Barney Ruditsky
Barnett P. Ruditsky | |
---|---|
Hillside Memorial Park | |
Other names | Barney |
Spouses | Mollie Feiner (m. 1923)Reggie Darryl (before 1957) |
Relatives | Martin Phillips (son) |
Police career | |
Department | Patrolman 1924 - Promoted to Detective |
Badge no. | 5647 (officer)[2] |
Awards | - NYPD Combat Cross[3] |
Other work | Private detective, nightclub owner, technical advisor for film and television |
Barnett "Barney" P. Ruditsky (December 25, 1898 – October 18, 1962) was a British-born American police officer and private detective.
During his 20-year career on the force Ruditsky was among the NYPD's prominent "celebrity detectives" of the 1920s and 1930s. Ruditsky was associated with many criminal cases during this period, most notably, ending with the break-up of
He later worked as a private investigator in California, and also served as a
Early life
Barnett P. Ruditsky was born in
In 1908, the Ruditsky family emigrated to the United States and settled on the
Career in the NYPD
Upon his return from France, Ruditsky joined
On the night of February 21, 1926, he and his wife Mollie stopped the robbery of a confectionery store near their home on Pennsylvania Avenue in Brooklyn. The two were returning from celebrating their wedding anniversary at a theatre and supper club when they noticed the hold-up taking place. Ruditsky managed to overpower one of the robbers, took his gun, and handed it to his wife while he chased down the second robber. Mollie held the first robber at bay while Ruditsky apprehended his accomplice a block and a half away. He then took both men to the nearby Brownsville Police Station.[4][9] Six months after this incident Ruditsky was promoted to second-grade detective.[10]
In 1928, Ruditsky and fellow detective Harry Hagen disguised themselves as customers in a
By the end of the decade Ruditsky and other detectives had earned a sort of celebrity status as "tough-fisted cops", described by The New York Times as "slight of build, but utterly fearless, who, together or separately, battled and beat many an oversized gangster". The exploits of the Ruditsky, Broderick and other detectives were frequently featured in crime magazines and newspapers as they took on such underworld figures as
Ruditsky was among the 300-man police squad called into action when 2,000 Communist protesters threatened New York City Hall on January 30, 1931. It was the largest force ever assembled to protect City Hall. When the protesters began attack the police, several officers were isolated by the mob and beaten, Ruditsky being among them until he was saved by a fellow officer.[12] In November 1935, Ruditsky was involved in the pursuit of three hold-up men who had robbed nightclub entertainer Frances Faye and her escort Joseph Eichenbaum. The high speed chase began after he commandeered a car and, with detective Thomas Aulbach, followed them until the would-be thieves crashed their car into an elevated pillar at Ninth Avenue and 63rd Street. He chased one of the men on foot and captured him following a shootout. He was presented with the NYPD Combat Cross, the NYPD's second-highest honor, for his actions.[3][13]
Ruditsky was also assigned to crowd control for the police guarding child star Shirley Temple during her 1938 visit to New York City;[14] the two met again in Hollywood ten years later, when Ruditsky offered to take the young woman along for the police raid that saw actor Robert Mitchum arrested in a "marijuana bust". Temple was tempted but declined the offer.[15] One celebrity with whom he enjoyed a close friendship was musician and big band leader Charlie Barnet. In his autobiography, Those Swinging Years (1992), Barnet described a road trip with Ruditsky:
One of my good friends in New York was Barney Ruditsky, a tough detective. He had participated in the arrest of Louis Lepke, a mobster who had eluded the law for a long time. He and Lepke had grown up together and Barney didn't want to testify against him. While the district attorney was trying to find him to serve a subpoena, he was riding around the country with us in the band bus, the last place anybody would think to look for him.
One night we played a black dance in Washington, D.C. It was in the basement of a building called, I think, The Colonnades. Lena Horne's father was visiting us. Ted Horne was an important gambler from Pittsburgh, where he was the king of Wylie Avenue in the black district. He had a couple of his boys with him when a fight broke out. The cops were outside and afraid to come in. Barney Ruditsky broke off the leg of a chair and with Ted's guys valiantly defended the bandstand while the people sought refuge wherever they could. We finally broke down a door into a back alley and made our way to safety. It was a hell of a brawl, and we were lucky that Ted, his boys, and Barney were there.
