March 25, 2024 • 56 mins
T TIME with Theresa - Season 4, Episode 23 "Circle of Six". Hosted by Theresa Farrell. Tonight's guest is Actor, Producer and Author Randy Jurgensen.. T TIME with Theresa is aired live on Strong Island Television from Paradise Studios NY - www.strongisland.com
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Episode Transcript
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(00:09):
Good evening and welcome to tee Time. Hey, everybody, welcome to tea
(01:27):
Time. I'm so glad you're joiningme tonight. It is on March twenty
fifth. It's the end of themonth already. I'm going to talk about
my weekend and get to my guests, because you know, I'm my fifty
five minutes goes real quick. Friday, I was here Beautiful Paradise Studios.
I ended up here for karaoke andopen mic and we had a great time
(01:48):
here. So if you're not doinganything on a Friday night, come on
down at seven o'clock Saturday. Idid Murdered by the Mob and Manhattan at
the Iron Bar in the City.You haven't seen it yet. It's like
going to an Italian wedding gets whacked. You gotta figure it out. You
sing your dance, you eat yourdrink. It's so much fun. Just
go to murder by Theemob dot comto look up all our upcoming shows and
I hope to see you there Sunday. Yesterday I was in Jersey for the
(02:12):
Garden State Film Festival for the movieJersey Bread. That's b r ed and
I have some picks with that thatI was with some friends who were in
the movie and they had a supportSo what's the first pick we've got up?
There, We've got there's Gino Caffarelli, he did the movie Cruise.
There's Ed Shin he is the officialfilm festival photographer all over the place.
(02:38):
And then we have Chris Mormondo who'sin Gravesend. Everyone loves Charlie and Jersey
Bread, so look for that.And then there's Lorenzo Lorenzo Intanucci. Oh,
I gotta get that right. Alsoamazing, everyone did a great job.
It's Greg Russo's movie. There's mybest friend over Joe Dinafrio, also
(03:02):
an amazing actor. So I justwant to thank everyone for supporting and shout
out to Greg Russo wrote it,directly produced it, and it was really,
really really good. We had agreat time and then we had an
after party. So listen. I'mexcited because I met this man a while
ago. Gave me his book andit took me a while to read because
it was giving me an. Ihad to keep putting it down, putting
(03:23):
down, putting down, and Ihad a really hard time getting through it.
But an amazing, amazing, amazingread. He's an actor, he's
a producer, he's an author.Randy Jurgensen is he a Hi? Randy?
Hi? Finally got you here?How you doing fine? Good?
Good? Good? All right?So I want everyone to get to know
you and about your amazing career andthe different turns and twists that it's taken
(03:46):
throughout the years. You know,you grew up in Halem hallm hallm West
Hollam, and you really never leftbecause you ends up living there, working
there and doing everything there. Yes, right, nice and got to talk
before we start. First of all, thank you for having me on the
show. I'd like to give ashout out to a few of my friends,
(04:11):
you know, Joe Cirillo and JoeMozzilli and Joe Donny Brasco pistone and
especially to father Chris from my Italianparish, a lady of POMPEII. Yes,
I was born and I was bornin West Hollom. I was born
(04:31):
two blocks south of one hundred andtwenty fifth Street in Amsterdam Avenue. And
I was born at home because therewas some kind of a measle or mump's
outbreak at the hospital that my momwent to, so they sent the home
and I was born at home andmy parents, my parents were superintendents of
the building, and for nineteen yearsof my life growing up, my parents
(04:55):
were superintendents. In fact, mybrother and myself running in the streets,
the people would say, oh,we know you, you're the raffity boys,
or we know you you're the smithboy. Oh we know you,
you're the supers kids. So wewere, we were the supers kids.
I think it's important to share withyou the times that that I that I
(05:18):
grew grew up in in my neighborhood. In my neighborhood, you know,
there were a couple of bars,there was a tailor shop, a grocery
store, a meat market not ohyes, yes and uh. And there
was the bookmaker, and there wasthe man who took the sports bets,
(05:42):
and there was the man who tookthe numbers bets. And you know,
we also knew that there was alady of the evening of where she she
lived over So I knew that neighborhoodinside and out. And in fact,
I knew at a very young agesome of the people's uh bid business in
that the rents were twenty eight dollarsa month Teresa, and you know being
(06:05):
superintendents, we collected the rents,and every now and then there'd be a
knock on the door that they couldn'tmake the eighth the twenty eight dollars.
So I grew up in that neighborhood. I never missed a meal. I
had clothes, you know, AndI literally grew up in the street,
(06:27):
you know, came home from school, get out there, go in the
street. We made up our owngames and so forth and so on.
I bring that up. I bringthat up, Teresa, because you know,
to jump ahead from when I wasan adult and I became a cop.
You know, I worked in thesame neighborhood. I was on the
west side of one hundred and twentyfifth Street, and if I went to
(06:50):
one hundred and twenty fifth Street andI looked three or four blocks over to
the east, there was the ApolloTheater. And then my first assignment as
a cop was in the twenty fifthPrecinct, which was a very diverse precinct.
The east side of the precinct itwas Italian and they spoke Italian.
(07:11):
In the middle of the precinct itwas Spanish. They spoke Spanish. And
then we had all the way overonto Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue. That
was black. It was very verydefined precinct in terms of the people that
resided there. So you know,you were you could be a policeman one
way, you know, in thisneighborhood, and four or five blocks over
(07:34):
you were a different, a different, a different policeman. So and I
saw, I saw immediately when Iwas there. I knew who was taking
numbers. I knew who the bookmaker was. You know, there was
no fooling me. I was born, born, and you know, born
(07:57):
and raised out in the streets inthat environment. I heard you played with
someone in those streets named George Colin. Is that true? Yeah? George
Colin, you know, to adegree A lot of times was a thorn
in my side. Yeah, butto break them, oh, George Colin
was bright quick. I didn't haveto do homework. Yeah. George Colin
(08:22):
at twelve years of age was thefirst one that brought pot to us,
you know, yeah, George.George was a leader in a lot of
things. Yeah. So he goesinto comedy and you you actually joined the
army, correct, I did.I which thank you for your service.
I you know, in my neighborhoodthey're being raised in the Second World War,
(08:48):
you know, in my in myneighborhood, it was basically everybody couldn't
wait to get into the service,you know. So at sixteen I started.
You know, you couldn't join thearmy without your parents' signature. So
at sixteen I started. I started. I started. And my dad,
(09:09):
who was the most patient, loving, wonderful father that you could ever have.
And his famous words were, whatdid your mother say? What is
your mother going to do? Thatwas it? So I learned that my
mother, so he said, hesaid to my mother one day he said,
Betty, you go ahead and sign, because I'm not going to sign.
So that stopped me from the mother. So there was three or four
(09:33):
of us and I'll call one guy'sname. His name is Nicki Masque.
That we went down to forty secondStreet. Nicki Masque was two months shy
of being sixteen. I was twomonths shy of being seventeen. And we
went down there and we gave thepapers, and I'll always remember when he
came to me, he said,well, what about your father? And
(09:56):
I said, oh, I lostmy father. My father's dead. And
he said, oh, I'm I'msorry, and he kept it up and
at sixteen I went in and Nickimaskew he went in at fifteen. Two
months later I got caught. Theysent me back home. In the meantime,
I had signed up up there tobecome a paratrooper because I understood that
there was extra money in it.So he never got caught. I came
(10:22):
home and when I turned seventeen,my father said, would you stay home
for Christmas and then you can go, And of course I went immediately after
Christmas. The day that I went, it was my mother's birthday. So
I left it, yes, andI went into the service. I went
over to Korea, you know.And it was a war, and yeah,
(10:46):
that was the Battle of the porkChop Hill, and that was the
Korean War. And you were actuallydecorated with three bronze stars and the purple
well yeah, I got my thirdstar. Yeah, on pork Shop Hill.
And I have to say this,Teresa. There's a man sitting in
the audience out here. His nameis Joe Cirillo. And that was called
(11:07):
the Iron Triangle at that time,and it was Baldy pork Chop and Hill
five nine eight, and he wason Baldy and Thank god they held Baldy,
otherwise we would have really really beenthat a lot. Yeah, but
yeah, I came home, andyou came home, and then you joined
the police department. Well, therewas no work. There was absolutely no
(11:28):
work for us, you know.I believe the silhouettes was singing get a
job. And this is also veryimportant. I went in at seventeen and
it was Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Harry James, believe
me the great. And I camehome and it was four black guys up
(11:50):
on a stage virtually singing a cappella, you know. And that's my music.
Yeah, and that's my music.Of course it's come down to be
rock and roll, but it's theoldiest. That was my music. So
one day, Teresa I was playingstick ball along with everybody else, and
we were unemployed, and Uncle Samgave us twenty six dollars a week for
(12:15):
twenty six weeks, and Teresa Iwas a wise guy. I never went
to high school and that one day. So during that period I went back
to school and I got a gedand this guy came along with some job
(12:37):
applications, and I'll never forget it. It was the police department, the
fire department, the police department,and the Department of Parks, and I
filled them all out. I neverhad an intention or were calling to be
a cop, really never. Sowhat did you want as a kid?
What did you want to be whenyou grew up? I mean, were
you into sports? Were you intowhat were you into? Was there something
(12:58):
that you just said, oh,I want to do that when I get
older. I was into I wasinto taking illegal numbers. I was into
steering people to where the gambling denswere, which I was getting paid for
I'm sure very good money. Iwas really I was really you were a
hustler, I believe me. Iwas really one of the proudest times back
(13:20):
then. And I had a groupof guys with me, is that I
was going down to the store ontwenty fifth Street and I was going to
buy and pay for my own shoes. Four of us went down there,
you know, to buy the Hey, Randy's going to buy his own shoes.
Yeah, So that's what I wasreally into. And then when I
came home, I guess, toa degree, like a lot of guys,
(13:41):
I was really lost. I wasnineteen playing stickball. I didn't know
what I was going to do,but I went back to taking numbers.
I went back to you know it'swhat you knew, yes to doing that
by no means, Teresa, isthis a fellony crime that I'm committing?
Okay? So, and of courseGeorge Colin is there and the police department
(14:09):
was the first one to call that'sit. So when I went down there,
yep. And the police academy atthat time was only three months old.
Now I had an incident. Ihad an incident when I was home
that the sergeant who was investigating mecalled up and he said, we're wise
to you, Jurgensen. We seethat you've been arrested. You've been arrested
(14:31):
here in a place of book making, a wire room and stuff like that.
You've been arrested twice. You thinkyou're fooling us. And this is
exactly what he said. You thinkyou're a war hero. And that's going
to get over that. And Isaid, sergeant, what do you mean
I've been arrested. He says,well, you were arrested, and gave
the date and I said, sergeant, I was two years old. It
(14:52):
was my father. Oh, andmy mother got on the phone when I
said that's the end of me beinga cop. My mother didn't say to
this guy, it is sageant onthe phone. Two weeks later, I
got a letter, You've been accepted, and so I went down. After
three months, I came out.I came out. I came out Teresa,
(15:15):
and I was met at my precinctwith people that would be life long
friends. One of them I actuallygrew up with. But given that he's
four or five years older than me, so when you're thirteen and he's eighteen,
you're not hanging out. And that'sSonny Grasso. And Sonny Grasso was
very instrumental, which I will getinto and why there is a French Connection
(15:39):
movie, it's because of Sonny Grosso. So I'm working in that, I'm
working in that precinct. I'm arookie, and I commit my first times
of corruption. I'm working there andI'm working in the Italian section. I'm
there two or three weeks, andyou could use discretion. You could use
discretion. Then I learned that peoplecould not afford a fifteen dollars double parking
(16:06):
summons. I learned this on myown and so but there was you could
give a summons for wheels not tothe curb, which was only five dollars.
And Teresa, remember I'm talking backin the fifties, so you can
imagine what fifteen dollars would be today. So I gave them that summons,
you know. So, so likeI say, I'm working there that and
(16:30):
one day the barber comes out andhe pulls me, pulls me aside,
and pulls me into the shop.And I'm saying, yeah, yeah,
yeah, you know, I'm abrand new cap for two three months there,
rookie. And he's taking my jacketoff, sitting me in the chair
and he's got the scissors, andI'm saying no, no, no,
no, ba up and I geta haircut, and of course I go
(16:51):
in my pocket and he steps backlike like I'm pulling a gun on it.
It's almost an insult to offer money. Yeah, that's corruption. Yeah,
okay. So a couple of weekslater, i'm walking down out comes
the tailor, and the tailor comesout. He takes me into the tailor's
shop. Take your pants off,take and he's pressing my pants in my
jacket. I don't even offer himmoney. By now I know it.
(17:15):
Out the door I go, butHere's here's what it was meant being a
cop back in those days. Teresaid, there was a drug store, and
obviously there are drugs in the drugstore. Yes, his name was Dave.
He was Jewish. And I'm walkingone day and it's like a four
to twelve and he's closing up atsix o'clock and he said, officer,
(17:40):
and he calls me, oh,cop, come on in, he says,
I know. He says, inits rain and it's cold, and
it's twelve o'clock at night and twoo'clock in the morning, he says,
And you don't have any place togo and use the bathroom. He says,
here's the key. Wow. Thedruggist gives me the key to his
store, and of course twelve clockI go in. I find a hot
(18:00):
plate in there. You know,if you put the you can put the
coffee on it. The cast registeris open with money in it. And
as wide is this over here onthe glass is every kind of drug there
there was. Yeah, this isthe the trust respect whatever you want to
say that they had for a cop, that I wasn't going to steal anything
(18:22):
or do anything. Wow, thatnever left me. It really really never
left me. So you you youyou became a detective fairly right away.
Well, uh, A couple ofpeople that I met. A couple of
people that I met there. Onewas Nick Cirillo, who came on the
job with Joe Sorillo, right,He was a detective there, and I
(18:48):
met I met a couple of cops. I met a couple of cops,
Sonny Israel and Tony Altamary. Andwhen I was in the police academy,
I was in the police Academy andFifth Street and I was taking numbers and
they caught me and put me upagainst the wall and stuff, and I
said, Jesus, guys, youknow I'm in the police academy. And
(19:08):
they said, what the hell areyou doing? What are you crazy?
And they're in that precinct, right, So I get to that precinct.
I got a bit of a reputation, you know. One last story I'll
tell you before I become a detective. I was walking walking down there and
there was this group of guys,you know, and they were on one
(19:32):
side of second air, you know, sitting on the chair the wrong way
outside of a social club. Andit was hey, rookie, hey,
don't shoot yourself, and you know, it just kept it up, and
so finally one day I just walkedover to him and I said, you
got a problem with me, andhe says, yeah, I got a
problem with you. And I says, well, we can settle that problem.
He says, yeah, but yougot a gun. I said,
(19:52):
I'll meet you down here after fouro'clock, which I did, and there
was a group of guys that camewith me. Sunny Grasso came and so
forth. And I went into thebackyard. And when we went into the
backyard and I said, you gota problem with me, and he said,
yes, I got a problem withyou, Teresa. I hauled off.
I broke his nose down he wentand I said, I hope you
don't have a problem with me anymore. And I came back out. The
(20:15):
next day I came and the captaincalled me in. Oh no, And
the captain says to me, Jurgensen. He says, we don't do things
like that. We don't do thingslike that, he says. And I
said, I'm sorry, It'll neverhappen again. And he says, all
right, get on my office,and he said, Jurgensen, good work.
So now I'm riding in the radiocar. We get a gun run.
(20:40):
This is how it became a detectivebecause there's a gun run and there's
a detective's car that was right alongsideof me. Nick Cirillo's in that car,
and we go up the stairs asfast as we can. We break
the door down. The guy's gota rifle and he's firing into a courtyard.
And you know, whether we're thechildren in there or not, I
don't know. He was firing intothe courtyard and we broke the door down,
(21:03):
and Nick and I both wrestled himto the ground and we made the
newspaper. We got into the newspaperand the front page on the newspaper.
So I went to court with him. And while I'm in court, this
captain came over to me in civilianclothes. How old are you? Where
do you work? Are you shavingyet? Blah blah blah, so forth
and so on, and he said, I want you tomorrow to report to
(21:27):
the first Precinct. You report tothe first Precinct, which is today's museum.
So Teresa to the precinct the nextday, put on my uniform.
I went down there and I wasinterviewed by a lieutenant to be an undercover
knock out a cop. And thatlieutenant is Mario Biagi, who would later
(21:49):
on become a congressman. So Iwent through the same questions and so forth
and so on, and he saidto me, he went like this,
and by now it was like Urgenson, Jurgensen, go up to the priestsinct,
get out of that bag. Thebag is the uniform, and come
back here. And so I cameback there, and within a week or
(22:11):
two I was out buying narcotics inAlphabet City, throughout the city. I
didn't have a problem. I didnot have a problem buying buying narcotics.
I mean, how scary was itto go into these drug dens? I
mean undercover and you know, makea bust or you know, do what
(22:32):
you need to do while you're inthere. You know, were you alone?
Did you have anything one with you? You're alone? You're alone.
So I mean it's kind of likescary there. And the problem is to
recid the way that it works.And honestly, the short version is you
get a drug addict in a street. Now you're dealing with a desperate person.
Yes, you're going to take hisdrugs away. This man is desperate.
So I got a hold of him, and you know, it was
(22:56):
almost a nothing bust. And Isaid to him, look, you're not
working for me. I said,you won't be on these streets. I
just it just flowed. I spokehis language, and I said to him,
you're taking me tomorrow. You're takingme and you better be here.
You're taking me tomorrow to where you'rebuying drugs. And I'm gonna buy drugs.
(23:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, youknow virtually you have now put your
life in the hands of a verydesperate person. Yes, And so I
met him. We went up thereand he knocked on the door. Blah
blah blah. You know, Iknow this guy, you know the language.
I'm not gonna say no, wecan't curse on the shop. I'm
(23:41):
not gonna do it. And soyep, and I put up my money.
I was excited. I was excitedand stuff like that. I bought
the drugs. He went his way, I went my way, and the
backup, the backup is one ortwo blocks away. I came back out
and I was elated. I waswalking on water, you know, Teresa,
(24:02):
when you do that for fourteen andfifteen months, which I did.
I almost forgot that I was acop. Yeah, they say, we're
going to cover for a very longtime. You know, you kind of
lose yourself, she kind of.You know, so I was doing that.
Now, how I now I'm undercoverand I'm a White Shield cop.
(24:23):
I'm a White Shield cop. Althoughthat's a detective unit. Now. Very
important here, Teresa, is thatSonny Grasso and Eddie Egan and dick O
Letter they're working in an outfit calledSIU that's like a special investigative unit.
Then I am out in the streetbuying seventy five dollars half loads. Half
(24:47):
of it was talcum powder. Butthey're working on keys which were worth thirty
two thousand dollars at the time.And they're working in this case, they're
working every now and then they pulledme over, you know, to babysit
a witness, or to sit onthe wire tap or to follow somebody.
I was not in the inner circlefor that, and so this happened almost
(25:11):
simultaneously. I go into Alphabet Cityand I make and I make my bi
up on the fifth floor and I'mcoming down and I see hands and sneakers
coming up and I know I'm introuble. I'm in trouble. So I
run up, I get on theroof and they're following me. I run
on the roof, jump over theroof a couple three times. I get
(25:33):
the fire escape, I run down, and I come out on Delancey Street.
Now I know I've either lost themor they're not going to take me
off with the crowd. Remember wetalked about earlier, A CoP's gut knows
that something. When I came outon Delancey Street, I something was not
right. The big restaurant there isRatner's, and Ratners had a small black
(25:55):
and white TV in it, right, and the people were grouped there,
and I saw the people sort ofwandering or whatever it was. So I
made my way over into the seventhPrecinct and there's a sergeant behind the desk,
and now we do the dance.And the dance is not everybody back
then look like Eddie Egan. Theylook like Randy Jurgensen, long hair,
(26:17):
not shaving those blown over himself,a drug addict. Yeah, so I
give him a few moments. Youknow. UF sixty one that's a crime.
