Betrayal in Blue: The Shocking Memoir of the Scandal That Rocked the NYPD

by Burl Barer, Frank C. Girardot Jr., Ken Eurell

Overview

The true story of drugs and corruption in Brooklyn’s 75th precinct, as told by a cop who lived it, a journalist, and an Edgar Award-winning author.
 
They had no fear of the cops. Because they were the cops.

NYPD officers Mike Dowd and Kenny Eurell knew there were two ways to get rich quick in the Seven-Five. You either became drug dealers, or you robbed drug dealers. They decided to do both. Dowd and Eurell ran the most powerful gang in East New York’s dangerous 75th Precinct, the crack cocaine capital of 1980s America. These “Cocaine Cops” formed a lucrative alliance with Adam Diaz, the kingpin of an ever-expanding Dominican drug cartel. Soon Mike and Ken were buying fancy cars no cop could afford, and treating their wives to levels of luxury not associated with a patrol officer’s salary. They were daring, dangerous and untouchable—until the biggest police scandal in New York history exploded into the headlines with the arrest of Mike, Ken, and their fellow crooked cops. Released on bail, Mike offered Ken a long shot at escape to Central America—a bizarre plan involving robbery, kidnapping, and murder—forcing Ken to choose between two forms of betrayal.

“When you lie, you steal the truth. Once you have stolen the truth, you can justify stealing anything from anybody.”

Adapted from Ken Eurell’s personal memoirs of the time plus hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with the major players, including Adam Diaz and Dori Eurell, this book reveals the truth behind the documentary The Seven Five. Edgar Award winner Burl Barer once again teams with award-winning journalist Frank C. Girardot, Jr, and Eurell to bring you an astonishing story of greed and betrayal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781942266730
Publisher:	WildBlue Press
Publication date:	05/20/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	270
Sales rank:	575,711
File size:	811 KB

About the Author

Burl Barer is a Edgar Award winning author and two-time Anthony Award nominee with extensive media, advertising, marketing, and public relations experience.

Garnering accolades for his creative contributions to radio, television, and print media, Barer's career has been highlighted in The Hollywood Reporter, London Sunday Telegraph, New York Times, USA Today, Variety, Broadcasting, Electronic Media,and on ABC's Good Morning America.

Barer is a frequent commentator on numerous true crime radio and television programs heard and seen world wide, including "True Murder," "Epic Mysteries," "Deadly Sins," "Deadly Women," "Motives and Murders" "Snapped" "Scorned," "Behind Mansion Walls" and Hart Fisher's AMERICAN HORRORS "True Crime Roundtable" now available on ROKU.
Burl Barer also hosts the award winning Internet radio show, TRUE CRIME UNCENSORED on Magic Matt Alan's OutlawRadioUSA.com

His true crime classic, MURDER IN THE FAMILY, is ranked at #3 on the "Ten Best True Crime Books Ever Written," and Barer is listed as one of America's 100 "MUST READ" authors. His books have been translated into seven languages, and English versions are available in print, ebook and audio book.

Of his more than a dozen works in print, several are available from WildBlue Press, including HEADLOCK, MAN OVERBOARD, A TASTE FOR MURDER (with Frank C. Girardot, Jr) and the ebook edition of MURDER IN THE FAMILY.

Frank Girardot (born 1961, Detroit, Michigan) is an American author, journalist, victim advocate, and radio host. He is CEO of Pegasus Communications, LLC and a former editor and columnist for the Los Angeles News Group.

Girardot got his start in journalism as a copy boy at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.Subsequent to the newspaper's closing, he worked for the Ontario Daily Report, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and the Pasadena Star-News. His 1994 story on the unsolved murder of Geneva Hilliker Ellroy, the mother of novelist James Ellroy resulted in Ellroy's book,"My Dark Places".He has won several writing awards including the Southern California Press Association's award for Investigative Journalism 1995, the Los Angeles Press Club's First Place Award for sportswriting in 1998 and was a finalist for the 2015 University of Florida Award for Investigative Data Journalism in 2015.Girardot headed a project for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group titled "Getting Away with Murder." The effort chronicled 11,242 homicides that occurred in Los Angeles County between 2000 and 2010. Relying on data supplied by the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner the project found that less than 50 percent of all homicides that occurred countywide were ever solved.
Girardot is the author of true crime non-fiction books, including "Name Dropper", which was cited by author Walter Kirn in his book "Blood Will Out." He is co-author with Burl Barer of "A Taste For Murder", published by Wild Blue Press.

