Marked Man
Frank Serpico’s Inside Battle Against Police Corruption
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
1971. Brooklyn, New York. Undercover cop Frank Serpico is knocking on a drug dealer’s door. His partners are there to back him up, but when the door opens, he’s staring down the barrel of a gun—and his partners are nowhere to be found.
For more than a century, the New York Police Department had been plagued by corruption, with cops openly taking bribes from gamblers and drug dealers. Not Serpico. He refused to take dirty money and fought to shed light on the dark underbelly of the NYPD. But instead of being hailed as a hero, he became a target for every crooked cop on the force.
In Marked Man, John Florio and Ouisie Shapiro bring this true story of police corruption to life. Join Frank Serpico on his one-man crusade to clean up the largest police force in the United States. And discover the price he had to pay for being an honest cop.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a first-person POV preface, which briefly introduces why Frank Serpico (b. 1936) is still persona non grata in the NYPD, previous collaborators Florio and Shapiro (Doomed) write, "Open your mouth, and you're no longer one of us.... I opened my mouth." This edge-of-the-seat read chronicles Serpico's becoming a New York City police officer in the 1960s and the pervasive corruption he found therein. Via gritty, rapid-fire prose, the creators detail instances of cops taking bribes and organizing deals with gambling dens, actions that Serpico refused to participate in or look away from. During his tenure, he reached out to mayoral officials and reporters, hoping to shed light on the unscrupulous goings-on, and in April 1970, the New York Times published an exposé of Serpico's findings, resulting in the convictions of numerous dirty cops. But because he testified, Serpico was ostracized by his peers and, many believe, ultimately "set up" to be shot during a drug raid, an event that forced him into retirement. This riveting tale of an intrepid whistleblower highlights a long history of corruption in the NYPD and offers lessons in remaining true to oneself and one's values, even if it means standing alone. Ages 12–up.
