One Detective's Journey Into the Abyss: Roads Traveled, Lessons Learned, Villainy Exposed

Being raised in the New York metropolitan region but living in the San Francisco Bay area exposed Martens to two worlds. One was inundated with Mafia and racketeering. The other was the nascent evolution of the Free Speech, Free Love, and anti-Viet Nam War movements. Both experiences shaped his perspective on government institutions and the fragile role of the law in ensuring domestic tranquility.

Only through experiencing the pernicious powers of the Mafia could one fully appreciate the damage that can and is visited on the body politic of a region or a state. With the racial unrest that consumed New Jersey in the sixties coupled with the national attention that resulted in New Jersey being labeled “the most corrupt state in the nation,” did Martens come to realize just how organized crime had become indistinguishable from government. The body-politic was terminally ill; political cancer that had metastasized.

After an impressive investigative career in the New Jersey State Police, Martens was appointed to the position of Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Crime Commission. While the Mafia had extended its tentacles throughout the government, local criminal organizations posed an equally-pernicious threat to the body-politic. Confronted with political retribution from both local and state politicians, investigating the attorney general proved to be the Commission’s death knell. In the words of some, it was a murder-suicide.

Reflecting on his extraordinary law enforcement career, Martens infiltrated narcotics enterprises, investigated terrorist organizations, electronically-surveilled Mafia members, and exposed corruption on a local, state, and federal levels. It was a career many dream about but few experience. And he has lived to tell about it.