Serpico in exile

Frank Serpico is still bitter, says Corey Kilgannon in The New York Times. In 1971, the then–New York City police detective made headlines when he told the Knapp Commission that his department was rife with graft and corruption. Serpico almost didn’t live to testify: A few months before, he was shot in the face during a drug bust, and his fellow officers didn’t immediately call for an ambulance. “I still have nightmares,” he says. “I open a door a little bit and it just explodes in my face. Or I’m in a jam and I call the police, and guess who shows up? My old cop buddies who hate me.” Though his ordeal became a hit film starring Al Pacino and is widely credited with bringing about reform, the 73-year-old Serpico is convinced that nothing has changed. “I hear from police officers all the time; they contact me. An honest cop still can’t find a place to go and complain without fear of recrimination. The blue wall will always be there because the system supports it.” Today, Serpico leads a monastic life in a small cabin in upstate New York, where he lives without TV or the Internet, cooks on a wood-burning stove, raises chickens and guinea hens, and meditates. Coming close to death, he says, “gives you an insight into how fleeting life is, and what’s important. This is my life now. The woods, nature, solitude.”

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