Police Off The Cuff/Real Crime Stories

Good Folks Mad City Life on the Edge FDNY and NYPD True Crime and Author series

Duration:: 1h 1m
Broadcast on:: 22 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

True Crime Author series "Good Folks Mad City" by Mike Colon. #MikeColon #truecrimestories #NYPD #FDNY Good Folks, Mad City: Life on The Edge in The FDNY & NYPD extracts 40 stories from the over 200 first responder interviews that I have done on my podcast Mic'd in New Haven over the years with both active and retired members of the New York City Fire Department and New York City Police Department. These stories range from phenomenal technical rescues, major criminal investigations, hostage rescues, shootouts, major fires, defusing bombs, and the response to the World Trade Center attacks in both 1993 and 2001. A gripping firsthand recollection of some of the biggest emergencies in New York City's history as told by the men and women in blue and red who were there, this book will take you a wild ride on what it's like to walk the beat or run to box alarms in the greatest city in the world. 💯 Join our mission to uncover the truth in crime! Support Police Off the Cuff on Patreon for exclusive content and insider access. Click now and become a part of our detective squad: https://www.patreon.com/policeoffthecuff 💬 Did you like this video? Let me know in the comments below! ✅ Subscribe to Police off the Cuff right now! Click here: https://www.youtube.com/@PoliceofftheCuff?sub_confirmation=1 Or become a YouTube Member to get access to perks here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKo80Xa1PYTc23XN_Yjp8pA/join --------------- Welcome to the Official YouTube Channel of Police off the Cuff This is where the veil of mystery on high-profile cases is lifted through the sharp insights of seasoned law enforcement professionals and where real crime meets real analysis. This is your destination for exploring the complexities of true crime stories, illuminated by the rich experience and street wisdom of those who have walked the thin blue line. At the helm is retired NYPD Sergeant Bill Cannon, a figure of authority in the crime investigation arena, with a diverse background that spans across acting, broadcasting, and academia. Bill's profound knowledge and keen analytical skills, combined with his empathetic approach, make each story not just heard but felt. Phil's extensive investigative experience, coupled with his genuine passion and characteristic Brooklyn charm, adds depth and relatability to the discussions. ➡️ Here we navigate the intricate web of the nation's most captivating crime stories, offering not just stories, but an education on the realities of criminal investigation. Their combined expertise provides a unique lens through which the stories are told, offering insights that only those with firsthand experience can provide. Join us on this journey into the heart of true crime, where every episode promises a deep dive into the minds of criminals and the tireless efforts of law enforcement to bring them to justice. --------------- 📲 Follow Police off the Cuff on social media: Instagram ▶️ https://www.instagram.com/policeoffthecuff Facebook ▶️ https://www.facebook.com/Policeoffthecuff-312794509230136/ Twitter ▶️ https://twitter.com/policeoffthecuf 🎧 Dive deep into true crime with Police Off the Cuff Podcast. Join retired NYPD expert Bill Cannon as he dissects infamous cases with insider insight: https://anchor.fm/otcpod1 ☑️ Support Police Off the Cuff and help us bring you more captivating crime stories. Every contribution makes a difference! Choose your preferred way to donate: Venmo: https://venmo.com/William-Cannon-27 PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/policeoffthecuff1gma --------------- 📚 Disclaimer: This video may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. --------------- #PoliceOffTheCuff

(upbeat music) - Hello everyone and welcome to "Police Off the Cuff." It's not really real crime stories. This is the law and crime author series. And I have this person you're seeing to my right on the screen is none other than the author of, I'll put his book up on the screen, Good Folks Mad City, Life on the Edge in the FDNY and NYPD. And his name is Mike Colone. And Mike has been a podcast. Besides being, there's this podcast right there and I believe his podcast has over 331 episodes as of June 28th. I don't know if you've done an episode since then, Mike, but he's, what this book came out of Good Folks Mad City were his interviews with heroes from the FDNY and NYPD. And they're what we would call in the business as war stories. And Mike very cleverly wrote a book about this stuff. Didn't just put it on audio, but used all his interviews to cleverly write this book and some of the stories are just fascinating. The inside stories to 9/11, certain rescues, police investigations, gun fights, all the type of war stories. I'm surprised he hasn't been contacted by Hollywood yet, but these stories are unbelievable. And you could see Mike is there with his Good Folks Mad City book. And Mike, welcome to the show. I've talked enough. - Good to have, good to be here rather. Thanks for having me, of course, for those of you that are longtime followers of police off the cuff, you know, Billy and I go way back. So it's good to be back with you, my friend. Good to see you. - Absolutely, Mike, you know, and one of the let me, let me just read the intro to your book. Good Folks Mad City Life on the Edge in the FDNY and NYPD extracts 40 stories from the over 200 first responder interviews that Mike Colone has done on his podcast, Mike in New Haven over the years with both active and retired members of the New York City Fire Department and New York City Police Department. These stories range from phenomenal technical rescues, major criminal investigations, hostage rescues, shootouts, major fires, diffusing bombs and the response to the World Trade Center attacks in both 1993 and 2001. A gripping first-hand recollection of some of the biggest emergencies in New York City's history as told by the men and women in blue and Red who were there. This book will take you on a wild ride and what it's like to walk the beat or run to box alarms in the greatest city in the world. Well, Mike, I want you to tell us, talk to us, talk us through this, talk us how this idea became and all about all some of these interviews that you've done with these NYPD and FDNY heroes. - Oh, sure, well, the genesis of it was our mutual friend Billy Ryan and you guys follow off the cuff, see him in the chat frequently. Billy Ryan is a retired first-grade detective on the NYPD more specifically. He was in the arson and explosion squad and Billy and I have collaborated a lot over the years and there is a mini series I have on my podcast that focuses on retired members of both arson and explosion and the bomb squad. It's called Tales in the Boom Room and Billy's a co-creator of that. We talk a lot off the air with good friends and he recommended during a period of time where I was on an extended hiatus from the podcast that I look back through the library and I begin the process of transcribing things and putting it into a book. Now, I had a lot of my play at the time. I thought it was a good idea, but I forgotten about it. In a follow-up conversation, he mentions it again. And as I mentioned before, that was my light bulb going off over the head mover. I'm like, you know what, Billy's right. I should sit down, I should look at what I have. I've done so many of these interviews. There's a lot of great stories here on both sides of the aisle. Let's put this together. The process was started in late January, early February. I had two editors helping me along the way, Justin Lee, who is the son of a recently retired F-T-N-Y safety chief, Frank Lee, and Samantha Peters, who's based out of Chicago, and both did a great job with this process. And as you said, Bill, and you put it perfectly, it's one thing to put it on video and audio, but it's another thing to put it into