in the chaotic days that followed Hurricane Katrina. “We now have an opportunity to turn the page and to heal,” Landrieu said. “It is my commitment to the people of New Orleans to rebuild and reform the NOPD.” The first police force in the then-French New Orleans was established in 1803, only to be disbanded due to countless complaints from civilians. Given the history of the NOPD, Landrieu definitely has his work cut out for him.

3. Chicago Police Department

   By the end of the 19th century, the city of Chicago enjoyed the dubious reputation of being a haven for “dangerous classes;” a city that was more like an out-of-control frontier town “with an absence of moral virtue.” The Chicago Police department went without large-scale reform until 1960 when eight police officers from the city’s North Side or Summerdale district were charged with running a large-scale burglary ring. Known as the Summerdale Scandal, the case generated unprecedented media attention, and prompted the creation of a much-needed police superintendent role to oversee and enforce rules and regulations within the department.

4. Los Angeles Police Department

   The 1951 Bloody Christmas Scandal, a real-life scandal that appears in author James Ellroy’s book L.A. Confidential and its film version, involved as many as 50, mostly drunk, police officers who took time out from a Christmas party to beat six prisoners for more than 90 minutes. Since more than 100 people either witnessed or knew of the beatings, the incident became public, and prompted the city’s Mexican community to come forward with more charges of police brutality against citizens. In 1952, a grand jury succeeded in convicting only five of the officers involved, and none of them received a sentence amounting to more than a year in prison. And then there was the Rampart scandal and the Rodney King beating.

5. Miami Police Department

   Miami in the ’80s experienced an “epidemic” of police corruption due in part to the enormous amount of cocaine being smuggled into South Florida from Latin America. A cheap, deadly derivative of the drug known as “crack” would infiltrate other cities throughout the U.S., and transform many once relatively peaceful working class neighborhoods into war zones. Police corruption in Miami reached its height in 1986 when, as a result of an inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, more than a dozen officers from the police department faced charges that ranged from drug dealing to murder.

6. Sheriff’s Department, Dallas County, Alabama

   Students of Civil Rights history know that Selma, Ala. was the location of a brutal assault on a group of peaceful marchers led by John Lewis of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and Reverend Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by the Selma Police Department led by Sheriff Jim Clark, as well as state troopers, and recently deputized members of the community. Law enforcement officers used nightsticks, horses, and tear gas to indiscriminately attack the peaceful demonstrators. Televised images of the attack inspired even more support for the Civil Rights movement. Sheriff Clark later lost his bid for reelection, went on to sell mobile homes for a while, and in 1978, was busted for conspiracy to import marijuana.

7. Ahome Municipal Police Force

   Ahome is a municipality in the Mexican state of Sinaola. Just last November, Ahome’s entire Police Department, 32 officers and commanders, were arrested by state police for the department’s connection to two powerful drug cartels. Amazingly, the director of the state police who carried out the arrest, “Chuytoño” Aguilar Iniguez, was at one time one of Mexico’s Attorney General’s most wanted men for his connections to kingpins within the Sinaloa drug cartel. After having fled to Cuba in 2004 while undergoing investigation for corruption, Iniguez was granted a sort of immunity in 2009 by a federal court, and returned to Mexico to profit from, er, whoops, we mean “fight” crime.

8. Philadelphia Police Department

   You know you’ve got a corrupt police department when it comes under the scrutiny of Human Rights Watch. HRW has stated that, “the Philadelphia police department (in terms of) corruption and brutality … has one of the worst reputations of big city police departments in the United States.” In the early 1990s, a group of PPD officers, some known throughout the city as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, conducted a series of unreported raids on crack houses where officers would steal from suspects. The arrest of Mumia Abu-Jamal for the murder of a police officer, and the public outcry at his being sentenced to death (this sentence was recently overturned), brought national attention to the PPD’s reputation for brutality and corruption.

9. Baltimore Police Department

   In March 2012, a Baltimore police officer was sentenced for his part in what is known as the Towing Scandal, a criminal ring that included more than 50 other members of the Baltimore Police Department. Vehicles were towed from accident scenes by a towing and repair company owned by two police officers. Other officers were paid to participate in the scam, which generated hundreds to thousands of dollars for those involved. Accident victims were even encouraged by officers not to talk to their insurance companies.