UF twenty eight means a day off. Okay, so then I gave
him the drugs and he's turning togo to put the drugs in the safe
and I said, hey, Sage, what's wrong? And he said to
me, where the f have youbeen? They just shot and killed the
(26:38):
President of the United States. Myworld stopped. It just stopped. I
believe the whole world stopped. Itjust stopped right there. So I went
down to narcotics, full grown men, grown men, Second World War veterans,
right bawling, crying, standing around. I never knew what happened to
(26:59):
that, And that went on forabout one or two one or two weeks,
but they made that case, andthat case it's been surpassed by quantity,
but never quality. It was likeninety pure and so that got into
the paper and that attracted a writerby the name of Robin Moore who wrote
(27:26):
a book called The Green Berets.So he came down to narcotics. He
got permission to work with us Ivirtually never did, and he worked with
Sonny and Eddie and he wrote abook called The French Connection, and The
French Connection would inevitably turned into themovie The French Connection Movie. So at
(27:47):
that same time, now after thatwas two three weeks have gone by.
I get called to the District Attorney'soffice and it's in Najerry is the district
attorney. And this was quite longthat we went through, so I'll be
short. And they said, you'regoing into and they called it the gay
world. You're going to be workingwith homosexuals. Here's what's happening. Homo
(28:11):
sexuals are being cornered, coerced andshook down, shook down. You know,
they're going to lose their job.They're getting them in compromising situations and
so forth and so on, andso that's what that's the world that you're
going to go into. Is muchmore than that they told me. So
they gave me an apartment on aBleaker Street and this Teresa would go on
(28:36):
for another six months. So overthere on Bleaker Street, you know,
I'm ingratiating himself into I'm gonna callit the gay world. At that particular
time, I met a guy downthe hall. We used to go to
breakfast together. And no, Teresa, I didn't live in that apartment,
of course not. I showed upnow and then I worked nights and whatever
(28:57):
it was, and then I wentoff, you know into it's the life
that I was supposed to be.Okay, So so while I'm working down
there, now I get the wordand I have these meetings. I have
these meetings with the captains and remindme to tell you about the movie about
(29:19):
these captains here, and they said, we now have three or four homosexuals
or gay people that not only havethey been killed, but they've been chopped
up. And so now not onlynow, I'm working on killers. And
(29:41):
from get go, they suspected thatthese two two men were cops and one
was black, one was white,and they were nicknamed the Salt and Peppertine.
So now I'm working on what I'mcalling cop killers. Yeah, right,
So there can't be anything more importantthan that. And I get called
(30:02):
over to the District Attorney's office andit's an A Jerry again and Greenwich Village
has made a complaint that there's alude and indecent act going on in this
place called comedian. A comedian you'retalking about go go alluding a decent act?
Yes, and you had you hada restless man. They put the
wire on me. I didn't wantto wire. I went over there.
(30:26):
We wired him up again. Longstory short, this took three weeks.
Imagine I'm working on a comedian whilethere's two people out killing people. Yes,
but that's what I did. Andso I got him and of course
it's Lenny Bruce, Lannie Bruce.People. I locked up Lenny Bruce,
locked up Lenny Bruce, and JudgeColin. Colin announced that one of the
(30:48):
shows any introduce that you locked himup. So then after after that,
after I did that, I wentback and uh, good police worked and
a lot of luck. I gotthe two guys, but we never got
them for the murder. But Igot them. They got seven years a
piece and I got a gold shield. Wow, Teresa, I get a
(31:12):
sign to the twenty sixth Precinct.When I was a kid, and that
was the twenty sixth Precinct, Iwas delivering groceries and the groceries had beer
and cigarettes, and there were twocops that would stop me and they would
take the beer, they would takethe cigarettes. That's what they would do.
(31:33):
And there was some name calling,racial name calling, and we know
you Super's kid, but blah blah, so forth and so on. I
went back to the store and Itold them he may believe like it never
happened. I went to my fatherand my father said, keep your mouth
(31:55):
shut, So I did, allright, So I put up with that
for about year. Wow, well, Teresa, I go into the twenty
sixth precinct. I got this brandnew shield, and there's the two of
them once again, you know,Randy. So the fight broke out,
right, And so the initial reportwas I was under arrest. I was
(32:19):
under arrest in the precinct, youknow. And I just sort of sat
there and I said to myself,it's worth it, you know. And
the two of them, you know, half in the bag, you know.
I gave it to him. Good. So so I'm under arrest.
So now they hear the story.The captain comes down and so forth and
so on. Yeah, and Itold him, really what happened. And
this one, Detective Graham said,keep your mouth shut. You're going to
(32:44):
be okay here, Yeah, thisnever happened, and talk about it.
Don't do anything like that. AndI said yes. And as far as
I know, I'm the only detective, only detective that was transferred without orders.
I was transferred on a teletipe andthey sent me to the two eight
precinct. And anybody can tell you, the two eight precinct is the It's
(33:08):
first, It's first in anything.It's the top on being the toilet,
it's everything that's under it. TheGod Almighty first in everything, first in
cop killings, first in everything.So I would wound up doing I would
wound up doing seventeen seventeen years inthe two eight precinct. However, what
(33:30):
I just told you about locking thosepeople up, locking those the Sultan pepper
Tine up in nineteen seventy nine,which I had done four or five pictures
with Billy Freakin. He said tome, Randy, I have optioned a
book called Cruising, but only forthe title, and you and I are
(33:50):
going to sit together, which wedid for weeks, and we he wrote
cruising, so out of those two, out of those two things that I
will really came the French connection,and came cruising amazing, amazing. Well,
you know what, we have totake a break, and when we
come back, we're gonna hear moreabout it with Randy. Don't go away
(34:12):
back after these messages. Wonder Womanwas everything to little girls, especially that
looked like me. She stands forbeing a voice for people that need a
voice. My organization renovates homes forpeople with disabilities, and when I come
(34:37):
home a self care routine makes mefeel my best. I'm very proud of
the difference that we're making. It. To see that impact in my community
inspires me to work even harder foreveryone around me. All right, is
(34:58):
everybody having a good time tonight orlot? That's what I thought. I
(35:21):
don't want to call back down.Hi. I'm Georgia Rose, founder of
(35:55):
Zancuda. You can watch me onthe soul Space podcast every Friday at noon
on Channel twenty for spiritual guidance.And as you all know, that is
how I first opened into my ownpsychic gifts, was through the angelic realm
astrology. And so we've got Marsand the Sun together in Scorpio, which
creates a lot of combustion. Inthe astrological world, we call it Akazini
(36:15):
and taro with the four cups rightside up. It means we have a
lot of choices to make, andwe're not looking at what's really being divinely
given to us. We're too busyin the busyness of the choices to really
see the divine intervention and divine timingand the fine guy where the place.
Watch the Soul Space podcast. Iwere back. There's no way everybody,
(36:51):
welcome back to TEA time so greatin joining me. I am with a
friend of mine, met him awhile ago. Read his book. It's
amazing. I going to talk aboutthat. Jurgensen is here. He's an
active producer, author, also retiredpoliceman. I I an amazing, amazing
career, just so much to getto and I want to get it all
(37:12):
in. Uh we talked earlier.Well, I just want to give some
quick quick shout outs. Hello toSal Grosso, Paul's watching, Bruno,
Michael and Greg. Thank you everyoneshare this and watch it, watch it,
watch it. And also we're gonnaget to his book. But in
the meantime, Uh, two collarsthat you made, two arrests that you
(37:34):
made went to two went into makingof two huge movies. One was The
French Connection, which you mentioned before. We have a couple of picks with
that there you are, there is, there's Gene Hackman with that pick and
the next pick what's that from?Because I wasn't too sure what the second
one was. Pick is that fromthe same same movie? French Connection?
Okay? And then also you didmention which I have Wait, I have
(37:57):
this. We're gonna put this upright. That's the Godfather because after the
French Connection, hold on after theFrench Connection, and I haven't read pulling
the right one right, yes,right after the French Connection, which was
done in nineteen seventy one, thenin nineteen seventy two came along The Godfather.
So obviously what you did was youbecame a major technical advisor for film
(38:22):
and television, and you you reallywere an actor because you you you yeah,
you did from the French Connection.You did, and then you did
you did French Connection, You didThe Godfather. You have over thirty credits
on IMDBA. You also also produced, an associate, produced and tech advisor.
(38:44):
You had your hands in a lotof you know bag so to speak.
You did Seven Up with Roy Schneier, Schneider Schneider, I never say
his name, right, Would youplay a detective that's written by Sonny?
Yeah, but you also did twoof them more fees with him as well
a lot of people you worked with, you know, you worked with it
(39:04):
more than once. You did TheSorcerer, and and and and and if
I'm right, the Seven the SevenUps, which you did the person that
I really worked with throughout all thosemore billy freaking right, so that mention.
And you also did Contract on CherryStreet with Frank Sinatra. Hello,
(39:29):
that's like a pinch me moment?How crazy was that? And then you
did Blood Brothers with richid Gea andPaul Sorviena amazing, amazing. You did
the Brinks Job with Peter Fork andPeter Boyle. You did Superman with Christopher
Reeves. You did one of myfavorites for the Pache of the Bronx.
(39:49):
Okay, Danny and Paul Newman andAsna ken Wall. You did The Vigilante
with Robert Forrester. You also wasa associate producer on that as well,
on which one on the Vigilante.Yes, you did Still of the Night
again with Roy, Meryl Streep,Jessica Tandy, Maniac Maniac. You did
(40:13):
Still of the Night. You didJura with Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin.
Okay, you did Thinner Well,that was a Stephen King film and you
produced it. Yes, Okay,On and on and on people, Donnie
Brosco one of my fans, withAl Pacino, Johnny Depp, Michael Madson,
who I had the pleasure of interviewingnineteen ninety five. Now we're going
(40:35):
into Die Hat, Die Heart Revengewith Bruce Willis Samuel Jackson, and you
were a tech advisor on that.Yes, this is not a just this
is not a list of just staws. Hello, this is like a game
here. I mean I was.I was jogging with Burt Renolds when screen
actors Gil went on strike and BertReynolds said, see you, she went
(41:01):
back to California. Did you really? I mean, I mean, the
list goes on and on and again. You also produced, You produced Goost
with Jennifer Tilley, associate producer.You did New York Cop with Mirrous Sorvino,
co producer, in the Shadow ofa Killer Scott Bakula, and again
(41:22):
executive producer, A Time to Remember, And and in these movies Hello,
you were also in them. Youplayed detectives, you played You've played a
plethora of You also played bad guystoo. Did you like playing the bad
guys? Randy, come on,tell me the truth? Did you like
putting on that hat? There's nota heck of a lot of difference from
(41:44):
a from a cop and a badguy up uncertain the clothing. It's the
clothing that's different, Yes, exactlyexactly, I mean, I mean,
it's it's it's amazing. It's justamazing what you've done, and how you
know, just to again to toarrest, lead to to major again cruising
(42:07):
with Pacino and and and Hackman andthe French connection. I mean, shadow
of a killer. Shadow of aKiller is about a detective who's against the
against capital punishment, which I havealways always been in. I was marked
by a picture called the Oxbow Incidentof Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda, and
(42:32):
so I had actually done a commercialagainst the against capital, against capital punishment,
yea. And I was out onenight with my sister and my brother
in law and got involved and soforth and so on, and the two
soldiers, not soldiers in the army, soldiers from the boys in Brooklyn.
(42:58):
They off the cop. He actuallypractically died, died in front of me.
And you know, after a struggleand a shot and so forth,
I got both of him. AndJohn Keannan when we were in the precinct.
John Keannan said, and this ishis exact words. John Kennan said,
Well, the cop is white,the two people that have killed the
(43:22):
cop is white. The detective thathas arrested them is white. We're going
for the electric chair, and Ihad already made a commercial that I was
against the electric chair. So thatgot to be pretty hairy after a while.
And of course added that came thefifty thousand dollars that was placed on
(43:44):
my placed on my head. Yeahwhat, But but that's what that movie's
about. Shadow of a Killer,it's about it's about Scott Backuler playing me
after Daly's Tree. So he cameto me one day, did you see
dailies? And I said yeah.He said do you like them? I
said yeah. He said did younotice anything? I said no. He
(44:05):
said, Randy, I'm playing itleft handed. You're left handed? Do
wow? That's what they do?Oh yeah, definitely. But but so
that was the the bounty on yourhead. This was this was an undercover
investigation again members of the Black LiberationArmy. Well that's a different one.
That's a different story. So waitbefore we get to that. Way,
(44:27):
before we get to that, there'sjust so much to get to. I
just wanted to back up a secondand mention also nineteen eighty seven, you
did heat with Steve Buscemi and youproduced that and you wrote it heart.
Correct, I'm sorry Heart, Ididn't say sorry heart, and you wrote
it and you I did James Lemonand I wrote that. Yes, we
(44:49):
wrote that. Yeah, that wasoriginally wrote it. Someone originally wrote treat
Williams as a millionare. Williams wasn'tavailable, so we got Brad Davis,
and Brad Davis was was losing hislife at the time. We never knew
it. Wow, we never knewit. Wow, he passed on of
(45:12):
age. Yes, yeah, wewrote heart. Yes, I'm sorry I
put it say heart. I misreadit. Sorry. Sami's first acting,
very first film. Yeah, it'samazing. Okay, So I want to
get to this undercover investigation that youwere doing the Black Liberation Army and at
one point they had placed a bountyon your head. Very scary thing,
and I'm you know, I'm sureit was. But what happened with that?
(45:37):
What was that? Was that?Was that before the nineteen again again
in nineteen seventy one, Yes,I just I just came off the trial
of convicting the two of them,and the federal government struck down capital punishment
as unconstitutional and so they got twentyfive to life. They served forty years,
(46:00):
one died in prison and one isout. But as soon as that
was over, you know, theBlack Liberation Army with no social redeeming value
whatsoever on any level. They andthese are the terms that I've always used,
(46:22):
they executed Pigentinian, Jones and Teresa. Thirteen cops would be set up
and killed. And those thirteen copsthey were Irish, Italian, Spanish,
black, white sergeant cop. Theywere killing cops. No matter what your
(46:43):
color was in the group, theywere killing cops. That was their mission.
So they I was working that nightand I got a call and I
went to a hallm hospital and PiagentinianJones were there. Jones was still on
the operating table. Piagentini was downstairsin the morgue, and I andressed the
(47:08):
Argentini. I saw in his hathis three kids. And the toughest thing
I had to do Teresa was takeoff his wedding van. And I then
later on met his wife and weremained friends. I attended the children's high
(47:32):
school graduations and stuff. And wejust lost her about three or four months
ago. But then Seedman put togethera group and it was headed up by
Nick Cirillo, and he put togethera group and I drew Pagentini, Butler
drew Butler, threw Jones, andoff went the investigation and on live forget
(48:00):
it what Seedman said to us,And there were seven of us, And
Seedman said to us, and don'tand Efin come home until you get them.
Wow. My wife is sitting outthere, and she will tell you.
I mean sometimes there was four andfive days that I just never came
(48:22):
home because I was in Saint Louis, I was here, so forth and
so on. And yes, thatwas the thought of the killings of the
Black Literation Army. Now that happenedin nineteen seventy one. And then again,
well that's going on. I'm workingthe motion picture the French Connection.
(48:43):
Yes, yes, I was inthe East Coast Stuntman's Association, so I
wound up doing a lot of drivingin the French Connection. So I'm doing
that. I'm doing the French Connection, and my wife will tell you I'm
never home. Well, I haveto tell you also what I left out
was when he did The Godfather,he was one of the guys that shot
Sonny at the toll booth. Yes, where was that film. Tell everyone
(49:05):
where that was outside of a Nassaucommunity college. Cupola came to us and
said that I understand you guys wereparatroopers. They said yeah, and he
said paratroopers have machine guns and Isaid absolutely, So we got it.
That took about three days. Therewas quite quite a to do it,
just the shooting, never mind nevermind Jimmy Kahan, but just the shooting.
(49:30):
The guns weren't simultaneously working, thecandy glass wasn't breaking. So finally
Cupola came and he said, look, Randy, stop holding the gun in
your left hand because the camera's onthe right. Put it on your hand,
and if the gun doesn't go off, poke it through the glass and
go rat. We did wow,and they had the shot and it went
(49:51):
over and I kicked Jimmy Khan.And at the end of the scene,
yeah, Cupola came over to meand he said, you know, you're
going to be the most hated manin the I said why, and he
says, he's not a female.That Sonny, he says, and you
killed him, Teresa. For thelongest times, I would get emails to
(50:15):
the man who shot Sonny co Thisis what I was doing as the guy
who shot If it wasn't hard enoughthat George Colin was telling people, I
locked up Lenny Bruce. Everybody wassaying that I shot Sonny Cole. I
have to you know, my showgoes so fast, but we have to
talk about your book. This isan amazing book people. It's called Circle
(50:37):
of Six, The true story ofNew York, New York's most notorious cop
killer and the cop who risked everythingto catch him. An amazing, amazing
read. Thank you, thank youfor that. You know, Joe Pistone
wrote, Jurgensen is the genuine article. He stands among some of the best
detectives in the n y p D. The Mosque of nineteen seventy two is
(51:01):
the most famous case amongst the rankand file of NYPD and the Circle of
Six. No holes barred. Thisis an incredible read. I was getting
so ticked off reading this that Ihad to keep putting it down and coming
back to it, and putting itdown and coming back to it. Your
life changed on April fourteenth, nineteenseventy two, and this book incorporates everything
(51:25):
that you went through, from landingin the hospital to coming out of the
hospital to making a promise to yourselfto catch the killer of Philip Cardillo,
who was killed. Unfortunately that daya lot of people were too young to
remember. Maybe, and we onlyhave a few minutes left, but I
(51:49):
just want you to tell me howcathotic and hard this was to write,
and how now you'd like to makeit into a motion picture, and who
is doing that screenplay right now?Well? The thing about the thing about
that is that there were other booksand other articles, and all of the
(52:10):
books in the sell sell sell andraped from the New York Times really wrote
it got into People magazine, butthey all of them said they did this,
they did that. So I wasdetermined that I was not going to
write a book that they did this, they did that. And so it
took some digging, and it tooksome homework and stuff like that, and
(52:31):
so I named I named the peopleyou know that I felt was most responsible,
most responsible for what happened that day. And the one thing that I
would like to say upon people isthat during that time thirteen tops were set
(52:51):
up and executed, and it wasall all boots on the ground. It
was bro get them. Nothing wasspared to go get them. On this
case. Here very different, veryvery different. Nothing. In fact,
they got in the way. Theyyou know, they stood in the way.
A lot of corruption, great embarrassment. But yes, the book.
(53:14):
Right now, there is a manby the name of Bill Tyler, a
well well known producer of Hurricane andwith Washington, Danzel Washington, with all
the Jumanji movies. And he isactually uh, he's actually writing the screenplay.
Wow, amazing writing the screenpay.It's not being adapted from the book.
(53:37):
No, it has nothing to dowith the book. He is he
he, he is writing. He'spresently writing the screenpay. So this time,
Teresa, we all got our fingerscrossed. We'll hope that too,
because it makes it a big It'san amazing story, it really is.
It should have never happened. AndI just want to thank you again for
(53:59):
your service in the service at home. You know, you've had an incredibly
randy You have to come back becauseI only did a part two with Joe
Cirilla, but I'm gonna do parttwo with you. You have so many
stories to tell. I'm so sorryI can't get to all of them,
but I wanted to get to,you know, the main ones we wanted
(54:20):
to talk about you know, andTeresa. I gave a shout out to
a lot of people. Yes,all while I went through that, all
of those years I went through that. Yeah, you know I had a
wife, Yes, Lynn, shoutout to Lynn who was by your side,
Vic and Thinn and through the kakathe good times and bad times and
(54:42):
you know. And she's a saintas far as I'm concerned. Yeah,
and found a good woman. Ofcourse she's Italian. Come on you kidding?
Thank you, thank you again forbeing here. Thank you. I
really really do appreciate it, Ireally do. I want to thank everyone
for watching. I want to ussay, Carmin, if you can put
up that pick please with my aunt. I'm dedicating the show to my aunt
(55:05):
Millie who passed away. Aunt MillieMontory, rest in peace. I love
you. Thank you for that again. Thank you, Randy for this.
My door is open. You comeback anytime you want, because we have
to do a part two with you. We really too. Oh wow,
what a tag team that's gonna be. All right. Listen, everybody,
thank you so much for supporting teatime. I really appreciate it. Remember
(55:28):
tell everyone you love you love them, and I'll see you next week.
