NYPD Honors Whistleblower Frank Serpico 50 Years Late (2024)

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Who was a famous whistleblower in widespread corruption of the NYPD in the 1970s? ›

Francesco Vincent Serpico (born April 14, 1936) is an American retired New York Police Department detective, best known for whistleblowing on police corruption. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was a plainclothes police officer working in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan to expose vice racketeering.

Serpico was shot in the face during a drug arrest in Brooklyn in 1971 months before he testified and has maintained that the other officers he was with never made a call for an “officer down.”

After the movie debuted and Pacino nailed the performance, the real Frank Serpico went off the grid. He initially moved halfway around the world to Switzerland to convalesce and then to the Netherlands. Today, he lives in upstate New York in a small log cabin that he built himself.

According to Serpico himself, the film is a highly accurate representation of what actually happened during his years serving between 1960 and 1971, right down to the minutiae of Pacino's work.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two IRS whistleblowers, Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler, who spent years working on the Hunter Biden tax evasion case, appeared before the Ways and Means Committee in a hearing for the first time, in order to defend themselves, answer questions, and provide new material supporting their claims that the ...

NYPD's Quest for Redemption

Frank Serpico's revelations in the early 1970s sent shockwaves through the NYPD, exposing a web of corruption and misconduct that had festered within the department for years.

There are numerous violent and suspenseful scenes which include an attempted rape, the beating of handcuffed prisoners by policemen, chases and take-downs on foot and in vehicles, fighting and gunfire. A man is shot in the face, then shown wounded and bloody during several sequences.

Serpico and Blair take their story to The New York Times. After his allegations are printed, his superiors retaliate by assigning him to a dangerous narcotics squad in Brooklyn. During a raid on a drug trafficker's apartment, Serpico's partners hold back at a critical moment and Serpico gets shot in the face.

Frank Serpico's nickname "Paco" is actually "Francis" in Spanish. "Paco" is short for "Francisco". After he decided to make the film, Al Pacino invited Frank Serpico to stay with him at a house that Pacino had rented in Montauk, New York.

A 1970s trial of 21 members of the Black Panther Party revealed that NYPD infiltrated and kept dossiers on not only the Black Panthers and other radical groups, but also on anti-war groups, gay rights activists, educational reform advocates, religious groups, and civic organizations.

Where do most Americans live in Switzerland? ›

Here are some cities that are often favored by expatriates: Zurich: Zurich is Switzerland's largest city and a global financial hub. It offers a vibrant cultural scene, excellent public transportation, and a high standard of living. The city is known for its diverse neighborhoods, ranging from the bustling city cente.

Now, Serpico tells his story in his own words: from his Italian-American roots in Brooklyn to his disillusionment with the NYPD to his riveting account of a dramatic drug bust, and possible set-up that ended with him being shot in the face.

Nestled in between the two great Godfather films in 1973 is another terrific performance in Serpico. It is the true story of Frank Serpico, a New York City cop who goes undercover and ends up exposing widespread police corruption going on throughout the city.

On his first day in the neighborhood, movie Frank adopts a sheepdog he names Alfie, and over time, he also acquires pet mice, a full fish tank, and a quiet co*ckatoo. These are the gentle souls Serpico comes home to.

Now 87, Serpico blew the whistle on widespread police corruption involving gambling and narcotics in the 1960s and 1970s. he has waited five decades to get his hands on his files.

Frank Serpico is an American former police officer and whistleblower, best known for his courageous actions in exposing widespread corruption within the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in the 1970s. Born on April 14, 1936, in Brooklyn, New York, Serpico grew up in a working-class Italian-American family.

Samuel Shaw was a Revolutionary War naval officer who, along with Richard Marven, were the first whistleblowers of the infant United States.