Barney also came in handy once when guys in the band and I took three ladies of the evening out of a house in Youngstown on the road with us. Their pimps followed us all the way to Chattanooga, but Barney repulsed them without the beef that would surely have occurred otherwise. Youngstown always seemed a source of trouble.[16]
In 1939, Ruditsky was enmeshed in a bribery scandal stemming from his earlier work in the Industrial Squad, which disbanded in 1933. A former Communist, Maurice L. Malkin, accused Ruditsky, Broderick and other officers of corruption in testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Malkin testified that the furriers union, which was controlled by Communists, borrowed $1.75 million from racketeer Arnold Rothstein to finance a 1926 strike, and that $110,000 of that went to members of the Industrial Squad, including Ruditsky.[17] No action was taken against the officers. Similar charges had been made in 1927 by the American Federation of Labor, and the officers were exonerated.[18]
Private Eye in Hollywood
On October 19, 1941, after twenty years with the NYPD, Ruditsky retired from the force. Shortly after the US entered the
At the end of the war, Ruditsky moved out to Los Angeles, where he opened a private detective firm and a small liquor store and became co-owner of a
Association with gangland figures
Despite his reputation in the NYPD, Ruditsky had a poor relationship with the
Marilyn Monroe and the Wrong Door Raid
Though it enjoyed the status of being "Hollywood's most popular detective agency",
On the evening of November 5, 1954, one of Ruditsky's associates, 21-year-old Phil Irwin, observed Monroe's Cadillac parked at Kilkea Drive and Waring Avenue. Monroe was visiting a friend, actress Sheila Stewart; however, DiMaggio suspected at the time that Monroe was having an affair with her vocal coach Hal Schaefer and that Stewart, one of Schaefer's students, was letting the two use her apartment. Irwin reported to Ruditsky, who phoned DiMaggio, who was dining with Frank Sinatra at an Italian restaurant in Hollywood, the Villa Capri. DiMaggio and Sinatra, along with Sinatra's manager Henry Sanicola and Villa Capri owner Pasquale "Patsy" D'Amore, arrived at the address less than an hour later, where they met with Ruditsky and Irwin. Together, the group entered the two-story apartment building, broke down the door of one of the three rooms, and rushed into the bedroom with a cameraman expecting to catch the couple in bed. Instead, the lights from the flash camera revealed the frightened occupant, 37-year-old secretary Florence Kotz Ross.[26][27] Realizing their mistake, they quickly fled from the building.[28][29] The police were called; however, because Kotz Ross was unable to identify the intruders, the case, then thought to be an attempted burglary, remained unsolved and was finally closed by the LAPD almost a year later.[30][31]
The entire incident came out in the September 1955 issue of
Later years and death
Though his detective career had ended in scandal, Ruditsky managed to redeem himself though his literary efforts by the late 1950s. After a decade of negotiations, an agreement was made with the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to create a television series based on his unpublished memoirs. In 1959, The Lawless Years, a half-hour weekly series based on Ruditsky's Angel's Corner, debuted on NBC with Ruditsky being portrayed by James Gregory. Ruditsky himself served as technical adviser on the series, which was widely praised for its attention to detail. He was also a part-time casting director and contacted old criminal associates to portray criminals in the series. His only condition for working on the series was that his stories be kept as accurate and realistic as possible. Although the producers did not show the more graphic details from Angel's Corner, such as the use of ice picks and hot pokers, the events seen on each episode were generally a faithful depiction of Prohibition-era gangland violence.[32] The Lawless Years ran during the summer television season for three years before being canceled in 1961. The show was the first of its kind and inspired the creation of its ABC network rival, the long-running series The Untouchables, based on Eliot Ness's exploits against Al Capone and the Chicago underworld.[6][7]
Ruditsky died in Los Angeles from a
In popular fiction
Barney Ruditsky, a popular police detective in his lifetime, has been portrayed in television, books and comics.
- Books
- Ruditsky is a major character in William Heffernan's fictionalized biography Broderick (1983)
- Ruditsky is a minor character in historical novelThe Last Embrace (2008)
- Ruditsky is a minor character in Adam Braver's fictionalized biography Misfit (2012)
- Fictional detective Fred Rubinski, a major character in Max Allen Collins' short story"Unreasonable Doubt", is based on Barney Ruditsky.