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Most police officers take on the job because they want to serve and protect their communities. But there’s a lot of responsibility and power that comes with carrying a badge and gun. And sometimes, good cops turn bad. Very, very bad, especially in the movies. Spoiler alert: If you haven’t seen these films, we’re going to be revealing some key plots twists and endings for some of them, so read at your own risk. We just hope none of these films were based on true stories.

1) Dennis Peck, Internal Affairs

You may have trouble picturing Richard Gere as anything but Julia Roberts’ movie soul mate, but he also knows how to play a cop-gone-bad. Gere’s character Dennis Peck, a patrolman with some questionable morals, is a guy you never want to run across, whether he’s on duty or off. At first, you think he’s just a little crooked when it comes to protecting his fellow officers, but it’s worse than that. He sleeps with the wives of his associates, arranges a hit on his partner, and tries to manipulate the internal affairs officers who are investigating him. He’s cold, ruthless, and hiding behind a badge.

2) Hank Quinlan, Touch of Evil

Orson Welles not only wrote and directed this classic 1958 film noir; he also starred as the terrible police captain, Hank Quinlan. The captain has been planting evidence for years so that he’ll get more convictions in his cases. That’s not so bad, right? Well, when a drug enforcement officer, Miguel Vargas, is onto him, Quinlan becomes much worse, having Vargas’ wife kidnapped and framed for murder, and then trying to get Vargas himself arrested for a murder Quinlan committed. Does it help that Quinlan had planted evidence on a guilty person?

3) Detective Trupo, American Gangster

This character, played by a mustachioed Josh Brolin, kills a guy’s dog. That’s basically all you need to know to understand that he’s a seriously dirty cop. Since American Gangster is based on the true story of gangster Frank Lucas, Trupo is based on a real person Lucas referred to as Babyface, though it’s unclear how many of the details were made up for the movie. Trupo bullies and intimidates in order to get a cut of Lucas’ drug money, and runs his district like a criminal boss, even threatening fellow policemen. In the end, he proves himself corrupt and cowardly, killing himself to avoid prosecution.

4) Lucien Cordier, Coup de Torchon

Leave it to the French to show us a movie “policier” unlike any other. Lucien Cordier is an officer in a French West African village and is basically trampled on by everyone in his life, including the local criminals and his own wife. You can probably see where this is headed. Cordier snaps and uses his power for evil, slowly but surely killing all those who had humiliated him throughout his career by his own hand and by manipulating others. Whether it’s out of revenge or the desire to cleanse his village of terrible human beings, you’ll agree that he’s not your ideal police officer.

5) Colin Sullivan, The Departed

In this film about two informants (a police informant and a mob informant), Colin Sullivan ends up on the corrupt side of the battle. Sullivan is trained by a mob boss to become a mole in the police department and is then tasked with finding the rat in the boss’ crew, an undercover cop in the mafia. Sullivan feeds information to the very guy he’s supposed to be working against as a cop, and ends up getting lots of police officers killed, as well as killing some himself. If you didn’t understand how corrupt he was throughout the whole movie, though, the obvious-metaphor rat in the very last scene should’ve given it away.

6) Samuel Norton, Shawshank Redemption

OK, you caught us. Warden Samuel Norton isn’t quite a police officer; he’s in charge of a prison in Maine. But he’s too corrupt and the movie’s too good to leave off of the list. Norton uses Andy Dufresne, a former banker and now prisoner, to launder kickbacks he’s receiving for taking advantage of the prisoners. To keep Dufresne from quitting the immoral practice, Norton has the guy killed that Dufresne was mentoring and who had information that could set Dufresne free. Of course, there are always repercussions for trusting a smart prisoner too much, and Norton finds that out the hard way.

7) Alonzo Harris, Training Day

When rookie cop Jake Hoyt rides with veteran police officer Alonzo Harris for a day, he probably didn’t expect to do drugs, shoot a former cop, and end up having Harris try to get a crowd to kill him. Just another day on the job, right? Harris is absolutely the last person you hope is working to protect you, since most of his time seems to be spent stealing drug money, letting gang members work out their own problems, and trying to get enough cash to pay off the Russian mob. A smarter corrupt cop would’ve known not to mess with the Russians to begin with.

8) Louis Renault, Casablanca

With antics and one-liners that are more entertaining than disturbing, Captain Louis Renault is looking out for No. 1 during a time when it seems that’s the only way to survive. This classic World War II-era film encapsulates the corruption of the time, especially in places that acted as a sort of limbo between occupied Europe and America. Renault spent his time gambling (even when he used gambling as an excuse to close down a club), sucking up to important Nazi officials, and making women sleep with him in exchange for the papers to leave the country. And yet, strangely, you can’t help but like him.