Cha say goodbye, bye bye,thank you six
Good evening and welcome to tee Time. Hey, everybody, welcome to tea
(01:27):
Time. I'm so glad you're joiningme tonight. It is on March twenty
fifth. It's the end of themonth already. I'm going to talk about
my weekend and get to my guests, because you know, I'm my fifty
five minutes goes real quick. Friday, I was here Beautiful Paradise Studios.
I ended up here for karaoke andopen mic and we had a great time
(01:48):
here. So if you're not doinganything on a Friday night, come on
down at seven o'clock Saturday. Idid Murdered by the Mob and Manhattan at
the Iron Bar in the City.You haven't seen it yet. It's like
going to an Italian wedding gets whacked. You gotta figure it out. You
sing your dance, you eat yourdrink. It's so much fun. Just
go to murder by Theemob dot comto look up all our upcoming shows and
I hope to see you there Sunday. Yesterday I was in Jersey for the
(02:12):
Garden State Film Festival for the movieJersey Bread. That's b r ed and
I have some picks with that thatI was with some friends who were in
the movie and they had a supportSo what's the first pick we've got up?
There, We've got there's Gino Caffarelli, he did the movie Cruise.
There's Ed Shin he is the officialfilm festival photographer all over the place.
(02:38):
And then we have Chris Mormondo who'sin Gravesend. Everyone loves Charlie and Jersey
Bread, so look for that.And then there's Lorenzo Lorenzo Intanucci. Oh,
I gotta get that right. Alsoamazing, everyone did a great job.
It's Greg Russo's movie. There's mybest friend over Joe Dinafrio, also
(03:02):
an amazing actor. So I justwant to thank everyone for supporting and shout
out to Greg Russo wrote it,directly produced it, and it was really,
really really good. We had agreat time and then we had an
after party. So listen. I'mexcited because I met this man a while
ago. Gave me his book andit took me a while to read because
it was giving me an. Ihad to keep putting it down, putting
(03:23):
down, putting down, and Ihad a really hard time getting through it.
But an amazing, amazing, amazingread. He's an actor, he's
a producer, he's an author.Randy Jurgensen is he a Hi? Randy?
Hi? Finally got you here?How you doing fine? Good?
Good? Good? All right?So I want everyone to get to know
you and about your amazing career andthe different turns and twists that it's taken
(03:46):
throughout the years. You know,you grew up in Halem hallm hallm West
Hollam, and you really never leftbecause you ends up living there, working
there and doing everything there. Yes, right, nice and got to talk
before we start. First of all, thank you for having me on the
show. I'd like to give ashout out to a few of my friends,
(04:11):
you know, Joe Cirillo and JoeMozzilli and Joe Donny Brasco pistone and
especially to father Chris from my Italianparish, a lady of POMPEII. Yes,
I was born and I was bornin West Hollom. I was born
(04:31):
two blocks south of one hundred andtwenty fifth Street in Amsterdam Avenue. And
I was born at home because therewas some kind of a measle or mump's
outbreak at the hospital that my momwent to, so they sent the home
and I was born at home andmy parents, my parents were superintendents of
the building, and for nineteen yearsof my life growing up, my parents
(04:55):
were superintendents. In fact, mybrother and myself running in the streets,
the people would say, oh,we know you, you're the raffity boys,
or we know you you're the smithboy. Oh we know you,
you're the supers kids. So wewere, we were the supers kids.
I think it's important to share withyou the times that that I that I
(05:18):
grew grew up in in my neighborhood. In my neighborhood, you know,
there were a couple of bars,there was a tailor shop, a grocery
store, a meat market not ohyes, yes and uh. And there
was the bookmaker, and there wasthe man who took the sports bets,
(05:42):
and there was the man who tookthe numbers bets. And you know,
we also knew that there was alady of the evening of where she she
lived over So I knew that neighborhoodinside and out. And in fact,
I knew at a very young agesome of the people's uh bid business in
that the rents were twenty eight dollarsa month Teresa, and you know being
(06:05):
superintendents, we collected the rents,and every now and then there'd be a
knock on the door that they couldn'tmake the eighth the twenty eight dollars.
So I grew up in that neighborhood. I never missed a meal. I
had clothes, you know, AndI literally grew up in the street,
(06:27):
you know, came home from school, get out there, go in the
street. We made up our owngames and so forth and so on.
I bring that up. I bringthat up, Teresa, because you know,
to jump ahead from when I wasan adult and I became a cop.
You know, I worked in thesame neighborhood. I was on the
west side of one hundred and twentyfifth Street, and if I went to
(06:50):
one hundred and twenty fifth Street andI looked three or four blocks over to
the east, there was the ApolloTheater. And then my first assignment as
a cop was in the twenty fifthPrecinct, which was a very diverse precinct.
The east side of the precinct itwas Italian and they spoke Italian.
(07:11):
In the middle of the precinct itwas Spanish. They spoke Spanish. And
then we had all the way overonto Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue. That
was black. It was very verydefined precinct in terms of the people that
resided there. So you know,you were you could be a policeman one
way, you know, in thisneighborhood, and four or five blocks over
(07:34):
you were a different, a different, a different policeman. So and I
saw, I saw immediately when Iwas there. I knew who was taking
numbers. I knew who the bookmaker was. You know, there was
no fooling me. I was born, born, and you know, born
(07:57):
and raised out in the streets inthat environment. I heard you played with
someone in those streets named George Colin. Is that true? Yeah? George
Colin, you know, to adegree A lot of times was a thorn
in my side. Yeah, butto break them, oh, George Colin
was bright quick. I didn't haveto do homework. Yeah. George Colin
(08:22):
at twelve years of age was thefirst one that brought pot to us,
you know, yeah, George.George was a leader in a lot of
things. Yeah. So he goesinto comedy and you you actually joined the
army, correct, I did.I which thank you for your service.
I you know, in my neighborhoodthey're being raised in the Second World War,
(08:48):
you know, in my in myneighborhood, it was basically everybody couldn't
wait to get into the service,you know. So at sixteen I started.
You know, you couldn't join thearmy without your parents' signature. So
at sixteen I started. I started. I started. And my dad,
(09:09):
who was the most patient, loving, wonderful father that you could ever have.
And his famous words were, whatdid your mother say? What is
your mother going to do? Thatwas it? So I learned that my
mother, so he said, hesaid to my mother one day he said,
Betty, you go ahead and sign, because I'm not going to sign.
So that stopped me from the mother. So there was three or four
(09:33):
of us and I'll call one guy'sname. His name is Nicki Masque.
That we went down to forty secondStreet. Nicki Masque was two months shy
of being sixteen. I was twomonths shy of being seventeen. And we
went down there and we gave thepapers, and I'll always remember when he
came to me, he said,well, what about your father? And
(09:56):
I said, oh, I lostmy father. My father's dead. And
he said, oh, I'm I'msorry, and he kept it up and
at sixteen I went in and Nickimaskew he went in at fifteen. Two
months later I got caught. Theysent me back home. In the meantime,
I had signed up up there tobecome a paratrooper because I understood that
there was extra money in it.So he never got caught. I came
(10:22):
home and when I turned seventeen,my father said, would you stay home
for Christmas and then you can go, And of course I went immediately after
Christmas. The day that I went, it was my mother's birthday. So
I left it, yes, andI went into the service. I went
over to Korea, you know.And it was a war, and yeah,
(10:46):
that was the Battle of the porkChop Hill, and that was the
Korean War. And you were actuallydecorated with three bronze stars and the purple
well yeah, I got my thirdstar. Yeah, on pork Shop Hill.
And I have to say this,Teresa. There's a man sitting in
the audience out here. His nameis Joe Cirillo. And that was called
(11:07):
the Iron Triangle at that time,and it was Baldy pork Chop and Hill
five nine eight, and he wason Baldy and Thank god they held Baldy,
otherwise we would have really really beenthat a lot. Yeah, but
yeah, I came home, andyou came home, and then you joined
the police department. Well, therewas no work. There was absolutely no
(11:28):
work for us, you know.I believe the silhouettes was singing get a
job. And this is also veryimportant. I went in at seventeen and
it was Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Harry James, believe
me the great. And I camehome and it was four black guys up
(11:50):
on a stage virtually singing a cappella, you know. And that's my music.
Yeah, and that's my music.Of course it's come down to be
rock and roll, but it's theoldiest. That was my music. So
one day, Teresa I was playingstick ball along with everybody else, and
we were unemployed, and Uncle Samgave us twenty six dollars a week for
(12:15):
twenty six weeks, and Teresa Iwas a wise guy. I never went
to high school and that one day. So during that period I went back
to school and I got a gedand this guy came along with some job
(12:37):
applications, and I'll never forget it. It was the police department, the
fire department, the police department,and the Department of Parks, and I
filled them all out. I neverhad an intention or were calling to be
a cop, really never. Sowhat did you want as a kid?
What did you want to be whenyou grew up? I mean, were
you into sports? Were you intowhat were you into? Was there something
(12:58):
that you just said, oh,I want to do that when I get
older. I was into I wasinto taking illegal numbers. I was into
steering people to where the gambling denswere, which I was getting paid for
I'm sure very good money. Iwas really I was really you were a
hustler, I believe me. Iwas really one of the proudest times back
(13:20):
then. And I had a groupof guys with me, is that I
was going down to the store ontwenty fifth Street and I was going to
buy and pay for my own shoes. Four of us went down there,
you know, to buy the Hey, Randy's going to buy his own shoes.
Yeah, So that's what I wasreally into. And then when I
came home, I guess, toa degree, like a lot of guys,
(13:41):
I was really lost. I wasnineteen playing stickball. I didn't know
what I was going to do,but I went back to taking numbers.
I went back to you know it'swhat you knew, yes to doing that
by no means, Teresa, isthis a fellony crime that I'm committing?
Okay? So, and of courseGeorge Colin is there and the police department
(14:09):
was the first one to call that'sit. So when I went down there,
yep. And the police academy atthat time was only three months old.
Now I had an incident. Ihad an incident when I was home
that the sergeant who was investigating mecalled up and he said, we're wise
to you, Jurgensen. We seethat you've been arrested. You've been arrested
(14:31):
here in a place of book making, a wire room and stuff like that.