written form. I saw the need to put it into written form because I realized just how many great stories I've been told over the years. - You know, Mike, we call them war stories, and that's what we call them in the NYPD. And when cops get together, of course, they like to tell their war stories. They like to re-enact and recount some of their most harrowing details of the job. Sometimes funny stories, lots of funny stories 'cause cops and firemen have great senses of humor because you need to have that macabre sense of humor to see some of the horrific things that you actually do see. So how did you come across many of these folks that came on your show and who later became memorialized in your book? - A combination of really Facebook and LinkedIn, I found you through LinkedIn when I had you on my show a number of years ago, that's how I reached out to you. And that's how I get a lot of my guests through Facebook through LinkedIn. Some of it is cold calling, but primarily through those messages. And you look through their resumes, you look at what they've done and what they've seen. And it's just incredible and how could you not want to document it? And I think the more the show grew in popularity, the easier of a sell it was because my name went around the FDNY NYPD community. Yeah, this is Mike Colone, guys, pretty solid. Word of mouth travels fast. And when good friends of good friends recommend you in the positive, it allowed me to come in contact with these people and allowed me to memorialize their stories first in the podcast and then later on in the book. - You know, Mike, I could see that, you know, you have 331 episodes on your podcast miked in New Haven. And I'll put this up on the screen. This is Mike's podcast. And the question is, how did you choose 40 stories out of these 331 episodes? What made you pick the 40 that you chose for the book to memorialize them in print? - That's a good question and a question I've gotten before. And I've said this previously and elaborate on here. If I took every story, and this is not to say that one story is more important than the other, I value them all, I cherished them all. But if I took every story, the book would be over a thousand pages. So it was really tough to narrow it down. But what I focused on was, I knew I wanted an even number. Why? Well, because I wanted to make sure that since there's a heavy focus on both agencies, both agencies are represented equally in this book. So 40 seemed like a good number where you can get 20 really good police stories and 20 really good fire stories. And I wanted to focus on all aspects because as I've noted in the book, and I write this, I believe in my forward, there is very few professions in this world, very few that encompasses the full emotional spectrum that a human being can go through. And you touched on a bill. There are funny moments as a police officer and as a firefighter anywhere, but especially in a city like New York. There are absurd moments where they're neither funny nor sad, but they're just, how the heck did that happen? Okay, I guess New York for you. There's silly moments, and then there's flat out heartbreaking and disturbing moments that just really puts you down in the dumps. And that is something that in 20, 25, 30 years or even beyond that, a police officer or firefighter will experience quite a bit of in their career. So I wanted to cover every bit of those stories along with the technical aspects too, as far as leadership is concerned. Chief some both jobs. I have a chapter in there on Commissioner Bratton and his process of gradually turning New York City around from where it was, which was a cesspool in the late '80s, a Wild West in the early '90s, into a model city where crime was going down and we had a great renaissance. I have another chapter touching on the technical side of things as well with Chief John Norman, former chief of the Special Operations Command for the New York City Fire Department, how it was to rebuild the Special Operations Command after 9/11 when 97 of the 343 firefighters lost on 9/11 were from Special Operations. So I tried to cover everything. And once I had a good idea, it became gradually easier to narrow it down. But man, there were some stories that it was really tough to leave out to be honest with you. - You know, Mike, you mentioned 9/11 and 343 firefighters lost on that day, probably the biggest loss of firefighters ever in the entire world. - Yeah. And I remember after that, you know, that firemen and cops will go into funerals for months and months and months. And you can just imagine people that from looking from the outside looking in can imagine what the hell was it like for these firemen to go to funerals for months of their comrades and realizing that it could have been them too. It could have been anybody, you know? I'm a 9/11 first responder and I responded that day with three detectives from the two, three detective squad. I still count my lucky stars that I survived that day, you know? And I could very easily have lost my life that day and the three detectives with me. I'll just mention their names. Detective Billy Hicks, Detective Jimmy Zarakis and Detective Zedekiah Jennings. I'll always remember those three as the three detectives that I was with that day. But I don't want to make this about me, but the firefight is just, it's so heartbreaking and that day it just is like still, will always be as long as the first responders and the family members and everyone affected by that, it'll always be an open wound. And I'm glad that they still go there every year and read the names of the folks that lost their lives, even though there was a lot of political pressure for them to stop doing that. I think they got to continue honoring these people for as long as they can do that, for as long as the relatives and as long as the people demand it, demand that they want that. - No, I totally concur with that. And that's why I wanted to put that section in regarding the World Trade Center in both 1993 and 2001 in the book. It was important to focus on both because of the magnitude of the events in 2001, people forget about the magnitude of the events in 1993. So having that specialized section and focused on what FD and PD went through in both instances was a critical part to include in the book. - Absolutely. Folks, this is the law and crime author series that I do on the police off the cuff show. And our special guest is Mike Colone, whose book on the screen here, Good Folks, Mad City, a compilation of stories, life on the edge in the FDNY and NYPD, a compilation of 40 stories that you're not gonna find anywhere else. These stories also come to us unedited in an unedited way. There's no wokeness to them. There's no putting in TV type things. These are the real stories by the real people that live these stories. And these type of stories, when we read or when these stories become part of, say TV or movie folklore, they're always sort of dumbed down a little bit or maybe softened a little bit 'cause the grittiness and the edginess of these real stories may not be suitable for TV. Perhaps they'd be suitable for movies. But it's good that someone, and namely in this instance, Mike Colone has decided to tell these stories through interviewing on his Mike the New Haven show, the real participants in these real life events that will be memorialized in his book, Good Folks, Mad City. What a hell of a plug that was, Mike. - Thank you very much. I couldn't have plugged it any better myself. Great job. - You know, Mike, I'm gonna put you on the spot, right? I'm just gonna pull out some of you, episode 320, the E-Men inside the NYPD's emergency service unit. Talk to us about that. - So that's one of the miniseries I have on the show, and that is focusing, as the title says, on the men and women of the NYPD emergency service unit. That came to me because a while ago, I was getting ready to interview Sergeant John Lampkin who was a police officer in truck two up in Harlem, and he was later on a Sergeant in