Marked Man: Frank Serpico's Inside Battle Against Police Corruption

by John Florio, Ouisie Shapiro

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250621955
Publisher:	Roaring Brook Press
Publication date:	03/19/2024
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	689,299
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

John Florio and Ouisie Shapiro are the authors of Doomed, War in the Ring, One Nation Under Baseball, and One Punch from the Promised Land. They’ve written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Nation, and ESPN. Florio, also a novelist, is on the faculty of the Stonecoast MFA creative writing program at the University of Southern Maine. Shapiro is a six-time Emmy-award winning writer of television documentaries. They are married and live in Brooklyn, NY.

Editorial Reviews

01/08/2024

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. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Gritty and inspiring." — Kirkus Reviews

"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." — Publishers Weekly

"Careful...and extensive." — Booklist

From the Publisher

2023-12-16
A profile of the maverick undercover officer who exposed widespread corruption in the New York City Police Department.

In this concise work, readers get an overview of the colorful lifestyle of Italian American Frank Serpico, who was played by Al Pacino in the 1973 movie Serpico. The authors add substantial passages from original interviews with their subject, offering clear senses of both his personal voice and his stubborn idealism; they recount how his refusal to participate in widespread payoffs as a cop in the late ’60s and early ’70s had him continually being transferred from precinct to precinct like a hot potato—until he was shot during a drug bust in what may have been a setup and forced to retire on a disability pension. What comes through loud and clear is that what finally prompted him to go to the papers with his story was his inability to get anything for his testimony but platitudes and promises from city officials. The ensuing scandal resulted in reforms and some changes in government attitudes and police culture, but those with even a tangential awareness of current events will come away agreeing with the assessment of this still-proud whistleblower (or, to use his preferred term, lamplighter) that the “blue wall of silence” and official complicity are still shielding too many injustices to preserve public confidence in the probity of our police.

Gritty and inspiring, if light on specific details. (note to readers, glossary, source notes, bibliography, image credits, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews