The Real French Connection Cops: My Washington Times 'On Crime' Column On Legendary Detectives Sonny Grosso And Randy Jurgensen

The Washington Times published my On Crime column about the real French Connection cops Sonny Grosso and Randy Jurgensen.

You can read the column via the below link or the below text:

Legendary detectives Sonny Grosso and Randy Jurgensen went from Harlem to Hollywood - Washington Times

Legendary Detectives Sonny Grosso and Randy Jurgensen Went From Hollywood to Harlem

 On Crime column by Paul Davis - - Wednesday, February 12, 2020. 

Legendary NYPD detective and film and TV producer Salvatore “Sonny” Grosso died last month. He was 89. He had come to fame as the detective who broke “The French Connection” case along with his partner, Eddie Egan, who died in 1995. 

In the early 1960s, the detectives uncovered a plot by American organized crime and Corsican criminals from Marseille, France, to import 112 pounds of nearly pure heroin into New York City. The heroin was worth more than $90 million on the street. 

Robin Moore, who wrote “The Green Berets,” interviewed the detectives and wrote “The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics and International Conspiracy” in 1969. The book led to the Academy Award-winning film, “The French Connection” in 1971. 

Grosso and Egan worked as technical advisers on the film, and they appeared on the screen in supporting roles. NYPD detective Randy Jurgensen, who was on the periphery of the famous case, also worked as a technical adviser and supporting actor on the film. Detective Jurgensen became Grosso’s partner after Egan retired.   

I contacted Randy Jurgensen and asked him about his former partner.    

“My childhood friend and partner Sonny Grosso passed over last month,” Mr. Jurgensen said. “He was the best man at my wedding, and he was the godfather to one of my children.” 

He said that he and Grosso grew up in West Harlem and although Grosso was five years older, they both served in the Korean War together. There were few jobs available after the war, so the two became police officers. 

“Sonny became a cop about 18 months before I did and when I graduated from the police academy, I was assigned to East Harlem. On the day I showed up at the 2-5 precinct, Sonny Grosso was there waiting for me,” Mr. Jurgensen said. “I spent about 18 months in uniform and then I worked undercover in narcotics. 

“I worked the streets buying narcotics and Sonny and Eddie worked on narcotics distributors. I worked on the outside of the French Connection case." 

After “The French Connection” film, Detectives Grosso and Jurgensen became technical advisers on “The Godfather.” Grosso portrayed the detective who advised Capt. McCloskey (Sterling Hayden) that Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) was a war hero and not a mobster. The director also used Grosso’s service revolver in the scene where Michael Corleone murdered a rival mobster and McCloskey, dropping the .38 revolver on the floor as he walked out. Mr. Jurgensen portrayed one of the gunmen who brutally murdered Sonny Corleone (James Caan). 

The two also appeared together in “The Seven-Ups,” which was based on Grosso’s career, and they appeared with Al Pacino in “Cruising,” a film based on one of Mr. Jurgensen’s cases. They also worked together on other films and TV programs.  

The two former detectives also wrote books. Grosso wrote a crime novel called “Point Blank,” and a true-crime book called “Murder at the Harlem Mosque.” Mr. Jurgensen, along with Robert Cea, wrote “Circle of Six: The True Story of New York’s Most Notorious Cop Killer and The Cop Who Risked Everything to Catch Him.” Mr. Jurgensen was the lead investigator in the controversial murder of NYPD Officer Phil Cardillo. NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, a sergeant during the time of the murder, reopened the case after reading the book. 

Mr. Jurgensen recalled a defining moment when he and Sonny Grosso were assigned to Harlem Homicide at a time when NYPD officers were being assassinated by the Black Liberation Army.

 “I saw one man walking towards us and another one got up from the stoop. I knew we were set up. Before we could get the guns out, Sonny was wrestling on the stoop, and I took on the other one,” Mr. Jurgensen said. “I was banging away on him and we wound up in the hallway. Sonny had this guy in a hold and was punching away, and here came a young woman with a gun.”

As he turned toward the woman, the man pulled a gun and Mr. Jurgensen was forced to shoot him. Then Grosso went over the bannister and landed on the stairwell with the man on top of him. Mr. Jurgensen hit the man on top of Grosso. 

The suspect on top of Grosso was Twyman Meyers, a cop killer who was number one on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. Grosso’s injured his leg in the fall, and a few years later he left the force and entered the entertainment field, as did Randy Jurgensen.     

“I’m the last French Connection cop,” Mr. Jurgensen said sadly. 

• Paul Davis’ On Crime column covers true crime, crime fiction, mysteries and thrillers.

Note: The top photo shows from left to right Randy Jurgensen, Sonny Grosso, Eddie Egan and actor Gene Hackman in the film, The French Connection. 

The below photos show Randy Jurgensen, Sonny Grosso and Eddie Egan in the films The French Connection,  Cruising, and The Godfather.

The NYPD Must Let Out The Truth About An Unsolved Cop-Killing

I've interviewed Randy Jurgensen (seen in the above photo), a legendary New York City detective, actor, film maker and author of Circle of Six: The True Story of New York's Most Notorious Cop Killer and the Cop Who Risked Everything to Catch Him, and I've read his interesting and informative book. 

So I was most interested in reading his piece in the New York Daily News on the unsolved murder of an NYPD officer, the subject of Circle of Six.

Forty-six years ago today, an NYPD cop named Phillip Cardillo (seen in the below photo) was gunned down inside a Nation of Islam mosque in Harlem. No one ever served a day in jail for the crime. And for 46 years, the NYPD has been withholding evidence in his murder case from the public. It’s time they come clean.

