All the Centurions: A New York City Cop Remembers His Years on the Street, 1961-1981 - Hardcover

Leuci, Robert

3.8

109 ratings by Goodreads

9780380976263: All the Centurions: A New York City Cop Remembers His Years on the Street, 1961-1981

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0380976269 ISBN 13: 9780380976263

Publisher: William Morrow, 2004

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His story was told in the bestseller and acclaimed film Prince of the City. He was a detective in the narcotics division of the New York City Police Department during the 1960s and 1970s -- its most explosive and dramatic decades. His name is Robert Leuci, and now he is telling his own story.

All the Centurions is Leuci's accurately and sometimes mercilessly remembered account of young manhood -- a tale filled with dreadful and daring adventures on the streets and in the courthouses of New York City. Leuci takes us into the world of the New York City Police Department at a time when the city was crumbling under its own weight, drugs were taking over the poorer neighborhoods, and crime was rampant on the streets and subways. But this is also a story of shattered illusions and personal loss, of endurance and healing, and, finally, of astonishing spiritual growth. Leuci describes his evolution from a naive rookie to a seasoned detective who believes that the only people he can trust are his fellow cops -- until he learns that even that might not be true.

Leuci remembers the incredibly heroic men and women who behaved more bravely than anyone thought possible -- police officers both celebrated and notorious, like Frank Serpico, Sonny Grosso, and Eddie Egan and Detective Frank King from the French Connection case; high-ranking lawyers like Alan Dershowitz, Rudy Giuliani, and Tom Puccio. Leuci also reveals the dark side of New York City's criminal justice system: the bitterness, poison, greed, untamed cruelty, and ambition that eventually overflowed into the alleyways, rooftops, precinct houses, and courtrooms of the city.

All the Centurions is an engrossing read filled with great chase scenes and intriguing dramas while being, at its core, the story of a man descending into a hell of his own making who ultimately finds the way out through truth and justice. This is a true story about the mean streets of New York that is as vivid and entertaining as the best crime novel.

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About the Author:

A narcotics detective in New York City for more than twenty years, Robert Leuci is the author of several books, including Blaze. He lives in Rhode Island.

From Publishers Weekly:

Ex-cop Leuci presents an unflinching if familiar tale of the ravages of drug-related police corruption in New York City. The broad aspects of his story were previously treated in Robert Daley's Prince of the City, later adapted into a Sidney Lumet movie starring Treat Williams as Leuci. Here the author traces in detail the incremental steps that turned him from a na�ve and idealistic beat cop into an arrogant dirty one, who easily rationalized ripping off drug dealers and playing along with rampant graft. To his credit, Leuci doesn't sugarcoat or paper over his lies, his betrayal of the public and his family, or pretend that he was unaware at the time that what he was doing was wrong. These flaws make him a classic tragic figure, especially when he begins to make a belated effort to redeem himself by cooperating with the Knapp Commission. Though Leuci still lectures to police departments around the country, and presumably continues to follow the NYPD, his failure to comment on more recent scandals or offer insights as to how corruption could be minimized is unfortunate. Still, for those new to his story, this will be an eye-opening look at some of the wages of the war on drugs during the 1960s and '70s.
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