9) Norman Stansfield, Leon the Professional

If you haven’t seen this film, you should if only to see a bad-ass 12-year-old Natalie Portman. She plays Mathilda, a girl whose whole family has been murdered by corrupt DEA agents headed up by Norman “Stan” Stansfield. Mathilda’s father had been keeping cocaine for the agents, but they found out he’d been keeping some for himself, and Stansfield, who’s addicted to drugs himself, decided to take out the whole family. Mathilda was out shopping when the murders happened, so now Stansfield wants to find her and kill her. She’s not totally helpless since she finds a father figure in the hitman down the hall, but it’s still not very nice of this officer to be trying to gun down a little girl.

10) Dudley Smith, L.A. Confidential

You may want to think of James Cromwell as the sweet farmer who gave a pig a chance in Babe, but he shows another side of himself in L.A. Confidential. He basically controls the organized crime in L.A., blackmails city officials to get his way, and murders (or has someone else murder) everyone that gets in the way of his quest for drugs and power. It’s hard to even keep track of all the people he kills during the movie and before it even starts. This may have just been the unedited Babe sequel, Babe: Pig in the City.

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As those who read my John Ceepak Jersey Shore murder mysteries know, a young cop named Danny Boyle who grew up in my fictional town of Sea Haven, NJ and attended Holy Innocents Elementary when he was a kid, narrates the tales.

But here’s why Ceepak mystery #7 FUN HOUSE (available May 1st from Pegasus Crime) will be dedicated to Daniel R. Boyle.

Back in 2010, a woman I have never met named Sherri Bunting sent me an e-mail:

A friend wanted me to contact you about your Ceepak mysteries. Seems you use the name Danny Boyle as one of the police and her brother was an officer with Philadelphia police department until his untimely death in 1991. Her mother just picked up the first two books and has ordered a few more. Seeing just his name in print brings a kind of joy to their hearts. To see them this happy over such an odd coincidence is beyond words. I just wanted to thank you for the stroke of karma that made you choose his name.

Also, our Danny Boyle attended Holy Innocents School. Weird. Sending a link for you to the fallen officers page. Again thanks for putting a smile on their faces!

If you visit the real Danny Boyle’s Fallen Officer page you’ll learn that, at the age 21, he succumbed to a gunshot wound sustained after stopping a stolen car. Officer Boyle had served with the Philadelphia Police Department for one year. His “End of Watch” was February 6, 1991.

As you might imagine, that was one of the best e-mails I have ever received as an author. And I am very proud to have my new book dedicated to such a brave young man.

*     *     *

Chris Grabenstein did improvisational comedy with Bruce Willis in New York before James Patterson (yes, that James Patterson) hired him at the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency. Chris also wrote for Jim Henson’s Muppets.

His Anthony Award-winning debut TILT A WHIRL (A John Ceepak mystery) was followed by MAD MOUSE, WHACK A MOLE, HELL HOLE, MIND SCRAMBLER and ROLLING THUNDER.

Ceepak mystery #7 FUN HOUSE will be available May 1st from Pegasus Crime.

www.chrisgrabenstein.com

Hollywood may be the land of big dreams and promises, but this place definitely sees its fair share of tragedies as well. From crimes of passion to money-motivated crimes, Hollywood criminals have been known to attack for any and all reasons. And we all know that one of the quickest ways to be a show stealer in Hollywood is to do something bad. Here are the eight most notorious criminals in Hollywood history.

1. Paul Snider

   Paul Snider is the man responsible for killing his actress and Playboy model wife, Dorothy Stratten, before turning the gun on himself. The high-profile murder-suicide was a complete shock to Hollywood. The young Stratten had just been named Playboy’s Miss August 1979 and 1980 Playmate of the Year and landed a spot in Bob Fosse’s film Star 80. This increased level of fame caused her husband-manager, Paul Snider, to become increasingly jealous and bitter. On Aug. 14, 1980, Snider brutally shot and killed 20-year-old Stratten in their Los Angeles apartment and then committed suicide.