truck one, which is lower than afterward 13 precinct this. And him and I share a mutual friend, Paulie Perricone, who was retired out of the bomb squad, but Paulie prior to his stint in the bomb squad was an E-Man and truck one from 1993 until 2002. Years ago, in the seventh grade, when I was putting together a class project around the time of the anniversary of 9/11, one of the stories I curated was that of Sergeant Lampkin. So I tracked Sergeant Lampkin down, he came on the show and I thought to myself, well, he was a great interview. If I can interview him, I should do more of a spotlight on ESU, because, and there's a lot of ESU stories in this book, that unit, as it pertains to policing as a whole, not just in New York City, is a very unique unit in that no other units like it exist. You don't have a specialized operations police unit that can do the SWAT style stuff, excuse me, where Detective Squad says, "Hey, we got a murder suspect in there, can you go get them out?" But also in the same shift, rescue someone from a building collapse. To be half SWAT, half rescue is unheard of. So to have a mini-series dedicated to profiling members of that unit, that was a must and it's one of my favorite mini-series to do. - You know, like the members of the emergency service unit on the NYPD, first of all, they have fantastic training. They're a great, great unit. And they're so proud that they never wanna be called SWAT, because SWAT is a California term. And I'm like, "We're not California!" And they really want to be differentiated by we are emergency. We are emergency service squad, ESS or ESU, emergency service unit, you know? And that's how they wanna be remembered. And as you said, they serve not only as what most people would think in the Hollywood version of a SWAT special weapons and tactics. That is what they do, but they also do rescues. And they respond to EDPs, which is a huge part of their job. EDPs are emotionally disturbed persons, which couldn't be one of the most dangerous jobs that police officers on patrol respond to. And they're unpredictable, they're very dangerous. And there's a whole protocol, 'cause of course, many times through the years, mistakes were made and people, deadly physical force had to be used on an EDP. And it still happens all the time, but less frequently than ever, because I think the incident, and I was on the job at the time, I think I maybe was in the academy, there was a woman named Eleanor Bumpers. - Yes. - And she was an EDP, and the police responded to, she was a violent EDP and she had a huge, I think it was if I'm recalling correctly a steak knife, or even a butcher knife, very close to her. And it would be argued today that that incident, maybe they should have taken more time to de-escalate it, rather than, and I'm not, look, what happened? She wound up being shot and killed by emergency service, with a shotgun as she charged with her knife, and actually stabbed the ballistic shield, practically bent the knife, so she was an extremely big, powerful woman. So, they couldn't argue that deadly physical force, well, they did, they tried to indict, I believe the officer's name was Sullivan. And they tried to indict him for, and he was cleared as, I think, I believe, and I could be wrong on the facts, but by a grand jury of using deadly physical force, they found that the use of the deadly physical force was warranted, but it became a huge, huge political issue, it became a race issue, it became a issue that rewrote the patrol guide, basically in the handling of EDPs for the NYPD. Your thoughts on that case? - Yeah, I did, and any emergency service cop will tell you anything after that, all the training that went into handling and mostly disturbed and distressed people, was a byproduct of that tragedy, to where ESU has a lot of tools that don't wanna blow up their spot, but they do have a lot of tools, meant to de-escalate both with what they carry in their trucks to smaller REPs and also the big trucks too, meant to corral someone in a safe manner and control them in a safe manner before they can hurt someone or themselves, but let's not also forget, there is EMT training in ESU, there is even paramedic training, because a lot of guys in ESU have prior backgrounds working in an ambulance corps, but there's also something called EPT. Now, what is that? For those that don't know, if you are going to be an emergency service unit officer, you go through what's called emergency psychological training, and that it's the, once you graduate, you are then certified as an emergency psychological technician, which is you respond to these jobs where someone, unfortunately, is having a mental crisis, you've been trained in what to say, and just as importantly, what not to say, to calm them down, bring them back and have a peaceful resolution to the situation, all of which was a byproduct of the Eleanor Bumpers incident. - You know, sometimes I think that they expect too much from the police to be social workers, to be medical technicians, to be trained psychologists, you know, and there was also a movement to have actual real social workers respond to these EDP jobs. I think that's a bad idea. I think it's a bad idea because-- - Dangerous. - They can become violent without, in a split second, and you know, social workers, you know, yes, after the fact, bring them in, but don't bring them to these jobs, they're just clouding up the situation there. And I think, look, I have the most, the utmost respect for ESU, and I have to say, the little limerick, I call it, that ESU guys always smile when they hear this, and you know, when the public needs help, they call the police. When the police need help, they call ESU. ♪ Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun ♪ I used to say that one ESU would show up, they didn't always like it. I was almost like teasingly saying, "Well, the police need help, we call ESU." But they were great. And my whole police career, my 27 years, and my 22 years as a sergeant, I didn't hesitate to call ESU, because you know something? They did a great job. They never failed me in my entire career, whenever I called them. And it's always fantastic to know that you have that type of backup, whether to flush out a violent perk with a gun, whether it is to take a door where someone may be unconscious inside, whether it was dealing with EDPs. Emergency service was the best. - Yeah, absolutely. And I'll share one story. Mike Stewart told me this one. He's retired sergeant via LinkedIn. He told me the story. Sometime in the mid 90s, they get a call just like what you said. They think someone's unconscious inside the apartment. It was a welfare check. The family hadn't heard from the young woman in a few days. She's about 24 years old. They were growing very concerned. So emergency service shows up. One of the guys that hops out of the R.E.P. is John Delera. John Delera, sadly, was killed on 9/11. He was one of the 14 each time. - I remember him. - Yeah, well, you worked in the two, three, two trucks in Harlem. So you probably saw him on quite a bit of jobs. Big, strong guy. - I did actually see him on lots of jobs. - Yeah, very strong guy was a bodybuilder prior to becoming a cop. So he was really strong. And they're just about to take the door down. John says, hold on, he's a Bronx boy. He goes up via the fire escape, finds a window, MacGyver's the window, gets in, turns out the woman was in there, knocked out cold, not from any blow. She had taken one too many sleeping pills. She was in a deep sleep, but otherwise she was fine. Few minutes later, John walks the young woman to the door. She opens it up and all's well. So even in situations where you may think we may have to take down the door, we may have to do this. We may have to do that. There was always a practical way to go about the job. When you had E-men like John on the scene, practical was always going to be the way to go. So a little story there. - Oh, you know, Mike, I have a story just like that. I had a call one time where a woman was suicidal