- Comic books;
- Ruditsky appears as himself in the first issue of Mystery Men Comics (August 1939).[34]
- Television
- Ruditsky is portrayed by actor James Gregory in the 1950s television series The Lawless Years
- Danny Arnold, creator of the 1970s television series Barney Miller, named the show in honor of his old friend by using his longtime nickname "Barney".[35][36]
Bibliography
- Angel's Corner (unpublished memoirs, later used as the basis of The Lawless Years)
Filmography
Film
Year | Film | Role |
---|---|---|
1943 | Margin for Error | Policeman (uncredited) |
1946 | Behind Green Lights | Policeman (uncredited) |
1946 | Nocturne | Technical advisor |
Television
Series | As director | As writer | As technical advisor |
---|---|---|---|
The Lawless Years | — | 27 episodes | 27 episodes |
References
- ^ US Government Printing Office, 1950.
- ^ New York City Police Department (1921). "Annual report of the Police Department of the City of New York". Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections. Columbia University. Retrieved August 10, 2012.
- ^ a b Brown, Milton (April 4, 1947). "Jews Who Guard New York City". The Canadian Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved August 10, 2012.
- ^ ISBN 0-8050-6737-X
- ^ a b "BARNEY RUDITSKY, DETECTIVE, DEAD: Partner of Broderick Gained Reputation in Prohibition". The New York Times. October 19, 1962.
- ^ ISBN 0195127986
- ^ ISBN 0-313-30560-9
- ^ "USED NIGHTSTICK, PRAISED. Magistrate Commends Policeman and Fines Assailant $25". The New York Times. August 15, 1923.
- ^ "DETECTIVE AND WIFE SEIZE TWO ROBBERS; On Way Home From Celebrating Wedding Anniversary They Interrupt a Hold-Up". The New York Times. February 22, 1926.
- ^ "33 DETECTIVES PROMOTED. McLaughlin Advances Twelve to First Grade, 21 to Second". The New York Times. August 19, 1926.
- ^ a b c Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Bureau of Prisons, and the United States Probation System. "To Curb Delinquency". Federal Probation Newsletter. Washington, DC: Administrative Office of the United States Courts, 1946. (pg. 56)
- ^ "2,000 REDS ATTACK POLICE AT CITY HALL: Rioters Routed by Force of 300 With the Aid of Charging Horses and Nightsticks". The New York Times. January 31, 1931.
- ^ "2 SHOT AND SEIZED IN $3,600 HOLD-UP". The New York Times. November 30, 1935.
- ISBN 0070055327
- ^ ISBN 1-77090-203-1
- ISBN 0-306-80492-1
- ^ "Ex-Communist Says Red Workers Spy on Our Factories". The New York Times. Associated Press. October 14, 1939. p. 8.
- ^ "Valentine Acts on Charge Reds Bribed Police". New York Herald Tribune. October 14, 1939. p. 7.
- ^ Special Crime Study Commission on Organized Crime. Issue 3 of Progress Report: 2d-[4th], California. California State Printing Office, 1953. (pg. 15)
- ^ ISBN 0-06-058995-7
- ISBN 978-0-307-35207-1
- ISBN 1-250-02016-6
- ^ Kefauver, Estes. Crime in America. New York: Greenwood Press, 1968. (pg. 250)
- ISBN 1569803331
- ISBN 1-4088-2786-7
- ^ ISBN 0-8065-3641-1
- ^ ISBN 978-0-312-60714-2
- ^ ISBN 0671771116
- ^ a b Scaduto, Anthony. Frank Sinatra. London: Sphere Books, 1977. (pg. 115)
- ^ ISBN 0684865475
- ^ ISBN 0-375-42139-4
- ISBN 0-498-01961-6
- Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Mystery Men Comics #1 - The Case of Tintype's Will; The Haunted House (comic book issue)". Mystery Men Comics. ComicVine.com. Retrieved August 10, 2012.
- ^ TV Guide. Vol. 27. Radnor, Pennsylvania: Triangle Publications, 1979. (pg. 19)
- ^ Bedell, Sally. Up The Tube: Prime-Time TV and the Silverman Years. New York: Viking Press, 1981. (pg. 117)
Further reading
- Astor, Gerald. The New York Cops: An Informal History. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971. ISBN 9780684100074.
- Dash, Samuel, Richard F. Schwartz, and Robert E. Knowlton. The Eavesdroppers. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1959; repr. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971. ISBN 9780306700743.
- Messick, Hank. The Beauties and the Beasts: The Mob in Show Business. New York: David McKay, 1973. ISBN 9780679504245.
External links
- Barney Ruditsky at IMDb