2. Amy Fisher

   Amy Fisher, also known as the “Long Island Lolita,” was the infamous teenager responsible for nearly killing her then-boyfriend Joey Buttafuoco’s wife, Mary Jo, in 1992. Fisher was 16 years old when she began a relationship with the New York auto body shop owner and it didn’t take long before she wanted to get his wife out of the picture. On the afternoon of the shooting, Fisher had an accomplice drive her to the Buttafuoco’s home so that she could kill Mary Jo. When his wife answered the door, Amy lied and told her that Joey was having an affair with her younger sister. Mary Jo turned away in disbelief and Fisher shot her in the head and fled the scene. Mary Jo miraculously lived through the shooting, but suffered partial paralysis on one side of her face and a loss of hearing in one ear. Fisher was eventually arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison for attempted murder, and Joey served six months for statutory rape.

3. Paul and Tom Ferguson

   Paul and Tom Ferguson were the murderous brothers responsible for killing the famous silent movie star, Ramon Novarro, in 1968. On the night of his murder, Novarro invited the Ferguson brothers over to his house in hopes of having sex with one of the two men. The Fergusons believed that the actor had a large sum of money hidden inside the house, and planned to find it. After the rendezvous between Paul and Ramon was over, the brothers demanded that he give them the money. When Novarro said he didn’t have any money on him, Paul brutally beat him and left him to die. Police were able to trace a call that Tom made on the house phone to his girlfriend in Chicago on the day of the murder. She ratted them out and the brothers were arrested and sentenced to life in prison, but were paroled within seven years of the trial.

4. OJ Simpson

   OJ Simpson is one of the most notorious criminals in Hollywood. Although he was famously acquitted in the high-profile murder of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, in 1995, the former professional football player and actor did get arrested and imprisoned for another set of crimes. In 2007, Simpson was arrested after he and a group of armed men robbed a room in a Las Vegas hotel-casino and stole sports memorabilia from a dealer. Simpson was convicted on 12 charges, including armed robbery, conspiracy to commit a crime, assault, and kidnapping and was sentenced to a maximum of 33 years in prison with a possibility of parole in nine years.

5. Robert Bardo

   The tragic murder of 21-year-old My Sister Sam star Rebecca Schaeffer became one of the biggest crime stories in Hollywood history. Robert Bardo, 19, was the crazed fan who took the actress’ life. Bardo was obsessed with Schaeffer and began writing her love letters to get her attention. She wrote him back and the two corresponded through mail for months. On July 18, 1989, Bardo went to Schaeffer’s home after tracking it down from an Arizona detective agency and shot her in the chest and fled the scene. Bardo was ratted out by a family member who informed police that he told her he was going to visit the actress that day. He was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence.

6. Brynn Hartman

   The murder of comedian Phil Hartman shook Hollywood to the core. Hartman was shot and killed by his wife, Brynn, who turned the gun on herself hours after the shooting. The tragic murder-suicide was the result of the couple’s marital problems and Brynn’s excessive drug use. Brynn was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol when she returned home the night of the murder and got into an argument with Phil about her addiction. Phil threatened to leave her if she continued to do drugs. Brynn waited for her husband to fall asleep before she shot him three times with a handgun. She immediately confessed to a friend that she killed Phil, but he did not believe her. While police were escorting the couple’s two children out of the house, Brynn locked herself in the bedroom and killed herself.

7. The Menendez brothers

   The Menendez brothers made national headlines for the gruesome murder of their parents, entertainment executive Jose Menendez and his wife Mary “Kitty” Menendez in 1989. Lyle and Erik Menendez carefully plotted the brutal attack on their parents in their Beverly Hills home and even bought movie tickets to use as their alibi if they were suspected of the killing. The brothers’ motive was to kill their strict father and end the agony their mother had endured for years. After the boys viciously gunned down their parents, they dumped their shotguns and called police to report the crime. The Menendez brothers raised a great deal of suspicions when they spent their inheritance on luxury items and started phony businesses. During the investigation, Erik confessed to his psychologists that he and his brother killed their parents and the two were later taken into custody. The brothers were convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and are currently serving a life sentence without parole.

8. Marvin Gay Sr.

   The tragic death of famous singer Marvin Gaye in 1984 was a shocking surprise, specifically because it was his Pentecostal preacher father who killed him. On the day of his death, Marvin Jr. was at his parents’ Los Angeles home and got into a heated argument with his father. The fight turned physical and was temporarily broken up by Marvin Jr.’s mother, but when his father returned to the room they were in, he gunned down his son with the .38 pistol Marvin had given him. Marvin Sr. killed his son and was arrested and convicted of the heinous crime. He was originally charged with murder, but was given a plea bargain for a six-year suspended sentence.

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