and that she was threatening to kill herself. So we get to the location, we knock on the door and no one answers. And my cop's like, ah, there's no one. I go, no, no, no, no, no, no. She could be unconscious, right? So I call the issue and they take the door and she's in there and she's unconscious. So had I not went that one step further and I'm not giving myself any credit, but you know, we saved her life because she may have died. She did take sleeping pills. It took whatever drug rendered her unconscious. So yes, they were great. I mean, look, I can't say enough about how good they are. And every police department should have an emergency service. I know a lot of them, the Hollywood types want a SWAT but emergency service is a, you know, they do everything. And it's fantastic. Oh, I'd be remiss now because there's probably fireman watching the school. Why is he going to talk about fire man? Okay, here we go. Episode 316, the beat chief run. Oh, no, no, no, I didn't want to do, I want to do the NYPD, FDNY episode 317, the best of the bravest chief of department Ed Kildoff. Tell us about him. - Ed Kildoff, former FDNY chief of department, 2010 to 2014, a distinguished career in the fire service did about 37 years, 77 to 14 until he aged out. And just another one, an absolute gentleman who really led by example and was not a micromanager. Some of the best bosses you're going to find in the fire department are those that don't have to say they're in command to let you know they're in command. There's no ego there. They trust their men. They understand the safety component. They know when to step in, but they don't do so at the detriment of their captains or lieutenants or chiefs underneath them. And the best of the bravest was another thing that it was funny. I had a conversation with my brother-in-law years ago where when the podcast returned from a two-year hiatus in 2020, I started delving into first responders. And as I mentioned earlier, Bill Cannon was one of my first guests for the first responders side. I was doing strictly police interviews for a while. And I was thinking to myself, don't get me wrong, I love my police interviews. They're great to do. I should be talking to firemen. So that was around the time I started the best of bravest interviews with the FDNY's elite and started again through Facebook and LinkedIn, reaching out to New York City firefighters who were retired and I know could share their stories at free will and gradually built that mini series up to where as it stands right now, it's another one of the backbones of the podcast. It's over 60 volumes. And it's really built up my FDNY audience. And I've gotten to meet a lot of great people, including Chief Kilduff, through doing that particular mini series. - You know, Mike, I just always, I wanted, you know, I was one of your first interviews. Why the hell did I make it into the book? (laughing) - That's one of the things, you know, again, whittling it down. But, you know, my next book, which will be a PD only book, and I got an FD only book I want to start working on too. I want to work with you on that, 'cause I know 27 years old investigations you did, I want to put you in the next one. - You know, it's, it's, I mean, I don't care if I'm in it or not, but I, I mean, I actually would be, it would be an honor, but I'm not jealous that I wasn't in it. In fact, I'm actually shooting an investigation this, this coming Saturday on an old case from the two, three. So, you know, every once in a while people call you, oh, did you work this case? Yes, oh, we'd like to put you on. So okay, okay, fine, how much? (laughing) That's my next question. How much do you pay me? - Yeah, that's the key, you gotta have that. - 'Cause they always try not to pay cops and firemen, and you gotta say, no, no, no, no, no, no. Look, I don't work for free, you know? - Exactly. - I leave my house, I get money, I get paid. - Amen. - You know, that's neither here nor there. All right, so, you know, Detective George Sickler, a retired 20-year veteran of the NYPD who served in the Bronx as a detective in the gun suppression unit, but most notably as a diver into the NYPD scuba unit joins the program. What can you tell us about Detective George Sickler? - Well, as it says, he was an interesting character in the fact that he got into scuba around, as it said, 2002, worked a lot prior, I think in beats in the Bronx, and I think he was a Bronx kid, so I had him on the show fairly recently, and that was kind of his genesis towards becoming an officer. He had a background prior, there's always an excellent swimmer in scuba. The SOD division of the NYPD is not just emergency service for those not familiar with the NYPD's makeup. SOD includes ESU, back in the day, it used to be street crime as well, but street crime was still around, they were a part of SOD. Aviation, highway patrol, and also harbor/scuba. So Sickler was in there for 12 years, and again, that's a hard job, because kinda like ESU, if you think about it, and I say this with all of love in my heart, this is a compliment, scuba is the ESU of water, in that if you need a gun recovered, much like you would ask emergency service to lift up a storm grate and see if there's evidence down in the storm train, people throw guns, there are any kind of drugs, any kind of criminal evidence against them in the water, scuba's going to get that. Scuba's also diving in for rescue purposes if there's the stress, let's say a kayak cap sizes, you have to stress people in the water, scuba goes and gets them. They're diving in sometimes to search for missing bodies, and so their job is very much multifaceted, they do a lot of extensive training. Again, much like any unit in the SOD section, the NYPD, you wanna get in there, you better have your bearings together. It is not an easy unit to get into, and George was in there for a dozen years. - You know, something, another fabulous unit, the school, I've had them die for guns, and I couldn't believe they recovered them. I was like, how the hell did you get that? - You can't see anything in there. - Unbelievable, and sure enough, they recovered guns all the time. We just say, oh, he said he threw it out there somewhere. You know, right around, they'll point it out and sure enough, they recovered it, unbelievable. You know, in the case I'm doing Saturday on this TV show, it's the double murder of Carmen Quinones and Ruben Frederick that happened on December 1st, 2001. Always remember that, I always remember that date. Anyway, Chief Ali, who was at the time, the Chief of Detectives, ordered me to go search or have Harbor respond to the area of the Willis Avenue bridge where the perps fled after the murder over that bridge, and just in case they threw the knife off the bridge into the water, and Harbor was to do a search and a dive there, and we don't even know if they, in fact, threw the knife there. So they had sort of a mission, you know, find a pin in a haystack, and we never recovered the murder weapon, but you know, yes, the scuba unit, all these specialized units on the NYPD, Aviation, Scuba, ESU, they're just incredible. And you know, think of it, you know, cops, using their talents and being trained, they can do amazing things, like, you know, no one asks you, oh, have you ever done this before? No, but I'll learn because FDNYNYPD on the job training. You learn all the things you need to know right in the heat of the moment, and you learn it, and as the years pass, and you get more and more experienced, you feel like you can do anything, and there's nothing that you can't do, but you know, you have to keep your head on your shoulder and not be, you know, not try to be a hero or try to, you know, you have to use your head because these situations we go into are quite dangerous, and you know that from interviewing all the NYPD guys, all the FDNY guys, both of them are very dangerous jobs. - Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, it goes back to Align, my old friend Dennis Smith told me, and you know, he was