New York Office (NYO) - Rookie All Over Again-Part 3

 

SAC Trent, the Agent in charge of the Columbia, SC office, called me to Headquarters on a Friday and sat me down in his office. He had received his orders to NYO, New York Office, the previous Monday. He said he was “taking me with him”, handed me my orders to NYO and laughed. Neither of us wanted to go to NY!

He told me that on every Monday morning 15 agents transfer into NYO and ALL are assigned to the Applicant squad for orientation for 1-3 months. He then paid me what I felt was the best compliment you could ever want when he said that I didn’t need orientation, and that he was very grateful to me for doing a great job for him and the FBI and wished me luck.

On my first Monday in NYO, Assistant Director John Malone assigned 14 transferees, including 2 of my academy classmates, to the Applicant Squad and me to the Truck Hijacking Squad, one of the 3 top desired criminal squads in the entire 1200 agent office;  trucks, fugitives and banks!! Mr Malone stopped me on the way out and after everyone else left said, “What you did on the Bronx robbery and Jones kidnapping cases was great work, keep it up”. I haven’t started working there and already The Assistant Director complimented me more that Sr ever did in my first office!

When I made it to the 6th floor of the NYO of the FBI I reported to Supervisor Toy Fuson of the Truck Squad. Toy, (that’s his real name), was a first class, seasoned Tennessean and respected Supervisor and brick Agent as well as a very good person. He sat me down to tell about the squad, suggested Steve as a partner and said I would be with an older Agent for a month to learn the ropes and stay safe. He said that none of the older guys will talk to me, which was the entire squad except for Steve and 1 or 2 other young Agents, but they will when they feel they can trust me. That’s normal. He said the squad handled mostly armed truck hijackings, 257 the previous year; all are Theft From Interstate Shipment cases. The biggest crew was run by a brand new capo, John Gotti. Gotti started in the mob as a driver, then stick up guy, then bought some warehouses (drops) and with permission from Carlo Gambino, started his own crew, for Gambino. He was just “made” a Capo in the Gambino family, knows most of the truck squad by first names and that I will surely meet him sooner or later on a case. Nice guy but would kill anyone in a heartbeat, himself!

Now, by way of explanation, there were 1200 Agents in the office and 250 FBI cars. Unfreaking believable is correct! The Truck , BR  and Fugitive Squads had the most cars but any cars not removed from the car poll, on 57th St and York Ave by 9am were 1st come 1st serve. The office was on 69th and 1st. That was a 30 minute walk! That’s after an average one and a half hour commute from Jersey (for me) or Conn or Long Island or Princeton Junction and even Philly! The return trip home was usually longer for an AVERAGE commute for most of us at 3 to 4 ½ hrs total, every day! Add that to the normal work day of about 11 hrs. If you think I’m complaining, you’re damn right. It was the toughest, most dangerous, dehumanizing experience of a life time but we were paid for it. In early 1970 the average guy on the Squad grossed $25,000 per year, when NY garbage men and subway toll takers and street hot dog venders made $50,000! To get to “work” we drove to train stations, walked to subway stations through tunnels that made you puke from the stench, took more subways and then walked to the 69th St office, signed in and tried to get a car to do our work, if not it was paperwork or subways and yes we brought handcuffed prisoners to the office on the subway, when we had no choice. But all said and done it was BY FAR the best work in the entire FBI, the best Agents, you could ever work with and more, real action than you can believe! Years later in other offices former BR and Truck squad guys would say that when they talked about the stuff they really did, the other office Agents thought they were Bull Shitting and didn’t believe anything. But people like Danny O. Coulson wrote books about what we did, like “No Heroes”. Read it, that was my squad (the BR Squad) and DOC sat next to me. Coulson after the Bank squad went on to become the originator and first Commander of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, SAC and then Assistant Director. His off and on partner was Bill Baker who went on to become Assistant Director of the CIA, my BR partner  was Milt Aldridge who became Assistant Director of the FBI Ident Division and then VP of NFL Security. So you can see that I was in good company, but the things we did should be in the movies, oops they did make at least one. It was called Dog Day Afternoon, with Dustin Hoffman! 

My first month on the Truck Squad, working with John, a veteran agent, the Squad hit a drop in the Bronx which was a residence. My first such experience with the squad. The house was loaded with swag (stolen property). It was like a Macys Department store with cars pulling up and loading clothing, people leaving with arms full, unbelievable. After the excitement was over John and I were asked to watch the front. A Ryder rental 24ft truck pulled up front. I said to John, “Cover me, this guy is up to no good”, and I moved to the truck. My gut instinct was to draw my gun but this was the first time, with these guys, there was no visible threat, but my gut instincts were pretty good,  but wasn’t sure if they were like some guys in my 1st office …so I didn’t.  I told the driver to pull over. He gunned it and took off. I ran for my car and the chase was on. This guy almost rolled the truck on a turn but I closed quick, put out the location on the air and that he bailed out. I saw him cut through some yards and gave chase when another Agent Jim Woods, a great Agent, hollered for me to stop, which I did. He was out of wind and said we don’t chase anyone down dark alleys or between houses at night without manpower, period, too dangerous! We’ll get them later.

In the truck was swag from several hijacked loads. That and the swag in the house made for a good recovery. The next day an Agent got a call from a source of his who said to tell the guy who approached the truck that the driver was Tony “koo koo” a well know thief and nut bag. The source said that Tony had a cocked and loaded 45 pointed at the Agent through the door and would have fired if I would have stepped up on the running board! I changed the way I approached things and NEVER again hesitated to draw my gun, NEVER!  I also thanked Jim, who stopped me from chasing an armed nut bag! The next morning everyone on the squad said “good morning”, for the first time! It felt great!

In just over 5 years, 2+ on the Truck Squad and 3 on the Bank Squad, I was on the street during several squad shootings, was shot at two times on purpose, once by accident, and once on a stinking surveillance where we got made and the guy stuck an automatic out his window and shot twice at my partner, Milt Aldridge and me and hit our car once, for following him! That story was the start of the best case I ever worked, and I call it “The Story Book Case”.

 In just my last year in the NYO and on the BR squad, I arrested 57 BR subjects on just my cases, was also involved in several car chases, AFTER witnessing serious crimes, which in my opinion, were more dangerous than most of the shooting incidents I lived through! These were chases where very serious crimes were involved and/or witnessed by us, with gunfights mixed in and we would not stop the chase!

My career was very satisfying and I’ll share somemore of the stories with you over the next couple weeks.