Marilyn's Musings

Since  Bronx Justice  was published, I’ve been asked many times how I made the  transition from cop to writer.  The book is based on a case I worked as a captain with the  Bronx Homicide Squad in 1990. We had a group of white, wanna-be-wise guys, dubbed “The Cowboys” by our detectives, team up with a black drug gang, "The Crew." Rival drug dealers would be targeted.  The Cowboys, impersonating plainclothes police officers, would “arrest,” read, kidnap the dealers. Ransom demands were made. If paid, the victim was cut loose. If not paid, a bullet in the head and another body dumped on a Bronx street. The year 1990 saw a record 2,605 homicides in New York City, with the Bronx alone recording over 600 murders. This was the height of the “Crack Wars.” With some outstanding work by a team of dedicated detectives, the case was solved and all the perps were convicted in federal court. Years later, as I continued to share this stor...

My newest novel, my second, is entitled THE CONFIDENTIAL , released this July by BeWrite Books.. The story is a fictionalized version of events that took place in the early 1970's. I was a lieutenant in the NYPD, admitted to the bar and recruited to work in a unit known as the Department Advocates Office. Our task was to prosecute charges brought against members of the department which were tried before a Deputy Commissioner of Trials acting as judge. During that era the NYPD went through major upheavals i.e. Serpico and a detective named Robert Leuci, His story was made into a movie entitled PRINCE OF THE CITY. Tim Dees played a clip from the movie at the PSWA conference. I left the department after 17 years, taking a vested interest pension and opened my own law practice. Some of that experience in my law practice filters its way through the book. Much of THE CONFIDENTIAL is pure fiction but I used events and people I had dealings with to form the framework. Not much...

Marilyn: John Bray is one of our newer members and was brave enough to volunteer for an interview. I think this is a great way for us to get to know something about you. John: I joined PSWA sometime last fall. I have been lurking, as it were, reading all the e-mails and occasionally taking advantage of some of the suggestions and insights. Marilyn: Tell us something about yourself. John: I was sworn into the New York City Police Department in May of 1959 and was assigned to a Queens precinct after the Academy. After about two years, I wangled a transfer to a new unit called the Tactical Patrol Force. We worked in all the high crime areas in the City, both in uniform and civilian clothes. When I graduated from John Jay College and got admitted to law school, I transferred back to a quiet command in Queens. I got promoted to sergeant in 1966 and was sent to the Manhattan precinct that covers Chinatown and Little Italy. That was an adventure. The sergeants’ “club” arranged for my (ahem) t...