a great guy. He passed away a couple of years ago due to COVID sadly, but he wrote Report for Mention Company 82, and which is the book in the fire service. That's a lot of firemen of a certain age will tell you that is the reason why they became firefighters reading that book. And he's used to say all the time, I'm FDNY trained, I can do anything. You know, it's a great education working on the streets of New York City. And no matter where you go in either department, it's never going to stop being an education. - You know, it's funny, Mike, I read that book when I was a kid. - Great book. - It's an old book. - Yeah, it was good, it was exciting. And you know, obviously I never became a firemen, it became a cop, but it was very, very interesting book. Let's talk about the NYPD and its metamorphosis under probably one of the greatest police commissioners in the history of this country. And of course, the NYPD and we know that he started out as a chief of the transit police in the NYPD. And he brought in a spree decor to the transit police that made these guys that, you know, other cops call transit police the moles, or you know, they're on the ride behind. - Yeah, yeah, we ride, we hide. And it was never like maybe, I'm not gonna speak for them, but it wasn't the proudest unit to be in. It was sort of, oh, you guys are working in the hole. That's what the trains are known as the hole, right? But Bratton came from Boston and he brought this spirit, this new, in life and spirit into the transit police, where they were like, well, now we have an identity. And he gave them, they were the first to get nine millimeter handguns, which back in the '80s, I came up with a job in '85, we were outgunned. Guys in the three, four precinct in Washington Heights were using Mac 10s with clips of 15 and 30 round clips and a cop had a, we used to say a 38 with six round pea shooter going up against these semi-automatic weapons that, you know, had the firepower that we didn't have at. So Bratton had the balls to come in at the transit police and issued them nine millimeters. And you know what the NYPD did to him? Did you know what they did? And this probably won't even be remembered. The NYPD wouldn't allow transit to use the NYPD range anymore. What bullshit was that? How petty? Oh, you're gonna give them nine millimeters? That's against our politics. We're not gonna let them use our range. It's our ball, we're taking the ball back from you, you know? How ridiculous was that, right? - Very much so and it's funny 'cause it all started when Scott Goodell was killed. That was the reason Scott Goodell was a cop in the rockaway section of Queens. Gun battles going on and a purpose snuck up behind him with one of those high power weapons during the gun battle where Scott was trying to reload and shot him in the back of the head and killed him. - Yeah, Mike, you know what the answer was for more job speed loaders. What bullshit that was too? - Because if you're in a gun fight, that speed loader feels like it's slippery and to reload during that and you're right, Scott Goodell, an officer and 100th precinct, he was reloading and the guy came up and basically executed, you know. - The ambush side of the head of the gun battle. - And I don't know the exact chronology was this, who was the PC, but all of a sudden it was war. They decided we're gonna go an experimental program 'cause I was an anti-crime sergeant. I got a nine millimeter earlier than everyone else. - Right. - So they first started with anti-crime and they gave us nines and soon the entire department transitioned to nine millimeter handguns, which folks, if you don't know, the NYPD, the nine millimeters, hold 15 rounds and wanted a chamber, so there's 16 rounds. And when you retire, you're not supposed to carry those, that's for police only, you know. So you carry, for 20 something years, 27 years for me, now they want me not to carry that 16 round clip with one in the chamber, excuse me, 15 round clip with one in the chamber, a total of 16 rounds because it's a high capacity round. Oh yes, but that's meant to bend criminals from using them in ordinary civilians. The shooter of the recent assassination attempt of Donald Trump, he had three 30 round magazines on him. - Yeah, it goes to show, you know, but it's interesting with Bratton because Bratton basically called up the police commissioner at the time and when he was taken over the transit police in '90, Ward had left, there was Lee Brown out of town Brown, that was the commissioner in time. - And he said, and to your point, Brown, let him know, well, okay, well, if you're gonna do this, you can't use our range. He's like, I know I'm not asking you, I'm telling you we're gonna do this. And he reinvented the wheel because as he told me, when I interviewed him a little while ago, he's like, I thought at the time for those that don't know, in New York City, there used to be three separate police departments, there was the housing police, which was responsible for the projects, there was a transit police, which was responsible for the subways and the NYPD, they merged all together in 1995. But when Bratton was there, we're still separate. And it was an agency- - You know, Mike, you just used the politically incorrect word, you called the housing the projects, the developments, you know, they've shut the use that word at Tomstead, the housing developers, God damn projects, stop it, you know. We had to use those politically correct words, I just thought I'd throw that in there. - No, of course I've heard that recently too, and it always makes me laugh, is even we, I guess civilians, we refer to it as the projects and, you know, it's no problem with that, no problem with us, but you know, as it were, there was an agency begging for a merger with the NYPD, because of what you said, there was not a lot of pride in it, unfortunately. But as he told me, it's like, I thought if I could succeed in turning around the transit police, maybe I could ultimately achieve the goal of being NYPD commissioner. So him and the late-grade Jack Maple, who later on was his first depth, as when he got to the NYPD in '94, reduced crime with the Comstad model by 27% in the New York City subways, which was impressive considering what was going on above ground when the city in 1990 experienced over 2,000 homicides. So, you know, at 2,700 to be exact. So the Comstad model that him and Maple started, now it's computerized, back then it was literally pins on a map, identifying where the crime patterns were, how they were elevated, and simply implementing methods, whatever those methods were, depending on the area, to combat it. And by the time he left him in 1992 to go back to Boston and temporarily be the police commissioner over there, not only was crime down 27%, they had a brand new arsenal. He completely remodeled and revamped trans version of ESU, which was the emergency medical rescue unit, and they had new cars. They got brand new cars on top of that and completely remodeled their fleet. And he got them federal accreditation, which is huge for a smaller agency with a smaller budget than the NYPD. So, Giuliani took note of that after those two years. And of course, in 1994, Bratton becomes the police commissioner above Brown in New York City and implements the same success he had with transit into the NYPD. - Yeah, I mean, look, I was on the job pre-Bratton, and I think what Bratton did bring besides these great ideas with Comstad that no doubt turned the city around. In fact, he has a book called Turnaround. - Yeah, that I actually did read that too. And the whole thing with broken windows policing, that is what turned around New York City. And now you have people just totally talking down about broken windows policing, how it's this and how it's that. But guess what? It works. - Works. - It works and saved hundreds, thousands of lives of the people who were most at risk people of color that were most at risk during this. And it saved their lives because out of the 2300 homicides they had in 1990 