90 Church
The True Story of the Narcotics Squad from Hell
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £7.99
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
From 1950 through the late 1960s, America feared two great enemies: Communism and illegal drugs. While the espionage stories have been well publicised, the war against drugs was far more violent and has remained mostly secret. In New York City, the centre of organised crime and drug import, the offices of the newly formed Federal Bureau of Narcotics were based at 90 Church Street. While the FBI refused even to acknowledge organised crime, these agents stood alone against a well-organised Mafia and vicious drug cartels. To survive against impossible odds, the agents used incredibly brutal and cunning tactics to make cases and bring the war to a stalemate. Using an ever-expanding network of criminal informants held together by secret immunity deals, the sinister reputation of 90 Church grew along with the rising body count.
In 1968, alarmed politicians launched an ill-fated investigation into the Bureau's operations. Accusations were made against the agents, and now fighting a war on two fronts, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was dissolved and its agents discredited.
Though some names and sequences have been changed to protect identities, 90 Church is the real story of a young agent's downward slide into hell as he falls victim to addiction, deception, violence, and shifting loyalties.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Some readers will take a skeptical view of this memoir of Unkefer's four years with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (from 1964 to 1968), given the publisher's disclaimer, which notes that the volume is based on the author's best recollections and that he has "rearranged the details of events and chronologies in order to facilitate the narrative." The federal agent initially comes across sympathetically, as his first day on the job at the bureau's Manhattan office is an embarrassing comedy of errors, and he begins his career as an idealistic crime fighter who refuses to sign off on a false report. That phase doesn't last long, as Unkefer is quickly influenced by his crooked colleagues, becoming a corrupt and violent drug addict who cheats on his wife. He managed to justify his behavior by the results he and his fellow agents achieved; he looked forward to betraying drug dealers, even those he slept with, because "There were no more bothersome thoughts about right and wrong." But the apparent honesty of his warts-and-all self-portrayal will be offset for some by his rationalization of his work for the FBN: "We worked in an environment of desperation, in a war that threatened to destroy America. The agents did what had to be done."
Customer Reviews
90 church
I have read a lot of books about crime but this is the best I have ever read