Jimmy the King
Murder, Vice, and the Reign of a Dirty Cop
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3.9 • 20 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
An incredible four-decade account of murder, power, and corruption in one of the country’s largest police departments
In 1979, the gruesome slaying of a thirteen-year-old boy riveted the suburbs of Suffolk County, New York. As the county hustled to bring the case to a dubious resolution, a wayward local teenager emerged with a convenient story to tell. For his cooperation, Jimmy Burke was rewarded with a job as a cop.
Thus began Burke’s unlikely ascent to the top of one of the country’s largest law enforcement jurisdictions. He and a crew of likeminded allies utilized vengeance, gangster tactics, and political leverage to become the most powerful and feared figures in their suburban empire.
Until a pilfered bag of sex toys brought it all crashing down.
Jimmy the King is the story of the rise, reign, and paranoiac fall of a corrupt cop and his regime—a crime family with badges and guaranteed pensions. Novelistic in detail and piercing in its political insight, this book will leave you questioning who modern policing serves, who it protects, and who it preys upon and abandons.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Washington Post investigative reporter Garcia-Roberts (Blood Sport: A-Rod and the Quest to End Baseball's Steroid Era with Tim Elfrink) surveys decades of violence, corrupt governance, and injustice in New York's Suffolk County through a searing look at the rise and fall of James Burke, whose tenure as the chief of the county's police department ended in scandal. Despite a checkered past and numerous misrepresentations about his credentials, Burke was hired by the Suffolk Police and promoted to chief in 2012. Supported by a crooked DA, Thomas Spota, and Spota's anti-corruption deputy, Christopher McPartland, Burke spearheaded a "county law enforcement system that operated like an organized crime syndicate." Burke's assaulting a prisoner suspected of stealing items, including sex toys, from Burke's vehicle set in motion a chain of events that culminated in Burke's 2016 guilty plea to assault and the 2021 sentencing of Spota and McPartland on federal charges, including obstruction of justice. The author's encyclopedic knowledge of this case, first garnered as a member of the Newsday team whose series on Long Island police misconduct was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and storytelling skills yield a revelatory and shocking look at entrenched corruption. This is a true crime classic that should raise serious questions as to how Burke and his enablers eluded justice for so long.
Customer Reviews
Great job!
Pretty darn thorough in the research of this book. Very similar to Krackhaure. I grew up in Smithtown and I know all the names, places, and areas where most of the action took place. I am the same age as would be John Pius. After returning from Desert Storm, serving with the no longer in existence South West Asia Training Group-USMC, in California, I immediately matriculated into Suffolk Community College as a Criminal Justice Major. I wanted nothing more than to be a Suffolk County Police Officer. The program was a good one and I just ate that material up. I had great instructors that made learning, easy. I remember DA Spoda coming in and giving a couple lectures on the state of Criminal Justice throughout the US and in particular, Suffolk County. I was impressed by his knowledge. Jimmy Burke was at that time a Suffolk County Police Officer on the rise. Some of my instructors practically guffawed over him, like he was a person that could do no wrong. That gave me pause because I knew of Jimmy Burke in Highschool. Pause enough whereby I questioned if it was possible for a person to turn over a new leaf, so abruptly, and so completely. I decided that it was possible but that person had to actively participate in their own change by doing something above and beyond what they ever thought, and that something had to be pure, positive and wholly good. If Burke did so, good for him. This book proves he did not. It also proves for me personally, I made the right choice in not pursuing a career in SCPD. I also know the new Suffolk County DA, Ray Tierney. My first two years at St Anthony’s high school were with Ray. It gives me great pleasure knowing Suffolk County finally did the right thing in electing him. He’s the type of person we need more of in government- not only in Suffolk County but across this great nation.