something, most of them were people of color. And so they had the most at risk. So, but that it was seen later on as oh, it's racist and they don't wanna prosecute and all this other stuff. But it did turn the city around. I can attest to that. And I didn't enjoy presenting a calm stat because they really put you on the hot seat when you do that. And I had to present as both a rift sergeant and then as a detective squad sergeant. And it was ugly sometimes, you know, to have to present with the day is asking you really, really tough questions. But that was a brainchild of Jack Maple, a high school graduate who was a lieutenant. They said it was one of the smartest people on the AYP with a high school graduate. So, you know, it's not always getting that piece of paper. You know, and then Bratton utilizes people very well and he did a fantastic job as police commissioner. - He did. And by the time he left in 1996, the first time crime in the city was down 39%. So he laid the model for all his successors after him, Safer, Karak, Rick, Kelly, all of whom, you know, did good jobs in their own, right? But he really laid the blueprint to continue that crime decline. It was, for only having been there two years in both of his stints, he's definitely one of the greatest and most impactful commissioners to AYP, he's ever had. - You know, Mike, there's a case and I don't know the exact name of it, but I know that some ESU guys went to Brooklyn on a report of there was a bomb making place and they actually took out the shot and killed the terrorists that were in this apartment and had they not accomplished that? Many people would have been killed. - You know what case I'm talking about? - This is in the book. They didn't shoot and killed and they shot and wounded them. I'm glad you brought this stuff. That's why I'm smiling 'cause it allows me to mention one of my friends who recently passed away. Richy teams died recently in 9/11 cancer. So he's one of the people involved in this. What Bill is talking about is the night of July 31st, 1997. The bomb squad has four guys in the office at the time. And for those of you that know the bomb squad, one of the jokes lovingly they make about the bomb squad is they call the bomb squad truck 11. There's 10 ESU trucks in the city, but the reason why they call the bomb squad truck 11 is 'cause a lot of guys in that unit are from former emergency service cops. Paul Yurku and my late friend Richie were working that night on a double. They started at like 2 p.m. the previous day they weren't gonna get off till 8 in the morning. It's about one o'clock in the morning. Paul and Richie both came over to the bomb squad from ESU in '93 and they get a call. Paul picks up the phone and it's a woman detective out of the eight eight precinct in Brooklyn saying, hey, I got this Middle Eastern guy. He's really scared and he's saying his roommates have pipe bombs in the apartment. So what had happened was this guy, he was an honest immigrant. I think he came from Jordan. I can't remember where it might've been Palestine, but he came over and he's just trying to make his way in the city, get an honest job and make a better life for himself. So they temporarily shack him with these two guys. He does not know until he can find a place of his own. And these two guys are terrorists. They might've been from Hamas. And they show him the pipe bombs and they're saying at the peak of morning rush hour, the next day, which was gonna be August 1st of 1997, we are going to put this in the Atlantic Avenue subway, which is one of the more populated stops in the city. And at the peak of morning rush hour, we're gonna detonate these two pipe bombs and their plan was to do kind of like, unfortunately what you see overseas is suicide bombing. So this call comes in, the roommate says, I'm gonna go get some cigarettes in reality. He's gonna go get the cops. And they say, okay, if you're not back within the hour, we're gonna assume you went to the cops and we're gonna know that the police are on their way and we'll be ready for them. Paul gets to call him and Richie head out to Brooklyn. They sit down with the suspect and they say, okay, do it interpreter. Draw us a picture of what you saw. And as Richie told me when we spoke about this case on the podcast, a few years ago alongside Paul and some of the PSU guys that were there, Mike, he drew the most accurate picture of a pipe bomb you would have ever seen. So they knew he wasn't lying, this was legit. They called for emergency service after some convincing of some reluctant bosses and that enters the guys from seven truck and eight truck, both of which are in Brooklyn. On that team is Dave Martinez and Joe Dolan and Joe later went to the bomb squad himself. So they're the first two in on this team that's about seven or eight ESU cops. And they're on the bunker, which is the ballistic shield that Bill mentioned earlier. They go down a long dark hallway, open up the room. There are these two guys sleeping on the floor, the apartment's just a pigsty and they start reaching for the bombs. They're gonna detonate those bombs in that room and kill everyone, including themselves. Joe and Dave say, don't do it, police don't move. These guys aren't listening. They activate two of the toggle switches on one of them and Joe and Dave have no choice but to shoot them both. Don't kill them, seriously wound them. Bring them out, Richie and Paul are waiting outside. They hear on the radio bomb squad forth with bomb squad to get in here. Richie and Paul subsequently slap the bomb suits on. They see the, it might have been up to four pipe bombs and spend the whole day diffusing successfully all four of those pipe bombs. Whereas you said, Bill, had they gone off, we would have talked about hundreds of people, hundreds of people at that subway station being killed only four years after the first attack on the trade center in '93. - You know, Mike, that's such a great story. What a heroic story too, that is that these guys didn't, did not hesitate, you know, did not hesitate to act. Just absolutely incredible. You know, there was another, I mean, ESU has so many, and I gotta get a story too with FDNY because I know they have some amazing rescues also. But you did an episode of a female sniper for ESU name by the name of Tina Guerrero. Let me put this up on the screen from CBS News. - There are roughly 500 members of the ESU. Only 10 are women, and she is also the only female counter sniper in the NYPD. We recently met up with Detective Guerrero and joined her team on a training exercise to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge. - From 100 yards away, Detective Tina Guerrero fires her Remington 724 rifle. Consistently hitting her target. - And how good of a shot are you? I would say I'm pretty good. - I would say the ESU is like a big boys playground and you wanted to play in it. - Yeah, the challenge of just being able to go out there and do all the things that all these guys would do and it was something that I wanted to do. I did feel that, you know, I had to prove myself as other women do and other men do too. - The men and women of the emergency service unit endure rigorous training to respond to everything from search and rescues to hazmat situations and terrorist attacks. - When I tried out for the team, I was very intimidated. But I said, you know, go out there and do the best you can. And I did. And I remember getting a phone call from one of the other guys that I worked with. And he said, listen, for what it's worth, you did well. Nice, you did well. - Well enough to trade in her undercover work in the vice squad for scuba gear and a 50 pound vest. As a member of ESU, Detective Guerrero has to prepare for any scenario, including suicidal jumpers. We joined the team on a training exercise. - Here we go. - Where we climbed nearly 280 feet to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge. - Hold from here and you can clip in. - The team. - Mike, right there, that would exclude me from ever going into