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Corrupt New York cops, what else could make for a better read?
By M&C News Jun 20, 2007, 15:18 GMT
One of the best films ever made that displays the corruption of the New York City Police Department is the 1973 Sidney Lumet film Serpico, starring Al Pacino as Frank
Serpico, who was one of the few cops who risked his life to not fall into corruption.
Now, a new book called Satan’s Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption and New York’s Trial of the Century by Mike Dash is what The New York Times is calling, “a careful reconstruction of Becker’s trial, the events leading up to it and the world in which he practiced his peculiar version of law enforcement.” The book tells the tale of Charles Becker, a man who went on trial in 1912 for the murder of ‘gangster and gambling-house operator', Herman Rosenthal. As Publishers Weekly states about Charles Becker, “[he] quickly earned a reputation for extreme corruption and brutality.”
This book has been called well researched, and one that not only tells this one man’s tale, but it also exposes the history from a greater perspective. Crown is the publisher and it finishes at 464 pages.
For those interested, I strongly recommend the film Serpico. The review I Am Serpico can be read here, as well as a photo of the DVD can be seen along the sidebar of my blog here. (Just scroll down).
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