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Frank Serpico
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By Niccolò Graffio
“When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,The post of honor is a private station.”– Joseph Addison: Cato, IV, 1713
Francesco Vincent “Frank” Serpico was born on April 14th, 1936 in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Vincenzo Serpico, was born in the town of Marigliano, in the province of Naples, in the region of Campania, Italy. His mother, Maria Giovanna, was born in Ohio but returned with her family when she was young to Italy where she later met and married Vincenzo.
Frank Serpico’s childhood was an innocuous one. At the age of 18 he joined the U.S. Army and was shipped off to Korea, where he remained stationed for two years. Returning home, he enrolled in Brooklyn College, CUNY, while working part-time as a private investigator and youth counselor.
He joined the New York City Police Department in 1959 at the age of 23, being sworn in as a probationary patrolman on September 11th of the same year. On March 5th, 1960 he was commissioned a patrolman for the NYPD. His first assignment was in the 81st precinct (in the north-central area of Brooklyn). He would hold the job of patrolman for 12 years. He then worked for two years in the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), doing “exciting” police work such as filing fingerprints.
He was later assigned to work in the plainclothes division. It was here he first encountered the widespread corruption he would soon learn was characteristic of the NYPD. Serpico’s own strong moral fiber hindered his “career” as a plainclothesman, since he consistently refused to have any part in the corruption that was rampant in the department. His attempts to expose those who did on several occasions nearly cost him his life!
He first began reporting on the corruption in the NYPD in 1967. However, corrupt officials high in the police hierarchy, plus the Byzantine bureaucracy, stymied his efforts. In spite of the fact a fellow principled officer named David Durk eventually came forward to help him in his efforts, Frank soon began to believe (probably correctly) that his fellow partners learned of his secret meetings with police investigators. Fearing for his safety, he decided to come forward into the spotlight on April 25th, 1970 by contributing to a front page article in the New York Times on rampant corruption in the police department.
That piece, plus the ensuing political fallout, forced then-Mayor John V. Lindsay (a cafone if ever there was one!) to appoint a five-member commission to investigate the article’s allegations. The commission, headed by the redoubtable Whitman Knapp (and named after him), began its investigations of corruption in the NYPD in June, 1970. Public hearings, however, didn’t begin until October 18th of the following year.
The publicity surrounding the investigations of the Knapp Commission would transform Police Detective Frank Serpico into a minor celebrity, but at an almost deadly cost. As one might imagine, he was hardly a welcome sight in any precinct after violating the tacit “blue wall of silence”.
On February 3rd, 1971 at 10:42 PM during a narcotics stakeout in Brooklyn, Serpico was shot at point blank range in the face just below the eye. In spite of the fact three other cops were at the scene, no one called in a “10-13” (officer down). None of them came to his aid even though he called for help. This later made Serpico believe he had been led there to be murdered.
An elderly Latino gentleman, upon hearing gunshots, called emergency services and then remained with Serpico, helping to keep him alive, until help arrived. While in the hospital he was harassed by the police department with hourly bed checks. Ultimately, though, he survived, and testified before the Knapp Commission. In spite of the highly questionable circumstances surrounding Frank Serpico’s shooting, none of the other three officers were ever brought up on charges and two of them were even awarded medals!
In addition to hearing testimonies from Frank Serpico and David Durk, the commission members also heard from former Police Commissioner Howard R. Leary, corrupt policemen and victims of police shakedowns. The investigations of the commission were far-reaching. Numerous criminal indictments were handed down against corrupt police officials. Reforms were instituted for the NYPD including: holding commanders accountable for the actions of their subordinates, putting offices of the Internal Affairs Division in all precincts as well as putting informants in all precincts.
Serpico retired from the NYPD on June 15, 1972, one month after receiving the department’s highest award: the Medal of Honor. He relocated to Switzerland in order to heal from his wounds and ended up staying there for the next 10 years. During that time he traveled extensively, lecturing on corruption and police brutality. He eventually returned to the United States and currently resides in upstate New York.
His minor celebrity was transformed into a nationwide status with the release of the movie Serpico in 1973 starring fellow Southerner Al Pacino. The movie is considered one of Pacino’s best roles and it helped to propel Frank Serpico into icon status as an incorruptible cop. He still speaks out against corruption and brutality in law enforcement, as well as the weakening in civil liberties that has become characteristic of this country in recent decades.
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Frank Serpico's firearms on exhibit at the Italian American Museum
Photo courtesy of New York Scugnizzo
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The media in this country has always been too quick to paint our people as capable of little besides racketeering and murder. Movies such as The Godfather Trilogy, The Valachi Papers; TV series such as The Sopranos and books such as The Don is Dead are quick reminders of this fact. Movies such as Serpico are the exception, not the rule, in how we are portrayed. Since the overwhelming majority of Americans get their worldview through this media prism, is it surprising we are so stereotyped by our fellow citizens?
It is bad enough to hear these stereotypes uttered by others, but to this writer, it is especially disheartening to hear them from the mouths of our own people. Such is the power of the media to mold and to destroy. Oswald Spengler was right!
Our people’s detractors (especially those of Northern European descent) might well ask themselves why in this country’s long history the first police officer to step forward to unmask the culture of corruption that existed in the NYPD was a Southern Italian!
According to Peter Maas, author of the book Serpico, Frank Serpico was the first policeman in U.S. history to step forward and speak out against police corruption! The existences of men like Serpico, plus men like Giuseppe Petrosino, James Vincenzo Capone (aka Richard “Two-gun” Hart) et al clearly shows a much more balanced portrayal of us as a people is in order by the media. That will not come about until we unite as an ethnos and demand it! If other people can do it there is no reason other than our own apathy to stop us from doing it as well.
Do we demand the media moguls show our fellow Americans our best as well as our worst, or do we content ourselves with sitting in front of the “boob tube” and watch nothing but racist drivel like Jersey Shore? As always, the choice is ours.
Further reading:
Maas, Peter; Serpico, Frank (2005). Serpico: The Classic Story of the Cop Who Couldn't Be Bought. New York: Perennial
