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Serpico: The Classic Story of the Cop Who Couldn't Be Bought

by Peter Maas

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A police-corruption account centered on Frank Serpico’s refusal to participate

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A police-corruption account centered on Frank Serpico’s refusal to participate

Peter Maas situates Frank Serpico’s story within 1960s New York City, where the book describes bribery, protection payments, and shakedowns as embedded practices within parts of the police department. Serpico, a Brooklyn-born officer, stands apart from that culture and confronts the institutional silence protecting corrupt colleagues. The account frames his actions not as an abstract campaign against crime but as a conflict inside the force itself, shaped by an oath he insists on honoring. An afterword by Frank Serpico extends the edition’s connection to its central figure.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • True-crime readers interested in police corruption and institutional accountability
  • Readers seeking nonfiction rooted in 1960s New York City
  • Those interested in whistleblower stories and conflicts of conscience

Themes

Police corruptionWhistleblowingInstitutional silenceIntegrity1960s New York City

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Book overview

THE CLASSIC TRUE STORY OF THE COP WHO COULDN'T BE BOUGHT

"I don't think anyone can come away from Serpico without admiration for one man's lonely integrity." --New York Times

With an Afterword by Frank Serpico

The 1960s was a time of social and generational upheaval felt with particular intensity in the melting pot of New York City. A culture of corruption pervaded the New York Police Department, where payoffs, protection, and shakedowns of gambling rackets and drug dealers were common practice. The so-called blue code of silence protected the minority of crooked cops from the sanction of the majority.

Into this maelstrom came a working class, Brooklyn-born, Italian cop with long hair, a beard, and a taste for opera and ballet. Frank Serpico was a man who couldn't be silenced--or bought--and he refused to go along with the system. He had sworn an oath to uphold the law, even if the perpetrators happened to be other cops. For this unwavering commitment to justice, Serpico nearly paid with his life.

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