90 Church: Inside America's Notorious First Narcotics Squad

Dean Unkefer

ISBN 10: 1504633725 ISBN 13: 9781504633727

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc., 2015

Synopsis

[Read by Keith Szarabajka]

Mad Men meets The Wire in this gripping true-crime memoir by a former agent at the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1960s New York.

Before Nixon famously declared a ''war on drugs,'' there was the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. New York City, mid-1960s. The war in Vietnam was on the nation's tongue -- but so was something else. Clandestine and chaotic, but equally ruthless, the agents of the bureau were feared by the Mafia, dealers, pimps, prostitutes -- anyone who did his or her business on the streets. With few rules and almost no oversight, the battle-hardened agents of the bureau were often more vicious than the criminals they chased.

Agent Dean Unkefer was a naïve kid with notions of justice and fair play when he joined up. But all that quickly changed once he got thrown into the lion's den of 90 Church, the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, where he was shocked to see the agents he revered were often more like thugs than lawmen.

When he finally got the chance to prove his mettle by going undercover in the field, the lines became increasingly blurred. As he spiraled into the hell of addiction and watched his life become a complex balancing act of lies and half-truths, he began to wonder what side he was really on.

90 Church is both the unbelievable memoir of one man's confrontation with the dark corners of the human experience and a fascinating window into a little-known time in American history. Learn the story of the agents who make the DEA look like choirboys.

About this title

About the Author

DEAN UNKEFER is a former agent with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Review

''90 Church is a wild, terrifying, unpredictable, ride with ruthless, violent men--the sort who don't count the dead bodies and ruined lives they leave strewn behind them. And I'm referring to the 'good guys': The twisted, grizzled lawmen of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. They pursue powerful Mafia families, slick amoral business pros, beautiful people, and Colombian cocaine barons alike with equal zest. The resolution of every glitch or kink in the process almost always involves a murder or two. With unerring pace and clear style, ex-agent Unkefer creates an irresistible and sometimes funny--but ultimately heartbreaking--first person narrative of his own, and his agency's, self-destruction. Treading the pages, the reader enters the upside down world of dealers, users, informants, assassins, pimps, crooked cops, and slimy middle class middle men. I found it shocking on multiple levels--the treachery of the agents to themselves, the informants, the criminals, their bureau, society, and their families. And in the end, the war on drugs wasn't theirs to lose or win.'' --Marc Songini, author of Boston Mob: The Rise and Fall of the New England Mob and Its Most Notorious Killer

''As we watch the author transition from a naïve young agent to a disillusioned veteran, we see him kill his first man, build a corruption case against some of his own colleagues, and watch as his own bad choices lead to the breakdown of his marriage. The book has the same feel as Peter Maas' Serpico and Robert Daley's Prince of the City, both nonfiction accounts (later turned into popular films) of cops who struggled to keep their moral and ethical equilibriums. For anyone interested in true crime from the cop's point of view.'' --Booklist

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1504633725
• ISBN 13: 9781504633727
• Binding: Audio CD
• Number of pages: 1