ESU. - Yeah, it's a lot of people. - I hate heights and I've climbed on rooftops, I've climbed on fire escapes, but it's not one of my favorite things. Let's go back to this and we'll play a little bit more of this. - The team looks out for each other as we climbed the nearly 6,000 foot suspension bridge that connects Manhattan and Brooklyn. - Every time we move, we use these carabiners and essentially we're harnessing ourselves so that we're always safe. We're always tied in. I made it to the top. - That was pretty awesome. - Yeah. - Thanks for the great climb. - Ah, you're welcome, you're welcome. - This is like, no sweat off your back to do this. - No, actually I enjoy what we made it of it. - You know, Mike, if a news reporter does it though, I would have to do it. I can't not do it, you know, that would be embarrassing to me that, oh yes, a news reporter does it and Sergeant Cannon, you're not willing to climb to the top of the bridge. Well, I never got the opportunity, but it wouldn't be my favorite thing. - No, I listen, there's a lot of people that don't like heights. I'm not a fan of them myself so I can understand. Tina, Tina's great. She was in the emergency service unit for 20 years. She got there in 1998. She was, as it was mentioned, the story, she was previously undercover. So she saw a lot as a Bronx cop. I forget what precinct she started in, but it was one of the 40s precincts. So she was there in '93 to '98, but you know, she put in an application for ESU and that was something that she always wanted. And you know what, it goes to show height doesn't measure heart. She's not, by her own admission, she's tiny, but she went through the schooling. She got into ESU in 1998. I believe she started out with one of the Bronx trucks for a while, either three or four. And she ended up going out to 10 truck, which is in Queens, for those of you familiar with Queens. It's literally right up the street from a city field with a Mets play. And she ended up becoming a counter sniper along the way, which, you know, ESU in a department of over 30,000, 40,000 police officers is a very small unit, 'cause it's about 250 to 300 officers in the past, and numbers were as high as 400. But the counter sniper team is an even smaller subunit within the unit. So for her to get into that, it took a lot of skill and took a lot of training, but she did it, did it well. And after 20 years in emergency and 25 on the job, she retired in 2018. She's enjoying life now, and that's good for Tina's a great person. - That's a great story, you know, to become a sniper, just a real talent, as we know. And then as we spoke earlier, that's not all they do here. She was a scuba diver, a sniper, I mean, a jack of all trades, you know, just absolutely amazing, right? Amazing, and that's, it's just incredible. You know, and we honor these people, and you honor these people by telling these stories that perhaps will be lost someday, if no one else told them. I think that you're doing a great service with your book, of course, "Good Folks, Mad City, Life on the Edge and the FDNY and the NYPD." Mike Colle, hey, Mike Colone, you know, and I know these stories are fascinating, and even when I hear some of them, I mean, that he has huge story about them killing the, or shooting the terrorists, unbelievable story, you know, and how many people actually know that story, you know? - Nice, not very many, 'cause it gets lost. I mean, again, this was smack dab in the middle between 1993 and 2001, but that's a story I didn't know about until I was doing some digging in preparation for a bomb squad interview with Paul Yercou, and that story came up. It is, again, great story highlighting the efforts of both the ESU and the bomb squad. - Yeah, it's incredible, you know, and I know that, you know, as I said, I want to play something now with the fire department, 'cause I don't want to be accused of not giving them, giving them equal time. Let me just play this video here, just talking about 9/11. - I want you guys from my fire house. When we got to the third hole, it was a part three, and I'm hitting the ball up on the thing, and my friend is on two coming down, and he's yelling across the fairway. We're at war, and I'm like, what the hell is Jerry talking about, you know? So I came home, I went down to my basement, and I pulled my boots out, and I pulled my helmet, and my gloves, and my wife asked me, she goes, where are you going? And I'm like, where do you think I'm going? (upbeat music) (laughing) - The first two hours I was there, we spent picking up body parts. I picked up this man, it was his face. When I was holding it up, and I'm looking at it, and it's something that will always be with me. And I can see his eyebrows, his eye sockets, his nose, and his mouth. And every time I go into a costume store, where they have a rubber mask, and it's folded in half, and I just glance at it, and I'm right back to where I was on the 12th. That's gonna be with me forever. The first two days, everybody was like freelancing. There was nobody giving orders, there was no directions or anything like that. I stayed there the whole day. I didn't even go to the bathroom. They put up a pulley, like a clothes line, and that's when they would bring the bodies across. I'll never forget, 'cause when they were bringing a fireman across, his helmet would be on his chest, they had put a flag in the back, and as soon as they started moving in across this valley of rubble, everybody stopped and what they were doing, they turned, they looked and put their hand over there, and they put their heads down, they set a little prep, and then as soon as the body got over there, you'd hear a shovel go boom, and then everybody would just start. At the end of the five days, in my heart, I know that it was not a rescue operation anymore, that it was a recovery operation, and I was more needed at the funerals than I was down there. The worst day of my life has to be in October, after all, it is accumulated. On this particular day, there were eight funerals. I could tell you, I didn't know half the people that had funerals I went to, of course I didn't, but they were my brothers. It's never, it's never all, I have friends that are dying now from cancer and stuff from 9/11. I've had health problems, I have GERD, I have sleep apnea, I got asthma, I'm 65 years old too. I didn't think I would live this long. (gentle music) (gentle music) I come out here as a relief, just to get away, silence. I dwell on my friends, I don't think about that day, I think about the names. This guy here, Michael DeVito, local 79, I knew Mike since I was a little kid. If it wasn't for this memorial, his name would have never been associated with 9/11. Every one of these men and women, had a funeral, their families grieved. 20 years ago, we all put aside our differences. No matter religion, skin color, gender, and we came together and these men and women represented the best of the best with this country, and we got to go up it. (gentle music) To see that many people get sick and die, I predicted this in the early 2000s when people told me, "Oh, it's crazy." And then science caught up to us and gave us validity. This talk was built because we knew this was gonna happen. We knew what was coming and it's gonna get worse. Billy, I, others were evolving, but for the worse. When you become a fireman, that's when you improve how brave you are. And there you take that whole divorce. Everything else is just part of the job. That was a boy scout, that was a Marine, that was a New York City fireman. I'm not afraid to die. I mean, just not, it's gonna happen. We're all gonna die. So, going down there, it did not bother me. It bothered my wife, it bothered my parents, it bothered the people that love me, but it was something that I couldn't live with myself if I didn't know it. - Very touching, very touching. - I know Billy's a friend of mine, Billy Dennis, great guy. - And I know that you've told a lot of these stories, so I just, I wanted to make sure I told a, or I put up on