You've been arrested twice. You thinkyou're fooling us. And this is
exactly what he said. You thinkyou're a war hero. And that's going
to get over that. And Isaid, sergeant, what do you mean
I've been arrested. He says,well, you were arrested, and gave
the date and I said, sergeant, I was two years old. It
(14:52):
was my father. Oh, andmy mother got on the phone when I
said that's the end of me beinga cop. My mother didn't say to
this guy, it is sageant onthe phone. Two weeks later, I
got a letter, You've been accepted, and so I went down. After
three months, I came out.I came out. I came out Teresa,
(15:15):
and I was met at my precinctwith people that would be life long
friends. One of them I actuallygrew up with. But given that he's
four or five years older than me, so when you're thirteen and he's eighteen,
you're not hanging out. And that'sSonny Grasso. And Sonny Grasso was
very instrumental, which I will getinto and why there is a French Connection
(15:39):
movie, it's because of Sonny Grosso. So I'm working in that, I'm
working in that precinct. I'm arookie, and I commit my first times
of corruption. I'm working there andI'm working in the Italian section. I'm
there two or three weeks, andyou could use discretion. You could use
discretion. Then I learned that peoplecould not afford a fifteen dollars double parking
(16:06):
summons. I learned this on myown and so but there was you could
give a summons for wheels not tothe curb, which was only five dollars.
And Teresa, remember I'm talking backin the fifties, so you can
imagine what fifteen dollars would be today. So I gave them that summons,
you know. So, so likeI say, I'm working there that and
(16:30):
one day the barber comes out andhe pulls me, pulls me aside,
and pulls me into the shop.And I'm saying, yeah, yeah,
yeah, you know, I'm abrand new cap for two three months there,
rookie. And he's taking my jacketoff, sitting me in the chair
and he's got the scissors, andI'm saying no, no, no,
no, ba up and I geta haircut, and of course I go
(16:51):
in my pocket and he steps backlike like I'm pulling a gun on it.
It's almost an insult to offer money. Yeah, that's corruption. Yeah,
okay. So a couple of weekslater, i'm walking down out comes
the tailor, and the tailor comesout. He takes me into the tailor's
shop. Take your pants off,take and he's pressing my pants in my
jacket. I don't even offer himmoney. By now I know it.
(17:15):
Out the door I go, butHere's here's what it was meant being a
cop back in those days. Teresaid, there was a drug store, and
obviously there are drugs in the drugstore. Yes, his name was Dave.
He was Jewish. And I'm walkingone day and it's like a four
to twelve and he's closing up atsix o'clock and he said, officer,
(17:40):
and he calls me, oh,cop, come on in, he says,
I know. He says, inits rain and it's cold, and
it's twelve o'clock at night and twoo'clock in the morning, he says,
And you don't have any place togo and use the bathroom. He says,
here's the key. Wow. Thedruggist gives me the key to his
store, and of course twelve clockI go in. I find a hot
(18:00):
plate in there. You know,if you put the you can put the
coffee on it. The cast registeris open with money in it. And
as wide is this over here onthe glass is every kind of drug there
there was. Yeah, this isthe the trust respect whatever you want to
say that they had for a cop, that I wasn't going to steal anything
(18:22):
or do anything. Wow, thatnever left me. It really really never
left me. So you you youyou became a detective fairly right away.
Well, uh, A couple ofpeople that I met. A couple of
people that I met there. Onewas Nick Cirillo, who came on the
job with Joe Sorillo, right,He was a detective there, and I
(18:48):
met I met a couple of cops. I met a couple of cops,
Sonny Israel and Tony Altamary. Andwhen I was in the police academy,
I was in the police Academy andFifth Street and I was taking numbers and
they caught me and put me upagainst the wall and stuff, and I
said, Jesus, guys, youknow I'm in the police academy. And
(19:08):
they said, what the hell areyou doing? What are you crazy?
And they're in that precinct, right, So I get to that precinct.
I got a bit of a reputation, you know. One last story I'll
tell you before I become a detective. I was walking walking down there and
there was this group of guys,you know, and they were on one
(19:32):
side of second air, you know, sitting on the chair the wrong way
outside of a social club. Andit was hey, rookie, hey,
don't shoot yourself, and you know, it just kept it up, and
so finally one day I just walkedover to him and I said, you
got a problem with me, andhe says, yeah, I got a
problem with you. And I says, well, we can settle that problem.
He says, yeah, but yougot a gun. I said,
(19:52):
I'll meet you down here after fouro'clock, which I did, and there
was a group of guys that camewith me. Sunny Grasso came and so
forth. And I went into thebackyard. And when we went into the
backyard and I said, you gota problem with me, and he said,
yes, I got a problem withyou, Teresa. I hauled off.
I broke his nose down he wentand I said, I hope you
don't have a problem with me anymore. And I came back out. The
(20:15):
next day I came and the captaincalled me in. Oh no, And
the captain says to me, Jurgensen. He says, we don't do things
like that. We don't do thingslike that, he says. And I
said, I'm sorry, It'll neverhappen again. And he says, all
right, get on my office,and he said, Jurgensen, good work.
So now I'm riding in the radiocar. We get a gun run.
(20:40):
This is how it became a detectivebecause there's a gun run and there's
a detective's car that was right alongsideof me. Nick Cirillo's in that car,
and we go up the stairs asfast as we can. We break
the door down. The guy's gota rifle and he's firing into a courtyard.
And you know, whether we're thechildren in there or not, I
don't know. He was firing intothe courtyard and we broke the door down,
(21:03):
and Nick and I both wrestled himto the ground and we made the
newspaper. We got into the newspaperand the front page on the newspaper.
So I went to court with him. And while I'm in court, this
captain came over to me in civilianclothes. How old are you? Where
do you work? Are you shavingyet? Blah blah blah, so forth
and so on, and he said, I want you tomorrow to report to
(21:27):
the first Precinct. You report tothe first Precinct, which is today's museum.
So Teresa to the precinct the nextday, put on my uniform.
I went down there and I wasinterviewed by a lieutenant to be an undercover
knock out a cop. And thatlieutenant is Mario Biagi, who would later
(21:49):
on become a congressman. So Iwent through the same questions and so forth
and so on, and he saidto me, he went like this,
and by now it was like Urgenson, Jurgensen, go up to the priestsinct,
get out of that bag. Thebag is the uniform, and come
back here. And so I cameback there, and within a week or
(22:11):
two I was out buying narcotics inAlphabet City, throughout the city. I
didn't have a problem. I didnot have a problem buying buying narcotics.
I mean, how scary was itto go into these drug dens? I
mean undercover and you know, makea bust or you know, do what
(22:32):
you need to do while you're inthere. You know, were you alone?
Did you have anything one with you? You're alone? You're alone.
So I mean it's kind of likescary there. And the problem is to
recid the way that it works.And honestly, the short version is you
get a drug addict in a street. Now you're dealing with a desperate person.
Yes, you're going to take hisdrugs away. This man is desperate.
So I got a hold of him, and you know, it was
(22:56):
almost a nothing bust. And Isaid to him, look, you're not
working for me. I said,you won't be on these streets. I
just it just flowed. I spokehis language, and I said to him,
you're taking me tomorrow. You're takingme and you better be here.
You're taking me tomorrow to where you'rebuying drugs. And I'm gonna buy drugs.
(23:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, youknow virtually you have now put your
life in the hands of a verydesperate person. Yes, And so I
met him. We went up thereand he knocked on the door. Blah
blah blah. You know, Iknow this guy, you know the language.
I'm not gonna say no, wecan't curse on the shop. I'm
(23:41):
not gonna do it. And soyep, and I put up my money.
I was excited. I was excitedand stuff like that. I bought
the drugs. He went his way, I went my way, and the
backup, the backup is one ortwo blocks away. I came back out
and I was elated. I waswalking on water, you know, Teresa,
(24:02):
when you do that for fourteen andfifteen months, which I did.
I almost forgot that I was acop. Yeah, they say, we're
going to cover for a very longtime. You know, you kind of
lose yourself, she kind of.You know, so I was doing that.
Now, how I now I'm undercoverand I'm a White Shield cop.
(24:23):
I'm a White Shield cop. Althoughthat's a detective unit. Now. Very
important here, Teresa, is thatSonny Grasso and Eddie Egan and dick O
Letter they're working in an outfit calledSIU that's like a special investigative unit.
Then I am out in the streetbuying seventy five dollars half loads. Half
(24:47):
of it was talcum powder. Butthey're working on keys which were worth thirty
two thousand dollars at the time.And they're working in this case, they're
working every now and then they pulledme over, you know, to babysit
a witness, or to sit onthe wire tap or to follow somebody.
I was not in the inner circlefor that, and so this happened almost
(25:11):
simultaneously. I go into Alphabet Cityand I make and I make my bi
up on the fifth floor and I'mcoming down and I see hands and sneakers
coming up and I know I'm introuble. I'm in trouble. So I
run up, I get on theroof and they're following me. I run
on the roof, jump over theroof a couple three times. I get
(25:33):
the fire escape, I run down, and I come out on Delancey Street.
Now I know I've either lost themor they're not going to take me
off with the crowd. Remember wetalked about earlier, A CoP's gut knows
that something. When I came outon Delancey Street, I something was not
right. The big restaurant there isRatner's, and Ratners had a small black
(25:55):
and white TV in it, right, and the people were grouped there,
and I saw the people sort ofwandering or whatever it was. So I
made my way over into the seventhPrecinct and there's a sergeant behind the desk,
and now we do the dance.And the dance is not everybody back
then look like Eddie Egan. Theylook like Randy Jurgensen, long hair,
(26:17):
not shaving those blown over himself,a drug addict. Yeah, so I
give him a few moments. Youknow. UF sixty one that's a crime.