Girardot has appeared on several true crime shows on various cable networks including Investigation Discovery. He has been a frequent guest on Crime Time with Allison Hope Weiner on LipTV. He has also appeared on Fox New sand Dateline NBC. His topics of expertise include murder investigation, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Richard Ramirez, Clark Rockefeller and Los Angeles area true crime. In 2015, Girardot co-hosted the Randy Economy Show in Los Angeles on radio station KRLA.

Girardot resides in Pasadena, California. He has three children and is a Roman Catholic. He plays guitar in Thunderheart, a band he formed with "Breaking Bad" co-star Dean Norris.

Co-author Ken Eurell was born and raised in Queens, New York during the '60s. He was raised Irish Catholic. Attended private school and church every Sunday. As a teenager growing up back then sports dominated his life. Learning to wrench on their own cars came naturally to Eurell and his friends. He considered becoming an auto mechanic but instead ended up in the electronics field after high school graduation. It was then that he began to consider a career in law enforcement. Many of the neighborhood dads had city jobs as cops, fire fighters and sanitation workers. It was a well know fact benefits were good with a 20 year pension.

In 1978 when he was just 18 the first civil service exam for police officer was given since 1975. Eurell took a few preparatory classes and scored a 98 out of 100 questions correct. After a thorough investigation process, it wasn't long before he was hired by the NYPD. At the young age of 20 on January 26th 1981 Eurell was sworn in at NYPD headquarters. Six months of academy studies went quickly and the comradery and brotherhood was ingrained. He was assigned the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn for training. From there Eurell was then assigned to the 75 precinct in the East New York section of Brooklyn.

Being an NYPD officer allowed for Eurell to marry, buy a home and move out to the suburbs to start a family. It wasn't until a fateful partner assignment years later in 1987 that Eurell was exposed to the darker side of the NYPD. Making the decision whether to cross over the thin blue line when it's presented comes with all kinds of consequences with either choice.

After two years of criminal behavior as a police officer, Eurell began to write down his exploits into a memoir. The criminal activity continued for another 3 years until in May of 1992 when he was arrested with the partner who crossed the blue line with him back in 1987.

The drug distribution charges were quickly turned over to the federal government and a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization charge was brought forth. More commonly known as RICO Act it allows for extended penalties for being part of an ongoing criminal enterprise.

In 2012 Eurell appeared in the documentary about his time as an NYPD officer, appropriately titled The Seven Five. The rights were purchased by Sony and is being produced into a Hollywood feature.

In 2014 Eurell partnered with co-authors Burl Barer and Frank Girardot Jr. Together they turned the memoir into the hard hitting true crime novel, Betrayal in Blue: The shocking memoir of the scandal that rocked the NYPD.

Today, Eurell resides in Florida and remains married to his wife Dori of 31 years who stood by his side. Together they raised two successful children and enjoy spending time with their two grandsons.

Editorial Reviews

"This was an excellent book...much more then was covered in the documentary...very open and honest and held nothing back...I was a former federal agent and fully understand how these things can happen...great read!!!" - Philip Karge

"I knew there was corruption in the New York Police Department back in the 80s but I never dreamed how bad it really was until I read this book. This was a real eye-opener for me as well as a real page turner. This is a very well written book and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes true stories as well as true crime." - Lee Huseman

"Gritty book telling true story of corruption in New York Police Dept. Having followed the headlines when this story broke, the authors told it all that wasn't in the news and pulled it together in a book that you can't put down. Very well written, good historical context, transcripts from interviews all placed in chronological order that make for a riveting read." - Virginia, Amazon

From the Publisher