I’m not the only one leveling that charge. Decades ago, a special prosecutor found that there had been “a concerted and orchestrated effort” by members of the NYPD to impede the Cardillo murder investigation, including withholding a secret report on the case — the so-called Blue Book — from the department’s own investigators.

In March, the watchdog group Judicial Watch sued the NYPD in a New York courtroom for failing to produce records in the case. The NYPD won’t release investigative files, a promised report and an audio tape, preposterously claiming an investigation is still “active and ongoing.”

Why would the NYPD cover up evidence in a cop killing?

It pains me to criticize law enforcement. I’ve been a loyal member of the NYPD, active and retired, for almost 60 years. I was a pretty good detective. I helped send five cop- killers to jail — a record, I think. But it’s the one that got away that haunts me.

The climate in the early 1970s, when this terrible crime happened, was awful. Terrorists with groups like the Black Liberation Army, the FALN, the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers were killing cops and bombing civilians. Illegal drugs and murders were through the roof.

The day Cardillo was gunned down, on April 14, 1972, I was at the mosque where it happened . Cardillo and his partner had responded to an emergency “10-13” call. A 10-13 is every cop’s worst nightmare: officer in distress. The 10-13 caller said he was “Detective Thomas” and he was trapped on the second floor of an address that turned out to be the mosque.

It turned out “Detective Thomas” was a fake.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link: 

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/nypd-truth-unsolved-cop-killing-article-1.3932675

You can purchase Randy Jurgensen's Circle of Six via the below link:

https://www.amazon.com/Circle-Six-Notorious-Killer-Everything/dp/1932857850 

Letter To FBI Director: Open The FBI's Files On The 'Harlem Mosque Incident' Cop Slaying

Legendary former NYPD detective Randy Jurgensen and two others wrote an open letter in the New York Post to the FBI director, asking him to open the FBI's files on the murder of an NYPD officer at a mosque in Harlem in 1972.

Dear FBI Director James Comey:

We are retired law-enforcement professionals with great respect for the work of the FBI. But we’re calling on you to right a grievous wrong and make one last effort to find justice for a slain police officer.

Open the FBI “special file room” and conduct a comprehensive search of all FBI files for information related to the so-called “Harlem Mosque Incident.”

As The Boston Globe reported, the FBI special file room is “where the bureau stowed documents more embarrassing than classified, including its history of illegal spying on domestic political organizations.”

This includes files on so-called black-nationalist extremists and an “extremely sensitive counterintelligence technique” to sow conflict within targeted groups.

Forty-three years ago, NYPD Patrolman Phillip Cardillo was mortally wounded in a shooting inside the Nation of Islam’s Mosque #7 in Harlem.

No one has ever been convicted of the crime. A suspect, Lewis 17X Dupree, was arrested. His first trial resulted in a hung jury, and he was acquitted at a second trial.

This week, reports in The Post and on the Judicial Watch Web site raised important questions about the FBI’s role in the case.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://nypost.com/2015/04/23/open-the-fbis-files-on-the-mosque-incident-cop-slaying/

Note: Randy Jurgensen appears above on the cover of his book, Circle of Six. The book covers the murder of officer Philip Cardillo and Jurgensen's investigation of the murder.

Famed Detective Randy Jurgensen Coming Back To The Big Screen

Ian Mohr at the New York Post offers a piece on former NYPD detective and filmmaker Randy Jurgensen returning to the big screen.

Legendary New York detective Randy Jurgensen — who was a consultant on “The French Connection” and “Donnie Brasco,” as well as the inspiration for Al Pacino’s character in the 1980 film “Cruising” — is coming back to the big screen, Page Six has learned.

Jurgensen’s 2006 book, “Circle of Six: The True Story of New York’s Most Notorious Cop Killer and the Cop Who Risked Everything to Catch Him,” about his investigation of the infamous Harlem mosque incident in 1972, has been adapted as a feature by veteran “Law & Order: SVU” writer Jonathan Greene.

Tod “Kip” Williams, whose credits include “Paranormal Activity 2,” will direct.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://pagesix.com/2014/07/19/famed-detective-randy-jurgensen-coming-back-to-the-big-screen/

Note: I read Circle of Six and interviewed Randy Jurgensen a while back, but to my regret I put the Q & A on the back burner. I hope to post the interesting interview here in the near future.

Prime Suspect In '72 NYPD Cop Slay Had Been Under FBI Investigation

The New York Post reports that the prime suspect in the 1972 murder of an NYPD officer at a mosque was under FBI surveillance for at least seven years before the slaying.

Louis Dupree, who was charged twice in the killing Officer Philip Cardillo, 31, had been in the cross-hairs of at least six federal informants before the mosque shooting, according to bureau files obtained by The Post.

Cardillo, a father of three was gunned down inside a Nation of Islam mosque, 40 years ago this Saturday. No one has ever been convicted of the crime.

The shocking FBI documents reveal that least two of the informant’s identities were so sensitive, the bureau believed releasing their names could compromise national security. Another notes that several of the FBI’s informants within the Nation of Islam had “furnished reliable information in the past.”

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/prime_suspect_in_cop_slay_had_been_d8hh9xvmsrMFe4X4n930RN

Note: I recently interviewed Randy Jurgensen, the former NYPD detective who investigated Officer Cardillo's murder and later wrote a book about the murder called Circle of Six. The interview will appear here in the near future.