UF twenty eight means a day off. Okay, so then I gave
him the drugs and he's turning togo to put the drugs in the safe
and I said, hey, Sage, what's wrong? And he said to
me, where the f have youbeen? They just shot and killed the
(26:38):
President of the United States. Myworld stopped. It just stopped. I
believe the whole world stopped. Itjust stopped right there. So I went
down to narcotics, full grown men, grown men, Second World War veterans,
right bawling, crying, standing around. I never knew what happened to
(26:59):
that, And that went on forabout one or two one or two weeks,
but they made that case, andthat case it's been surpassed by quantity,
but never quality. It was likeninety pure and so that got into
the paper and that attracted a writerby the name of Robin Moore who wrote
(27:26):
a book called The Green Berets.So he came down to narcotics. He
got permission to work with us Ivirtually never did, and he worked with
Sonny and Eddie and he wrote abook called The French Connection, and The
French Connection would inevitably turned into themovie The French Connection Movie. So at
(27:47):
that same time, now after thatwas two three weeks have gone by.
I get called to the District Attorney'soffice and it's in Najerry is the district
attorney. And this was quite longthat we went through, so I'll be
short. And they said, you'regoing into and they called it the gay
world. You're going to be workingwith homosexuals. Here's what's happening. Homo
(28:11):
sexuals are being cornered, coerced andshook down, shook down. You know,
they're going to lose their job.They're getting them in compromising situations and
so forth and so on, andso that's what that's the world that you're
going to go into. Is muchmore than that they told me. So
they gave me an apartment on aBleaker Street and this Teresa would go on
(28:36):
for another six months. So overthere on Bleaker Street, you know,
I'm ingratiating himself into I'm gonna callit the gay world. At that particular
time, I met a guy downthe hall. We used to go to
breakfast together. And no, Teresa, I didn't live in that apartment,
of course not. I showed upnow and then I worked nights and whatever
(28:57):
it was, and then I wentoff, you know into it's the life
that I was supposed to be.Okay, So so while I'm working down
there, now I get the wordand I have these meetings. I have
these meetings with the captains and remindme to tell you about the movie about
(29:19):
these captains here, and they said, we now have three or four homosexuals
or gay people that not only havethey been killed, but they've been chopped
up. And so now not onlynow, I'm working on killers. And
(29:41):
from get go, they suspected thatthese two two men were cops and one
was black, one was white,and they were nicknamed the Salt and Peppertine.
So now I'm working on what I'mcalling cop killers. Yeah, right,
So there can't be anything more importantthan that. And I get called
(30:02):
over to the District Attorney's office andit's an A Jerry again and Greenwich Village
has made a complaint that there's alude and indecent act going on in this
place called comedian. A comedian you'retalking about go go alluding a decent act?
Yes, and you had you hada restless man. They put the
wire on me. I didn't wantto wire. I went over there.
(30:26):
We wired him up again. Longstory short, this took three weeks.
Imagine I'm working on a comedian whilethere's two people out killing people. Yes,
but that's what I did. Andso I got him and of course
it's Lenny Bruce, Lannie Bruce.People. I locked up Lenny Bruce,
locked up Lenny Bruce, and JudgeColin. Colin announced that one of the
(30:48):
shows any introduce that you locked himup. So then after after that,
after I did that, I wentback and uh, good police worked and
a lot of luck. I gotthe two guys, but we never got
them for the murder. But Igot them. They got seven years a
piece and I got a gold shield. Wow, Teresa, I get a
(31:12):
sign to the twenty sixth Precinct.When I was a kid, and that
was the twenty sixth Precinct, Iwas delivering groceries and the groceries had beer
and cigarettes, and there were twocops that would stop me and they would
take the beer, they would takethe cigarettes. That's what they would do.
(31:33):
And there was some name calling,racial name calling, and we know
you Super's kid, but blah blah, so forth and so on. I
went back to the store and Itold them he may believe like it never
happened. I went to my fatherand my father said, keep your mouth
(31:55):
shut, So I did, allright, So I put up with that
for about year. Wow, well, Teresa, I go into the twenty
sixth precinct. I got this brandnew shield, and there's the two of
them once again, you know,Randy. So the fight broke out,
right, And so the initial reportwas I was under arrest. I was
(32:19):
under arrest in the precinct, youknow. And I just sort of sat
there and I said to myself,it's worth it, you know. And
the two of them, you know, half in the bag, you know.
I gave it to him. Good. So so I'm under arrest.
So now they hear the story.The captain comes down and so forth and
so on. Yeah, and Itold him, really what happened. And
this one, Detective Graham said,keep your mouth shut. You're going to
(32:44):
be okay here, Yeah, thisnever happened, and talk about it.
Don't do anything like that. AndI said yes. And as far as
I know, I'm the only detective, only detective that was transferred without orders.
I was transferred on a teletipe andthey sent me to the two eight
precinct. And anybody can tell you, the two eight precinct is the It's
(33:08):
first, It's first in anything.It's the top on being the toilet,
it's everything that's under it. TheGod Almighty first in everything, first in
cop killings, first in everything.So I would wound up doing I would
wound up doing seventeen seventeen years inthe two eight precinct. However, what
(33:30):
I just told you about locking thosepeople up, locking those the Sultan pepper
Tine up in nineteen seventy nine,which I had done four or five pictures
with Billy Freakin. He said tome, Randy, I have optioned a
book called Cruising, but only forthe title, and you and I are
(33:50):
going to sit together, which wedid for weeks, and we he wrote
cruising, so out of those two, out of those two things that I
will really came the French connection,and came cruising amazing, amazing. Well,
you know what, we have totake a break, and when we
come back, we're gonna hear moreabout it with Randy. Don't go away
(34:12):
back after these messages. Wonder Womanwas everything to little girls, especially that
looked like me. She stands forbeing a voice for people that need a
voice. My organization renovates homes forpeople with disabilities, and when I come
(34:37):
home a self care routine makes mefeel my best. I'm very proud of
the difference that we're making. It. To see that impact in my community
inspires me to work even harder foreveryone around me. All right, is
(34:58):
everybody having a good time tonight orlot? That's what I thought. I
(35:21):
don't want to call back down.Hi. I'm Georgia Rose, founder of
(35:55):
Zancuda. You can watch me onthe soul Space podcast every Friday at noon
on Channel twenty for spiritual guidance.And as you all know, that is
how I first opened into my ownpsychic gifts, was through the angelic realm
astrology. And so we've got Marsand the Sun together in Scorpio, which
creates a lot of combustion. Inthe astrological world, we call it Akazini
(36:15):
and taro with the four cups rightside up. It means we have a
lot of choices to make, andwe're not looking at what's really being divinely
given to us. We're too busyin the busyness of the choices to really
see the divine intervention and divine timingand the fine guy where the place.
Watch the Soul Space podcast. Iwere back. There's no way everybody,
(36:51):
welcome back to TEA time so greatin joining me. I am with a
friend of mine, met him awhile ago. Read his book. It's
amazing. I going to talk aboutthat. Jurgensen is here. He's an
active producer, author, also retiredpoliceman. I I an amazing, amazing
career, just so much to getto and I want to get it all
(37:12):
in. Uh we talked earlier.Well, I just want to give some
quick quick shout outs. Hello toSal Grosso, Paul's watching, Bruno,
Michael and Greg. Thank you everyoneshare this and watch it, watch it,
watch it. And also we're gonnaget to his book. But in
the meantime, Uh, two collarsthat you made, two arrests that you
(37:34):
made went to two went into makingof two huge movies. One was The
French Connection, which you mentioned before. We have a couple of picks with
that there you are, there is, there's Gene Hackman with that pick and
the next pick what's that from?Because I wasn't too sure what the second
one was. Pick is that fromthe same same movie? French Connection?
Okay? And then also you didmention which I have Wait, I have
(37:57):
this. We're gonna put this upright. That's the Godfather because after the
French Connection, hold on after theFrench Connection, and I haven't read pulling
the right one right, yes,right after the French Connection, which was
done in nineteen seventy one, thenin nineteen seventy two came along The Godfather.
So obviously what you did was youbecame a major technical advisor for film
(38:22):
and television, and you you reallywere an actor because you you you yeah,
you did from the French Connection.You did, and then you did
you did French Connection, You didThe Godfather. You have over thirty credits
on IMDBA. You also also produced, an associate, produced and tech advisor.
(38:44):
You had your hands in a lotof you know bag so to speak.
You did Seven Up with Roy Schneier, Schneider Schneider, I never say
his name, right, Would youplay a detective that's written by Sonny?
Yeah, but you also did twoof them more fees with him as well
a lot of people you worked with, you know, you worked with it
(39:04):
more than once. You did TheSorcerer, and and and and and if
I'm right, the Seven the SevenUps, which you did the person that
I really worked with throughout all thosemore billy freaking right, so that mention.
And you also did Contract on CherryStreet with Frank Sinatra. Hello,
(39:29):
that's like a pinch me moment?How crazy was that? And then you
did Blood Brothers with richid Gea andPaul Sorviena amazing, amazing. You did
the Brinks Job with Peter Fork andPeter Boyle. You did Superman with Christopher
Reeves. You did one of myfavorites for the Pache of the Bronx.
(39:49):
Okay, Danny and Paul Newman andAsna ken Wall. You did The Vigilante
with Robert Forrester. You also wasa associate producer on that as well,
on which one on the Vigilante.Yes, you did Still of the Night
again with Roy, Meryl Streep,Jessica Tandy, Maniac Maniac. You did
(40:13):
Still of the Night. You didJura with Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin.
Okay, you did Thinner Well,that was a Stephen King film and you
produced it. Yes, Okay,On and on and on people, Donnie
Brosco one of my fans, withAl Pacino, Johnny Depp, Michael Madson,
who I had the pleasure of interviewingnineteen ninety five. Now we're going
(40:35):
into Die Hat, Die Heart Revengewith Bruce Willis Samuel Jackson, and you
were a tech advisor on that.Yes, this is not a just this
is not a list of just staws. Hello, this is like a game
here. I mean I was.I was jogging with Burt Renolds when screen
actors Gil went on strike and BertReynolds said, see you, she went
(41:01):
back to California. Did you really? I mean, I mean, the
list goes on and on and again. You also produced, You produced Goost
with Jennifer Tilley, associate producer.You did New York Cop with Mirrous Sorvino,
co producer, in the Shadow ofa Killer Scott Bakula, and again
(41:22):
executive producer, A Time to Remember, And and in these movies Hello,
you were also in them. Youplayed detectives, you played You've played a
plethora of You also played bad guystoo. Did you like playing the bad
guys? Randy, come on,tell me the truth? Did you like
putting on that hat? There's nota heck of a lot of difference from
(41:44):
a from a cop and a badguy up uncertain the clothing. It's the
clothing that's different, Yes, exactlyexactly, I mean, I mean,
it's it's it's amazing. It's justamazing what you've done, and how you
know, just to again to toarrest, lead to to major again cruising
(42:07):
with Pacino and and and Hackman andthe French connection. I mean, shadow
of a killer. Shadow of aKiller is about a detective who's against the
against capital punishment, which I havealways always been in. I was marked
by a picture called the Oxbow Incidentof Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda, and
(42:32):
so I had actually done a commercialagainst the against capital, against capital punishment,
yea. And I was out onenight with my sister and my brother
in law and got involved and soforth and so on, and the two
soldiers, not soldiers in the army, soldiers from the boys in Brooklyn.