screen a good FDNY guy too, 'cause, you know, ESU, FDNY, that's what your book is about, telling these fantastic stories. What do you see yourself doing now, Mike, in the future? Now that you've told a lot of these great stories, where do you go from here? - I wanna write more books. You know, like I said, I wanna do an FD only one, and a PD only one. I'm starting tentatively the process for the PD only one, which is gonna be titled "Police Don't Move, The NYPD Investigations You Should Know About." So those who weren't in the first book be in the second, there's a few people I wanna work with on that project. And it'd be great to have that book out, hopefully by the end of the year, if not early next year. And, you know, as far as beyond that, I'll continue doing, I'm doing journalistically, I still have the podcast, I still enjoy doing it, I'm on a summer hiatus right now, I'm not gonna come back to it 'til September, figured I'd get myself the summer off. And believe it or not, I'm actually trying to be a fireman myself. I live in New Haven, Connecticut, hence the title of the podcast, Mike the New Haven. I applied to the New Haven fire department, so we'll see. And, you know, that's something I've wanted to do since I was three years old. So, hopefully in the next year or so, I can make that a reality and get on the job myself. - You know, Mike, it's really an honor to know you. I love that you've written this book. You've really shined the spotlight on these great heroes, but both from the NYPD and the FDNY. I'm sorry, I always put the NYPD first. All right, the FDNY and the NYPD, which is the way you title it. And, you know, your podcast, the best of Mike the New Haven, I think you do a fantastic job. I think you're a great broadcaster, and it's, you know, I've been doing my podcast police off the cuff real crime stories now for over five years, you know, and it's always a struggle. It's always, you know, some people love what you do, and you can't satisfy everyone. You read the comments in the chat. Most people love you, but not everyone loves you, you know? And, you know, you have to, like, just like they tell you when you're a cop or a fireman, you have to have thicker skin than the people in the public. I think that's true for a podcast to do. You have to just take some of the comments and just let them, you know, go slide off your back like you're a duck, you know, and not let someone influence what you say and what you do when in your heart, that's what you believe, and you put forth like that. And I'll always do that, and I think you will too. And I think that people that watch us, that want to hear these stories, that want to hear, you know, my podcast is true crime stories from a police perspective. You know what I mean? I'm not looking to give it from your perspective. I'm not looking to give it from a journalist perspective. I was the real popo, and that's what I'm doing, my podcast from my perspective. And I try to make that clear. And, Mike, you have a perspective also, and your perspective is more of, I think, a journalist that's bringing these stories to life. And I think you do a fantastic job. And, of course, your book, again, good folks, "Mad City, Life on the Edge," and the FDA and NYPD. Tremendous, tremendous job. And, again, Mike the New Haven, that's Mike's podcast. There's Mike in action on the microphone there. And there he is proudly displaying his book. Mike, I want to give you your final thoughts. You can speak as long as you'd like, but it's been a real pleasure for me, both knowing you and interviewing you today. And I can speak for the cops that you've interviewed, and the firemen that you've interviewed. I think you're doing a fantastic job by shining a light on some of the folks that do this unheralded job in a lot of ways. And you're shining a light and letting other people know this is what these guys did, or this is what they do. - Thank you very much, Bill. And like I said, it was a pleasure for me to reunite with you. We worked together collaborating on police off the cuff a number of years ago. So you gave me my start in this, which I very much do appreciate. You can get the book on Amazon. It is available on Amazon and hardcover Kindle, and soon paperback form as well. And we'll see if we can put out an audio book on it. But no, this has been a very exciting process. It's been a fun process. I've learned a lot about myself, and I've certainly learned a lot about the authors process. So to have accomplished this definitely means a lot. And I've enjoyed everyone who's come on to the show and has been so willing to share their stories with me for again, both sides of the aisle, the law enforcement side and the fires side. It's a fun show to do because the guests and the audience make it funny. You know this as well as anybody. You don't get anywhere without an audience. You can have a great product. You can have a great show, but if nobody's listening, it's kind of like that old patree falls on the forest line. The audience makes the show. So I'm very grateful to have such a great audience 'cause without them, I wouldn't be in this position to have ever put out a book or put out a podcast in the first place. - Well, Mike, as I said, you do a fantastic job. And I think people will line up to read this book, good folks, man, city, life, and the edge, and the FDNY and the NYPD, that's Mike Colona. Also, you can hear him on the best of Mike in New Haven podcast. And you can find that on YouTube. And you're mostly on YouTube, right? Are you on LinkedIn also, or? - Yeah, I broadcast live to three destinations. YouTube primarily, I also broadcast live to LinkedIn. So if you're not paying on YouTube, you can watch me on LinkedIn. You can also watch me on Twitter. So that's where the show streams live, too. It's available on the audio side too, Apple, Spotify, Spreaker, iHeart, wherever you get your podcast. We're available there as well. - That's great. You know, I actually added one other. I go live on four. I do also go live on Instagram. - Ah, yeah, I get a cert doing that. - And again, all the listening sites, I'm on all of those also. And it gives you, you know, a great, you know, all over the world, it's amazing that people all over the world listen to our podcasts because that's the range that some of these listening sites have also YouTube. I have people from Ireland, South Africa, Great Britain, Australia, sending me messages. You know, and I'm like, wow, this is amazing. And I think they believe it's amazing also that they can listen to these stories. And the other thing they always comment on is on New York accents, you know. Some of them like it. Some of them don't like it. Some of the guys who said the other, I can't take, I had, I had me, Mike Geary. Commissioner. - Hartnet. - Hartnet from Yonkers. - In Philly. And that's her county, Pat Reiner. All of us with heavy duty New York accents. And the guy was like, I'm leaving. I can't go, just leave, shut up. Don't announce you're leaving, just get out of here. You know, you don't like our New York accents. And don't listen to us. You know, like, that's the way I feel. Don't let the noise in the air, as they say, you know. Anyway, Mike, your final words, it was, and again, it's been a pleasure interviewing you, Mike. And I hope for great success both in your podcast and in your new book. And I know it's gonna do well. Good folks, mad city. Your final words, Mike. - I just wanna thank you for the opportunity and thank everyone who supported me over the years. Like I said, you don't get anywhere without an audience. So I just wanna thank everyone who's been so kind to share their stories and those who've also been so kind to continue listening to the program and to these stories being told. - Absolutely. Folks, this is Bill Cannon from Police of the Cuff Real Crime Stories. This is the true crime and author series interviewing Mike Cologne. Everyone have a wonderful day. God bless and we'll see you the next time. (upbeat music) ♪ Just sayin' the no ♪ ♪ Get it left up ♪