Leuci @ the Hartford Club, 6-3-10, Conducting Workshop,
13th Annual CT Young Writers Celebration
-- photo by Bob Thiesfield
LITCHFIELD, Conn. -- Bob Leuci, fresh off last Sunday's appearance at the Ridgefield Playhouse with actor Treat Williams, will be the guest speaker for the Litchfield-Morris Rotary, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 at noon at Forman School. The public is welcome.
Leuci was a writer for the TV shows 100 Centre Street and Precinct Hollywood. He is an adjunct professor in the University of Rhode Island English department.
He has written more than half a dozen crime novels, translated into four languages and most recently published a memoir with Harper Collins, All The Centurions. He has also written a play for German radio, Brooklyn Roofs.His crime novels feature characters on all sides of the law -- inside and outside law enforcement -- and boast an edge and a substance found in the better political thrillers.
Leuci's 20 years as a New York City police officer dovetailed with the career of another cop memorialized in film and print, Frank Serpico.
In his memoir, All The Centurions, Leuci reports that many in the NYPD literally cheered upon learning Serpico was shot in the face in what by some accounts was a set-up by fellow cops. Leuci does not share that view. But, Serpico was an oddball: He wouldn't take money.
Leuci and Serpico shared that tag: Leuci was not a manicured or well-dressed guy like his peers in the elite Special Investigative Unit. Even over time, he did not quite fit in.
Serpico's revelations about police corruption led to the formation of the Knapp Commission, which documented low levels of corruption -- "grass eaters" -- and high levels of corruption -- "meat eaters."
Leuci, troubled by what he saw on the job, ultimately came forward and cooperated with prosecutors. Leuci initially believed the prosecutors would go after high-level corruption including judges. It didn't work out that way.
As The New York Times reported: For years, on the well-founded assumption that his life was in danger, Detective Leuci had to travel with bodyguards [as many as nine]. His investigation had implicated not only his fellow officers; organized crime figures, lawyers, bail bondsmen and an assistant district attorney had become involved, too. Detective Leuci had been undercover 16 months; the trials had gone on more than four years. Then the bodyguards were gone ...
In addition to the memoir, All The Centurions, that era in Leuci's life is documented by the book Prince of the City , by former New York City Deputy Police Commissioner Robert Daley; and by the film of the same name, directed by Sidney Lumet. Lumet also directed Serpico and All The President's Men. Treat Williams played the Leuci character, Danny Cielo.
"Frank Serpico wasn't like Bob Leuci at all,'' Lumet told The New York Times." Frank would have ended up going off to Europe alone with his dog whether he was a stockbroker, a flutist with the Philharmonic or a cop. Bob is a cop, all cop, and then comes everything else -- the charm, the guilelessness, the naivete ... "
Leuci has lectured at police departments around the county. In 2010, he was a keynote speaker and workshop leader for the CT Young Writers Trust.
For more information, contact:
Rotary Club speaker committee member Andy Thibault
@ tntcomm82@cs.com / 860-690-0211
-- Actor Treat Williams With Director Sidney Lumet During Filming of Prince of the City
Among Leuci's titles:
All the Centurions: A former New York City narcotics detective discusses his work on such film-inspiring cases as the French Connection and Serpico, and shares his disillusionment in the face of corruption, and the criminal justice system's dark side.
Fence Jumpers: As kids, they took on New York's mean streets. As men, they're on opposite sides of the law. Dante O'Donnell and Jimmmy Burns took up the oath, the badge and the gun of the police force. Jo Jo Paradiso took a different path as a rising player in the Paradiso crime family. Today the three friends are trapped in an ever-more-vicious game of betrayal -- one that threatens to break much more than the bonds of their youth.
Odessa Beach: A Russian and the American mob make strange bedfellows in a brilliantly plotted masterpiece of cross-cultural criminality. The book is set in Brighton (renamed Odessa) Beach, Brooklyn, where Nikolai Zoracoff has defected from Moscow -- not seeking political asylum but escape from the KGB. A charming hedonist and a criminal only because in Moscow luxury is bought by crime, Zoracoff's assimilation into America includes cowboy hats, Dolby stereo and a drug connection which, in New York, means an alliance with the Mafia -- and a game which is harder than Zoracoff can bear.
Blaze: A rising star in the NYPD, Captain Nora Riter has a private life that threatens to torpedo her career. A streetwise actor/conman Nicky Ossman faces prison for assaulting a vice cop. Nora needs Nicky to help her re-establish personal and professional control as she takes on a case that leads her to taking down a psychopathic criminal kingpin known as "Blaze."
Captain Butterfly: This is a riveting thriller about police corruption and the labyrinth of the human heart.
The Snitch: A highly-principled police detective is chosen to infiltrate the notoriously corrupt Organized Crime Control Bureau. When the OCCB raid a nightclub, leaving seven people dead, the powers that be decide a major bust would look better than a police corruption case -- only the detective refuses to compromise his principles.
Renegades: A thriller about three friends who grow up together on the tough streets of New York. Their friendship, loyalty and courage are tested when two become policemen and the other becomes a mafia boss.
Double Edge: A tough, all-too-human police drama set on the dangerous streets of Washington, D.C. Cotton is a crack dealer who's seen it all. Scot Ancelat is a detective who's seen too much. In a vivid, brutal tale, their stories intertwine, as Ancelat struggles to solve the senseless murder of a young boy.
Selected Links For LEUCI BOOKS
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