(42:58):
They off the cop. He actuallypractically died, died in front of me.
And you know, after a struggleand a shot and so forth,
I got both of him. AndJohn Keannan when we were in the precinct.
John Keannan said, and this ishis exact words. John Kennan said,
Well, the cop is white,the two people that have killed the
(43:22):
cop is white. The detective thathas arrested them is white. We're going
for the electric chair, and Ihad already made a commercial that I was
against the electric chair. So thatgot to be pretty hairy after a while.
And of course added that came thefifty thousand dollars that was placed on
(43:44):
my placed on my head. Yeahwhat, But but that's what that movie's
about. Shadow of a Killer,it's about it's about Scott Backuler playing me
after Daly's Tree. So he cameto me one day, did you see
dailies? And I said yeah.He said do you like them? I
said yeah. He said did younotice anything? I said no. He
(44:05):
said, Randy, I'm playing itleft handed. You're left handed? Do
wow? That's what they do?Oh yeah, definitely. But but so
that was the the bounty on yourhead. This was this was an undercover
investigation again members of the Black LiberationArmy. Well that's a different one.
That's a different story. So waitbefore we get to that. Way,
(44:27):
before we get to that, there'sjust so much to get to. I
just wanted to back up a secondand mention also nineteen eighty seven, you
did heat with Steve Buscemi and youproduced that and you wrote it heart.
Correct, I'm sorry Heart, Ididn't say sorry heart, and you wrote
it and you I did James Lemonand I wrote that. Yes, we
(44:49):
wrote that. Yeah, that wasoriginally wrote it. Someone originally wrote treat
Williams as a millionare. Williams wasn'tavailable, so we got Brad Davis,
and Brad Davis was was losing hislife at the time. We never knew
it. Wow, we never knewit. Wow, he passed on of
(45:12):
age. Yes, yeah, wewrote heart. Yes, I'm sorry I
put it say heart. I misreadit. Sorry. Sami's first acting,
very first film. Yeah, it'samazing. Okay, So I want to
get to this undercover investigation that youwere doing the Black Liberation Army and at
one point they had placed a bountyon your head. Very scary thing,
and I'm you know, I'm sureit was. But what happened with that?
(45:37):
What was that? Was that?Was that before the nineteen again again
in nineteen seventy one, Yes,I just I just came off the trial
of convicting the two of them,and the federal government struck down capital punishment
as unconstitutional and so they got twentyfive to life. They served forty years,
(46:00):
one died in prison and one isout. But as soon as that
was over, you know, theBlack Liberation Army with no social redeeming value
whatsoever on any level. They andthese are the terms that I've always used,
(46:22):
they executed Pigentinian, Jones and Teresa. Thirteen cops would be set up
and killed. And those thirteen copsthey were Irish, Italian, Spanish,
black, white sergeant cop. Theywere killing cops. No matter what your
(46:43):
color was in the group, theywere killing cops. That was their mission.
So they I was working that nightand I got a call and I
went to a hallm hospital and PiagentinianJones were there. Jones was still on
the operating table. Piagentini was downstairsin the morgue, and I andressed the
(47:08):
Argentini. I saw in his hathis three kids. And the toughest thing
I had to do Teresa was takeoff his wedding van. And I then
later on met his wife and weremained friends. I attended the children's high
(47:32):
school graduations and stuff. And wejust lost her about three or four months
ago. But then Seedman put togethera group and it was headed up by
Nick Cirillo, and he put togethera group and I drew Pagentini, Butler
drew Butler, threw Jones, andoff went the investigation and on live forget
(48:00):
it what Seedman said to us,And there were seven of us, And
Seedman said to us, and don'tand Efin come home until you get them.
Wow. My wife is sitting outthere, and she will tell you.
I mean sometimes there was four andfive days that I just never came
(48:22):
home because I was in Saint Louis, I was here, so forth and
so on. And yes, thatwas the thought of the killings of the
Black Literation Army. Now that happenedin nineteen seventy one. And then again,
well that's going on. I'm workingthe motion picture the French Connection.
(48:43):
Yes, yes, I was inthe East Coast Stuntman's Association, so I
wound up doing a lot of drivingin the French Connection. So I'm doing
that. I'm doing the French Connection, and my wife will tell you I'm
never home. Well, I haveto tell you also what I left out
was when he did The Godfather,he was one of the guys that shot
Sonny at the toll booth. Yes, where was that film. Tell everyone
(49:05):
where that was outside of a Nassaucommunity college. Cupola came to us and
said that I understand you guys wereparatroopers. They said yeah, and he
said paratroopers have machine guns and Isaid absolutely, So we got it.
That took about three days. Therewas quite quite a to do it,
just the shooting, never mind nevermind Jimmy Kahan, but just the shooting.
(49:30):
The guns weren't simultaneously working, thecandy glass wasn't breaking. So finally
Cupola came and he said, look, Randy, stop holding the gun in
your left hand because the camera's onthe right. Put it on your hand,
and if the gun doesn't go off, poke it through the glass and
go rat. We did wow,and they had the shot and it went
(49:51):
over and I kicked Jimmy Khan.And at the end of the scene,
yeah, Cupola came over to meand he said, you know, you're
going to be the most hated manin the I said why, and he
says, he's not a female.That Sonny, he says, and you
killed him, Teresa. For thelongest times, I would get emails to
(50:15):
the man who shot Sonny co Thisis what I was doing as the guy
who shot If it wasn't hard enoughthat George Colin was telling people, I
locked up Lenny Bruce. Everybody wassaying that I shot Sonny Cole. I
have to you know, my showgoes so fast, but we have to
talk about your book. This isan amazing book people. It's called Circle
(50:37):
of Six, The true story ofNew York, New York's most notorious cop
killer and the cop who risked everythingto catch him. An amazing, amazing
read. Thank you, thank youfor that. You know, Joe Pistone
wrote, Jurgensen is the genuine article. He stands among some of the best
detectives in the n y p D. The Mosque of nineteen seventy two is
(51:01):
the most famous case amongst the rankand file of NYPD and the Circle of
Six. No holes barred. Thisis an incredible read. I was getting
so ticked off reading this that Ihad to keep putting it down and coming
back to it, and putting itdown and coming back to it. Your
life changed on April fourteenth, nineteenseventy two, and this book incorporates everything
(51:25):
that you went through, from landingin the hospital to coming out of the
hospital to making a promise to yourselfto catch the killer of Philip Cardillo,
who was killed. Unfortunately that daya lot of people were too young to
remember. Maybe, and we onlyhave a few minutes left, but I
(51:49):
just want you to tell me howcathotic and hard this was to write,
and how now you'd like to makeit into a motion picture, and who
is doing that screenplay right now?Well? The thing about the thing about
that is that there were other booksand other articles, and all of the
(52:10):
books in the sell sell sell andraped from the New York Times really wrote
it got into People magazine, butthey all of them said they did this,
they did that. So I wasdetermined that I was not going to
write a book that they did this, they did that. And so it
took some digging, and it tooksome homework and stuff like that, and
(52:31):
so I named I named the peopleyou know that I felt was most responsible,
most responsible for what happened that day. And the one thing that I
would like to say upon people isthat during that time thirteen tops were set
(52:51):
up and executed, and it wasall all boots on the ground. It
was bro get them. Nothing wasspared to go get them. On this
case. Here very different, veryvery different. Nothing. In fact,
they got in the way. Theyyou know, they stood in the way.
A lot of corruption, great embarrassment. But yes, the book.
(53:14):
Right now, there is a manby the name of Bill Tyler, a
well well known producer of Hurricane andwith Washington, Danzel Washington, with all
the Jumanji movies. And he isactually uh, he's actually writing the screenplay.
Wow, amazing writing the screenpay.It's not being adapted from the book.
(53:37):
No, it has nothing to dowith the book. He is he
he, he is writing. He'spresently writing the screenpay. So this time,
Teresa, we all got our fingerscrossed. We'll hope that too,
because it makes it a big It'san amazing story, it really is.
It should have never happened. AndI just want to thank you again for
(53:59):
your service in the service at home. You know, you've had an incredibly
randy You have to come back becauseI only did a part two with Joe
Cirilla, but I'm gonna do parttwo with you. You have so many
stories to tell. I'm so sorryI can't get to all of them,
but I wanted to get to,you know, the main ones we wanted
(54:20):
to talk about you know, andTeresa. I gave a shout out to
a lot of people. Yes,all while I went through that, all
of those years I went through that. Yeah, you know I had a
wife, Yes, Lynn, shoutout to Lynn who was by your side,
Vic and Thinn and through the kakathe good times and bad times and
(54:42):
you know. And she's a saintas far as I'm concerned. Yeah,
and found a good woman. Ofcourse she's Italian. Come on you kidding?
Thank you, thank you again forbeing here. Thank you. I
really really do appreciate it, Ireally do. I want to thank everyone
for watching. I want to ussay, Carmin, if you can put
up that pick please with my aunt. I'm dedicating the show to my aunt
(55:05):
Millie who passed away. Aunt MillieMontory, rest in peace. I love
you. Thank you for that again. Thank you, Randy for this.
My door is open. You comeback anytime you want, because we have
to do a part two with you. We really too. Oh wow,
what a tag team that's gonna be. All right. Listen, everybody,
thank you so much for supporting teatime. I really appreciate it. Remember
(55:28):
tell everyone you love you love them, and I'll see you next week.
Cha say goodbye, bye bye,thank you six
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